When I heard people saying this book was like a queer Mamma Mia! I knew I needed to read it ASAP!

The writing of this story is so lyrical, and I know that can really bother people, but I personally love it. I love when it feels like I'm reading a song, it makes me feel the emotion of the character more I find. Mia was an amazing MC, so mature for her age - which is great in my eyes because I personally am not a fan of 18 year olds acting like they are 12. We see her come to term with so many relevant and relatable problems - leaving home, dealing with the loss of a loved one, being lied to by family, discovering ourselves, admitting our feelings for another, SO MANY THINGS! On the flip-side, we get to see snippets of Tori, Mia's mom, living a life that most teens would only dream of living - becoming a famous singer. It was great to follow along on both stories and see the similarities and differences between the two characters in and around the same point in their lives.
I will say, the Mamma Mia-ness of this story was not as front and center as I had been hearing from some reviews - but I still definitely got it and enjoyed that journey.
The only place I found this fell a tiny bit behind was the pacing...it was quite slow in the beginning and then very rushed at the very end. I would have loved to see a bit more time in the end to really see Mia say goodbye to her life in Sunset Cove.
Overall, this was an AMAZING debut and I really can't wait to see what else the author does!

Thank you to NetGalley, Blackstone Publishing, and the author for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are completely my own!

First of all, I want to say that this is probably a very good book for fans of Daisy Jones and the Six. But unfortunately, I hated that book too. I just didn’t enjoy reading it at all and I had to force myself to finish it. The timeline is all over the place, the plot doesn’t make sense, the stakes don’t even exist and it’s just confusing all around. The reasons Mia does stuff for are just….weird and they don’t make sense. But not only her but everyone in this town. Why the fuvk not tell this child anything?? There wasn’t even a good reason for it it seems just a ll pointless and stupid.

Some quotes that killed all my hope for this book…I’m sorry I tried but I don’t like the idea at all and I despise it. The writing itself probably wouldn’t be as bad if the plot wasn’t so horrible.
“I felt it!!”
“I’m not following him I’m following my calling”


“We did cover the possible murderer point, right?”
“Singing like that? David!! There was something there! I felt it”

All the characters are horribly stupid and useless and I hated it. I’m sorry

“Maybe you should look back sometimes when you’re running away, and think about why you’re really leaving.”

I’m sorry… but this is a DEBUT?!

I had the pleasure of meeting and working with Kalie as she prepped for her debut young adult contemporary release and she is an absolute SWEETHEART, which only made me love her book that much more.

I listened to this beauty, and the narrators Taylor Meskimen and Amanda Dolan did a phenomenal job capturing the innocence and daring personalities as they intertwined with love, loss, and longing through the story. I will say that this is NOT a book to multitask while listening to! It’s an incredibly quick read with SO many details peppered throughout that you will most definitely miss something if it does not have your full attention (I rewound multiple times to catch small details before learning my lesson).

“You can outgrow places and people and still love them.”

Kalie writes with such a poetic and lyrical voice that you can’t help but be entranced by her words. By Mia and Tori. By their tension-filled history despite never really knowing one another. And by their scavenger hunt, where Mia not only gets to know her mother, but also herself each step of the way.

“To love the music is to never grow up.”

This beautiful book is a love story to friendship, first loves, friends, dreams, music, and mothers and daughters everywhere. It’s filled with life lessons, hopes and dreams, and every form of love imaginable.

For example, just because someone is gone, does not mean they’ve disappeared…their story isn’t over yet, because it lives on in you and all the people who knew them.

This is truly the love story songs are written about.

Tropes:
- LGBTQ+
- Queer Mamma Mia!
- Friends to lovers
- Chasing dreams
- Scavenger hunt
- Young adult

This was such a really fun and enjoyable concept for a book! It was such a clever premise with delightful characters. A great YA read!

“𝘐𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.”

I’m not sure if my emotions have just been fried after everything that’s been going on this month, but this book made me cry several times. 😭 I felt so much for Mia and her character. I empathized with her situation, looking so much like her famous mother and wanting the same type of dream, but being so scared of it.

I also loved how the book wove in playlists and really stuck to the music being the forefront of this story. While it’s a love story, for both Mia and her mother, it’s also a story about finding your music. 🤍🎵

This was a very sweet coming-of-age about a girl finding her mom, herself, and her love for her girl best friend and accepting that love. Highly recommend to anyone who wants a heartwarming story about two girls from a small town branching out to get their dreams!

This was an interesting story with an interesting concept. I liked that we went to a sort of scavenger hunt with the main character. And it was pretty fun (except from the whole dead mom thing). In the end, though, I was left feeling like something was missing. I think, maybe, the characters might have lacked a bit of depth? It was a pretty heavy subject but beside wanting to know, I wasn't truly affected by the characters' feeling and such.
Overall, I did enjoy this though and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun sapphic YA novel with some heavy subjects.

This book has got to be one of my favorites that I read this year! A solid 4.5 stars for this debut!

After finishing the book (and sobbing), I knew that this was the book I had wished to have read growing up. As someone who loved music beyond belief (I am too embarrassed to share my old email with y'all) and was not sure what she wanted to do with her life growing up, this would have been wonderful to have this.

