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One Last Wish #7
The Legacy: Making Wishes Come True
Who is JWC and how was the One Last Wish Foundation created? Discover the tragic story behind a struggle for survival against impossible odds. Follow the interwining story of true love and friendships that compelled JWC to dedicate a life and legacy to helping others in this extraordinary novel of hope.
You don't know me, but I know about you.... I can't make you live longer, I can't stop you from hurting. But I can give you one wish, as someone did for me....
You don't know me, but I know about you.... I can't make you live longer, I can't stop you from hurting. But I can give you one wish, as someone did for me....
Paperback
First published March 1, 1993
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About the author
Lurlene McDaniel
142 books2,750 followersLurlene McDaniel (born c. 1948) is an author who has written over 50 young adult books. She is well known for writing about characters struggling with chronic and terminal illnesses, such as cancer, diabetes, and organ failure.
Other places to find her are...
https://www.facebook.com/lurlenemcdan...
http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/aut...
http://www.youtube.com/user/LurleneMc
Other places to find her are...
https://www.facebook.com/lurlenemcdan...
http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/aut...
http://www.youtube.com/user/LurleneMc
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
August 16, 2013
Without question, the best of her books.
November 24, 2025
even though I'm older and these books are made for younger people I read it when I was younger but I wanted to reread it again as an older person to see if I still felt the same way. and I do. I feel that the author of these books teach us a lesson on love life and loss. when I read these books I wish the day would never end. they're just so good they're hard to put down. I highly recommend this book even if you're young or old. this book takes me back to my childhood when I read it the first time
February 10, 2026
This was a sentimental favorite from my childhood, but like other books I’ve recently reread in the series, it isn’t actually that good.
The One Last Wish series has a hokey but somehow believable premise- teenagers who are diagnosed with a potentially fatal illness are anonymously gifted a check for $100,000 to fulfill their “last wish.” The benefactor is the anonymous JWC, who only signs their initials to the letter accompanying the check. Trust me when I say that one of the great mysteries of 90’s YA literature was “who is JWC?”
The Legacy is JWC’s story.
JWC, we learn, is Jennifer “Jenny” Warren Crawford, a sixteen year old as all the OLW characters are, being raised by her wealthy grandmother following the death of her parents when she was little. Like so many of these orphans, the poor kid is stuck with her dad’s first name as her middle. Why? I have no idea, but it always bugged me.
Jenny is what you might get if you brought American Girl’s Samantha Parkington forward in time about six or seven decades… and gave her cancer. She’s a sweet but naive girl who’s secretly in love with the son of her grandmother’s lawyer, Richard. Actually, Sam Parkington is probably a more well developed character. At least Sam had a clue about social and racial issues, and wealth disparity. Jenny… not so much.
Jenny thinks her biggest problem is that she’s pining for Richard, who for some random reason Grandmother Marian disapproves of. You would think it might be because he’s four years older and in college, but remember this book was written in the 90s. This age gap wasn’t seen as problematic back then, even though he’s 20 and she’s underage. But no. Apparently even though Jenny and Richard have known each other since her parents died, and Marian relies on his father for, idk, lawyer things, Richard is not good enough for her princess. Richard agrees at this point. He’s too old, she’s wealthy and he’s… not, despite the fact his dad is a lawyer with his own firm, and Richard is a student at Princeton with his own personal sailboat. Because, you know, these are things that poor people can absolutely afford to do…
Anyway. Jenny keeps getting large bruises without any explanation. She’s tired all the time, feels like she’s coming down with something… she’s sure it’s no big deal, or at least she’s not going to let it be a big deal. Because it’s summer. Richard is back from college, and they’re going to have the best summer and-
No, they aren’t. Because Jenny faints at a party Marian throws for Richard’s parents’ anniversary. She’s taken to the hospital (did I mention they’re on Martha’s Vineyard? Because of course they are) and the doctors are very concerned.
Here’s where I start having issues with the medical stuff. And Marian. Now, I know it’s 1970- something, and the hospital is supposed to be all tiny and rural and not up to Marian’s standards. But surely it’s within their ability to do a bone marrow biopsy?
Apparently not, and Marian wants only the best for Jenny. So Jenny and co fly home to Boston to get her to Boston Children’s Hospital. The doctors at the Martha’s Vineyard hospital have told Marian, and she’s told Richard, lord knows why, that they think Jenny has leukemia. I’ll give you three guesses who they haven’t told.
