Publication Date: July 29, 2025
Two women overcoming past traumas embark on a healing journey across continents in a novel about friendship, family, and rediscovery by the USA Today bestselling author of When We Believed in Mermaids.
Recently and abruptly divorced Veronica Barrington is anxious for a new direction when she answers a listing for a travel companion. It’s from Mariah Ellsworth, a young woman adjusting to an injury that ended her Olympic career. She’s also grieving her mother, Rachel, a lauded food writer, and Mariah aims to trace the steps of her mother’s final, unfinished project so she can heal and also honor the woman she misses.
Veronica seizes on the opportunity to experience with Mariah the culture, traditions, and intoxicating aromas of Parsi cafés throughout London, Paris, Morocco, and India. Accompanied by a former war photographer who has a wounded history of his own, and with just Rachel’s letters to guide them, the quest is a chance to not only close a chapter in life but also begin a new one.
Following the letters one by one—each a clue to an illuminating mystery—Veronica and Mariah must face the painful and beautiful challenges of freeing themselves from the dark shadows of the past. Together, far from home, they can find the light.
Two women join forces to achieve their goals in an adventure-packed six-week journey.
Author Barbara O’Neal brings together Mariah, a young woman with mobility issues, with Veronica, a recently divorced middle-aged mother who desperately needs time away. The Last Letter of Rachel Ellsworth centers around Mariah’s efforts to finish her late mother’s book.
Veronica’s character evokes sympathy. Forced to leave the family home after an unexpected divorce, she tries to adjust to single living. The advertisement for a travel companion comes at precisely the right time.
As the two embark on the trip, unexpected events cause hiccups in their carefully laid plans. Veronica not only has to deal with family issues, but also handling a pain-ridden Mariah is challenging.
Letters from the past hold clues about Rachel that create a ripple effect impacting Mariah’s efforts to write about the Parsi cafés.
The Last Letter of Rachel Ellsworth delivers a compelling story about a motherless daughter and a mother seeking a new purpose.
Barbara O’Neal is the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Amazon Charts bestselling author of nearly twenty novels of women’s fiction, including the #1 Amazon Charts bestseller When We Believed in Mermaids, as well as Memories of the Lost, This Place of Wonder, and The Starfish Sisters. Her award-winning books have been published in over two dozen countries. She lives on the wild Oregon Coast with her husband, a British endurance athlete who vows he’ll never lose his accent.
