This is a very good book! Hannah and Sasha were lovers for many years, but Sasha felt them growing apart. Hannah, newly recovering from breast cancer surgery, seems apathetic and uncaring towards Sasha, so ignoring the fact that they both truly still love each other, they split up. Sasha goes to live with her good friend Bonnie while Hannah stays in the house they shared, with her son Casey.

There are a lot of obstacles thrown in the path of both of these women on their journeys to discovering what is out there for them, separately. So many distractions and attractions!

However, one of the things I didn't like was the Charlie story line. She starts out being a caring, competent caregiver and turns into a possessive sociopath in her personal relationships. This didn't work for me at all. There are other reasons that could have been used to have Sasha break up with her.

See how they deal with these distractions while Hannah also works through her increasingly complicated relationship with her 18 year old son, who has his own burden to carry.

This is not the book that I was expecting when I cracked the cover. I have a bad habit of picking up a book and not reading the blurb - I like to be surprised. And this one surprised me - but in a good way. The Last Seduction is a lot more going on under that fluffy happy beach cover than I expected. This is a second chance romance that starts off with the dissolution of a fifteen year relationship and the repercussions on the two main characters. There's lots going on - both women are dealing with medical issues, child issues, trying to move on and ultimately coming back together. I think Black handled all this quite well - there's a level of honesty or realism that makes the book and the characters resonate. Definitely worth the read - just don't forget to read the blurb.

I have read many second chance books over the years and while this is technically one of those. Ronica Black went above and beyond the average second chance book,. It is raw and emotional and you really feel for each of the mains as they struggle to move on with their lives after their emotional break up. Hannah's character development was well written as was Sasha's. You certainly can feel the love that they have for one another, but it took forever for them to finally realize they were much better together than apart. This is another great book written by one of my favorite authors.

Hannah Carter, softball club owner, has become apathetic in her 16 year relationship with Sasha Bashton. Sasha is fed up with the lack of attention and has moved out. Hannah is trying to come to terms with the end of their relationship and is desperately trying to move on when Sasha ends up in hospital with serious kidney issues that nearly finishes her.  Sasha's near death experience and subsequent illness leaves them both questioning their relationship.

I struggled to have any affinity with Hannah and Sasha so that really affected my enjoyment of the book. With Sasha, the fact that it was so obvious to Hannah she had a thing for her nurse, I found quite disrespectful to Hannah. For me her moral compass was way off. Speaking of the nurse, she seemed to have a split personality which didn't gel considering her supposedly caring profession.  Add to that being a sports nut, I was so disappointed there was virtually no softball storyline.

I've read Ronica Black books before and have really enjoyed her books but this one didn't quite do it for me.

After reading the introduction for the book, I was really excited as I felt this was a good basis for a good story.
Although an ok book to read.....I'm afraid the story didn't live up to the exceptions.
The story was quite weak, it seemed to jump around and I didn't particularly like Sasha as a character, I found her a little selfish and more so further in to the book when I found Hannah's reasons for being withdrawn.

Would I recommend...yes as it was an ok story but could have been so much more

I chose to read The Last Seduction by Ronica Black mainly because of the author and the cover. I didn’t read the blurb until after I received the novel. Later I wished that I had read the blurb, because I was expecting a more light-hearted romance. The cover gives you that impression, but this book is definitely not that type of story.
The novel is well-written. I would expect nothing less from such a talented author. This book, however, is a serious, fairly realistic story about two women who are going through some really tough challenges in life that have seriously affected their relationship. Sasha and Hannah have been in a long tern relationship for at least fifteen years at the beginning of the story. Together they have raised a son who is now eighteen with life issues of his own.

Hannah is suffering from the physical and emotional after-effects of breast cancer and Sasha has chronic and life threatening kidney disease. The book begins with the two women breaking up, and most of the book deals with the two trying to learn to live apart, even though they still love each other. As I said, this is not a light romance. It is a very serious and realistic look at life as a couple with ups and downs, heartache and angst.
I wish I could have enjoyed the story more than I did. I had two problems though.

