On its surface, this is a chick lit book: woman goes to tell her husband some heartbreaking news, catches him having an affair, and hijinks ensue.

But it is so much more than that.

For one thing, Tracy Bloom makes you care so deeply about Jenny that you will catch yourself holding your breath, praying that Jenny finds peace and contentment. I cried. Oh, how I cried. I worried for Jenny, and I kept hoping that Tracy Bloom would find a way to give her heroine some happiness.

Despite everything happening to her, Jenny is a survivor. She finds reservoirs of strength that she can tap into, not the least of which is an elderly friend whose life wisdom helps Jenny through some dark, dark hours. Another thing that helps her: the urgent desperation she feels to connect with the Jenny she was 20 years ago. Those were happy times for her, and she believes that if she can find that Jenny, she will reclaim some pleasure, some light-heartedness missing from her life.

Bloom offers no easy answers. She knows, as do you, that Jenny's attempt to bring 1996 back is nothing but a diversion from the heartache she faces. Yet Bloom also shows that sometimes you need to find happiness where you can, even if it's in a Gerri Halliwell haircut.

I enjoyed this book so much, even as it made me ugly cry. I loved Jenny. I loved the sort of mother she is, the wife she is, the friend she is. I loved the daughter she is and the sister she is, even though some of those relationships do not deserve her energy.

Tracy Bloom tells what could be a maudlin tale with humor and affection. You will find yourself hooked.

Jenny is in her mid-forties. She is married to Mark, who she met twenty years ago when she was a tour rep in Greece and he was on vacation. Mark is now successful and working long hours and is rarely around. Jenny works in a retirement home as an entertainment coordinator for the residents. Jenny and Mark have two teenage children ... a daughter who only cares about her best friend and a son who has anxiety issues. Jenny's mother is judgmental towards her. Jenny's father has dementia and she takes care of him when her mother needs to run errands.

Jenny has been having health issues. Her doctor tells her that she has terminal cancer with 18 to 24 months left. She heads over to tell her husband the news only to find him bent over a filing cabinet having sex with a blonde. So she backs away and keeps her cancer and her husband's affair a secret.

Jenny feels her life peaked in 1996. She had a great job as a tour rep, she had great fun friends and she looked and felt great. That year, her 25th birthday party was the best memory ever! Rather than having a wake after she's gone, she decides to recreate that birthday while she is still here to enjoy it (her recent birthday was a disappointment).

This was the third book I read by this author and I thought it was okay. I liked the writing style. It's written in first person perspective from Jenny's point of view. Given the subject matter, it was a bit of a tough book to read. As a head's up, there is swearing.

I wasn't crazy about the characters. Jenny was a doormat and had let life pass her by. Her family (except for her son) treated her like crap and she took it. Mark had turned into an unsupporting cold jerk and she didn't feel close enough to him to let him know there was something wrong or to have with her at her doctor's appointment. It was hard to believe she would put up with the backtalk she did from her daughter. With the way her mother treated her, I'm surprised she did anything for her when she obviously favoured Jenny's brother, Antony, a surgeon, who was too busy to spend time with the family. Jenny had fallen into a job at the retirement home and was too lazy to move on and do something else. She let her old friendships go and her current friends are more like acquaintances. She had no one to turn to when she received such devastating news. I like that Jenny grew a backbone as the story progressed.

What an amazing story. Captivating from the very beginning it's a heartwarming and heartbreaking story of love, family and relationships. I adored the characters and I loved the heartwarming and heartbreaking reality of it all. It's easy to empathise with most of the characters in the book and it takes you on a roller-coaster of a journey. A brilliant read!

The Last Laugh by Tracy Bloom is the second book I’ve picked up by this author and she’s quickly becoming known to me as one to expect the laughs to come quickly. This book however has a rather sad side to the plot but the main character does her best to not become sad and still throws those one liners and off the wall actions at the user to keep us smiling.

The story introduces us to Jenny who is a mom to a couple of teenagers and a wife of about twenty years now. It was time for Jenny to head to the doctor where she gets the horrible news of having incurable cancer but as if that isn’t bad enough for her when she seeks out solace from her husband she finds him bending a female co-worker over the office furniture with his pants around his ankles. Oh my.

