Louisa has just found out that she has terminal cancer. Her greatest fear is not the actual dying but instead leaving behind her husband and two young children. So she spends the little time she has left tying up loose ends and getting her affairs in order. Really, that’s about it. I didn’t feel any connection to the characters and was distracted by some of the longer development pieces. This was an okay story for me. Not bad, but it really reads more like a quick memoir. It’s a sad one for sure.

Full review to come on Goodreads and Amazon. Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a review copy.

A really lovely story but very emotional. I felt my eyes welling up quite a lot reading this one. I do love these types of books from time to time. Very well written without holding anything back and not dressing it up too much. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Emotional and heartbreaking but a story that I just could not put down. I needed tissues in several places. It is an incredible author who can reduce a reader to tears
Many thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC

Lou has a wonderful life with husband Tom, children Flo and Stan and her twin sister Holly. She's then given devastating news which totally shocks everyone.

This was a very heartfelt and emotional story. I found myself tearing up (crying god dammit) and gosh, it was so emotional. It's a whole journey, following a mother who's been diagnosed with cancer. Despite this terrible diagnosis, Lou never fails to be humorous, or positive, even though she's dying, and leaving behind a husband and kids. It's a very real situation, and it pulls at your heartstrings heavily.

I thought the characters were very well developed and I enjoyed the writing style. It was very beautifully written, but also very realistic as well.

This was a beautiful yet heartbreaking story, and I cannot recommend it enough!

This emotionally charged family drama, inspired by a heartbreaking true story, delves into the complexities of love, loss, and the enduring power of hope. The narrative is enriched by a cast of well-developed characters who navigate their intricate relationships against a backdrop of stunning scenery. The author's evocative prose immediately captivates the reader, drawing them into a story that explores the depths of human emotion and the resilience of the human spirit.

Keep a box of tissues handy because Jo Bartlett will break your heart with her latest novel, A Mother’s Wish.

Louisa and Tom are a couple who seem to have the world at their feet. As parents to two lovely children, the devoted couple are about to celebrate their ten year anniversary and all seems perfect in their world – until tragedy strikes. Lou is dealt devastating news and she feels as if everything she loves and cherishes most in this world is about to slip through her fingers. Who will look after the children if she is no longer around? And will anyone love them as much as she does?

Her twin sister Holly feels as if the bottom has fallen out of her world when she hears Louisa is ill. Older by ten minutes, Holly has always protected her twin sister and would do absolutely anything for her. As she doesn’t have children of her own, Holly promises Lou that she will love, cherish and protect Stan and Flo as if they were her own. But can Holly be the mother Lou wants her to be?

With the future bleak and uncertain, Lou wants to show her kids how much she loves them and enjoy every second she can get with them. Can the man she loves and the sister with whom she’s shared everything with since birth be there for her when she needs them most? Or will Lou’s last wish not be granted?

Jo Bartlett’s A Mother’s Wish is a beautifully told and sensitively written tale about family ties, the bonds that bind us together and the power of love that will seriously sever every reader’s heartstrings. Poignant, emotional and absolutely heart-wrenching, A Mother’s Wish is a book that readers will find hard to put down and impossible to forget.

A Mother’s Last Wish is a poignant and emotional tale crafted by the incredibly talented author, Jo Bartlett.

When Louisa receives heart-wrenching news, the perfect life she built with her husband, Tom, and their two wonderful children begins to unravel. Unfortunately, her older twin sister, Holly, who is just 23 minutes her senior, is unable to protect her this time.

I’m so sorry for the delay in this review! It took me much longer to read than I anticipated – I found myself an emotional wreck during the latter part of the story, having to pause frequently as I couldn't see the words through my tears! Jo's extraordinary ability to captivate and engage readers is truly impressive. As I read, I sensed a deep reality in the narrative, later discovering that Jo had drawn from her own experiences, along with those of several friends and family members who have faced similar life-changing moments, effectively expressing those powerful emotions through her writing.

A Mother's Last Wish broke me over and over. The journey we embark on with Lou is absolutely heart rending. It's raw, relatable and certainly real.

I don't think you can even begin to contemplate a book featuring delicate subject matter without becoming emotionally invested into the story, so over time the characters began to feel like personal friends and their dramas felt like mine.

A wonderfully written from the heart drama that left me deep in thought long after I'd finished reading.

This was emotional ( you’ll need some tissues). It was very candid, raw and unfiltered.