Mia's path, of finding who she is, through her mother's stories, her true love and her hometown, is emotional and inspiring. I highly recommend this book!

I liked the premise and the cover art was lovely, but the voice wasn’t distinctive enough to draw me in, and I wasn’t connecting to any of the characters. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with the book and the overall writing was strong, YA usually hooks me from page one. Yet I kept losing interest, putting the book down, and ultimately DNF at 18%. Maybe if I’d watched Mama Mia and gone into the book invested in that film and its characters, I might’ve felt more inspired to read on.

While this wasn’t my cup of tea, fans of Mama Mia and readers who do connect to the voice will probably enjoy this more than I did.

I received an advanced copy from the publisher and am voluntarily leaving this review.

4.5

The Last Love Song follows Mia as she adventures on a quest to learn more about her mom, country singer Tori Rose. The story is essentially a bi Mamma Mia book. I might just be easy to please but I genuinely enjoyed reading this debut novel. I didn’t listen to the audiobook, but I did make my phone's voice reader read it to me so that might have impacted my experience.

Things I liked
Mia’s relationship with her grandma’s
I liked the found family aspect with Tori Rose’s band
Sapphic best friends to lovers

Things I didn’t like
Sometimes, the will-they won’t-they between Mia and her best friend Britt FRUSTRATED me. Like they don’t wanna be together because Britts gonna leave and they don’t wanna mess up their friendship?? Like ur already making out and acting like a couple so like what's the difference? Although it frustrated me and was sometimes cringy, it is realistic for teenagers and I have to live with the teen cringe if I’m gonna read a YA book.

*I received this ARC from NetGally to read and review in exchange for an honest review.*

Thank you to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel. I honestly forgot to re-read the blurb before I started so I did not know what I was getting into and that it was not a YA rom-com. This was well done with the flashbacks in the diary and seeing how Mia discovers her mother and her true story along with her own voice. The ending left me underwhelmed but overall a good book. 3.5 stars.

⁀➷ 3.5 stars ☆
⋆.˚✮🎧✮˚.⋆

“i ask you this time: will you follow the music with me?”

this was a beautiful story, but i think my expectations were too high and i was a little disappointed with it :( the cover is gorgeous and the premise seemed really interesting, but it was a bit of a letdown. this will be a fairly short review bcs i don't rlly have much to say

⟶ what i liked.

the writing was really beautiful - it was heartfelt and lyrical and the prose was really well done! although the dialouge at times felt overtly dramatic and unnatural, but oh well. the setting was amazing and i loved the small town coastal vibes. take me to sunset cove !!

mia was a really realistic and well developed character, and i loved reading about her journey. the romance was fairly cute, though not particularly memorable, and i loved the parallels between britt and tori.
the ending actually made me cry a bit. it was a perfect way to tie up the story.

⟶ what i didn't like.

despite being fairly short, the middle part of this book dragged a lot. it took me over a week to read this book despite it being under 300 pages. but it was also fast at the same time, given that everything takes place in like a week...but okay.
the entire premise of the book felt really unrealistic. mia lives in this town that is very clearly devoted to her mother, yet she knows nothing about her? also the internet exists, why was there no mention of her ever looking up anything about her mother? the dad plotline felt like it was just shoved in there and didn't really have any real bearing on the plot. also, the scavenger hunt thing, despite being the main plot, was just sort of there...i would have liked more mystery around it because for the most part it was pretty random.
mia's chapters were quite slow at times, and i found myself getting bored a lot. i was mostly just looking forward to tori's chapters bcs her story was way more interesting to me.

⟶ overall.

despite it's flaws, i still liked this book ! i think the author is really talented - like those song lyrics?? - and i'm looking forward to seeing what she releases next ! although this wasn't really for me, i would recommend this book to anyone who wants a short summery story about love, loss, music, and following your dreams.

⟶ thank you to netgalley and the publisher for sending me an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review! 🩷

The Last Love Song is a queer Mamma Mia-inspired YA novel that follows Mia, a songwriter who is the daughter of deceased country music superstar Tori Rose. When Mia finds a letter from her mother shortly after her high school graduation, she must follow clues throughout her small hometown of Sunset Cove to unravel Tori Rose's past -- and maybe figure out the path to her own future.

This book is heartfelt, emotional, and bursting with enjoyable characters! I loved the slow-built friends-to-lovers romance between Mia and her longtime crush Britt. The relationships in this book weave so neatly into Mia's character arc as she weighs up the people who make her want to stay in Sunset Cove and the people who make her want to leave with them -- and questions whether it's possible to have both.

As much as I loved the romance elements, the mother-daughter relationship was the beating heart of the story, and the most resonant part for me. Not to spoil it, but a scene toward the end fully made me cry! It was really cool to experience how Tori's story mirrors Mia's story.

I adored the song lyrics sprinkled throughout the book. Each song reflects the character who wrote it, and they helped me get more immersed in the story. I also think it's super cool that the author collaborated with a musician to actually record one of the songs and post it on Spotify!