Does Jenny let all of this ruin her? Heck no. Jenny decides that if she’s going to go out of this world she’s going to do it on her own terms and those would not be with tears and sympathy. Instead Jenny decides to take a trip back to a time in her life when she was the happiest she can remember in her version of a mid-life, or end of life crisis in her case.

From the opening pages I knew this book was going to contain one of those characters that I just couldn’t help but to love, a harried mom with her over the top answer to any situation that kept the laughter coming even in the darkest moments for her. Her horrific situation and her battle through dealing with it made the book one that should touch any reader giving it that up and down emotional roller coaster feel. When finished I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more from Tracy Bloom in the future.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Don't let the title fool you. While this book does contain some moment that will make you smile, others that may make you laugh out loud, it is also poignant and thought-provoking. The Last Laugh by Tracy Bloom is no simple rom-com. although elements of it do reflect upon the happy time in protagonist Jenny's life when she met the love of her life. In truth it is a funny and moving look at one persons attempt to come to terms with their future, one which is much shorter than they may have expected.

Wife and mother of two Jenny works as an events coordinator of sorts in an old persons home. She longs for the life she used to live as a holiday rep in Greece, one where she was carefree and happy, but she also knows that she is happy with her lot. Happy with her children and her husband Mark, even if Mark is too busy to listen to her,  her daughter Ellie is a little flighty and too easily swayed by her dominant friend, and son George is quiet and beset with anxiety. She wouldn't change a thing ... Until he receives the news from her Doctor that her recent weight loss isn't as innocent as she might have hoped. Add to the mix that on the day of her diagnosis she discovers her marriage isn't as perfect as she might have hoped and suddenly life is not so rosy. 

Her friend and care home resident Maureen tries to help her come to terms with it all, the terminal diagnosis for her life and her marriage, taking her with a funeral to plan her perfect send off. But this isn't what Jenny wants or needs. Funerals are for those who are left behind. Jenny wants to make the most of now and boy does she.

What I love about this book is the way in which Tracy Bloom has blended the past and present, taking the reader back to Jenny's hey day, some twenty years earlier, when she was 'Tour Rep of the Season', the wonderful summer in which she met Mark, and the present where her life is far from perfect. She has perfectly captured the routine of family life, the highs and lows of it all, even the secret disappointment when Jenny's birthday plans don't go so well. When you hear her story, you can understand perfectly why she might want to recapture her youth and you can fully understand why she struggles to relate to her friends or to open up to them, with the notable exception of Maureen.

I really liked Maureen. She was open and honest in the way that only the older generation seem to be able. Her hobby of sending birthday and Christmas cards to try to ensure people gp tp her funeral seems quite funny, but then it is something that rings true when you think of a generation of people who like to scour the dispatches column in the local paper so that they can tick another friend off their list. Nothing she does or says is in a heartless way and in many ways her frankness is a help to Jenny. She certainly adds good humour to the story, particularly the blunt way in which she diagnoses and exposes one og George's reasons for his anxiety. Now that scene really did make me chuckle.

I really enjoyed reading Jenny's story but there were times when I jut wished she would be more honest with folk. The underhanded way in which she manipulated her mother and brother into spending time together, just to avoid telling them the truth. Don't get me wrong - their's was a fractious relationship, especially that with her 'perfect' brother, but in these situations it just feels like honesty would be so much easier. I know that people react in many different ways to a terminal diagnosis, and that in this case Jenny just wanted to have one more blast before she started her treatment or worse. It certainly had an air of authenticity about it and I can imagine many people reacting in this way. It's just ... well if you read you'll understand how much time was wasted when she was truly surrounded by love. 

Because of that, because of the ending, this is a really poignant story. We are left with a feeling of resignation for Jenny's plight, but also of hope. Maybe there can't be a happy ending here, and it is strange reading a book which has an inevitable ending and yet is full of moments of laughter too - Jenny's attempt to recreate Ginger Spice's look would count amongst them - but we are left with hope. Hope for a happy-as-it-can-be-in-the-circumstances ending. And the ending will make you go awww. Even I went awww and I don't awww often. 

If you are looking for a funny, heart warming and moving read then this could be your book. Give it a whirl and join Jenny as she throws that one last 'beach party'. You won't regret it.

