This is a steamy romantic debut novel by fellow Bookstagrammer Elodie! She put her heart and soul into these characters and made me feel the angst and romance between them! And can we discuss the cover? It's so beautiful. I can't wait for her next book!

To me it felt like the target audience for this book was younger than me. A lot of the writing was very simplistic and cheesy. It’s set up as a second chance romance but the main characters never really dated, they were just friends as teens. The story seemed to move too quickly, like we got to the ending before we learned enough about the characters to really appreciate the ending. Overall, I think it would be better suited for younger audiences.

I enjoyed the realistic pacing and the well-developed characters, particularly Josh, who was patient and assertive.
"The Last Encore" seems like a heartwarming and emotional friends-to-lovers romance novel that explores the complexity of human relationships and the challenges of moving on.
Overall, if you enjoy character-driven romance novels with a slow-burn romance and themes of self-discovery, "The Last Encore" could be an enjoyable read.

There was a lovely author note at the start of the book and I appreciate the trigger warning. I love the second chance romance trope and the cover, however it was a bit too instalove despite the aforementioned trope. Thank you to the author and NetGalley for the eARC. This in no way impacts my rating.

The Last Encore drew me in with it's cover, but it kept me reading with Colliard's fantastic writing. I love a good second chance romance and Avery and Josh had a great story. I loved these characters so much! This is one of those books that you do not want to end.

Not your usual cutie romance with friends-to-lovers trope, The Last Encore is also bravely telling a story about past traumatic events and learning how to trust again. It’s a story about loving yourself, physically and emotionally, dealing with your past wounds and a battle with your trauma.

First thing first, I LOVE that it has song playlist and it available on Spotify. I’m gladly listen to it while reading. And the fact that all the chapter titles are the song titles and it matches the story so well? That was brilliant!

I love that this book being real. Many details showing how vulnerable these MCs are. Like when Avery worked up the courage to speak with Josh's father about a thing that seemed like crossing the boundaries. In that quick talk, she gave a gentle blow to him. When it happened, she seems strong and brave, but actually after that she felt scared and overthinking about what she had just done. I think that is so real. She's real. Vulnerable, overthinking, but brave.

One thing that often bother me is that the scene changing too hastily. I often felt confused. Say like the characters are having conversations in car, and then I blinked and it's like suddenly they're outside the car. Besides that, I think Josh and Avery's work side needs to be explored further, because it's actually interesting to see them in their respective elements.

Good for a debut book. If you like childhood friends to lovers with a mix of second chance romance this book is for you. It deals with heavy issues such as S.A. and I appreciated the trigger warning. Very much an easy read that I'd recommend for chilling out while on holiday vibes.

Thank you to NetGalley, publisher, and author for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Amazing debut! My heart couldn’t take it. Highly recommend

What a beautiful debut this was!! I loved Avery and Josh’s story, and I am a sucker for second chance romance. This was a story of love, growth, and loss.

I loved and appreciated the anxiety and mental health representation in this book as it is something I struggle with in my daily life and I felt like the depiction was so accurate. The female MC was so strong and I loved that she had her own goals and dreams for herself.

I would have liked a little more tension and build up to the MC’s getting together but other than that I really enjoyed their love story and the steam was 🔥

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the chance to read this ARC! I look forward to whatever else Elodie writes in the future!!

Although a bit slow at times, I think this book features some great anxiety rep which is so important to see featured in more and more romance books lately. I do love second chance romance as well, so that’s always a win. I look forwarding to reading what Elodie Colliard writes next!

I'm going to rave about this book until the end of time.

Apart from absolute perfection of Avery and Josh, this book has everything. I would recommend reading the authors note at the beginning for CW before you read on, but the way in which the author handled some more difficult and sensitive topics was so well done. Anxiety and I are old friends, and the authors' depiction of living with anxiety, panic attacks, and the constant struggle to keep your equilibrium was spot on. I really relate to Avery's struggles and she is one of the best FMC I've read; she's strong and ambitious yet sensitive and vulnerable. And Josh. Ho-ly. He is just it.

Estranged best friends who are reunited after 10 years. He falls first. Forced proximity. Only one bed. All the best tropes 🙌🏻 A well paced burn with plenty of realistic clinches, tonnes of chemistry, and some seriously steamy spice, this book is now one of my all-time favourite romances. Friends to lovers can be a hard one to get right, and sometimes the MCs are a bit clueless (which can be frustrating and feel like neverending miscommunication), but this one does it *so* well. Apart from Avery and Josh, there are some fantastic side characters, too. I adored this book from the first page to the last.

Synopsis: Avery is a photographer who has spent years building her own business. Set in Toronto, Canada, Avery is on the cusp of bringing her business to the next level. Cue her estranged best friend, Josh, reentering her life and bringing back cherished memories, but also the reminder of broken promises. As they get to know each other again, old feelings begin to stir, and Avery tries to figure out what it all means while promising herself she'll never put herself in the position of being left again.

Thank you to @netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I'll be purchasing a hard copy to reread many times over!

This is the author's debut book and I'm still shaken because it is just that good! I ADORED Avery and Josh so much. I loved the plot of this, the friendships, second chance love, and family. The chemistry between Avery and Josh was *chefs kiss* absolute perfection. I loved the premise and the main characters. I also really loved the mental health representation

I LOVE slow burns that have tangible tension. This did not fail me in that regard. Colliard also had me second guessing my previous disdain for second chance love tropes. Highly recommend The Last Encore!

This was a cute story with tropes that I love such as childhood friends to lovers and second chance but sadly, it didn’t live up to my expectations.

