Cheyanne Young

How far would you go for your best friend? Raquelês lifelong best friend, Sasha, has just died of cancer, and Raquel is overcome with grief Ä until she discovers that Sasha spent her final weeks planning an elaborate scavenger hunt for the friend she would have to leave behind. When Raquel follows Sashaês instructions, a mysterious stranger with striking eyes is waiting for her. Thereês a secret attached to him that only Sasha ã and now Raquel ã knows. This boy, Elijah, might be just who Raquel needs to help her move on from her terrible loss. But can Raquel remain true to herself while also honoring her friendês final wish?

The Last Wish of Sasha Cade

Alexa Auerbach 

I haven’t had a book made me cry this much in a long time.

Ruth Parker 

Sometimes I come across books I like. 
Occasionally I come across books I love. 
Very rarely I find a book I wish I’d written. One I wish I’d read years ago. One I can’t believe I’ve lived my life so far without.

The Last Wish of Sasha Cade is that book.
I found myself in tears multiple times throughout reading - I devoured this book in just over a day, it actually hurt to put it down at times, I just wanted to know what would happen!! - tears of sadness, tears of joy, tears of pain... I ugly cried at the end.

This is one of the best books I’ve written and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who wants to cry and not stop thinking about a book even when trying to sleep. A great portrayal of grief and friendship. The heart of this story was the beautiful friendship between Sasha and Raquel and the grief of everyone who knew Sasha. Amazing.

Last Wish of Sasha Cade, The

Alexis 

This is an absolutely beautiful and very emotional book. I loved the writing and the story itself was amazing. This book deals with grief in a way that you can smile through your tears. I would absolutely recommend this book.

Tiffany Engler

*I received a copy of this book free for my honest review*

This book has managed to break my heart and mend it. Many times. I could feel like crying my eyes out in one chapter and joyous the next. This book is just so freaking amazing. 

I really feel like the idea of this book is similar to Thirteen Reasons Why. Just done WAY better. This is something that Netflix should definitely adapt. I would have to have tissues next to me with every episode. 

I love Raquel. And I love Sasha. That's the kind of friendship that doesn't come around often and I'm super jealous that they found that. Sasha is the kind of friend that everyone needs. Even in death, she's an amazing friend. Sasha has plans for Raquel after she passes. Awesome plans. I don't know how she planned them out but it just had me in awe that someone fighting cancer managed to do all of this. 

The romance in this book is beautiful. It's a friends to lovers trope. But I mean, that's perfectly fine. It didn't happen instantly and I loved that. I love that with every adventure Sasha gives Raquel and Elijah, they get closer. 

I loved the family dynamics in this book. Both families are perfect. And for the Cades to continue to see Sasha's best friend after death is amazing. Even helping her out when needed. I really loved that Cheyanne didn't make Raquel's family feel any less than the Cades. Even if they don't have the same privilege as Sasha's family, they're still very loving. 

I loved this book. But there's one thing I need to know. How did Sasha pull all of this off?? I need to know. ASAP.

This is definitely one of my favorite books of the year. Hell, it's made it's way up to my favorites of all time. It's so beautiful. 

Thank you so much Cheyanne for sending me a copy of your amazing book. Thank you for blessing my reading life with this masterpiece. 

5/5 Stars

Belle Ellrich

*I WAS PROVIDED AN ARC BY THE PUBLISHER PRIOR TO THIS BOOK'S RELEASE DATE. THIS IS MY SECOND REREAD OF IT, AND THESE FACTS DO NOT AFFECT MY OPINION*

This book never fails to make me cry.

I decided to reread this again as a last resort to solving my horrible book slump, and within the first few chapters, I was already crying (at work, no less).

Cheyanne Young never fails to capture my full attention upon cracking this book open. For us readers, she has written a beautiful novel about loss, grief, and finding oneself after hitting--what feels like--rock bottom.

Raquel is a character I'm sure many of us can connect with. She's kind of awkward, a little shy, and she doesn't really put herself out there (are we describing me or a character here?). When she wakes up to find her bed-ridden and only best friend dead of cancer, she's overcome with numbing grief.

I've been blessed in that I've never lost a friend to death before. But I have lost someone close to me. This book really just reminded me of all of what is possible in times of grief. When we found out my grandpa had terminal metastatic melanoma, I shaved my head for him. Raquel did the exact same thing for Sasha, and that really resonated with me. Having a connection like that in a book really did volumes for me, and I can't ever thank Cheyanne enough for giving me that through this story.

The character development, for all of the characters, was phenomenal. I really felt like Raquel's character, especially, had the most character development. She went from a grieving girl to someone looking forward to her future with her friend watching from above, and that just does something to you, mentally, upon realization.

I also really loved that Elijah's character wasn't as boring as some love interests and side characters can get in stories like this. He was really given the chance to grow, and I loved seeing his character also evolve from what he began as to what he became.

