One Last Love

When it comes to love, it’s never too late ...
＂I thoroughly enjoyed this book. In fact, I hated to see it end.＂＂Wow, some people have the ability to make you feel the story through their words.＂＂A beautifully written love story with a message of tolerance.＂..anticipated a sad story of death....but just the opposite...＂Life has the habit of delivering its twists at the most unexpected times.For Bonnie, his life had been lived, and the bitter sweet memories of his wife, along with the never ending sorrow of losing his son so young remain with him, but they are now ebbing away slowly with the passing of the years. His days of love, warmth and tenderness well past and all that is left is his last few quiet years to grow old. Alone, yet content.What he had done, he had done and what had happened, had. All that remained was to live out the rest of his life in a new place, far away from his checkered past. His days passing with the regularity that an old man desires and deserves. Until the dark day arrives that signals an impending end to his new found life, and with it, all sense of hope. In facing mortality, Bonnie resorts to using his crusty exterior and bravado to hide the frailty and fear he feels within himself - until he is presented with stark realities beyond his understanding and is forced to come face to face with his own prejudices and beliefs. In meeting Danny and Angeline, Bonnie begins to reshape his thoughts about his acceptance of those he had habitually admonished, and of the bigoted life he has lived. While Charlie and his daughter Beatrice realign his set concepts of how he had habitually rushed to judge people too quickly. However, it is only when Bonnie meets Madeleine that the most unexpected eventuality turns his hard held beliefs, and his very set views about life, people, and love, on their head.Read One Last Love, only if you are looking for a different, yet very touching romance story.Review by Book Publishing Resource.I won’t give away too many details, but let me suffice it to say that Derek Haines has written something unforgettable here, with ’One Last Love.’ It’s one of those stories you feel deserves a movie version.A deeply touching tale about finding love in the most unlikely of places-a place where death prevails more than hope-One Last Love is at once inspiring and uplifting and reassuring. Of course, throughout the story there is despair and hopelessness at every turn-you feel it each time Bonnie makes a little joke to lighten up the situation. But somehow you feel it’s plausible, that even near the end of life a new beginning could unfold. And it is this message that gives power and vitality to this book.There’s also something poignantly courageous about how Bonnie tries to hide his suffering behind his humor: Bonnie’s bravado starkly juxtaposes the situation he’s in, which all the more increases the emotional impact of the tragedy. Here’s a man who knows he’s dying, yet he tries so hard to protect those around him with what little humor he could scrape from the bottom of his soul.Derek Haines writes like a surgeon with a scalpel: he knows, with uncanny precision, which parts of human nature he must touch with his blade, or pen, that is. And I’m hoping Haines writes more, and soon-One Last Love shouldn’t be his One Last Novel, but rather, just one in a string of what I believe are future bestsellers.Two thumbs up for this wonderful story.

Derek Haines is an author of fiction, historical fiction, essays and poetry and writes his books from a view of what fascinates him and not from a formula based on one theme or genre. Starting with poetry before moving into essays and novels, his writing is varied but is always written in a style that communicates with and engages his readers. Most of all, the stories told by Derek Haines are about people, their feelings, regrets, hopes and struggles with life. Ordinary people, often a loser, but with extraordinary qualities that makes their story worth telling. While some stories reflect his own thoughts and beliefs, others are told from the view of characters who are sometimes dark and complex or childishly open. With splashes of allegory, black humour or simple satire, his stories can develop from the simplistic to the complicated and back again leaving the reader to decide if it is time to laugh or cry. Or both. Born in Australia, but now living in Switzerland with his wife and his dog, his stories cross a wide geographical range but often draw from elements of his life and experiences in the two countries he calls home. From the rugged, dry and hot desert country of Australia and its crowded cities to the cafés of Europe and the peaks of the Swiss Alps. The hustle and bustle of Sydney to the quiet life of the Swiss country side. When not writing, he is usually doing what he equally enjoys. Teaching English.