Long story short, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Sunset Cove. If you're looking for a dazzling, musical debut novel with plenty of heart, you should definitely pick this up!

Kalie Holford’s “The last love song” is a raw, emotional story about closure, love, and identity.

I really enjoyed the story and found that it was easy to follow along to and the over all plot was interesting.
I liked the characters, they felt very real and flawed and well written. I really loved Mia and Britt’s love story and Mia’s journey of discovery was important to understand.
The only thing is that the writing itself felt a little rushed, and that some part could have been focused on a little more. Overall, I think this was a pretty good book, and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for books about queer kids falling in love, as well as learning about their past and finding answers.

I thought this was a very cute story about a girl finding out more about her mom: her goals & dreams, her life, how she cared for her! I also think she found things out about herself as well. Very quick, easy and cute read!

I was gifted this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I’m really torn about this one and in all honesty, it may come from the similarities/overlap I noticed from my last read, so this should be taken with a grain of salt. This was a cute read, but I wasn’t sucked in. I kept getting distracted and pulled to the side. I’d just finished “Every Time You Hear That Song” which was also about a main character and her partner (about to graduate high school) going on a scavenger hunt to hear the last lyrics of a country music singer and here, a girl and her girlfriend who are musicians and are bound for the music scene post high school graduation are following the diary clues of her deceased mother to learn more about her career and past. It was a large vat of Deja vu. I really loved the queer representation and the young love and the idea of learning to find your own dreams and being sure of them instead of doing what others expect of you but the similarities kept nagging at me and the “Regret You” album title had me singing had me singing Daisy Jones and the Six music. A cute read but I quite literally felt like I’d already read this before.

First off, thank you for the ARC!

I want to start off with what I liked which is the cover. The cover is absolutely GORGEOUS. Genuinely one of my favorite book covers in a long while.

I really wanted to enjoy this book because I've found most LGBTQ+ books to center around gay men and I was so excited to read a book about queer girls around my age. This book just did not live up to my expectations. I found it very hard to stay engaged with the story and actually want to read it. The writing was very much angsty teenage girl monologues that made the book progress slower than was necessary and at some point it gets tiring to have to read solely that.

I can appreciate the Mamma Mia, Daisy Jones, The Half of it vibes of the book but overall it was a rather boring read for me.

eARC provided by NetGalley

Hold on, let me gather my emotions here...

I really enjoyed this one. I flew through it in less than two shifts at work, not wanting to put it down (but occasionally having to).

Mia - and her mother, Tori - tell this story in present time and diary entries from the past. Both characters have their flaws, Tori being wild and chasing dreams at the expensive of the people she loves, while Mia is safe and runs from love and her dreams to protect her heart. Both characters were messy, learning about themselves through each mistake they made. Mia getting to learn about her mom and find herself throughout the course of the story was beautiful, and heartbreaking. By the 90% mark, I was crying pretty hard (might just be that whole dead mom thing).

Overall, a touching story full of family, love, queerness, and music.

I have long awaited Kalie's debut, and I'm so glad it's finally out in the world! What more could you want than a queer YA Mama Mia!? The writing is so readable and relatable. Kalie does an amazing job of capturing the teen voice on the page. I also adore a mother/daughter story, and one that's not afraid to shy away from complicated topics like grief. Add this one to your shelf.

This is unfair to this book, but having this come out shortly after Every Time You Hear This Song is doing it a huge disservice. Obviously no one could have planned for it, but they're similar enough that this one doesn't hold up to the other.

Overall, Mia really annoyed me as a character. She was kind of a wet blanket who didn't seem to know what she wanted at all and only went off what other people told her. Britt was way too patient with her.

The Taylor Swift references felt over done and cringey (and I say that as a Swiftie).

Also as an Oregonian, this did not feel like the Oregon Coast at all. In fact, the setting just felt super inconsistent in general - is this town tiny? Is it medium sized?

I would probably try from Holford again in the future, but this one needed more work.

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙇𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙎𝙤𝙣𝙜 by 𝙆𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙚 𝙃𝙤𝙡𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙙
🌟🌟🌟✨ (3.5/5)

So this book was a delightful surprise, especially since I don't typically read YA novels. Despite this, the book quickly captured my attention and held it throughout. 💕

One of the things I liked most was the focus on strong female characters, each representing different age groups. From the young protagonist to the seasoned matriarchs, these women exuded resilience and determination in pursuing their dreams. Their stories served as a reminder of the importance of chasing after what truly matters in life, regardless of age or circumstance.

I just wish we could listen to the songs written in the book, the lyrics were so damn pretty.. I loved reading them and I'm sure I would love them if one day they turned into actual songs. 🎶☺️

Without revealing any spoilers, let me just say that 'The Last Love Song' is a heartwarming journey that will leave you feeling uplifted and inspired. It's a story of courage, love, and the pursuit of happiness—a perfect read for anyone seeking a heartfelt YA novel with a powerful message. 💖📚

Who should read it? 📖
- enjoys YA fiction
- with strong female protagonists
- LGBTQIA

Thank you @netgalley and @blackstonepublishing for the ARC copy in exchange for my honest review!