One may have been my original expectations based on the cover of the book. The other problem is that I never connected with the main characters. They are both well-developed and realistic. I had problems with their actions while they were separated from each other; and how rushed the ending was. I will mention here that the cover does portray something that is mentioned in the story, but you won’t read about that scene until the very end of the book.

This is really a well-written novel covering serious and realistic life challenges. If you like that type of story then I believe you may enjoy this book.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.

This is my second time reading a Ronica Black book and overall I liked it. I haven't read many books with this theme. Second chance romance by an couple that has been together for many years. The break-up happens right at the beginning of the book. Sasha Bashton breaks up with Hannah Carter because she is tired of being taken for granted. As you read through the book you learn more about Hannah and why she has taken Sasha for granted.

So this book has a lot going on. You have the breakup, a medical relapse for Sasha, a few issues going on with Hannah, dating, sex, issues with a child. Yeah a lot going on. Though I enjoyed the journey of Sasha and Hannah coming back together, I didn't enjoy the sexual aspect with others. Yeah, I tend to like reading books with good sex scenes, I just didn't like the MC's connecting with other people. In many ways, I guess this type of romance needed all of this extra stuff going on to make the book come together in the end. On a side note, the cover did not match what I thought the book was going to be about nor did it match how I pictured Sasha.

At any rate I will give this one 3 stars.

While both the title and the cover of this novel are attractive, I don’t think either suited the story line and content. I love the way Black writes and I’ve read most of her books but this one left me feeling that there were too many holes in the story. Sasha and Hannah have been together for over a decade and a half but their relationship is slipping through their fingers. Hannah, who is in her early fifties, has been depressed for a few years and hasn’t been able to muster up the energy to do anything about it. Sasha can’t do it anymore. She feels unappreciated and unloved. She makes the decision to end the relationship.

I like the concept of two women having to look at their lives and decide whether it’s worth it to fight for their relationship and their own wellbeing, unfortunately though so much of the novel was them doing it separately. Hannah has survived cancer in the past but the expression of the effects on her is subtle and perhaps could have been obvious. Sasha is battling chronic renal disease but it’s a thread of the story that is dramatic in some chapters but also seems to disappear which I found odd because there were times she was so ill she couldn’t walk or drive.

Sasha and Hannah are portrayed as having a strong connection even when they’re separated so it bothered me that there were other people in the story and some of it felt a little gratuitous. Hannah has an 18-year-old son who would have been with them for their entire relationship which would effectively make Sasha his mother too but I didn’t feel a connection between them for most of the book.

Rescuing a dying relationship is a difficult story to tell as a romance and much of the story is told in a really realistic way so when parts don’t fit or seem unrealistic the whole plot falls apart for me. I was still sucked into the novel by Black’s writing and my eternal hope for a happy ending.

Book received from Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.

I find this author so hot and cold, it's bizarre. I've loved some of her books and hated some of them. Unfortunately, this is one of those times where I kept saying "what?" while reading. Not a great sign.

I found the two main characters annoying. Not the greatest sentence, but an honest one. And the hottest scenes in the book weren't even with each other. I didn't feel the chemistry on so many levels. Did Sasha even want Hannah back? Or did she just go back to her because Hannah was giving her attention, that she could have gotten from anyone who was a normal woman?

It was so convenient that every woman Sasha dated was an asshole. The whole Charlie relationship and her personality changing so quickly was weird. Obviously she was used more as a plot point to get Hannah jealous, but when that was accomplish the author just got rid of that character as quickly as possible.

What about some back story? How did Hannah have Casey? Did she use a donor, or a friend? Did she do it when she was single, or in a relationship before Sasha? What was it like for Sasha dating Hannah when Casey was just 3 years old? All of these little tidbits would have helped me form a stronger bond of the two together in my mind, but it was all just ignored. I honestly finished the book not knowing if they really wanted to be with each other or just fell back into the familiarity of each other. If one of those women Sasha dated had been nice, I have a feeling she would have been fine without Hannah. Yikes!