The story starts in 1996, when Jenny, a tour rep and Mark an aspiring finance director meet in greece , fall for each other and get married .

Fast forward to 2016, 20 years later they are settled in UK with two teenage kids 17 year old Ellie and 15 year old George. Just when Jenny is coping with a caretaker job in an old age home, Ellie's bitchiness and George's anxiety she finds out about her cancer and her husband's infidelity on the same day.

The Last Laugh by Tracy Bloom is a 90s themed party planned by Jenny as a reminder of the joy that life can bring , her last hurrah, her last laugh before cancer hits her in full force.

My Thoughts :
Very touching... Loved the dialogues ,the author was very expressive . She is a gifted writer who can express her emotions and feelings exactly as it is ..it is impossible not to feel Jennifer aka jenny .. I could feel her in every scene, in every relationship she had.

It's a story about relationships, about forgiveness, about being a mother ,about the stress and worries that comes with parenting, about a wife whose husband's love has dwindled for her, about a daughter who is yearning for her mother's approval and love, about a married woman who has lost touch with her friends and wants them back..

A woman who is counting her days and her family is a mess.. she decides to live her life fully before her cancer intensifies.. she decides to relive her best memories twenty years back in 1996 when she was a tour rep in Greece and when she met her husband the first time ...when her friend maureen from the old age home takes her to a funeral to help her prepare for her own..she decides to invest her energy in an after party rather than planning a funeral that would let her relive her past life with her friends and family one last time without them knowing her condition. She plans and brings in the right people who can help her family to cope with her death, you can feel the relief and respite when she puts her shattered family RIGHT and together!

.. and through all this you will still manage to smile ..

It is sweet,sad,touching,relatable ... I loved it to the core ..

What to watch out for!
Exemplary story telling , Dialogues - I loved many of them ,Parenting tips, Life Lessons, how to handle husband's infidelity , how to look for good in everyone, Why Cancer is the cruelest disease, Jenny's attitude towards life and the end!!

READ IT TO FEEL IT!!

The Last laugh by Tracy Bloom is a bittersweet story. I love how the story line is so touching and devastating at points and then so hilarious and uplifting. I love books like that, it really read like an amazing movie that made me laugh as hard as I cried!
Tracy Bloom is one of my go to writers, I feel that her books are truly entertaining. I look forward to reading more from her.

I really enjoyed this book. I've never read Tracy Bloom's novels before and was happily surprised by how much I enjoyed this story. The characters were real and three dimensional. The plot believable, and although the issues the main character faced were intense, it was done with a sense of humour that I enjoyed.
Highly recommend.

The Last laugh by Tracey Bloom a four-star read that will have you laughing till the end. This is my first read by this author and It won’t be the last, I am a huge fan of this type of humour, I know now everyone is, but as soon as I found out that Jenny’s life was falling apart and she has a terminal diagnosis, it sucked me in, add to that a 1996 party and you had me sold, 1996 was my year!!
Family life isn’t what Jenny is expecting and she is now a woman of a certain age and life isn’t what she thought it would be, who’s is? But this story is one about falling back into love, just not with who you expect it to be with. This book will have you second guessing a lot of things and making you ponder your life, its written with great empathy and characters that you will not be able to not fall for.
The comedy moments in this story are so funny make sure you aren’t drinking or eating while you are reading, choking hazards ahead!! You won’t be able to stop yourself from laughing out loud.
I can’t wait to read more from this author, if the other stories are half as good as this one I cant wait.

4.5 stars

This is one of those stories that would stay with you even after you finish it . It was a bittersweet story , it’s devastating yet uplifting. I loved Jenny’s resilience & courage and tackling it all head-on even the stuff she feared and despite all crumbling down in her life making choices to be happy. Stories like these make you reflect on our lives and teach us we should live our live to the fullest each day too as each and every day matters . This book is uplifting, life affirming, funny & poignant . I will definitely reading more books from this author. A must read !

I have spoken before about how certain books completely overtake you. They are the books that stick with you long after you have turned the last page and they are the books that you recommend to anyone and everyone (usually a random stranger in a bookshop). Tracy Bloom’s latest book, The Last Laugh, has become one such book.

