Pack Up the Moon by Kristan Higgins is a beautifully written book. It is a profoundly moving tribute to love.

I generally enjoy Kristan Higgins books, but this one was not a favorite. It was easy to read and had fleshed out characters but a book about a dying/dead woman is a bit maudlin. I look forward to the author's next book which I assume will be better. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I am a huge Kristan Higgins fan. She is an author who I will always read her new book, and I look forward to them each year. Pack Up the Moon does not disappoint-- even if it is quite emotional!

Pack Up the Moon follows Joshua through his first year without his late wife, Lauren. Josh and Lauren have a beautiful love story and are only married a short while before they find out Lauren has a terminal illness. She is hellbent on enjoying her short life, and she writes Josh a letter for the first 12 months after she is gone to help him grieve. Each letter has a task he must perform to help him move on. We alternate between Lauren's letters to her own deceased father in the past and Josh's journey through grief in the present. It is a little bit PS I Love You, but Higgins knows how to write characters to keep us interested.

While I found this book to be overly emotionally manipulative at times, I enjoyed the story and the characters. Josh is on the Autism spectrum, which I think was an important choice. I liked Higgins writing from his perspective.

If you like Higgins, this one is worth your time. If you don't know her yet, then I suggest you read this one (but know that Good Luck with That is probably her best).

Lovely story
Accurate look at terminal illness, love, grief, and loss
Ms Higgins pulled off all these hard themes without a cliche! Well done!!!

I was a little hesitant about reading such a bleak book in 2020, but I took a chance because I normally just obsess over a Kristan Higgins' novel. I maybe should have given this one a pass. It's as sad as you think it can be, and if you are not in the right headspace to handle any more stress or sadness, then pass on this book! If not, you'll enjoy a wonderfully sad book about love and grief and depression.

I am one of the biggest fans of Ms. Higgins ! I think I might have read more than 7 books of her lately. As soon as I saw her new book’s cover on the gallery, without reading the blurb, I clicked the request button several times as like I do when I get over excited about some new book alert!

But when I thankfully got the arc, I realized this book is about death, moving on, handling grief, pain, loss, sadness. I read so many books with similar theme. P. S. I. Love you was one of the most effective and bittersweet second chance romance makes you drawn at your own tear torrent.

So many authors used the same plot line: a person who finds out he or she has terminal disease and she/he decides to leave letters for her/ his loved ones to help them move on with their lives, handling their grief, suffer, sadness. This plot line is pure realistic, real tear jerker and heart stabbing.

Kristan Higgins can directly talk with our hearts with her lyrical words and she can write such emotional but also feel good, sweet , motivational romances.

But this book’s plot line was not unique, it already has so many resemblances with the books which are focused on the same subject. Even though it has more promising, hopeful conclusion, most parts of it book is dark, depressing, frustrating making you feel like a dark cloud follows you throughout your full reading journey. Reading a bittersweet, tearful, heartbreaking story after you’re getting through one of the most challenging, exhausting year of your life is not great choice for your own mental state.

Because of the bad timing, I had so hard time to enjoy this novel. Maybe it will be like a bad breakup speech but I’m still telling: it’s not the book, it’s me! I was not in the mood to read something incredibly sad! That doesn’t mean the novel is badly written or the characters are unlikable.

It was still a great ugly crier, earth shattering, soul crushing story but it doesn’t bring something different or original approach to the grief, suffer or death. You may guess how the story will go and how it will be concluded at the end from the beginning.

So I’m giving my three sad, painful, tearful, second chances stars!

I’m still a great fan of the author but I hope next time she sticks to her usual feel good, sweet romcom genre. I don’t want to cry anymore. Life is already tough enough to deal with additional sadness and heartbreaks.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

Letters from GB (read book to discover meaning)

As in Shawshank; Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying!

Book's description says it better than I can.
Become a part of this family, both past and present as move to future.
Live with them together, separated, and a new direction.

I wasn’t sure I could take a novel about death and dying right now, life is bleak enough without inviting extra sadness in. The premise of this story isn’t a new one, Lauren gets a diagnosis that means she will be dying a slow and ugly death. Newly married and head over heels in love, she decides to write him letters to read, one at a time after her death, the idea being that these words from beyond the grave will comfort him and help him move on. Maybe I’m too sensitive right now, my own mother is dying, and I just couldn’t imagine, number one, waiting a month between letters from a lost loved one and number two, reading about some of the pain. despair and fear that my loved one faced before they died. This novel is beautifully written, just one I wouldn’t recommend reading if you are in a similar situation