The Last Love Note: A Novel

Discuss the place of fatherhood in the novel. How are fathers presented, what kinds of relationships do they have with their children, and what is their role in a novel so focused on the experience of motherhood?

Discuss the aspects of romantic comedy in the narrative. Conventions include the heroine’s endearing clumsiness or cluelessness, romantic moments that are undercut with humiliation, and expectations that are overset with comedy. Discuss what this humor adds to the novel and how it might help balance some of the heavier emotional weight.

Explore the structure of the novel and discuss the part the flashbacks play in constructing Kate’s emotional journey, especially in documenting her growing attachment to Hugh. How do the flashback scenes work with the present moments to create the shape of the narrative? Do you see any tensions between the chronological story and the emotional arc, and if so, what effect does that have on the book?

Discuss Kate’s attachment to writing and what that journey represents for her. You may wish to bring in some of the metafictional observations, as when the book makes reference to well-known romantic comedies (like Pretty Woman or Love Actually) or when Kate discusses the plots of the women’s fiction novels she finds in the bookstore in Ballina. What does Kate’s relationship to writing convey inside a written work?

Analyze the conventions of romance as they apply to the novel, both in terms of the plot and in Kate’s application of romance conventions to her own life. What statement or argument might Emma Grey be making both in her use of and departure from these conventions?

Discuss the theme of grief in the novel and how Kate’s emotional journey shapes the work. You may wish to draw on other forms of bereavement—or bereavement in other characters—to illustrate how Grey handles this theme.

Research the author, Emma Grey, and her discussions in interviews, her author’s note, and her author biography about how she wrote this book from her own experience of widowhood. Grey is also a photographer and a self-admitted fan of the aurora australis, both obsessions she gives to Kate. Discuss what you think this personal experience adds to the authenticity and realism of the novel.

The trope of the female protagonist departing temporarily from her daily life in order to get a new perspective is a popular convention in women’s fiction. How does this convention compare with the classic storytelling structure of the hero’s journey? Chart how that structure maps onto Kate’s journey, which stages align, and which do not. How does the protagonist’s gender, if at all, affect how she navigates these stages?