I didn’t even know there was a sequel to Cecelia Ahern’s P.S. I Love You until I was looking to stream the movie somewhere and went into a deep dive when I couldn’t find it. I remember reading the first one just before the movie had come out, and it stuck with me, despite me being quite young (I was in high school). Now that I’m married, and a mother, I was looking forward to visiting with Holly again in Postscript to see where she ended up and how she was dealing with her husband’s death. I had my tissues at the ready!

Synopsis
It’s been seven years since Holly Kennedy’s husband died—six since she read his final letter, urging Holly to find the courage to forge a new life.

She’s proud of all the ways in which she has grown and evolved. But when a group inspired by Gerry’s letters, calling themselves the PS, I Love You Club, approaches Holly asking for help, she finds herself drawn back into a world that she worked so hard to leave behind.

Reluctantly, Holly begins a relationship with the club, even as their friendship threatens to destroy the peace she believes she has achieved. As each of these people calls upon Holly to help them leave something meaningful behind for their loved ones, Holly will embark on a remarkable journey—one that will challenge her to ask whether embracing the future means betraying the past, and what it means to love someone forever…

My musings
I’m going to be honest here: I picked this up, got two-thirds of the way through, and stopped because I just wasn’t connecting. After reading a half dozen books in between, I thought I’d give this another chance because I was reading so many good things—and I’m a completist; I really hate giving up on things I’ve started. Once I got to around the 80% mark, I zoomed right through it quickly. I would have probably given it a higher rating if I hadn’t put it down for so long, because the end really moved me, but I couldn’t justify it, considering I almost abandoned it.

Holly is forever emblazoned in my mind as Hilary Swank, and she wasn’t Irish in the movie, so I kind of un-Irishified her voice in my head, which isn’t ideal. I didn’t really like her partner, Gabriel, and even at the end, though he had a nice journey of growth, I still felt like I wasn’t sure why she was with him. That being said, her relationships with the people from the PS I Love You Club were a joy to read, especially with Ginika. The end had me tearing up, but it wasn’t quite the waterworks I had expected, and I really just wanted to *feel* a bit more. I was a total mess when I read the original story. I almost wish the book took place from Ginika’s POV, and Holly made an appearance or something, because I don’t think there was too much more to say about her, really.

This wasn’t my favourite, and I wasn’t sure it was necessary, but it did make me want to go back and read P.S. I Love You, so I’m looking forward to that reread.

3 STARS

“To look back, to go back, is not to be weak. It is not to reopen wounds. It takes strength, it takes courage. It takes a person who is more in control of who they are to cast a discerning, non-judgmental eye over who they once were.”—Cecelia Ahern, Postscript

Thank you to Debby Hudson on Unsplash for the featured photo.