Thank you NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for accepting my request for an ARC of this book!
2.5/5
“Some days don’t go as planned”
I had such a fun time with this book! The idea of it was entertaining to read. The romance was one of my favorite parts, it was aggravating at times with how much I was anticipating on what would happen next. It was a fast read. It was short which made it seem like I was reading it faster than I thought. But here were my downsides, I am 99.99% such I am currently in a reading slump so it took a tiny bit longer than I thought to finish this read. I guess I had trouble finding motivation. The main character was what made me enjoy this book more. When I took a step back though, it hit me. If you liked To All The Boys, this is definitely a book I would recommend.

What a pleasure to dive into One Last Work by Suzanne Park, a smart, contemporary and laugh-out-loud novel about taking chances and making amends. With a clever plot twist that leads to deep storylines about love, friendship and family ties, Park draws us in with relatable characters and sharp dialogue. The overall effect is a satisfying tale of a modern woman choosing to live life on her own terms.

I love Suzanne Park! Her books feel vivid and authentic, and I appreciate how they touch on so many relatable issues such as struggling to prove yourself in your career, navigating cultural and familial clashes, and feeling anxious about not having it all figured out. The scenes with the "tech bro" bosses were so vivid, and made me feel the main character, Sara's frustration so clearly, I would guess that the author was drawing from her own background in the world of finance. This book was definitely less of a spicy romance, and more of a story of a woman coming to trust herself and her own abilities - with the bonus of a supportive and attractive love interest! Thank you to Netgalley and Avon for this advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

ONE LAST WORD dives into what it's like to be a woman in tech and how difficult it is to get the same kind of opportunities. But the heart of the book is how the protagonist, Sara, learns to advocate for herself professionally and personally, when the app she developed sends messages that were meant to go out when she died. As a result, Sara had to face her nagging parents, her ex-friend Naomi and her former high school crush Harry. Readers get to see the journey Sara goes on as she tries to balances it all. Though things don't always go as planned, you'll root for Sara as she gains her confidence and puts herself out there.

So the concept of "One Last Word" was really interesting. I like how it talked about the struggles of a Korean woman who is trying to succeed in business. It reminded me a bit of Shark Tank. I thought that the app that she created was a really great concept. However, I thought that most of the story was pretty boring and flat and I didn't connect with any of the characters. I also think that the romance in the book was severely lacking and needed much more spark!

I really enjoy Suzanne Park’s books — the writing is always great, it’s a style that works for me and I love some of the deeper issues each of her reads seem to touch upon.When I saw she has a new one coming out, I was immediately intrigued.

The cover art as always is gorgeous, and the premise was intriguing: her heroine was striking out alone in the tech industry with an app called One Last Word, trying to get venture capital money to make her dreams come true. The app allows users to send a final pre prepared message from the beyond to friends, family, etc - whether those be words of comfort, confrontation or what last words you’d like to have. Sara, our FMC, in testing her app mistakenly sends out her batch of messages after a drunken night: to her parents, ex-bff, landlord, bosses, and her long time crush 🙈

I once again enjoyed that Park’s reads have a women’s / literary fiction tilt with a romantic thread throughout. I like that the story focuses on Sara’s journey and growth - in her career, in her relationships and of course in her romantic interest.

The story takes the time to touch on deeper issues: women in tech and the workplace, sexism, racism, generational differences, cultural expectations, and family dynamics. These are real issues that underly life for all of us, so feel relatable and real.

I love the inclusion of the some of the experiences and culture around being Asian American and Korean American. Park always weaves in bits of this and references in her stories I’ve tried.

Sara was an interesting character, I found her relatable, authentic and frustrating at turns. I loved that she spoke out in certain situations about things that were difficult, rude and unacceptable. Silence or acceptance is often easier, or the path of least resistance - but I’m sure many can relate to wanting to speak out at times in life.

Though I liked both leads, I did not feel the connection between them as much as I might have liked. It felt a bit rushed at places in the story in regards to some of the relationship building (love and friendship) and towards the wrap up for me as well.