I'm giving it 3 stars because I like the author much more than this showing.

Can't really say much else...

The cover and the title make this book sound like a breezy romance. But that is not what it is. This is a fairly serious theme of long term partners of fifteen years throwing in the towel on their relationship, struggling to move on and then finding their way back to each other. The power of the written word is its ability to make a reader think, feel and learn about emotions and experiences that they may not necessarily encounter themselves. In that, this book succeeds not in terms of the writing or characters, but in terms of the story itself.

Hannah Carter and Sasha Bashton have been together for fifteen years. A cancer scare a few years back resulted in Hannah having a double mastectomy and spiralling into depression. Hannah is a person who runs away from emotion and an outcome of her health issues is that she pushes away Sasha more and more and turns to drinking. A few years of this and Sasha cannot take it anymore, so she ends it. Sasha moves in with a friend but with a kidney problem, she is struggling with health issues herself. Hannah and Sasha continue having feelings for each other but instead of repairing their relationship, they try to move on with other partners.

The MCs are understandable at times and utterly frustrating at others. Hannah’s friend, Mickey, is awful at all times. Some carnage of other people’s emotions, particularly the completely lovely lady, Brandy, whom Hannah dates could’ve been avoided. We are not quite sure about how the two MCs have sex with other people when they are in love with each other. It also would’ve been nice to have seen some more rebuilding of the relationship by Hannah.

What however remains the most important message of this book is that love needs constant nurturing no matter how many years you’ve been together. Your partner needs and deserves the same attention that you lavished on them at the start even decades later. Talking, sharing and trusting are always imperative.

An uncommon theme, an important read.

It's been a while since reading Ronica Black's last novel. So I was looking forward to reading her latest romance, "The Last Seduction." I was intrigued by the blurb. It had an air of solemn, realistic, personal aura in the plot, the characters and the nature/health of the MCs' long-term relationship. The prologue was intriguing to me. The implications of what occurred provided a perfect set up to what was to come thereafter, which lurked behind the shadows all throughout the consequential story between Sasha and Hannah.

"The Last Seduction" was essentially Sasha and Hannah's long and winding journey back to each other after a painful break up from their 15-year relationship. It chronicled how they both tried to move on with other people despite still deeply in love with each other. Black's depiction of Sasha and Hannah's individual journey was brutally honest, painfully realistic especially in the larger sense of how a long-term relationship disintegrated because of years of bottled-up emotional breakdowns, avoidance and unresolved intimacy issues, lack of open and honest communication, taking either party for granted, particularly, mismatched and unmanaged expectations. All these matters were a prelude to a bad ending, tbh.

One thing that not many people would address in regard to relationships is health issues. Speaking of which, both Hannah and Sasha had health problems. First, it was Hannah who went through a serious health scare that resulted in her distancing herself, physically and emotionally, from Sasha, after her operation. Because of how Hannah was (her stereotypical "butch" character, so to speak!), she was never the one who'd confide in her wife lest she was seen as weak. So obviously, she'd never had any heart-to-heart talk with Sasha about her emotions. Instead, she'd rather confide in her bestie. This had been her dynamic with Sasha in their 15-year relationship. So when they were hit by Hannah's health problem and life-altering operation, their unresolved, unspoken relationship breakdown naturally took a sharp dive, what with Hannah's increasing physical and emotional distance and avoidance, and Sasha's refusal to confront Hannah but let her feelings of inadequacy and unappreciated wife fester to fever pitch. With such a breakdown in a relationship, it'd only take one incident, an important, milestone-like one to the couple, to trigger a life-changing decision. Separation. Break-up.

