This is one of my favourite books this year. Very well-written, I really couldn't put it down.

I can't wait to read more from this author.

Highly recommended.

5 whopping stars!!

Seven years ago two boys were missing at sea and only one boy was brought back to safety. I can honestly say that this book kept me gripped from the very first page, there are so many twist and turns along the way and you will be kept guessing right to the very end. An excellent read.

I seem to be a bit off the average on this one, but having previously loved Lucy's writing this was a bit more of a slog for me. The twists at the end were interesting but it was quite hard work getting there and my interest waned. Sorry - but please do try it, others have loved it, or read Lucy's fantastic back catalogue.

Really enjoyed this book, it was engaging from the beginning and lots of unexpected twists!

This was and is a remarkable read, again, straight into my top 10 this year. Its going to be so hard to choose my top ten.

We have two close friends, they have children within days of each other, the unity between these two women are remarkable and close along with their growing children.

Sarah and Isla have been there for each other through thick and thin but will their friendship survive once their children go missing one day, but only one returns. Jacob.

They were only 10 years old.

7 years later on the anniversary of her sons death her friends son goes missing, Jacob.

Sarah starts a vigilance searching for her son, but hes nowhere to be found.

Someone somewhere knows.

Someone somewhere knows what happened all those years ago, someone somewhere knows what has happened since,.
Who do you trust when there is no one to trust.

This story kept me rigid in my chair, I couldn't move, I just needed to read from beginning to the very end which left me gasping.

My thanks to the author Lucy Clarke and to HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction via Net Galley for my copy. What an exciting read.

A gripping and well paced book that kept me entertained. Many thanks for the ARC.

I feel it’s misleading to call this book a thriller as it leads the reader to expect something to happen and it never does. It is a book about loss.

I didn’t like any of the main characters a lot but the book is well written and I did want to know how it ends, so had to keep reading.

Fatima

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

I LOVED this book and it kept me grilled throughout with all its twists and turns. Highly recommended.

The story is based at Sandbanks beach, and you follow the lives of the people who stay in the beach huts all summer... it covers relationships built up over many years. You learn what happens to these relationships when disaster happens. The book follows two woman Isla and Sarah through many different aspects of their lives and how it changes their friendship. Each chapter is either from Isla or Sarah's viewpoint. Their boys grow up as best friends, really more like brothers and then one day disaster happens they go for a swim and only one comes back. It's a gripping page turning story to see what happens. Everyone's life is never the same again.

I devoured this! Well-written, pacy, with a fabulous, vividly drawn setting of the beach huts - you are truly transported (and will start looking up beach huts to buy). The characters are sympathetic and believable, with interesting back-stories that really pull you in, and the twists will keep you guessing until the end - yet the pacing is effective and doesn't frustrate like some thrillers. All in all, a great read in this genre - gripping but intelligently written. What more could you want.

This book had me in the edge of my seat until the very last page. It's twists and turns made me unable to put it down.
The story is basically about friendship but it is also about sorrow and deceit and the lengths that one will go to protect the ones that you love.
Two little boys who are the children of two best friends are involved in a swimming accident and sadly only one survives. This tragedy haunts the lives of all involved and are all guilty of something.

As I settle better in my spot where I’ve only just finished this book, I find it hard to describe what it made me feel. Anguish? Yes. Thrill of a good mystery? Certainly. And..that’s kinda it. I mean, there are a whole lot of other stops between the two, but mainly-and most honestly- this story sort of unsettled me. Took the balance I imagined of family life, and twisted it into something hurtful. It left a bitter taste on my mind. But is all that bad? No. Not at all.

As a twisted and darker-if that is possible- telling of a psychological thriller, this book was gripping. From the start till the end. It was also gut wrenching, heart breaking because you are faced with a mother’s worst nightmare. No spoilers, from the start we know one of the storytellers, Isla, has lost her son at sea. Her pain was a physical blow every time she took control of the pages. I felt awful, my heart broke for her when she spoke.

While one half of the main voices tear at my heart, the other, Sarah, the mother of the surviving child, tells me of the mystery of the story. I looked forward to both of them, but also dreaded knowing the truth. I kept guessing possible outcomes, reasons for what’s happened, but also was not in a hurry to know. It was a scary tumble into the human psyche, it showed what’s it’s like to be a family and then shattered it with what it’s like to be human.

There isn’t much I can say without giving anything away. Everything is connected in such a way, I can’t talk about one detail without the other. And besides, I honestly think that the book itself-and Isla and Sarah- should tell its story anyway. It’s the best way.

I’m adding five spoonfuls of this story into my hodgepodge, and wonder in what other ways Lucy Clarke can rattle my mind with her stories. I’ll be looking forward to them.

I really enjoyed this book and the little reveals and curveballs delivered as you wend your way through Last Seen. I didn't enjoy however, the overuse of descriptive paragraphs that really didn't bring anything to the story, character building or anything, and if I read the words beach hut once more I was going to scream. For a tradionally published book I'm amazed at the amount of blah areas that were not removed or lessened, they brought nothing to the forward momentum, and repetitiveness is a no no in my opinion.

But, the crafted suspense itself was the glue that held this book up, you can skip multiple areas and still have the impact of the reveals as they happen.

It's not because the book wasn't any good, far from it. I think my experience was because I didn't connect to the two best friends. I didn't much like either women.

Would reading this book want me reading any more Lucy Clarke books? Erm, I'm not completely sure, the 1st half of Last Seen doesn't really go anywhere, it's when the puzzle pieces start getting dropped into place that the read became immersive for me, this happens in the second half of the book.