Overall, a good read and one I was satisfied with the ending too but not my favorite from the author. I’ll continue to try more from this author in the future and look forward to seeing what’s next.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an early copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own and freely given.

3.5 ⭐️

3.5 stars - I always love reading Suzanne's books, the writing flows so smoothly and the premise of her books are intriguing to read. this one fell a little flat for me because I personally felt the main characters had no chemistry and the romance aspect was not strong at all. I recommend checking out Suzanne's books, though, as there are more hits than misses.

Thank you NetGalley for providing an arc.

I love Suzanne's books. The general flow and story are always interesting to me. And I felt like I'm learning new information and ideas. This book was about Sara that created an app called the last word that enabled users to write an email to loved ones and/or friends the last words they wanted to express before death. Which could be cathartic to some. After a night of too many drinks she unfortunately sent hers to her parents, her old high school crush, and former best friend. On top of that she was chosen to participate on a pitching show to showcase her app to the public. I liked Sara. She was a very likeable character. She was definitely a workaholic that wanted to please her parents. She needed work/ play balance or a good nights sleep. The high school crush Harry was okay. I think the reality of who he really was wasn’t too great. He wasn't likable for me. And that’s needed for the romance part of the story. The former best friend was a lot better. She was thoughtful, insightful and kind. Sara’s app and the pitch competition was a bit overwhelming for me. I've learned through reading this that technology and apps are not my favorite things to read about. I skimmed through some of those scenes. The ending was good. Though, I needed more from Harry to understand the romance aspect of this story. Overall, it was a good story with a likeable main protagonist. I definitely recommend her previous books. They were fantastic. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for my review.

Another great story by Suazanne Park about a app developer workaholic who when she finds that her company doesn’t want to continue developing the app she has invested all her time into, she decides to quit and make it work on her own.
Of course, quitting means that she can’t collect unemployment insurance for being out of work, and she has to move into her sister’s place, where she lives in the closet, literally, while she works on bringing here “One Last Word” to market.

One Last Word is envisioned as an app that notices when you die, and sends out notices that you have prewritten, to all your loved ones. Of course, this doesn’t work the way it should when Sara gets drunk, one night, along with her sister, and writes notes telling people to F off, and fun stuff like this, but think nothing of it, because she isn’t dead, and so they won’t get sent out.

Until they do.

There is also a romance in there. And trying to please your parents. And trying to get VC (venture capital) funding in a world where most women don’t get it.

Well written, as always, and quite enjoyable. This book is one I had on my list to buy, and intend to do so when it comes out the 16th of April 2024.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

One Last Word is the app that Sara Chae is the founder of which allows a person to write pre-written messages that will be sent out the day they die. Unfortunately for Sara, one night all the messages she wrote on a drunken night were sent out. One of them is her high school crush, Harry, who now is her mentor in a program.

If you’re a fan of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, this book will definitely be for you! Sara and Harry’s relationship was enjoyable to watch develop. I love knowing that they have a past since high school and it is not a recent development. It was like a second chance story in a sense but more on the unrequited love side.

When it came to Sara. I loved her story because it was so relatable in a lot of ways. She deals with a hostile work environment and overbearing parents. It was great to see her stand up for herself in all aspects of her life by the end. Sadly, I feel like this book fell flat for me. It was a quick read but a lot of development was needed when it came to certain parts of the story and by the end, it felt rushed.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon, and Harper Voyager for this eARC!

ONE LAST WORD by Suzanne Park is a fun (and understandably frustrating) story of a women in tech that comes out in April. I received an ARC through NetGalley.

Like Park's other works, it features a Korean protagonist dealing with family, work, and friends. More women's fiction than pure romance, the story focuses on the character's quest to get funding for her app startup through a mentoring program. She deals with racism, sexism, and imposter syndrome (while yes, also getting the guy).

It was a fun, quick read full of inspirational glass-breaking and standing up for herself.

One Last Word
Written By Suzanne Park
Publisher Avon and Harper Voyager
Release Date April 14, 2024


This is certainly a cute a fun read that had an interesting plot with great character development as well as characters that were mostly likable but very believable.