That’s right: Jenny. Marian straight up lies to her, telling her she’s going to see a diagnostician who will get to the bottom of things. This is utter and complete bullshit, it’s unethical as hell, and it almost made me throw the book across the room when I read it in 1993.
Marian thinks it’s not necessary for Jenny to know. She’s sure this is all a misunderstanding or a mistake, that Jenny can’t have CANCER. So there’s no need to upset or worry her. Like the poor kid isn’t freaked out already? She’s scared of needles to the point Richard had to hold her hand for her first blood draw.
Oh, sweet summer child…
Jenny is… Jenny is something between a doormat and a disaster, but it’s not her fault. She lost her parents, which is tragic, obviously, but other than that she’s never known a hardship in her life. Cancer sucks. Cancer sucked in the 1970s and it sucks now. But one of the places I think the book really fails is that it tells us more than it shows us, how Jenny comes to terms with this.
Most people would be really angry to find out they weren’t leveled with about their own medical condition. Jenny never mentions it. She cries a few times, puked after her chemo, and spends a lot of time by herself- not because she’s depressed, but because after she decides she doesn’t want to see Richard, or doesn’t want him to see her looking like crap from her chemo and steroids and stuff, Marian has her almost completely isolated in the hospital. She has a private room, is given her chemo in private, and has a private nurse who Marian hired to look after her. Because, you know, this is the shit rich people do.
And wow is Marian pissed when Jenny, lonely and bored, wanders her way down to the oncology floor and decides she wants to room with three other teenagers she meets in art therapy. Marian literally tells her that “wards are so… common” and worries that she’ll get sick there. Marian is a snob, and this is the second time I want to slap her. (There will be a third. It’s the worst of the bunch.)
But of course Marian gives in, because it’s What Jenny Wants. So Jenny moves in with Kimbra (bone cancer, missing an arm); Elaine (leukemia) and Noreen (non-Hodgekins lymphoma.) Of all of them, Kimbra has the most defined personality. She’s the plucky sarcastic cancer kid. Elaine is your more typical Lurlene McDaniel cancer kid- she’s sad and life is unfair, and her family is out of state (because you know, Vermont apparently doesn’t have a decent hospital where she could be treated.) Noreen is from Boston, has a large family, and is implied to be pretty poor. Let’s just tick all the Catholic stereotype boxes, shall we? Ugh.
I should have realized the first time I read this that Kimbra being the most fleshed out character probably meant she was going to survive. Noreen goes in for surgery to remove her tumor, only for them to find it’s tumors, plural, there are way too many to remove, and as her sister puts it to Jenny and co, “there’s nothing more they can do for her.” So Noreen goes home. The friends try to keep in touch, but Noreen goes downhill pretty fast. It’s only when they reunite for her funeral that the others find out Jenny is super rich. I’m not sure they ever figure out that she’s the mysterious patient who was getting chemo all by herself. It’s not clear why Jenny never tells them- embarrassed, maybe?
Elaine goes next. Kimbra calls Jenny to tell her, but she has to wait until Jenny calls her back, because Jenny was out sailing with Richard, trying to pretend she isn’t getting sick again too.
Richard thinks Jenny is in remission, because he’s too smitten to see what’s right in front of his face. And Marian is lying to Jenny again. But it’s okay, because Jenny knows and just… accepts it. She never gets upset or yells at Marian for this crap, which is completely ridiculous. She does ask Marian to help her make out her will, though, and tells her about her idea for the One Last Wish Foundation. Marian doesn’t seem to quite get it, but Jenny convinces her to help.
By this time basically everyone knows Jenny is dying, including Richard. Richard does the completely logical and understandable thing, and confronts Marian. Marian says she doesn’t want Jenny to know that she’s dying- she wants to keep it from her as long as possible.
And I’m sorry, but what the hell? Jenny is seventeen or eighteen by this point. It’s her life, and she has a right to know the truth. I don’t think it matters that she’s probably figured it out- her grandma does NOT get a pass on this shit again. Except of course she does, because Jenny at this point has become a caricature, a sad cancer kid trope. She’s the angelic martyr, bravely and serenely accepting her fate. She understands perfectly whatever Marian’s effed up motivation is, and just wordlessly forgives her or whatever. I didn’t buy it as a kid and I definitely don’t buy it now.
Jenny, meanwhile, is getting sicker and sicker. Selfless Mrs. Kelly the private nurse is back, taking care of Jenny because apparently this is her primary purpose in life. I feel like there were hospices in the 1970s? But we’re not supposed to worry about this. Jenny is working on sainthood here, you know?