Despite all that, both Sasha and Hannah were deeply in love with each other. This was where Black's openness and honesty truly shone when she described and depicted, with aplomb, all the idiosyncrasies and intricacies of a couple in a long-term relationship who, despite still very much in love, still couldn't make their marriage/relationship work. Times like this is when we have to admit that merely love isn't everything. Being in love doesn't mean trust. Black, through her depiction of Hannah and Sasha's inner psyche, emotional distress, insecurities and dilemma, showed me, as a reader, that there was always a lack of trust and faith between them because they never really shared all their fears or stress, their emotions, with each other. They never really communicated openly and honestly. The lack of or total absence of trust could be traced back to their character and behavioural traits, where they couldn't fully let go of their own ego, leading to insecurities, emotional denial and avoidance. For Hannah, god forbid she expressed any emotional feelings since she truly believed it'd be seen as a weakness, which she just couldn't handle. We all know that when effective communication is absent when trouble occurs, small matters accumulate into big ones, small waves turn into a tsunami that leaves nothing but a big mess in the aftermath.

Back to Sasha, Black shed more light on her POV than Hannah’s although she did provide some insights into both of their inner emotions and feelings about each other. In particular when Sasha’s chronic kidney disease flared up so seriously that it almost killed her. At that fateful moment, nothing else mattered but the brutal truth that'd been lurking in the depths of her fear and loathing staring back at her. Hannah. But with Hannah and Sasha, one moment of desperate refuge in each other when Sasha's health was compromised wasn't reason enough to reconcile their relationship when their fundamental issue with each other was about trust in their love and emotional intimacy. Instead of using this opportunity to really talk about it, both of these stubborn souls resisted, believing they could just move on with their lives with other people.

Black didn't waste time delving into Sasha and Hannah's attempts at dating other people. I was surprised that Black used up most of their journey to detail their various encounters with different dates and lovers, which ended up providing virtually all sexually explicit scenes for the book. I must say, I wasn't a fan of reading those encounters not only because they weren't between the MCs, but because the MCs were both still very much in love and still intensely entangled in body, mind and soul. As a result, those encounters tuned me out completely. I wasn't invested at all because, imo, their inclusion just didn't fit the mould of what the essence of Hannah and Sasha's journey was. But, that's just my personal POV and preference, really. Most readers may even find them illuminating! Just not for me. Although, I understood where Black could be coming from. It looked to me like she wanted to portray how Hannah and Sasha dealt and handled their love life outside the confines of each other's still-very-much-entangled emotional attachment (aka love!) by pairing them off with other people, perhaps to amplify how, despite all their best efforts, no one else could ever fill the void in their very soul except each other. Black captured Hannah and Sasha's emotional reactions realistically when they veered off with other people. As we know, when a relationship isn't resolved properly, emotions are still raw because both parties still hang on to the past. That's exactly what happened between Hannah and Sasha. It didn't matter how many people they were involved with in the hopes of moving on because at the end of the day, as the saying goes, "when it's meant to be, it's meant to be." Innit? Hannah and Sasha's intertwined souls knew even though their stubborn conscious minds refused to accept the inevitable. They were meant to be together and would find their way back to each other again. Time. Timing. Trigger.

I must say, though, I thought their eventual reunion was a bit too rushed and brief for my liking. I was hoping that their moment of truth and reconciliation would be defined and portrayed more deeply, when they finally agreed to be open and honest with each other, about their own uncertainties, but most of all, the trust issue in their love for each other. Love without trust would never sustain. Hannah needed to let go of her ego, her insecurities and trust Sasha to be her equal partner, physically, mentally and emotionally. She needed to trust Sasha with her vulnerabilities. Whereas, Sasha needed to feel safe with Hannah in her sense of worth, equality, appreciation as the other equal half of their relationship. In essence, both she and Hannah needed to trust in their love for each other deeply enough to always be open and honest regardless of what they might face down the line, emotionally or physically. There was so much emotional and psychological baggage to explore between these two yearning souls deeply in love but terribly lost, desperately trying to find their way back to each other. However, their respective epiphanies were depicted rather hurriedly, in the end, imo, although all the signs were there. Just not manifested in writing as I expected. I wish Black focused much more on their emotional journey between each other than their affairs with other people. To me, that dampened the depth of their unspoken affinity and emotional attachment from their deep-seated love for each other despite their physical absence. I wish Black had a different approach, is what I'm trying to allude to. But thank goodness for small mercies, I could draw on my own interpretation, eh?

