The Last Piece of my Heart is the latest novel by Paige Toon, bestselling author of The One We Fell in Love With and Baby Be Mine.
It tells the story of Bridget, a travel journalist who dreams of being an author. To up her profile and get a foot in the publishing door, she starts a relationship blog about reclaiming the missing pieces of her heart, in the hope that with a fully restored heart, she can fully commit to her long-distance boyfriend and secure that elusive book deal at the same time.
Bridget plans to visit each ex love and ask for a piece of her heart back. Consequently, I thought that was going to be the story – Bridget pieces her heart back together as she reconciles each past relationship. However, her journey takes a slightly different path, by way of Cornwall.
When she is offered the chance to ghost-write the sequel to a best-selling novel by Nicole Dupré, Bridget reluctantly accepts. Nicole died suddenly after the release of her first novel, leaving her literary fans wanting more, and a heart-broken husband and baby daughter behind. Bridget relocates to Padstow for the summer, so she can research Nicole’s ideas for the unfinished second novel, while working under the watchful eye of Nicole’s grieving husband Charlie.
Paige Toon is a master of wise and witty literature and The Last Piece of My Heart might just be her best yet. It’s both humorous and honest, exploring meaningful themes of broken relationships, grief, maternity and morality. Life is a puzzle, and an incomplete one at that. Bridget’s journey is very relatable – often what we think we want isn’t actually the thing completes us.
Bridget is immediately likeable – strong, spirited and fun. Initially, I did question why anyone in their right mind would want to meet up with all of their exs, but as mentioned, this wasn’t the heart of the story and only touched on intermittently. It’s clear that once in Cornwall, Bridget’s priorities change.
Her developing friendship with Charlie and baby April is heart-warming, and while we’re on the subject of Charlie – WHERE CAN I FIND ONE LIKE HIM PLEASE?! (minus the sad widower thing, perhaps). Bridget brings fun and light back into Charlie and April’s life and its pure joy to read.
An additional joy was the great sense of location given, capturing the beauty of both Cornwall and Thailand.
Beautifully written, heart-felt and witty, I thoroughly enjoyed the story, and couldn’t put the book down. In fact, I pretty much cried from page 313 onwards and had to recover with a strong cup of tea and several biscuits. A must read!
Clare
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Published on 18 May 2017
Massive thanks to Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.
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