Her big wish now is to live to see 1980. Which she actually doesn’t, because she’s in a coma by New Year’s Eve. But she doesn’t die until after the ball drops, which seems to be a big deal to Richard. Whatever helps you cope, I guess, dude.
Jenny’s story is bracketed by glimpses of Richard as an adult and Marian as an old lady who’s planning her own legacy. Marian wants him to quit his job (after dropping out of Princeton to be with Jenny (awww…) Richard actually buckled down, went back to school, and eventually got his law degree.) and run her project, a summer camp/retreat for sick kids she calls Jenny House.
I guess it’s supposed to build tension, like the whole time we should wonder what Richard is going to do. But it’s really anticlimactic, because this is Richard. Of course he’s going to do it. We really don’t need the sentimental visit to the secret beach cave he and Jenny used to visit as kids. But we get it anyway, and Richard finally finds the (solid gold, of course) IF bracelet Jenny left for him that first summer before she was diagnosed. So anyway, Richard finds the bracelet, it’s like Jenny is reaching out to him, blah blah… this probably made me cry when I was 12.
This isn’t a terrible book. But it has some issues, and it’s harder not to see them as an adult.
The One Last Wish series has a hokey but somehow believable premise- teenagers who are diagnosed with a potentially fatal illness are anonymously gifted a check for $100,000 to fulfill their “last wish.” The benefactor is the anonymous JWC, who only signs their initials to the letter accompanying the check. Trust me when I say that one of the great mysteries of 90’s YA literature was “who is JWC?”
The Legacy is JWC’s story.
JWC, we learn, is Jennifer “Jenny” Warren Crawford, a sixteen year old as all the OLW characters are, being raised by her wealthy grandmother following the death of her parents when she was little. Like so many of these orphans, the poor kid is stuck with her dad’s first name as her middle. Why? I have no idea, but it always bugged me.
Jenny is what you might get if you brought American Girl’s Samantha Parkington forward in time about six or seven decades… and gave her cancer. She’s a sweet but naive girl who’s secretly in love with the son of her grandmother’s lawyer, Richard. Actually, Sam Parkington is probably a more well developed character. At least Sam had a clue about social and racial issues, and wealth disparity. Jenny… not so much.
Jenny thinks her biggest problem is that she’s pining for Richard, who for some random reason Grandmother Marian disapproves of. You would think it might be because he’s four years older and in college, but remember this book was written in the 90s. This age gap wasn’t seen as problematic back then, even though he’s 20 and she’s underage. But no. Apparently even though Jenny and Richard have known each other since her parents died, and Marian relies on his father for, idk, lawyer things, Richard is not good enough for her princess. Richard agrees at this point. He’s too old, she’s wealthy and he’s… not, despite the fact his dad is a lawyer with his own firm, and Richard is a student at Princeton with his own personal sailboat. Because, you know, these are things that poor people can absolutely afford to do…
Anyway. Jenny keeps getting large bruises without any explanation. She’s tired all the time, feels like she’s coming down with something… she’s sure it’s no big deal, or at least she’s not going to let it be a big deal. Because it’s summer. Richard is back from college, and they’re going to have the best summer and-
No, they aren’t. Because Jenny faints at a party Marian throws for Richard’s parents’ anniversary. She’s taken to the hospital (did I mention they’re on Martha’s Vineyard? Because of course they are) and the doctors are very concerned.
Here’s where I start having issues with the medical stuff. And Marian. Now, I know it’s 1970- something, and the hospital is supposed to be all tiny and rural and not up to Marian’s standards. But surely it’s within their ability to do a bone marrow biopsy?
Apparently not, and Marian wants only the best for Jenny. So Jenny and co fly home to Boston to get her to Boston Children’s Hospital. The doctors at the Martha’s Vineyard hospital have told Marian, and she’s told Richard, lord knows why, that they think Jenny has leukemia. I’ll give you three guesses who they haven’t told.
That’s right: Jenny. Marian straight up lies to her, telling her she’s going to see a diagnostician who will get to the bottom of things. This is utter and complete bullshit, it’s unethical as hell, and it almost made me throw the book across the room when I read it in 1993.
Marian thinks it’s not necessary for Jenny to know. She’s sure this is all a misunderstanding or a mistake, that Jenny can’t have CANCER. So there’s no need to upset or worry her. Like the poor kid isn’t freaked out already? She’s scared of needles to the point Richard had to hold her hand for her first blood draw.
