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    A Last Goodbye
    A Last Goodbye
    A Last Goodbye
    Ebook70 pages1 hour

    A Last Goodbye

    By J.A. Jance

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    New York Times bestselling author J.A. Jance brings her trademark breakneck pace to this fun and exciting e-novella, where fan favorite Ali Reynolds takes on double responsibilities as both sleuth and bride.

    Ali Reynolds is finally getting married to her longtime love B. Simpson. They wanted a simple Christmas Eve wedding, but nothing is ever simple with Ali. Even as a motley crew of her friends—Leland Brooks, Sister Anselm, and others—descend on Vegas, the bride-to-be finds herself juggling last-minute wedding plans and a mystery in the form of a stray miniature dachshund. Ali’s grandson rescues the little dog, but Ali’s not in the market for a new pet right before her honeymoon, and leaves no stone unturned in hunting for the dog’s owner. But what she finds is more than just a shaggy dog story…Bella’s elderly owner has vanished, and her son seems to be behind it. So it’s Ali and B. to the rescue—and still making it to the church on time!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPocket Star
    Release dateNov 24, 2014
    ISBN9781501103698
    Author

    J.A. Jance

    J.A. Jance is the New York Times bestselling author of the Ali Reynolds series, the J.P. Beaumont series, the Joanna Brady series, and the Walker Family series. Born in South Dakota and raised in Bisbee, Arizona, Jance lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington. Visit her online at JAJance.com. 

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    Reviews for A Last Goodbye

    4/5

    44 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I believe A Last Goodbye was a free Kindle novella that I downloaded because I once read a J.P. Beaumont novel by Jance that I really, really liked.This book has the protagonists of two of her other very popular series meeting to . . . I can’t remember. There was hospital visiting and a dog (as evidenced by the cover) involved, but I forget the rest.It was well-written, but forgettable.3½ stars
    • 5/5
      Very easy and entertaining short story. Didn't disappoint. Thank you.
    • 5/5
      This was such a warm story about man’s best friend
    • 5/5
      If you're looking for a big advance in the storyline in Jance's Ali Reynolds series, I'd suggest you wait for the next book. If you don't like dogs you might want to give this story a pass, too. But if you're looking to spend a little time with characters you've grown to love, then settle down for some Christmas cheer that will tug on your heartstrings.This is just the type of story that many authors' fans want to see: little vignettes of their favorite characters' lives that won't fit comfortably into a novel; something that will help tide them over until the next book is published. "A Last Goodbye" also has the added bonus of Jance blending her own life into the story. One cold, wet night Jance herself found a terrified miniature dachshund running down the side of a busy street. That little dog, Bella, is now a part of Jance's life and goes with her on book tours. It was lovely to read this blending of fact and fiction even if it did make me break into tears at the end.The Author's Note after th story tells you about the dogs Jance has loved throughout her life, and will evoke smiles and similar memories from any pet owner.Do you need to be a follower of the Ali Reynolds series in order to make sense of this story? Not at all. Don't be afraid to jump right in. To be honest, I wanted to read this story because I've met Bella. Somehow I knew the fictional Bella would be very bit as memorable as the real one.

    Book preview

    A Last Goodbye - J.A. Jance

    Cover: A Last Goodbye, by J.A. Jance

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    A Last Goodbye, by J.A. Jance, Pocket

    Ali Reynolds leaned her head back against the pillow in the soaking tub and closed her eyes. With the help of the pummeling water jets, she let the rush of the past few days recede into the background. She and B. had made it. They were finally in Las Vegas. The rest of the wedding party was there, too. Back in November, when she and B. Simpson had first settled on a Christmas Eve wedding at the Four Seasons, it seemed entirely doable—a piece of cake. After all, how hard could it be?

    Because Ali and B. had chosen to be married in a hotel, much of the planning was done by simply cruising through the wedding planning pages on the Four Seasons website. Arranging the time, date, flowers, type of ceremony—including their preferred verbiage in the vows—was just a matter of making a few mouse clicks on her computer. Ditto for the menus. One was for what they were calling the rehearsal dinner despite the fact that there would be no rehearsal until the morning of the wedding. She also used the website to choose separate menus for both the reception and the post-ceremony supper. Ali stepped away from her computer, thinking that she had most everything handled. Unfortunately, she had failed to take her mother’s reaction into consideration.

    Preparations for Ali’s previous weddings had been well beyond Edie Larson’s geographic reach—­Chicago for the first ceremony and Los Angeles for the second. Caught up in running the family business, the Sugarloaf Café in Sedona, Arizona, 363 days a year, all Ali’s parents had been able to do on the two previous occasions was arrive in time for the rehearsal dinners and depart immediately after the nuptials.

    This time around, Ali wasn’t so lucky. Her parents, Bob and Edie Larson, were both retired now, having sold the restaurant. Bob had found plenty to do in retirement, but Edie, left with too much time on her hands, had hit the wedding planner ground at a dead run, a ­reaction for which Ali herself had been totally unprepared.

    In the past, Ali had found the term bridezilla mildly amusing, but when it came to dealing with an Edie who had suddenly morphed into what could only be called the bride’s momzilla? That wasn’t amusing in the least. To Ali’s surprise, Edie had whipped out her long-unused Singer sewing machine and set about stitching up a storm. In keeping with the season, ­Edie’s mother-of-the-bride dress was a deep-green velvet and probably the most sophisticated attire Ali had ever seen in her mother’s wardrobe.

    With her own dress safely in hand, Edie had gone on to tackle outfits for the twins, Ali’s grandchildren, Colleen and Colin, who would serve as flower girl and ring bearer respectively. Colleen’s dress was a ruby-red taffeta, and Colin’s tux, also homemade, came complete with a matching ruby-red taffeta cummerbund. Once that was finished, Edie took it upon herself to sew identical cummerbunds for all the men in the wedding party.

    Ali’s father, Bob, was not an official member because Ali’s son, Chris, would do the honor of walking her down the aisle. Even so, Edie had gone so far as to bully her husband into actually buying a tux as opposed to renting one so Bob would have one to wear to formal dinner nights on their next cruise. Edie had been in despair about Ali’s ever finding a suitable wedding dress, and her sense of dread deepened when her daughter abruptly removed herself from the wedding planning equation. For the better part of two weeks in early December, Ali avoided all the frenetic pre-wedding activity by, as Edie put it, larking off to England.

    That’s what Ali and B. had both expected her trip to Bournemouth would be—a lark. She went along for the ride when her longtime majordomo, Leland Brooks, returned home to the British Isles after living in self-imposed exile in the U.S. for the better part of sixty years. The trip was actually a thank-you from B. and Ali for Leland’s years of loyal service, including his having saved Ali’s life a month earlier in a nighttime desert confrontation with a kidnapper.

    Ali had expected that her responsibilities would entail providing backup in case any of Leland’s long-lost relatives decided to go off the rails. She was also there as the designated driver, since most car rental agencies didn’t allow octogenarians to rent vehicles.

    In a role-reversal variation on Driving Miss Daisy, Ali had taken the wheel of their hired Range Rover and driven

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