Until The Last Star Fades

by Jacquelyn Middleton

Overview

Could you be the one who changes everything?

In her senior year at NYU, Riley Hope appears to be on top of the world. With a loving mother who makes Lorelai Gilmore look like a parenting slacker, ride-or-die friends, and a longtime boyfriend destined for the National Hockey League, she puts on a smile for the world. But behind it, she's drowning. Racked with fears for the future, she struggles to stay afloat amid life in the shadows of a heartbreaking illness.

And then, Ben Fagan comes crashing into her life. Twenty-three-years old, British, and alone in the Big Apple after a disastrous pilot season in LA, the struggling actor is looking for an escape: booze, mischief, sex--minimum commitment, maximum fun--anything to avoid returning across the pond.

As they form an unlikely bond, Riley keeps her reality from Ben so that he remains a happy refuge. But how long can she hold back the truth...and is Ben keeping his own secrets, too?

From the award-winning author of LONDON BELONGS TO ME and LONDON, CAN YOU WAIT? comes a bittersweet story about love, loss, sacrifice, and the life changing decisions we make.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780995211780
Publisher:	Kirkwall Books
Publication date:	11/08/2018
Pages:	500
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.11(d)

About the Author

Jacquelyn Middleton's award-winning romances are "sexy and overflowing with hope" (Hypable) with "...the kind of sweet nothings hopeless romantics die for" (Kirkus Reviews), and "emotionally connective characters who readers can't help but root for." (BlueInk Review). Jacquelyn writes love stories for hopeful romantics because her novels are always optimistic and she believes happily ever afters are more important now than ever before. But life is messy, relationships are messy, and her books aren't afraid to go there, too. If you enjoy character and relationship-driven stories about people dealing with the triumphs and disasters we all face, Jacquelyn's books are for you. Jacquelyn previously worked in television broadcasting and as an award-winning freelance journalist specializing in health and travel. She loves the Toronto Maple Leafs, comic cons, London, and the Orkney Islands, and lives with her husband and Japanese Spitz dog in Ontario, Canada.

Editorial Reviews

2018-10-15

A baggage mix-up at LaGuardia Airport leads to a new friendship and more in Middleton's (London, Can You Wait, 2017, etc.) delightful contemporary romance novel.

Riley Hope, a senior at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, has too much on her plate. She is flat broke; her mother, Maggie, is fighting cancer for the third time; and her three-year boyfriend, Josh King, star of the University of North Dakota's ice hockey team, has just proposed. There are many reasons Riley doesn't want to accept, but Josh has promised financial help for her mother's insurmountable medical bills. And Riley will do anything for Maggie. It's been Maggie and Riley against the world ever since her father took off. We meet her as she is chasing down a disheveled 20-something who has mistakenly taken her suitcase from the baggage carousel. Ben Fagan, seriously hung over, has just returned from Los Angeles, where he auditioned for a new TV series. The befuddled Scottish lad has no idea how to get himself to the cheap Airbnb he has scored on Canal Street in lower Manhattan. Riley, whose tiny studio apartment is in the East Village, leads him through the transportation maze of New York's subway system, and the seeds of friendship are planted. Readers will need to wait patiently for that friendship to transition to steamy love. But there are plenty of distractions, both humorous (e.g., Erika Kobayashi's bachelorette party with male dancers) and serious (Riley's high-functional depression, Ben's dyslexia, Maggie's cancer), to keep a twisty, if occasionally far-fetched, plotline moving quickly. The novel is a stand-alone, although Middleton connects it with two previous books via shared plotlines and characters. While the prose is smooth, carried primarily by fast-moving dialogue, musical references and some colloquial lingo (e.g., FOMO) may be lost on some readers (although a glossary is included).

A good mix of poignancy and sexy fun, with two well-developed protagonists.

Kirkus Reviews