Plus, Casey, Hannah's biological son, who was also Sasha's since she and Hannah both brought him up as his parents for 15 out of his 18 years of age. I would have loved to read about Casey and Sasha's continued relationship post-breakup because at the end of the day, Sasha WAS Casey's mum, too. Although, Black did mention, albeit briefly, their interaction outside of Hannah's involvement in passing. I wish Black had included those scenes, though, which I think would have enriched Sasha and Hannah's journey to understanding, appreciation before finally reuniting their love and commitment with much more resonating effect. Instead, Black veered off with Casey's side-story, which I thought detracted from the main point of this story. A shame, really.

I must say, I was initially captivated by Black's insightful portrayal about two people in a long-term relationship who despite being deeply in love, ended up separated, leaving deep emotional scars that they struggled to heal from. At first, Black delved deeply into Hannah and Sasha's psyches with all the nuances and idiosyncrasies related to their characters and POVs with such authenticity that it felt very personal, like Black dug into her own personal journey to reflect the characters'. But shortly after the first act, beginning of the second act, for some reason, I felt Black somehow put the brakes on her own conviction in further personifying Hannah and Sasha's journey of truth and reconciliation. Suddenly, the emotional depth was only touched on peripherally, like Black didn't want to dig any further into the raw emotions of the characters. Too real? I don't know. It's just a feeling that I had whilst reading the contrast between the first third of the story and the rest of it. Instead, she placed her focus on the MCs' new love affairs with other people until it was time for the big reunion. In the end, I felt like the story could've been a perfect depiction of a second chance love story between two battered souls who finally reached an epiphany that reunited them for the rest of their lives. An epiphany that opened their eyes to the realisation about what they truly meant to each other, in mind, body and soul. In love and in trust.

Nevertheless, I was gratified by Black's courage in telling a deeply complex love story about a failed long-term relationship and how two deeply connected souls found their way back to each other, in a long and winding journey of contemplation, self-reflection, under harshly realistic circumstances that I hadn't come across in lesfic before, which Black depicted ever-so honestly with genuine authenticity. That's why, in the end, I still liked and enjoyed the story because of it. This utterly realistic subject matter alone garners this book a proper read. Black is one of the authors whose work I have sentimental affection for prolly because she was one of the first few lesfic authors I discovered early on. So, I will read anything she writes regardless. I'm looking forward to her next projects, that's for sure, with the hope that it'll bring back the same level of emotional intensity and resonance the likes of "Conquest," which is still one of my sentimentally favourite lesfic stories and my favourite of hers.

Fans of romance, particularly the dramatic ones with angst, should find this story worth exploring, imo.

I was given, with much thanks and appreciation, an ARC of this book from BSB via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

There are not many lesbian-themed books that deal with situations like the one this book does, and I particularly found it interesting and quite realistic the way it treats a topic that may be sensitive. Actually, it involves several issues that may be sensitive for many readers. Because what this book addresses is what happens when a lasting relationship, in this case more than 15 years, reaches a point where it seems that the thing can not continue and the two women of the couple also seem to accept it. But things are not easy even in separation. There is so much life in common, call it routine or comfort, that new situations are difficult to stop sharing. And sometimes you need a slap of reality and the loss of what you have, to realize what you need above anything else. It also addresses the problems of getting older, the appearance of diseases and the way one has to be able to share the pain and scars that these problems leave you with.So the book takes place between the time the two women break their relationship until they realize that they can not be without each other. What happens in this period of time is difficult to read sometimes, because some things are very close to one's own experiences, but in the end the book is very complete and shows the reality of a relationship.

Of the two protagonists, Sasha and Hannah, I have considered their characters quite well defined, although we only see their relationship already broken, they have different environments and different groups of friends, but Hannah has a teenage son who, although she is born before they two will start as a couple, he is practically the son of the two of them and that also gives another nuance to the break.