It follows the story of Lou, who has just been diagnosed with an incurable cancer, the emotions and feelings, fears that follow and her last moments with her husband, twin sister and her kids.

It is a great story of confronting one’s own mortality and the attendant suffering, grief and experience and how others cope, especially kids.

The author’s writing was very candid and she represented this by allowing each character a voice, especially Lou even right to the end.

This book is a sort of reflection and reminder of making each moment count and living life to the fullest and being of service to others.

I cannot recommend this enough.

A Mother's Last Wish is a very sad story. You can tell from the title and synopsis how this story ends but that doesn't stop it being very interesting to read how it unfolded.

In the beginning I struggled a bit to connect with Lou and I even felt a bit guilty about that because I thankfully have no way of understanding the things she was grappling with.

As the story progressed, it became easier for me to connect with her and I also connected with all of the characters.

This a story of deep familiar bonds and the difficulties we facing when confronting our own mortality and that of someone we deeply love.

I very much liked the storyline of the online support group who helped offer Lou support and guidance as she navigated through her diagnosis and treatment.

I cried as the book was wrapping up and all the way to the end.

Very well done story of love and loss, family bonds, and motherhood.

If you are a fan of tear jerkers this one is a great read.

It's just a bit too sad for me, and very wordy constantly going over feelings etc. Almost everyone has lost someone from cancer so lots of triggers. Thank you netgalley for the advanced copy

It’s very hard to describe how much you loved a story that broke your heart, that you read through tears, but Jo Bartlett is such a gifted and talented writer that I would ask her to put me through the wringer time and again for the beautiful tales she tells.
Despite the heartbreaking nature of the story, it is one of hope, it’s full of nothing but love, but I would expect nothing less, Jo always brings her stories straight from the heart. This story hit home for me and will forever most having lost people far too soon and this is where I began to become a weepy mess , as soon as Louisa gets her diagnosis.
What Jo does so well is make Louisa completely relatable and you could completely empathise with everything she was going through, you could completely relate to the things she won’t be there for, the absolute desperation she goes through trying to ensure her children’s and husbands life without her is the way she hopes.
This is clearly very personal from Jo, I only understood after I read this of Jo’s journey and I am completely in awe that she wrote such a beautiful and heartbreaking story, which must be so close to her own story and so many other mothers. I am not a mother but you don’t have to be to understand the journey Louisa goes through and I have nothing but praise for Jo for such a beautiful and heartbreaking story.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

An emotional read that kept me turning the pages, a tale of twin sisters, whom the one sister is dealing with the diagnosis of cancer. It shows the closeness of sisters and family. Lou goes through so much, chemo, plans for her husband and two small children. I recommend to have a box of tissues close by.

A Mother's Last Wish by Jo Bartlett was brilliantly written. It follows a mom of two named Louisa who gets diagnosed with terminal cancer. She has to navigate the emotions that go with the diagnosis as well as explain it to her two young children with the help of her husband Dan and twin sister Holly. Told in different points of view from all three of the adults, you get a well rounded and realistic look at how one might navigate a life ending diagnosis, palliative care and the aftermath. I rarely cry while reading a book, but this one definitely had me emotional. Would definitely recommend this book for anyone who likes books that tug on their heart strings.

I was given this Advanced Reader Copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

I’m going to start by saying what a truly beautiful book this is, despite having to read it through a veil of tears. Jo Bartlett writes from the heart and intuitively knows how to command her audience’s attention. Her command of the word flow and intuitive timing with the reveal of more and more detail is impressive.
We meet Louisa and Tom along with their delightful children, Stan and Flo. A perfectly imagined family that ticked every box in the description of ideal goals. We also met Holly, who is Louisa’s non-identical twin and the eldest by a narrow margin. We also learned that Holly is a survivor of cancer so it was an easy leap to hope that the story would somehow prove to be about Holly. Wishful thinking.
Once the initial diagnosis was revealed, the pain and downward spiral commenced, and I became inconsolable through my tears. This story felt very close to home, and it’s impossible not to recall those who have survived as well as those who have succumbed to this relentless disease.
It seems patronising to describe Louisa as brave. She didn’t really have any other option, but her reactions to the reality of not being around to see landmarks in her family’s future were totally understandable. I genuinely felt as though I knew and understood this brave and love-filled woman whose life was being halted so arbitrarily before it had really begun.
The love between Louisa and Tom was never in doubt, and their love story was one that I would have liked to spend more time with, but I know that more time is probably the strongest wish for anyone with a limited amount remaining.
There was no doubt in Louisa and Holly's relationship. Their connection as twins was very special, even though they struggled to navigate the proverbial sea of emotions. Try to overlook Louisa's manipulative behaviour as she conjures up her ultimate solution for Tom’s future without her. It’s impossible to second-guess where our minds may head in desperate times.
I cannot heap enough praise on this book, and I know I will continue to be emotional about it for years to come. The one consideration whilst reading was the knowledge that Jo had also survived a damning cancer diagnosis. If you follow her on social media, you will easily spot that there’s a large helping of Jo in Louisa’s character and quite rightly so. I was hoping for a miracle, but will happily accept that Jo being around to write her beautiful books is exactly the miracle I was looking for.

