When Ava Green turns twenty-eight, she is told the most devastating news. The cancer she fought three years ago is back, and this time there is nothing much they can do. She is told that she won’t be around to celebrate her next birthday. But Ava decides to do the unexpected, and she plans to have the wedding of her dreams. She doesn’t have a groom, or much money, or much time – but she is determined to follow this lifelong dream before she dies and marry without a groom. It will be the party to end all parties.
Her friends and family gather around to help her achieve this unusual wedding and the media get involved, and then photographer James Gable turns up on the scene. She wasn’t expecting to find love in the last months of her life, so will she be brave enough to let love in, even though she will have to say goodbye?
I must admit when I read the blurb for this book; I expected not to enjoy this book at all. Having nursed my parents with cancer when I was in my 20s and watching them die, and having had cancer myself, I thought this might be a distasteful read. But it’s actually a wonderful read, and the thing I enjoyed about it the most was Ava’s determination to live every day of her life to the full before the inevitable end. I think this book is compassionate and uplifting. Yes, there are clichés in the book, but they are the clichés that anyone who has had cancer will be familiar with. And in work I have done with hospice over the years, I have encountered some people who found love when they were terminally ill, so it’s not just the stuff of fiction.
Photos of You is definitely a good read for any fans of Jojo Moyes. Photos of You is heart-wrenching in places but ultimately life-affirming.
Reviewer: Karen McMillan
Hachette, RRP $29.99