In the period of separation, they, sometimes forced by their friendships other times by chance, try to have new relationships. It is fun to see some of them, it is so cliche that it is impossible to find lasting relationships if you are over 40 years old, maybe the women they meet are real life, I can not comment on that because I do not know it.

But what the book raises is very interesting to read, the younger ones please, know that relationships must be taken care of every day. I recommend this book with enthusiasm.

I have read many books by this author although I don't think I have read anything from her within the last few years. This book was a page turner from the beginning and read most of it in one sitting, finishing it in the morning.

Hannah and Sasha are great characters. I loved both from the start. The chemistry with them both is great. I would have liked to see them get together long before they did. Both have/had health problems that they are working through, add a little drama from Hannah's son, Casey and you have a fabulous read. The supporting characters are great except for Charlie. Outside of work she is a bitch.

All in all, I could re-read this over and over again.

I received an ARC copy of the book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.

Whelp... Ok. Where to start...

I'm going to mention up front that I'm a fan of Ronica Black. I've read almost all of her books and have enjoyed more than not, but this one didn't work for me at all. To be perfectly blunt, I ended up skimming quite a bit.

This story is best classified as a second chance romance story with Hannah and Sasha as the mains. Hannah fought and beat breast cancer, but the fight and subsequent double mastectomy left her very depressed and never there for Sasha. The book opens with Sasha leaving Hannah due to her physical and emotional unavailability. Sasha is fighting sickness of her own in the form of a serious issue with her kidneys. While taking care of Sasha, Hannah realizes she still loves Sasha and wants to fight for her, even with her sickness.

I'm not completely sure what turned me off so quickly to this read, but it felt very fake to me. Even though she's incredibly sick, requiring a home nurse and a PICC line for over a month, Sasha jumps into bed with no only one, but two other women very quickly. By the way, this is all just 3 months after breaking off a seriously long term relationship with Hannah. Yes, there's talk of her missing Hannah, but it felt so incredibly fast and her reactions all felt fake to me. Hannah's reactions felt a bit more genuine, but even then, she also slept with another woman while proclaiming to be in love with Sasha still.

I felt zero sympathy or connection to the characters, and actually found myself rolling my eyes in a few scenes. On top of all of that, the inevitable ending where the two finally got back together felt incredibly rushed.

Oh, and the cover barely makes sense, just a blurb in the epilogue.

Look - I really hate leaving negative reviews, especially for authors that I do usually enjoy, but this one didn't work for me at all. I'll definitely give Black's next novel a read, but I can't recommend this one. The beautiful thing about books is that we all like different things, and this may be right up your alley! For me though, 2.5 stars.

**Many thanks to Bold Strokes for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.**

Hannah and Sasha been together for years but when Hannah forget their anniversary Sasha has had enough.

Sasha is turning forty even though she knew she didn't feel right she let it go and went home where her friend Bonnie threw her a sursprise party.

When Hannah son Casey convince her to go the party she find that Sasha is sick and when Sasha see her she pass out and wakes up in the hospital where the doctor tells her kidneys is failing and they don't really know why that is so they treating it like she has diabetes that seems to be working.

Sasha and Hannah adjust to being in each other orbit again they both tried moving on with their life by dating other people. You can tell they still love each other even though they are fighting it then you have Casey who want them back together but he has his own problem with his girlfriend.

Nice story about second chances and doing it right this time.

I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.

3.75 stars

From memory, this is the first book I've read where both leads have (or have had) serious illnesses. Kudos to the author for going there.

The outcome is pretty much a given, at least I thought so, but it didn't detract from the journey.

Casey was a delightful character even though he came across as older than eighteen. The way he spoke to his mother gave me pause at times, but I guess that's teen these days.

I don't normally get into covers or blurbs in my review, but I feel there are two things worth mentioning. Firstly, the cover makes little sense until the epilogue. Secondly, although the blurb mentions softball, there's no softball in this story.

There are a couple of minor plot slips that need ironing out, but other than that, the writing is solid.