Well, this was a book.

What I liked: the mental health rep. Josh's sister Julia was a delight. The discussion of being tested for STIs did not include the word "clean", which was a plus.

What didn't work for me: most other things. The biggest thing is that Josh is Mexican and uses a Mexican slur to describe racism he experienced in Europe. That really didn't sit well with me, since, as far as I know, the author is white. The scene could have been exactly the same without the use of that word.

None of the characters felt fully fleshed out. Usually I can overlook that with side characters, but with BOTH of the main characters? Avery has this big realization how she isn't living her life at the end, but I honestly didn't see that emotional journey for her. She's not wrong when she tells Josh that her life is in Toronto, because it IS. Nowhere did I see that she wasn't living life to its fullest potential until Josh told her that she was.

Josh...was a time. His dialogue during sex was cringey and if I ever have to hear someone tell someone "there's no God, it's just me" during a sex scene again it will be too soon. His emotional arc felt a bit more fleshed out, but again, there could have been more of it seeded throughout the book.

I saw some other reviews say that this felt like a first draft, and I agree. There was a good amount of potential in this, but I think it needed more editing. As someone who loves an emotional romance, that was the most glaring hole for me. And even in the most non-emotional romances, I still feel like the characters end up in different spots from where they start. I don't feel like Josh and Avery grew as people through this book. And if they did, it was literally in the last chapter.

Like I said, I do think there is future potential, but this was just a miss overall for me.

This was definitely a slow burn but God was the tension delicious. The thing I like about second chance romance is that there's a familiarity that pushes the plot faster but doesn't make the story feel rushed.

I get absolutely no pleasure in having to review books I don’t like. I actually kind of hate it. I don’t go into reading books expecting to dislike them. No, I am usually really good at knowing when I’m going to like something. I also like to give indie authors a shot, as I’ve been doing for over a decade even though I’ve slowed down a bit lately. So it was that reason that I requested to review The Last Encore by indie (and Canadian!) author Elodie Colliard. And. Um. I really didn’t like it.

Here’s the book’s description:
What if love is the key?
Avery Clark needs a break. Between her photography business not doing as well as she’d hoped and incessant family drama that does nothing to ease her spiking anxiety, she needs something to go her way.
And that was even before her ex-best friend, and talented pianist, Joshua Harding, ran into her during an event in Toronto, after he left her suddenly ten years ago, breaking the only promise he had swore he wouldn't.


When an opportunity to grow her business falls into her lap, Avery decides to put her doubts and resentment aside and agrees to photograph Josh’s sister’s upcoming wedding.
As they spend more and more time together, rediscovering each other and the people they turned into, Avery realizes that maybe, the spark she felt ten years ago wasn’t just a fleeting teenage phase.
But the past is never far away, and an unknown future is terrifying. Could Avery take that leap of faith?
First of all, I felt like this book was just too long. It’s listed at being 366 pages which shouldn’t have felt like an obscenely long novel but it was. Perhaps because it felt like nothing of substance was happening?

I wanted to love that the book was set in Canada. And I did, to an extent. I don’t live in Toronto but I’ve visited often enough so I kinda know a bit about the city and I always love when romances are set there. I do live in Niagara and the characters visit Niagara-on-the-Lake a couple of times throughout the book. Although I’m not entirely sure Colliard has been to NOTL herself. Some of the descriptions of getting to the town from Toronto didn’t make much sense and I wondered where, exactly, they were staying. I was weirdly annoyed that, in one scene, she mentioned that the sun was almost set at 4pm. Which, you know, does happen in Canada. But not in October. Also mentioned in October was a Toronto Blue Jays home game. Yes, the Jays could have had a game at home in October but…it would have been playoffs and kind of a big deal. And it was late October so these fictional Jays were killing it that season! These are all nitpicky things but they just ate away at me and once I got to a certain point (likely about 20% in) I just leaned into the things that annoyed me. Never a fun time.



As for the love story…I could almost buy it. What I couldn’t get behind was how the drama unfolded and how long it took to explain why Josh left and why that was a big deal to Avery. And even after all that, I couldn’t understand why it was such a big deal. He was an idiot and she had some things to work out, I get that, but it just didn’t make sense to me. I think this book was supposed to be kind of steamy but I admit I kind of skimmed over the sex scenes (OK, OK, I may have been skimming everything by that point). Talk of consent between the two of them was quite sexy and I give Colliard major props for making that a big part of the story

Writing this review did not bring me joy. But, I have to be honest about the books I read and, honestly, The Last Encore was not very good, plain and simple. It was a total miss for me and that made me sad. I wanted to enjoy Elodie Colliard’s debut novel and I think she could be a good writer with more practice and with a better editor. And maybe not trying to rush publication on a book. I likely won’t read her books again unless trusted friends can convince me she’s grown as a writer.

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the author via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to finish this book. While I’m sure it could be enjoyed by others, by the time I’d made it 20% in, I’d felt like I had read the entire book and wasn’t even a little bit interested in the plot or the characters. It pains me to come across a book like this but I won’t be finishing it.

Oh my goodness, this was such a great read! I was really blown away by the writing style as well as the characters. They definitely came alive on the pages which makes it so fun to read. Go for it and read this one!

The fact that this book is a debut is honestly shocking because it was incredible.

It was swoony yet serious yet sophisticated yet meaningful and lovely. The main character was very relatable yet someone I also looked up to for her ambition and not letting anything get in her way.

The other main character, Josh, was sexy and spicy and I just wanted more and more from him.

Overall, beautiful story and I cannot wait to read another one by her!