Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5 Stars)
Title: The Last Dance
Author(s): Aimee Brown
Character(s):
― Ambri Jennings: 27 years old, Brunette
― Henry Decker: 29 years old, Blonde, Blue Eyed
Setting: Portland, Oregon
Tag(s): Romance, Contemporary
Content Rating: PG-13
POV: Alternates between Heroine/Hero
Smexy Level: Subtle
Favorite Quote(s):
― “You are my person, Ambri.”
― “You’re human, Ambri. You don’t always choose who you fall in love with. The heart wants what it wants sometimes . More often than not it doesn’t go in the direction you expected. I think it’s worth the time it takes to figure it out though. You don’t want to look back and realize you did the wrong thing because you made a decision too soon.”
Overall Opinion:
Henry stepping out of his best friend life, two years has come and gone. Through all the highs and all the lows, including the death of Henry late wife and Ambri sister Rory, one night changes everything and they are left estranged. When he walks back into her life, old habits die hard but would they be able to forgive and forget?

What I liked the most about this read was the realism of life and death, peoples struggles with depression and learning to forgive. It was easy to see how Henry and Ambri were able to fall in love with each other. It was years in the making and even though misunderstandings happen, they were able to persevere and learn to forgive. it was known from the get-go that they were made for each other and you couldn't wait to see their happily ever after. Unlike some other heroines in romance novels, Ambri didn’t shy away fron how much Henry has hurt her. She screamed, she yelled, she cried and it’s hard not to feel the gut-wretching raw emotions she was able expressed to him. Additional, a few negatives I will mention is how unappealing the side relationships were when added into the mix with the leads. It was redundant and I felt bad with how Ambri romance with Noah ended. It was just a little too convenient how the leads partners were also still in love with their exes, etc. What was the point of them even being included? Overall, I understand Henry's reason behind his actions but how quickly they were able to fall back together and leave everyone in the dust left a bad taste in my mouth. Let alone how supportive their friends were about it. Didn't they spend a year getting to know Noah, built a friendship and was able to witnessed how great he treated her? It would have been better if Ambri and Henry were both single in the first place while trying to fix their relationship. Overall not exactly Nicholas Sparks, but I guess it could be considered close enough.

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A cute but somewhat flawed story of friends to lovers to enemies to lovers again. I found myself getting annoyed with the story at times. I honestly didn't like Ambri very much. She was very judgmental about a lot of really minor, stupid stuff (really, using "epic" was a point against someone?), and as most of that judgment was directed at Henry's girlfriend, I ended up actually rooting for her. And then she was proven to be a bad person - which came out of left field as everything up to that point was generally positive. (The one scene that I can think of that was meant to show that Karmen wasn't nice was her being critical of Henry's hair, which was relatively minor compared to her real transgressions later on.) Why did there have to be a bad guy? And the big reveal about Noah was also out of nowhere.

Also, it was pointed out numerous times that Henry was blonde. So what's up with the dude on the cover?

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley ( )