Also, as someone who's never lived in or been to Texas, I really feel like Cheyanne did a magnificent job of imagery in description in terms of setting and place. It almost felt like I was there with the characters, in a sense, and I really did enjoy that.

All in all, I loved this book (yet again). TLWOSC will always have a piece of my heart held within the pages, and for that, I rate it 5 stars. I'm impatiently waiting for whatever heart-wrenching story Cheyanne Young writes next!

Erin 

I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place here when it comes to giving this book a chance. On one hand, I didn't like this book almost immediately upon beginning to read it. On the other hand, I only read two chapters? Which is almost hard to believe, considering I've written a fairly lengthy review on those two chapters alone and I'm assuming an awful lot. Read this at your own risk, I guess.

There are several things stacked against this book for my favour: One, it's a contemporary, which is one of my least favourite YA genres. Two, it's about a girl who dies of cancer, which is not my favourite topic to explore (which is not to say it shouldn't be explored, but I don't tend to enjoy it). Three, it takes place in Texas, which is NOT a bad state - I just don't really like reading about it. Four, it involves an overarching "I have future plans for you" plot that shoves two people together where they inevitably fall into instalove and can't live without one another. I know this because even though I haven't finished reading the book, I can tell by the summary. Also other reviews. So my review is mostly going to be a review of the first two chapters (plus the prologue) that I did read, but judging by several things (including the publishing house it comes from and my experiences with them in the past), I can imagine the rest of the book is the same. 

I think Sasha's struggle with cancer and dying is oversimplified and frankly disrespectful to those that do have to live their life knowing they are terminal. Half of the prologue is spent telling us how Sasha (+ her cancer) were basically fetishized just for the sake of the 'gram. Seriously. I don't know if this is meant to be a comment on how social media-focused young people are these days, or if this is just a poorly created plot device to create some sympathy for our main characters. But there is honestly 2 whole paragraphs dedicated to telling us how the second Sasha got sick her "friends" were surrounding her to get selfies and spend time with her because her having cancer was the "cool new thing." Like, she's dying, people. Get a grip. Because the book is in first person, we get a lot of inner thoughts by Raquel, our main character. We get to hear about how she's special because she's Sasha's only best friend, and if she wasn't she'd be a loner, and how they're all surrounded by fakes (I mean, true), and how they're now always getting invited to parties and to eat with the "popular" crowd. I just can't stand characters who go on about how plain and alone they are, but then actually have a life where they are surrounded by people who want to be their friend? I mean, I know I previously stated grievance at the fact they only want to do so because of the cancer, but still? It doesn't sound like you're alone to me.

Sometimes this feels more like an outline of a plot or story rather than the actual literature itself. There's no flair to the writing, and it's super plain. It reads like a list of things that the author wanted to put into the plot, but never fully connected the pieces together. There's an awful scene when we are introduced to Raquel's on-again off-again but currently off-again boyfriend that made me hate him with every ounce of my being. It reads like 1) introduce boyfriend. 2) have boyfriend say sorry for your loss. 3) have boyfriend be super inconsiderate to mourning character's feelings. 4) have him be more focused on kissing and touching his (reminder: off-again) girlfriend when she's clearly not feeling it. 5) have him tell her she can now move on with her life. That's essentially the whole paragraph! I've hardly even summarised! There's also a quote that's like "The time for moping is over. I have a funeral to plan." I'm not sure that describing a funeral as if it's a high-tech mission is really appropriate and grief is way more nuanced than that, but whatever. What I'm saying overall here, is that the writing is not great, and the story-telling is not great, and there doesn't seem to be much sympathy for the characters at all, and there really should be. Writing is super important, and I am a firm believer that good writing can pull an otherwise bad story, but unfortunately, a good story cannot pull bad writing. But that's in my own personal experience and opinion, so obviously your view could be quite different.

In the small bit that I read, there's a few interesting things. Sasha is described as dark-skinned, so points for POC rep. But she's also the dead person, which I feel like isn't a great message. I am quite obviously not a POC, so take this observance with a huge grain of salt. Raquel is actually in the room and sleeping next to Sasha when she finally passes away, which is a really interesting thing to write about. It would work in a darker novel about grief and the effects of cancer on a person, but I don't really think it fits in with the contemporary romance this book is trying to be. This is the third book published by Kids Can Press that I have been thoroughly unimpressed by (and I've only read three books), so I think at this point I'm going to have to avoid their books until someone I trust tells me they've found a good one. It's really unfortunate, because Kids Can Press publishes Franklin, which was my favourite picture book series as a wee small child, but I guess that doesn't necessarily mean that they can publish good YA books. 

Anyway, if this if your kind of book, great! I won't shame you for that. But it's just not for me, and I'm really disappointed by that. I had high hopes, but perhaps that was my issue to begin with. Lots of people seems to love this, and it's a shame that I don't as well. I toyed with giving it another chance, but honestly there are too many books out there and so little time to read them all, I can't justify keeping with one that I never really liked from page one.

I was given an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Last Wish of Sasha Cade

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