This story follows Sara Chae who is the founder of one last word. This is an app that will send a message to whom ever you chose letting them know you have died and anything else you may want to add. On one particular night another Sara Chae dies and it triggers the message that she made to be sent to her mother, a friend who just happened to have ghosted her and her high school crush, Harry . Of course Sara just happened to be drunk the night she wrote the so called message that went out. Messy huh?

As the story moves forward she just happens to apply fora venture capital mentorship only to find out that the one person she is assigned to is none other than her high school crush………who thinks she is dead btw.

This is a cute romance that had me hooked and wanting to read more by this amazing author. I enjoyed the build up of the characters as well as the story and the way the characters were so well developed. Definitely a must read romance.

5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley as well s the author and publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my unbiased and honest review.

A delightful book that fun to read, with engrossing world building, and great character development.It's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. Would recommend.

love this author and this romance when she creates an app that sends word that you have died and your last thoughts. she ends up sending it to her crush and friend and deals with family members. love that romance and that she was able to find love and figure out her app too. Loved henry and her chemistry and also started by being friends.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book! Below is my honest review.

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars

This book is basically like 'To All the Boys I've Ever Loved' except make it adult and more tech-y, less high school drama. We follow Sara who is trying to launch her own app called "One Last Word"--designed to send a message to your targeted recipient when you die. One day, all of Sara's draft messages get sent out, including to her parents and former crush, Harry. Harry also turns out to be her mentor for a program, so she's forced to be in contact with him as she competes for funding on a TV show sort of like Shark Tank.

Some things I appreciated about the book: how Sara calls out racism and sexism in the tech world, addressing mental health issues, having a diverse cast of characters, bringing awareness to Asian culture and how Asian people (especially elders) perceive situations, how the author explained how the app works, etc. The conversations between Sara and her Korean parents with "more traditional" values are very realistic and accurate.

Things I didn't quite enjoy but didn't hate: the romance between Harry and Sara (felt a little too insta-lovey to me), the rekindling of Sara's friendship with Naomi (could have used more page time), the reasoning for why Sara's messages got sent out in the first place. Something that confused me (and maybe this is just me who missed this part), but I couldn't understand why and how people could reply to Sara's messages--the ones that would have sent out if she died. How would people reply to that message? Is it attached to Sara's phone number? Why would someone even reply? If I got a message that someone was dead and decided to send me a last message, I would try to confirm if they're dead first and not reply yet.

Anyways, this book was easy to read. It's relatively short (less than 300 pages), so some readers can probably finish this within a couple of days. I would say it's worth picking up to see if you like it.

Another great read by Suzanne Park! The story is interesting and the characters compelling. I loved the exploration of Sara’s various [types of] relationships and the the way Park addressed mental health issues in the Korean/Asian American community.

I thought this was a good book, but it felt like it has been written before. It gave off a lot of familiar vibes to books that I've read before. I liked it, I just wish it had a little more originality to it.

Sara Chae's idea for an app that will let users get closure with others by sending messages upon their deaths is something her bosses want to pass on -- so she quits her job and focuses on developing the app herself and applying for a chance to pitch it to area venture capitalists. But after a drunken night of writing messages with her sister Jia, as well as a glitch in the system that sent out her messages when another Sara Chae dies, Sara has other problems to deal with: upset parents as well as the return of her high school crush, Harry Shim. And when Harry turns out to be Sara's co-mentor for app development, their mutual attraction has to be placed on hold... temporarily.

The premise behind this romance is an interesting one -- an app that gives Sara a chance to start standing up for herself but also opens the way for a rekindling of a valued friendship as well as a crush. Sara's frustration is palpable from the beginning, as she starts standing up to the racism and sexism running rampant in the tech industry, and she uses that empowerment to speak up for herself with her parents, too. While she has her flaws, her determination makes the reader want to cheer her on. Harry seems like a wonderful guy, supportive of Sara, but there were a couple of things about his character arc that were red flags for me, so I didn't enjoy this romance as much as I have Park's other books. Not her strongest outing -- 3 stars.

Thank you, HarperCollins and NetGalley, for providing an eARC of this book. Opinions expressed here are solely my own.