I in all honesty enjoyed Last Seen but I didn't love it. The suspense was well done, the deliverance okay, just too much unnecessary info like how to cook potatoes that didn't bring anything to the story. In other words I didn't need some of the scenes in the backstory or should I say some of the inconsequential day to day mundane stuff. I was eager for the reveals, angst and curveballs.

I received a copy of this book from netgalley.

It was the description of this book that drew me to it, I'd never read any Lucy Clarke before, but I know I will in the future. I wasn't disappointed! Sandbanks where the story is set sounds magical, the beachhuts, the little summer community , although of course nothing is really as it seems. Two boys, two women , bound together by friendship, then tragically there is only one boy, and this really is his story told from the perspective of his mother and her best friend and the events that bring them closer and then break them apart. Very good read, interesting but not always likeable characters, intrigue, surprises and an unexpected but perhaps inevitable ending . I would highly recommend this book.

Sarah & Isla were best friends, growing up together, sharing special occasions even having babies at nearly the same time.

Summers were spent in adjoining beach huts on a headland and sandspit. Their sons grew up together, fishing, crabbing, making forts building sandcastles and swimming- an idyllic childhood until seven years ago when two boys went into the sea but only one returned. Isla's son Marley never came back.

Now on the anniversary of the tragedy Jacob- Sarah & Nick's son goes missing. What happened to make him leave everything and disappear. Has he been lost at sea like Marley?

In the eight days following Jacob's disappearance we share Sara and Nick's anguish. We also see into lives that weren't so idyllic, with stories of the past told by both Sarah & Isla. Things were certainly not as they first appeared and the reader is dragged deeper into the world of the two beach huts.

Lucy Clarke really created a picture of this coastline, the beach huts and their inhabitants. I wanted to be there and become a neighbour- although I think I might want to give Sarah a wide berth!

Engaging, surprising and ultimately shocking this is a book that carries you along with the tide & does not let go. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a great five star read.

i loved it i thought it was a fantastic story line and loved the setting with the beach huts and the way everyone was like family but what a sad think to happen to that poor mum to lose her son in them awful cercumstances such a shame but a fab read

7 years ago, 2 young boys, best friends, Jacob & Marley went missing at the beach. Only Jacob is recovered. This book tells the story of 2 women, Isla and Sarah and their families who meet up every summer where the tragedy took place. This particular year, Jacob (Sarah's son), now 17 has gone missing again. A fast paced psychological thriller with lots of twists and turns that I just couldn't put down.

Best friends since their teens, Sarah and Isla share secrets, summers and sons of the same age, or at least they did until Isla’s son Marley went missing at sea seven years ago. Through the tragedy, Sarah and Isla’s friendship remained intact and, after a time, life went back to something close to normal. But things are about to change. This year, on the anniversary of Marley’s disappearance, Sarah’s son Jacob vanishes without a trace. Being a mother means everything to Sarah, but lately her relationship with her son hasn’t been so great. Is Jacob just another runaway teen on the outs with his mum? Or is there something more sinister at play? And why isn’t Sarah telling the truth of the argument she and Jacob had the night before he disappeared?

Lucy Clarke writes a great beach read, and while this one doesn’t contain the exotic locales of her earlier books, it may just be my favourite book of hers to date, with twist after twist to keep me guessing, even after I thought I had things all figured out. Female friendships are complex things, and let me tell you, Sarah and Isla share a friendship that is more complex than most. No spoilers, but let’s just say I don’t really know how these two managed to stay such firm friends through the years, after all that happened between them. Some things just can’t be forgiven, you know? And one of these friends certainly crosses that line at one point.

The central mystery of Jacob’s disappearance is ultimately compelling, if a bit of a slow burn that takes time to gather pace, with chapters detailing past summers, including the events that led to the day when everything changed. My favourite aspect of Last Seen was the friendship between Sarah and Isla. You know how sometimes you meet people and they are so opposite, so different in every way, that you wonder how they ever became friends? Well, that’s these two. I find that this kind of friendship is one most often formed in childhood or adolescence, which is the case here. Friends found later in life usually have a lot more in common than free-spirited Isla who travels the world on a whim and uptight Sarah, who would rather be at home doing the hoovering. When we meet them, Sarah and Isla’s friendship is a relic of the past, held together only by the memories they share. Oh, and then there’s that little thing called guilt. And all the secrets that are about to come spilling out right about now.

Another winner from Lucy Clarke, Last Seen is a compelling tale of friendship, secrets, motherhood and lies that will keep you guessing right till the very end. This is one to add to your beach bag, for sure!

I don't really have much to say about this book, other than I LOVED IT! It wasn't an overly tense thriller but it definitely had me gripped from start to finish

Wow, where to start, this is a fantastic thriller that I couldn't put down.
Sarah and Isla have been best friends forever, growing up together, sharing secrets, dreaming of owning beach huts next to each other.they did everything together even giving birth to baby boys within weeks of each other.
Jacob and Marley are best friends but when we join this story it is seven years since Marleys death to which his mum, Isla will never get over. You think this a straight forward death, boys go into the sea only Jacob returns meaning Marley drowned but as you read more and more of this book you realise that it's not quite as simple as that. Sarah has a lot of secrets and when they start to be revealed it makes you not want to stop reading until the end.
All the characters are completely believable making them all hugely likeable especially when you find out what one will do for another to keep the other from being hated.
I loved this book, yes it does set off a little slow but this is because there is a lot of base work to be done and that's why this book works, nothing is glossed over and the ending, well I never saw that coming!
I would like to thank netgalley and Harper Collins uk for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.