I was hooked from the get go and I found it very difficult and inconvenient to put down. The Last Laugh tells the story of Jenny, a put-upon mother of two and an unappreciated wife; she has just found out that she is terminally ill. Oh and that her husband is cheating on her (this isn’t a spoiler, it tells you this information in the blurb).

Jenny knows she is dying but instead of putting on a brave face and following medical advice, she decided to live. Really live. Go back to her happiest time and recreate it. Live like it is 1996. And she does so with aplomb.

The character of Jenny is truly inspirational. Faced with the news of her illness she doesn’t just get on with life she is determined to make herself happy. This is a message that we should all try and do on a daily basis not just with the thought of death hanging over us.

There are parts of this story that truly resonated with me and I am in awe of how Bloom managed to articulate feelings that I have had but I have never been able to express. I was both broken and healed by The Last Laugh.

The Last Laugh is a fantastic read that will make you laugh until you turn the last page.

The Last Laugh by Tracy Bloom is available from the 23rd February 2018.

For more information regarding Tracy Bloom (@TracyBBloom) please visit www.tracybloom.com.

For more information regarding Bookouture (@bookouture) please visit www.bookouture.com.

This is a highly entertaining yet meaningful novel about what it means to live one's life to the fullest. Given a cancer diagnosis with an 18 - 24 month life sentence, Jenny is 45 years old, with two snarky teenagers and a husband who is having an affair (she finds this out on the day she is given the bad news). Instead of hurrying into chemotherapy treatments which "might" prolong her life, she decides to not tell anyone, and begins to live her life according to the 90's, which is when she was the happiest. Lots of changes occur, and I won't tell you what because that would spoil all kinds of things. Suffice it to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Jenny's story of reclaiming her voice, her power, and her happiness. This book has an amazing amount of believable characters, and right from the start I was pulled in by Jenny's voice telling her story. "The Last Laugh" also has just the right amount of humor and I found myself chuckling right along with Jenny. As a two-time cancer survivor, I know that the moment of diagnosis and the subsequent "treatment plan" is nowhere near funny, however the author definitely understood this and injected humor in precisely all the right places.

Tracy Bloom’s The Last Laugh is a moving, funny and absolutely memorable novel which will stay with you long after you finish reading.

Jenny finds out that she has terminal cancer on the same day that she discovers her inattentive husband, Mark, is cheating on her. She’s also got a lot on her plate: an overbearing mother, superficial friendships, and a bratty daughter and an anxiety-riddled son. She keeps her diagnosis and her knowledge of her husband’s infidelity a secret. Jenny decides to relive 1996 when she was the happiest and plans a magnificent party reminiscent of her glory days. Along the way, she reconnects with herself, both learns and imparts some important life lessons and reconciles with old friends.

Jenny is a really great and well-developed character. I absolutely love her! She is resilient, resourceful, and relatable. I’ve never rooted for a character so much before. She is just so funny and realistic, from dyeing her hair like Ginger Spice to dancing in her kitchen in a sumo suit.

I was really curious to see how a novel with such serious themes like infidelity and death could be funny and moving. Bloom does an excellent job combining humour and darkness with well-written characters and a steadily-paced and poignant plot. I both laughed and cried my way through reading. Although this isn’t your typically inspirational book, it does make you think about your own life. Long after I finished reading, I found myself coming back to Jenny’s experiences and reflecting on the things she learns. It is never too late to fix things in your life and to reconnect with yourself and your loved ones.

I like the hopeful and somewhat ambiguous ending. I do wish that Mark’s infidelity and George’s anxiety issues could have been more fleshed out. I also would have liked more development with Jenny’s relationship with her daughter, Ellie. However, I think that given the limited timeframe, Bloom handles these issues pretty well. Mark does experience growth as he slowly steps up in his parenting and tries to be a better husband while George learns to cope with his anxiety with support from his parents.

The Last Laugh is unique, relatable and poignant. You will laugh, cry, and reflect on your own life. I would recommend this to absolutely everyone. If the rest of Tracy Bloom’s books are half as good as this, I can’t wait to check them out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this book in exchange for an honest review.

After a couple of emotionally heavy books I'll admit I was a bit hesitant at picking up The Last Laugh, knowing from the blurb it was about finding out you are dying the same day you discover your husband's infidelity. It was another blogger that prompted me to start it after a glowingly positive review. I am so glad I did. This book is uplifting, life-affirming, and most of all funny! Poignant? Yes. Miserable? Not a chance!