Oh, sweet summer child…
Jenny is… Jenny is something between a doormat and a disaster, but it’s not her fault. She lost her parents, which is tragic, obviously, but other than that she’s never known a hardship in her life. Cancer sucks. Cancer sucked in the 1970s and it sucks now. But one of the places I think the book really fails is that it tells us more than it shows us, how Jenny comes to terms with this.
Most people would be really angry to find out they weren’t leveled with about their own medical condition. Jenny never mentions it. She cries a few times, puked after her chemo, and spends a lot of time by herself- not because she’s depressed, but because after she decides she doesn’t want to see Richard, or doesn’t want him to see her looking like crap from her chemo and steroids and stuff, Marian has her almost completely isolated in the hospital. She has a private room, is given her chemo in private, and has a private nurse who Marian hired to look after her. Because, you know, this is the shit rich people do.
And wow is Marian pissed when Jenny, lonely and bored, wanders her way down to the oncology floor and decides she wants to room with three other teenagers she meets in art therapy. Marian literally tells her that “wards are so… common” and worries that she’ll get sick there. Marian is a snob, and this is the second time I want to slap her. (There will be a third. It’s the worst of the bunch.)
But of course Marian gives in, because it’s What Jenny Wants. So Jenny moves in with Kimbra (bone cancer, missing an arm); Elaine (leukemia) and Noreen (non-Hodgekins lymphoma.) Of all of them, Kimbra has the most defined personality. She’s the plucky sarcastic cancer kid. Elaine is your more typical Lurlene McDaniel cancer kid- she’s sad and life is unfair, and her family is out of state (because you know, Vermont apparently doesn’t have a decent hospital where she could be treated.) Noreen is from Boston, has a large family, and is implied to be pretty poor. Let’s just tick all the Catholic stereotype boxes, shall we? Ugh.
I should have realized the first time I read this that Kimbra being the most fleshed out character probably meant she was going to survive. Noreen goes in for surgery to remove her tumor, only for them to find it’s tumors, plural, there are way too many to remove, and as her sister puts it to Jenny and co, “there’s nothing more they can do for her.” So Noreen goes home. The friends try to keep in touch, but Noreen goes downhill pretty fast. It’s only when they reunite for her funeral that the others find out Jenny is super rich. I’m not sure they ever figure out that she’s the mysterious patient who was getting chemo all by herself. It’s not clear why Jenny never tells them- embarrassed, maybe?
Elaine goes next. Kimbra calls Jenny to tell her, but she has to wait until Jenny calls her back, because Jenny was out sailing with Richard, trying to pretend she isn’t getting sick again too.
Richard thinks Jenny is in remission, because he’s too smitten to see what’s right in front of his face. And Marian is lying to Jenny again. But it’s okay, because Jenny knows and just… accepts it. She never gets upset or yells at Marian for this crap, which is completely ridiculous. She does ask Marian to help her make out her will, though, and tells her about her idea for the One Last Wish Foundation. Marian doesn’t seem to quite get it, but Jenny convinces her to help.
By this time basically everyone knows Jenny is dying, including Richard. Richard does the completely logical and understandable thing, and confronts Marian. Marian says she doesn’t want Jenny to know that she’s dying- she wants to keep it from her as long as possible.
And I’m sorry, but what the hell? Jenny is seventeen or eighteen by this point. It’s her life, and she has a right to know the truth. I don’t think it matters that she’s probably figured it out- her grandma does NOT get a pass on this shit again. Except of course she does, because Jenny at this point has become a caricature, a sad cancer kid trope. She’s the angelic martyr, bravely and serenely accepting her fate. She understands perfectly whatever Marian’s effed up motivation is, and just wordlessly forgives her or whatever. I didn’t buy it as a kid and I definitely don’t buy it now.
Jenny, meanwhile, is getting sicker and sicker. Selfless Mrs. Kelly the private nurse is back, taking care of Jenny because apparently this is her primary purpose in life. I feel like there were hospices in the 1970s? But we’re not supposed to worry about this. Jenny is working on sainthood here, you know?
Her big wish now is to live to see 1980. Which she actually doesn’t, because she’s in a coma by New Year’s Eve. But she doesn’t die until after the ball drops, which seems to be a big deal to Richard. Whatever helps you cope, I guess, dude.
Jenny’s story is bracketed by glimpses of Richard as an adult and Marian as an old lady who’s planning her own legacy. Marian wants him to quit his job (after dropping out of Princeton to be with Jenny (awww…) Richard actually buckled down, went back to school, and eventually got his law degree.) and run her project, a summer camp/retreat for sick kids she calls Jenny House.
