The Last Love Note: A Novel

Kate is the protagonist of the novel and the first-person point-of-view character. She was raised by a single parent, a mother whom she considers prone to dramatics. Cam calls Kate “Red,” because of her hair, though Kate considers the color auburn. She is attractive and was high-spirited in her youth; she enjoyed drinking and dancing, and Cam teased her that she was disorderly. Kate met Cam at university when they were 19 and fell wildly, intensely in love with him. She feels their devotion and compatibility are things other people long for and envy. Cam tells Kate she is completely unpretentious and unambiguous.

Kate considered herself a risk-taker when she was younger, but that changed when she and Cam struggled to have a child. Her IVF treatment resulted in Charlie, but Kate often felt defeated in her efforts to birth, nurse, and mother him. Kate feels that she changed after Charlie’s birth and hasn’t been able to find herself yet when she learns she is pregnant again, which fills her with both elation and trepidation. When Cam is diagnosed, and she loses the baby, Kate begins a long journey of complicated bereavement. Focused on her own overwhelming feelings, she isn’t able to perceive the struggles of those around her, and she feels lonely and lost in her grief.