I felt I could relate to Jenny in many ways: that sense of identity loss, being in the background at times taken for granted, and the weight of responsibilities at juggling various roles (daughter, sister, mother, wife, friend, carer, worker) are things I'm very familiar with. Life doesn't always work out how you hoped. You lose touch with good friends. You don't get to pursue your dream job. You find the juggling act isn't as straightforward as you thought. You reminisce fondly of easier, simpler, carefree times; I particularly loved the 90's nostalgia that weaves through this book. Life throws many curveballs. You never know how you'd react in the circumstances Jenny finds herself in, but I confidently think I'd follow in her footsteps (I definitely wouldn't become a marathon runner that's for sure) so that connection made her real and genuine to me.

I absolutely loved the many laugh-out-loud comedy moments: the hilarious Maureen (everyone needs a Maureen!), the fantastic way Jenny brings her brother in to line, the comedy antics of her friends etc. Without any spoilers there is a section in the book that had me crying tears of absolute joy that was beautifully written.

The ending was unexpected but I adored it; there was a sense of validity to it for Jenny that I felt was just and didn't diminish her fierce fearlessness in confronting her bleak reality. The book definitely leaves you thinking about what is important in life, what we sometimes lose sight of whilst prioritising the wrong things, and how we can all learn from our mistakes.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the Publisher, Bookouture, for this review copy given in exchange for an honest review. Also thank you to Kim, from Bookouture, for organising the Blog Tour!

Jenny discovers she has cancer on the same day she finds out her husband is having an affair. How can she tell him now that she is dying? She now has two catastrophic secrets and no one to share them with, apart from Maureen, an old lady who lives in the care home Jenny works in. Jenny decides there must be something to do before she dies, something fun - something for her. She decides to plan a party – a ‘before I die’ wake based on the best year of her life – 1996. But can she keep the secrets long enough to have this party?

This isn’t like your normal Tracy Bloom book! I agreed to do the Blog Tour based purely on the author, as I have read some of her books before which were great! I didn’t read the synopsis until I came to read the book, and as soon as I did I thought “uh-oh”! Cancer and death is such a tricky subject to write about and get right. Not everyone wants to read about it as it’s just too upsetting, and that’s how I usually feel about books like this. But, I had agreed to do the Blog Tour, and I’m not one to let people down, so off I read, armed with a box of tissues!

As I said, it’s not like other books I’ve read by this author. Don’t expect lots of laughs and giggles as it’s not like that at all. It has its ‘amusing’ parts, but I would say more in a ‘black sense of humour’ way. I felt for Jenny before I even started the book, and the beginning chapter and the last chapter were probably the hardest parts to read. Jenny goes from being an ordinary wife and mum to finding out she’s dying and then seeing her husband having sex with someone else, all in the space of a few hours. No one can surely disagree that she certainly had her share of bad luck on that day. The story then continues with Jenny planning something fun before she dies. She talks a lot about the year 1996, when she first meets her husband, and says that this is the best year of her life. So she decides to throw a party, a wake as such, based on the theme of this year.

I’m not going to look at the characters and say who I didn’t like and who I did as I don’t think you can do that with this type of book – they all redeem themselves by the end. I’m not also going to say that this book ends up with a happy ending, because you just know it’s not going to. I am going to say though that, whilst I didn’t want to read it, I’m glad I did. It makes you realise that you should live your life for each day, because you never know what is around the corner. This book certainly left me a blubbering mess by the end but I wouldn’t have had it any other way!

Also, thumbs up to Tracy Bloom. In her acknowledgments at the end of the book, she states that 10% of the profits will go to Sue Ryder Care. My dad was looked after by Sue Ryder Nurses following his diagnosis of terminal cancer three years ago. Sadly, he passed away 3 months after diagnosis, but the care that those nurses gave him for those 3 months was second to none – a very selfless job.

A poignant, moving and sensitively written story. Well recommended, but keep the tissues handy!

Now this is a story that right of the bat tells you it’s probably not gonna have a super happy ending, our main character is diagnosed with terminal cancer right at the start, and this is her story on how she is able to take a good hard look at her life and make the changes she wants to make while she still can. This is of course exacerbated by the fact that she finds our her husband is having an affair. All in all not a good week.