I guess it’s supposed to build tension, like the whole time we should wonder what Richard is going to do. But it’s really anticlimactic, because this is Richard. Of course he’s going to do it. We really don’t need the sentimental visit to the secret beach cave he and Jenny used to visit as kids. But we get it anyway, and Richard finally finds the (solid gold, of course) IF bracelet Jenny left for him that first summer before she was diagnosed. So anyway, Richard finds the bracelet, it’s like Jenny is reaching out to him, blah blah… this probably made me cry when I was 12.
This isn’t a terrible book. But it has some issues, and it’s harder not to see them as an adult.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 28, 2020
I thought this was a great story. Once I got started it was hard to put down. I loved the characters of plot of the story. I have read all of the One Last Wish novels, but never this one. I thought Jenny was such a great main character. She was a sixteen year old girl who was trying to have an amazing summer with her best friend Richard when she was told she had cancer. It was a heartwarming and heartbreaking journey for Jenny, the inspiration for Jenny house and the secret friend for all sick children.
May 14, 2021
Great book!
May 4, 2022
After all these years I finally figured out who JWC is :)
The One Last Wish series tells the stories of teens with various chronic/terminal health conditions. Each of them receive a mysterious letter and check from someone who understands their situation. A check to fulfill a wish of theirs accompanies each letter which is signed by someone named JWC. This book explains the backstory of JWC and the One Last Wish program.
JWC turns out to be a girl named Jenny who is being raised by her wealthy grandmother. Jenny is looking forward to spending the summer with her friend Richard Holloway until she receives the news that she has been diagnosed with cancer. This being the 1970s, there are limited treatment options available to Jenny. After she realizes that her health is dwindling away, Jenny considers what she wants her legacy to be in order to help other teens like her.
I read the One Last Wish series a bit out of order growing up because I would read the books as I found them at various libraries or thrift stores. This one did a great job at revealing the backstory of the series. The story also stands out with its setting in the past and detailing how different (as well as minimal) treatments that were available to cancer patients.
The One Last Wish series tells the stories of teens with various chronic/terminal health conditions. Each of them receive a mysterious letter and check from someone who understands their situation. A check to fulfill a wish of theirs accompanies each letter which is signed by someone named JWC. This book explains the backstory of JWC and the One Last Wish program.
JWC turns out to be a girl named Jenny who is being raised by her wealthy grandmother. Jenny is looking forward to spending the summer with her friend Richard Holloway until she receives the news that she has been diagnosed with cancer. This being the 1970s, there are limited treatment options available to Jenny. After she realizes that her health is dwindling away, Jenny considers what she wants her legacy to be in order to help other teens like her.
I read the One Last Wish series a bit out of order growing up because I would read the books as I found them at various libraries or thrift stores. This one did a great job at revealing the backstory of the series. The story also stands out with its setting in the past and detailing how different (as well as minimal) treatments that were available to cancer patients.
May 27, 2024
A lot of Lurlene McDaniels books are about romance and kids with illness… but this time the romance wasn’t the central point of the book it was on the realness of cancer and what it really is like especially for kids. What it does to the people around them and what they are feeling as well. This book was so much more real but was also so heartwarming with the friendships and relationships. The legacy left at the end of this book that would carry into more of her books is so heartwarming and a reminder that good things can come from heartbreak and what we think unfairness.
July 16, 2020
I read this book as a preteen and decided to reread as an adult. I just finished it and am crying as if it’s the first time I’ve read it. The characters she creates are so real they step off the pages and invite you to feel their suffering and their joy. This is a great book/series to teach empathy to young children.
August 25, 2018
Cruise Read
(i tend to read this first before i delve into the whole series, nice little frame)
(i tend to read this first before i delve into the whole series, nice little frame)
December 30, 2022
Jenny's story. The origins of One Last Wish and the mysterious JWC. As always, a good story that completely makes me think and my heart hurt.
March 10, 2024
Trigger Warning: Cancer
This book is beautifully written but be prepared to cry a lot.
This book is beautifully written but be prepared to cry a lot.
June 22, 2024
So good!
October 14, 2010
The book "The Legacy" by Lurlene McDaniel is a book about a young girl named Jenny who is diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 16. Jenny Was a healthy girl who was care free and was so excited for the up coming summer. One of her best friends named Richard was coming up to visit and she was so excited. Right when Richard came to town Jenny Meet him and was eager to go off and make many summer plans. But when she suddenly gets sick there whole summer gets changed.
In my opinion this is one of the best books i have read in a long time. The author Lurlene McDaniel is also one of my favorite authors. I love all of her books but this would have to be the best. I think it is one of my favorites because both Jenny and Richard have a secret crush on each other and neither of them have the courage to tell each other.
