REVIEW: THE NEXT THING YOU KNOW, BY JESSICA STRAWSER

As an end-of-life doula, Nova Huston’s job—her calling, her purpose, her life—is to help terminally ill people make peace with their impending death. Unlike her business partner, who swears by her system of checklists, free-spirited Nova doesn’t shy away from difficult clients: the ones who are heartbreakingly young, or prickly, or desperate for a caregiver or companion.

When Mason Shaylor shows up at her door, Nova doesn’t recognize him as the indie-favorite singer-songwriter who recently vanished from the public eye. She knows only what he’s told her: That life as he knows it is over. His deteriorating condition makes playing his guitar physically impossible—as far as Mason is concerned, he might as well be dead already.

Except he doesn’t know how to say goodbye.

Helping him is Nova’s biggest challenge yet. She knows she should keep clients at arm’s length. But she and Mason have more in common than anyone could guess… and meeting him might turn out to be the hardest, best thing that’s ever happened to them both.

 

From the very beginning of The Next Thing You Know, we meet characters that tug at our heartstrings. People who are dying and hoping to learn how to say goodbye with dignity.

A death doula who is someone to help the travelers on this journey can do so much more than anyone can anticipate. And when one young man, a talented musician who has lost some of his abilities, appears at their door, one of the most unconventional of the doulas, Nova, takes on the task. She has no idea of what she will discover about herself and her new client Mason, but before the journey ends, she will have faced legal and emotional challenges she could never have expected.

By the time our story ends, we are hoping our characters will discover answers that will help assuage the losses they have faced. A 4.5 star read.

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