Now it did take me a little while to warm up to Jenny, she was just a little to passive about pretty much everything going on around her and she spends an awful lot of time thinking about how much better everything was in the past. This is something that starts from before her cancer diagnosis and remains a staple-point throughout the story. While I think it was a very understandable reaction to everything that was going on in her life, it did start to get a bit tedious.

What I did like about the book was how the author was able to approach a rather difficult subject and inject it with a whole lot of humor, not only does it lighten what had the potential to be a pretty dark book but it provides a coping mechanism for the character. I really did like the writing throughout the book as I felt I was really able to follow Jenny’s train of thought as she goes through all sorts of different situations, and while I didn’t necessarily agree with everything she was doing/thinking, it was great to have such a clear and concise narrative as to the why. It also gives a clear message of how everyone deals with things differently as well as to not always sweat the small things, as they don’t always matter in the grand scheme of things. The main thing I did love about the book though was the way the author was able to not make everything about the cancer diagnosis, something in which Jenny was adamant about as well!

I don't know if "The Last Laugh" is a new direction for the author, or she has just wanted to try something new for a moment - whatever it is, it has worked and Tracy Bloom has delivered a wonderful, poignant story. It is being advertised as a "romantic comedy", however I wouldn't agree with this, for me it was more poignant than laugh - out - loud, although the book had its funny moments as well - of course, it is Tracy Bloom's book!

On the day Jenny (mum of two) finds out she's terminally ill, she also finds out her husband is shagging another woman in his office. Not her best day, that's for sure. But instead of confronting her husband or even telling her family about the cancer, she decides to try and recapture the fun she used to have when she was in her twenties (because those were her best years, when she was the happiest) and with Maureen's help (an elderly lady from the care home where Jenny works) she organises a 1996 themed party, with Spice Girls, bouncy castles, sumo suits, food and her old friends from back then - what follows are tons of misunderstandings, reunions, makeovers.

Jenny does everything that we forget that she has cancer and my heart really went to her. She was a great character, although to be honest at the beginning I wasn't sure what to do with her and what to think about her. I'll be honest with you, I didn't totally get why Jenny doesn't want to tell her family about her cancer. Yes, the circumstances, finding out her husband is cheating on her, I understand, she was in shock, but I mean, you are terminally ill? You'd want to share this with your family, no? However, it changed very quickly and she had my full attention and sympathy. She was strong, incredibly strong, despite having to cope with unfaithful husband, illness, stubborn, moody, stroppy daughter and shy and anxious son with some problems. She was very independent and didn't treat herself too seriously, and to be honest, after getting to know her very dismissive mother and always absent brother, I supported her in her decision of not telling anybody about the cancer. Even though the older, always knowing everything better characters are not my favourite ones, this time I loved Maureen, her friend from the care home, who took care of Jenny, even though she was the one to be taken care of.

I really, really liked the end. I was afraid that I'm going to end a snotty mess but Tracy Bloom has brilliantly resolved this situation. I don't think the end was abrupt or too rushed. I don't have to know what has happened to Jenny because well, we DO know what has happened to Jenny going forwards. I just didn't have to read about it - I fell for Jenny and she felt like one of my friends and I think seeing her the way I though the book is going to end would break me apart. So huge brownie points for the author for doing what she did, for letting us to decide about our own goodbye to Jenny.

"The last Laugh" was an emotional read that will make you cry and laugh and maybe start to appreciate your life even more. It was about cherishing your life and those around you as well, but also about the fact that you should be cherished by your family and friends as well. It was bittersweet and very real. It was a touching story about relationships, marriage, being in love, friends and about making new memories. It was full of some incredibly poignant moments that hit me really hard. Let's make some good memories, guys.

I loved this book. I have read a couple of Tracy Bloom books, and all are very funny and witty, but she has taken an incredibly sad story and made it laugh out loud funny. The story of her husband and their relationship and the way this is linked to her story is great. I laughed and cried in equal amounts. Highly recommend.

Absolutely loved this book! What should be a really sad story is written so well, both funny and incredibly heartbreakingly sad, but with such optimism that it's impossible not to smile. A wonderful celebration of the character's life, strength and courage.