My favorite characters would have to be Jenny and Richard. I just thought it was so cute how they both secretly liked each other and neither new it. At one point in the story Jenny would not let anyone see her or visit her in the hospital because of the effects of her chemo therapy on her. She was really worried about how she looked and thought that Richard would think of her differently. Which was completely untrue. Richard was really upset when he heard that Jenny did not want to see her. So finally Richard started righting her letters and she wrote back. Even though this wasn't seeing Jenny, Richard took what he could get when it came to being in contact with Jenny.
My favorite part of the book was at the beginning before Jenny got sick. One night, when Richard had first arrived, Jenny's grandmother and Richards parents had planned a dinner that Jenny and Richard were both invited to. At this dinner is when Jenny really started to feel sick. She thought that she was just coming down with the flue but once she had gone to the dinner party she started to feel worse. When Richard asked Jenny to dance at the dinner party. She had started to feel light headed and she asked they could go outside to get some fresh air. At this point in the story Richard wants to tell Jenny how he feels but when he was going to talk to her about Jenny had passed out and had to go straight to the hospital.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that is interested in reading. Every one would love it!
In my opinion this is one of the best books i have read in a long time. The author Lurlene McDaniel is also one of my favorite authors. I love all of her books but this would have to be the best. I think it is one of my favorites because both Jenny and Richard have a secret crush on each other and neither of them have the courage to tell each other.
My favorite characters would have to be Jenny and Richard. I just thought it was so cute how they both secretly liked each other and neither new it. At one point in the story Jenny would not let anyone see her or visit her in the hospital because of the effects of her chemo therapy on her. She was really worried about how she looked and thought that Richard would think of her differently. Which was completely untrue. Richard was really upset when he heard that Jenny did not want to see her. So finally Richard started righting her letters and she wrote back. Even though this wasn't seeing Jenny, Richard took what he could get when it came to being in contact with Jenny.
My favorite part of the book was at the beginning before Jenny got sick. One night, when Richard had first arrived, Jenny's grandmother and Richards parents had planned a dinner that Jenny and Richard were both invited to. At this dinner is when Jenny really started to feel sick. She thought that she was just coming down with the flue but once she had gone to the dinner party she started to feel worse. When Richard asked Jenny to dance at the dinner party. She had started to feel light headed and she asked they could go outside to get some fresh air. At this point in the story Richard wants to tell Jenny how he feels but when he was going to talk to her about Jenny had passed out and had to go straight to the hospital.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that is interested in reading. Every one would love it!
February 16, 2016
I wish Ames of somewhere between ya lit and death was still updating her blog, cause I'd love to see her take on this one.
I didn't read Lurlene when I was a kid. My childhood and teen years were full of Babysitter's Club, Sweet Valley and various kid and adult classics. So this was in essence my very first Lurlene book, and...it wasn't horrible.
It was cliche as hell, of course. Jenny's the kind of beautiful cancer patient Hazel Grace Lancaster was created to be the antithesis of, not that this makes her a bad character. She was okay, and I did enjoy her friendships with the other girls in the cancer ward. But her story was basically this:
Jenny: I'm rich and pretty but I don't want the life my grandmother wants for me.
Grandmother: Jenny, you shall have a fine prince and live the life I've mapped out for you.
Richard: I'm handsome and I love a girl who's too good for me.
Jenny: *collapses*
Doctor: It's the cancer.
Jenny: *WOE*
Grandmother: She'll have a private room with lots of luxuries.
Jenny: I want to stay with the other girls!
Grandmother: No, you're too rich for that. ...oh, fine.
Richard: I love her!
Grandmother: BACK, BACK I SAY!
Jenny: But I love him!
Grandmother: Welp, she's dying. Fine, Richard, you can spend her last days with her.
Still, I've read far worse. Marian wasn't the stereotypical controlling rich bitch, she honestly did love Jenny and Jenny loved her even though she was frustrated by her. And while I didn't ship Richard and Jenny like burning, they were pretty sweet together and I'm glad they had a chance to confess their feelings while Jenny was still in decent enough shape.
And...I admit it, the ending was pretty sad. Genuine sad, not weepy maudlin crap.
And damn, Ames was right about the medical fetishism in these books. I knew it was coming but I cringed anyway, I tend to be a wuss about that sort of thing.
Overall...it was okay. Not horrible, not too stupid, but not something I'd buy for myself and read again.