With the inevitability of its outcome, this was never going to be an easy book to read – Lou’s journey following a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer was raw, excruciatingly painful, and very emotional. I read it over the course of three days – often having to set it aside, just to breathe a little – and felt entirely part of the family’s experience, through every devastating setback and with an immense sympathy for her concerns about leaving her young children (and her husband Tom, and twin sister Holly) behind. The blow they’ve been dealt is even crueller because of Holly’s own earlier successful fight against a cancer diagnosis – the universe can be so very unfair at times – and we learn that they are particularly close because of the appalling parenting they were both subjected to.

It almost feels wrong to write a review in terms like characterisation, the relationships and their emotional impact because – such is the author’s skill – every moment of this book felt entirely real. When they hurt, I could feel their pain – and when they cried, I wept with them. And after that, it might seem strange to say that I found the whole story particularly uplifting – it’s overflowing with love, and I could feel that throughout every bit as strongly as the immense sadness at a life cut short. The characterisation is quite superb – however low her spirits, Lou never loses her wry sense of humour (or her sassiness – I loved her so much…), and there are unexpected moments of sheer joy as she attempts to cram in all the positive experiences her children will remember. As the author puts it, she’s finding her own way to keep living while she’s dying, not wanting to waste a precious moment. And, on a lighter note, that includes not suffering fools gladly – the times when she puts insufferable “friend” Billie in her place are just magnificent, and I wanted to hug her even more than I already did.

Her attempts to make sure her children are cared for after her death are so real and understandable, however impossible to achieve – as are her interactions with the on-line end-of-life forum (something many of us turn to in challenging times – I vividly recall my own experiences when dealing with mum’s dementia), including the cruelty of the trolls who only seek to make a bad situation worse. And something I particularly liked about this book was that we didn’t just see everything through Lou’s eyes – we have Tom and Holly’s perspectives too, and their own emotional turmoil while providing the best support possible was quite wonderfully handled. And, as we shared their inner thoughts, I entirely empathised with many of their complex feelings too, and their emotional honesty – especially Holly, concerned that she was so deeply involved because it felt good for once to be truly needed.

And, as a review, I think that’s enough. If this was – at times – a challenging book to read, it must have been an incredibly difficult one to write. And I thought it was an absolute triumph – written from the heart, drawing on her own real-life experience, making the reader feel so very deeply for the individuals at the book’s centre. It might not be the book for everyone – especially if they have their own struggles, because it might just be too painful. But the book really is so much more than that – if I found myself sobbing helplessly at times, the perfectly judged ending left me hopeful for some happiness in everyone’s future. Extraordinary writing, and an entirely unforgettable read – and I couldn’t recommend it more highly.

This was a very emotional and heart wrenching read and covered a topic that is very close to my heart after losing a very dear friend to cancer a year ago. I am sure that a mothers last wish will resonate with many readers for one reason or another as sadly lots of people are either going through their own cancer journey or supporting others with theirs.

This is a brilliantly written book told from the perspective of three characters and I strongly advise having tissues close by. This book will resonate me for a long time to come.

It starts off with the mother of 2 children getting ready for a big wedding anniversary only to be told that she is sick.
It follows the mother, louisa, and her family as they navigate her diagnosis. Its a great book and really relatable, even if you dont have any children. It goes through the normal questions and discusions that people dont really want to have until absolutely necessary.
Another aspect was Louisa sister. As great as it is being an Auntie she questions whether or not she can measure up as a mother figure after her sisters death.
I received an Arc copy in exchange for honest review #NetGalley