The Last Train Home

I see this cartoon covers and I always assume it's a romcom. I read the blurb and I thought “This looks like a happy read, let's save it for a rainy day”. However, the last train home is not particularly happy, it's overall a story about bad timing.

Complaint made, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the story. Elle Cook wrote a set of realistic and relatable characters, whom we can easily understand. We know of their ambitions, insecurities, choices and hopes, we see them grow through life, and we understand them, because either we've been there, or we know someone that was.

This has the feel of a love story that could actually happen, with all its highs, lows, greys and disencounters. I just don't believe on its ending.

Because we know who the final couple is, we know things we'll go wrong at some point. We know the author will need to change the characters to keep MCs mind mostly guilty free.
Sean changes do not come as a surprise, but they felt out of character to me. I also found the end rushed and a bit unbelievable, but it is what it is.

As a finance girl, I always enjoy when the characters are financial analysts, though nobody ever understands what they do, which annoys me. Anyway, the picture of the financing sector and its workers in London, and other locations, was accurate and perfectly captured.
I also appreciated the road trip down memory lane through the subprime, this was so significant, I like to see it now, with the eyes of someone who's not living through it anymore.

Recommended for romance readers who enjoy Josie Silver and Rebecca Serle, and can tolerate heartache until finally reaching the happy ending.

3.5