I didn't read Lurlene when I was a kid. My childhood and teen years were full of Babysitter's Club, Sweet Valley and various kid and adult classics. So this was in essence my very first Lurlene book, and...it wasn't horrible.
It was cliche as hell, of course. Jenny's the kind of beautiful cancer patient Hazel Grace Lancaster was created to be the antithesis of, not that this makes her a bad character. She was okay, and I did enjoy her friendships with the other girls in the cancer ward. But her story was basically this:
Jenny: I'm rich and pretty but I don't want the life my grandmother wants for me.
Grandmother: Jenny, you shall have a fine prince and live the life I've mapped out for you.
Richard: I'm handsome and I love a girl who's too good for me.
Jenny: *collapses*
Doctor: It's the cancer.
Jenny: *WOE*
Grandmother: She'll have a private room with lots of luxuries.
Jenny: I want to stay with the other girls!
Grandmother: No, you're too rich for that. ...oh, fine.
Richard: I love her!
Grandmother: BACK, BACK I SAY!
Jenny: But I love him!
Grandmother: Welp, she's dying. Fine, Richard, you can spend her last days with her.
Still, I've read far worse. Marian wasn't the stereotypical controlling rich bitch, she honestly did love Jenny and Jenny loved her even though she was frustrated by her. And while I didn't ship Richard and Jenny like burning, they were pretty sweet together and I'm glad they had a chance to confess their feelings while Jenny was still in decent enough shape.
And...I admit it, the ending was pretty sad. Genuine sad, not weepy maudlin crap.
And damn, Ames was right about the medical fetishism in these books. I knew it was coming but I cringed anyway, I tend to be a wuss about that sort of thing.
Overall...it was okay. Not horrible, not too stupid, but not something I'd buy for myself and read again.
January 31, 2020
Re-read. I originally rated this 3 stars and I think I'll keep it at a 3.5.
This is a series I'd devoured as a pre-teen! From the pulp fiction era where "sick kids" was trendy...One Last Wish is a series of teens facing fatal illness of varying degrees. The Legacy serves as a prequel to the series about Miss Jenny Crawford, who just turned 16 and has been diagnosed with leukemia. Jenny realizes her life is forever changed...her hair is falling out and she has a moon face and she can't bear to have Richard, the childhood friend and love of her life, see her like this. However, the pediatric ward lends her friends in Noreen, Eileen, and Kimbra. The Four Musketeers use black humor and a bond in sickness to grow close. But reality hits when they slowly start dying off. And oof...the ending came quick. The story takes place in the late 70's and it appears cancer/radiation has come quite away since then so Jenny's illness comes and goes a little awkwardly for narrative sake. Despite knowing the ending I still shed quite a few tears when Jenny met her inevitable fate. Jenny uses her trust fund to set up the One Last Wish Foundation, donating $100,000 to sick teens around the U.S and her grandmother sets up Jenny House, leaving it to Richard to run as a safe haven for the children. Beautiful story of a strong girl and her legacy!
This is a series I'd devoured as a pre-teen! From the pulp fiction era where "sick kids" was trendy...One Last Wish is a series of teens facing fatal illness of varying degrees. The Legacy serves as a prequel to the series about Miss Jenny Crawford, who just turned 16 and has been diagnosed with leukemia. Jenny realizes her life is forever changed...her hair is falling out and she has a moon face and she can't bear to have Richard, the childhood friend and love of her life, see her like this. However, the pediatric ward lends her friends in Noreen, Eileen, and Kimbra. The Four Musketeers use black humor and a bond in sickness to grow close. But reality hits when they slowly start dying off. And oof...the ending came quick. The story takes place in the late 70's and it appears cancer/radiation has come quite away since then so Jenny's illness comes and goes a little awkwardly for narrative sake. Despite knowing the ending I still shed quite a few tears when Jenny met her inevitable fate. Jenny uses her trust fund to set up the One Last Wish Foundation, donating $100,000 to sick teens around the U.S and her grandmother sets up Jenny House, leaving it to Richard to run as a safe haven for the children. Beautiful story of a strong girl and her legacy!
November 21, 2016
- There wasn't any one specific thing that I didn't like about this book. However, I think it could have been fleshed out more. I got this "Special Edition" vibe which makes sense since it discloses who JWC is and why the foundation was founded. So I would think it could be a little longer.
- This one definitely had a lot more to it. More characters and more back story.
- I really enjoyed the side characters: Noreen, Kimbra, and Elaine. They were great additions, especially since most the books in this series focus on one person.
- I think it's great that Jenny is willing to do something to help other people like her. Reading about the people who'd gotten her checks before helped a lot because it made the impact of what she's doing a lot bigger.
- Can't wait to read about what happens at Jenny House. I think I'll like those more that just people getting the checks, though that's still great.
November 9, 2010
Eh. It was okay. I don't do so well with books about illness and dying right now so I stayed pretty far detached from the story. Jenny's battle with leukemia and her grandmother's struggle with losing yet another family member should have been more moving to me than it was, I suspect, especially with the love story of Richard mixed in there. I feel McDaniel probably did her research as far as some of the feelings kids have when they are faced with these kinds of diseases, but it felt a little gratuitous for me. Emotional just for the sake of being emotional. Perhaps it was the awesome 80s cover of the book that turned me off, or the untouchable wealth of Jenny's grandmother, or maybe it just felt way too predictable for me. However, this might be a good book for young adults to read in order to open their minds to these sorts of issues. I'm sure these books have a place. I just don't think it's in my house.
November 28, 2010
The Legacy: Making Wishes Come True Romance/Drama/Illness
Jenny and Richard are in love, despite their four year age difference. Richard comes home from Princeton for summer break and Jenny, sixteen, is trying to conceal her feelings for Richard, and conceal her failing health. Naturally, she is dying of leukemia - can't you tell from the cover? Jenny fights for her life for two years, goes into remission once, but can't seem to shake the disease. Finally, when it's obvious that there is no recovery for Jenny, Richard takes her sailing - one.last.time. Of course they confess their love for each other. Of course Jenny dies just as the year 1980 dawns and while everyone is cheering in Times Square, Richard and Jenny's grandmother are watching Jenny take her last breath.
This book is predictable and cheesy. If I could give it half of a star, I would.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 11, 2016
My Actual Rating: 4.1
This was my favorite book of the series so far. We finally learned who JWC is and how the One Last Wish foundation came to be.
I loved Jenny & it broke my heart to watch her suffer and succumb to her leukemia. I loved the romance aspect of this story. It was realistic and believable with just the right amount of angst. I also liked Jenny realizing the strength of good friendships and people who can empathize with you when you're going through something bad (or good). I absolutely love Jenny's last wish and was pleasantly surprised about Jenny's grandmother's last wish. I'm so excited to read the next books about kids going to Jenny House where I'm sure they will learn the importance of friendships like Jenny did in the hospital.
This was my favorite book of the series so far. We finally learned who JWC is and how the One Last Wish foundation came to be.
I loved Jenny & it broke my heart to watch her suffer and succumb to her leukemia. I loved the romance aspect of this story. It was realistic and believable with just the right amount of angst. I also liked Jenny realizing the strength of good friendships and people who can empathize with you when you're going through something bad (or good). I absolutely love Jenny's last wish and was pleasantly surprised about Jenny's grandmother's last wish. I'm so excited to read the next books about kids going to Jenny House where I'm sure they will learn the importance of friendships like Jenny did in the hospital.
April 4, 2012
I really loved Lurlene McDaniel books when I was in Jr. high, and this one was my favorite. When I was a child a couple people in my family were sick and died. McDaniel's books were like therapy for me, they helped to understand and to cope, they made me realize I wasn't the only one who lost someone. These aren't the best in terms of writing but they are short and serve their purpose. I believe I read that the author started writing this series when her son was diagnosed with diabetes and she wanted to help others in similar situations. Over all a enjoyable and quick read.
May 17, 2012
Made me cry and very emotional. I still remember this story form my childhood days. She is a rich heiress and the last of her name. Even though they never really dated, the guy never marries because of her.This book made such an impression on me back when I was ten that I continued reading her books for years!
October 20, 2012
This is the story of who the person who gave the sick children money and the chances to live their dreams. Her name is Jenny and she was battling leukemia, and there was also a little bit of romance with a certain somebody. Like the other books from Lurlene McDaniel, this was very heartwarming.
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November 5, 2008read this before you start reading her one last wish sereis this book is how it started!!!
November 13, 2008
fascinating..
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January 28, 2009JAR4-McD
December 1, 2009
Go back to where it all began. . .so sad, and yet so good!
March 27, 2010
This book is amazing and helps put all the one last wish books in perspective it's amazing
August 7, 2013
Finally we find out the story behind One Last Wish And JWC. This story has a little bit of everything in it. But ultimately sadness. This one is a real tear jerker.
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October 27, 2010things from the OLW series made more sense when i read this book...and im glad that at the end Richard finds that bracelet
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December 30, 2015Tears for days, you guys.
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