The blurb promises a razor sharp novel of suspense which actually hurts this book. It is more of a traditional tale of a dysfunctional family where lies bind you and the truth is hard to discover. Told in two different timelines it was rather a repetitive read without much suspense. Not a bad book but not what I expected.

This wasn't quite as taut and twisted as I'd expected it to be, and I think there was a little too much time devoted to Lauren's quest to make her ex jealous via home improvement projects? I understand the role this played in revealing the secrets in the story but I think there were other ways. I think there were very good bones to the story, though, despite any flaws in execution.

Who can you trust? That is the ultimate question. Is it the mother who tried her best to raise you as a single mother? Is it the father who served time in prison for murder? Is it the ex-boyfriend who dumped you after visiting your country house? Is it your girlfriend who starts dating the ex-boyfriend after you leave town? Is it the strange old man with dogs who lives next door? <note to self: always trust the dogs> Or is it the 90 year-old grandmother who is living in an assisted living facility after a stroke? The story jumps between present day Lauren returning to the family farm and finding many secrets buried within the walls and 30ish years ago when her mother Donna discovers she is pregnant and her boyfriend already has a wife. This is a complicated book that got better upon a second reading. It grows on you. Give it a chance.

Book provided by NetGalley for review.

3 ½ stars

I love this Author. She can write no wrong.. Simply BRILLIANT. I highly recommend this unputdownable book. Run, do not walk, to get your hands on this!!!

“The Last One Home” is my first novel by Victoria Helen Stone.

I would say it is more of a family drama than a thriller. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it.

After a breakup, Lauren heads to her family’s home to help her grandmother, who just had a stroke. After arriving, she is surprised that her grandmother is giving her the house and electing to stay at a nursing home. Against her Mother’s objection, Lauren accepts the offer and starts rehabbing the house. The longer she stays, the longer the secrets become revealed.

The book got off to a slow start following two characters, Lauren in the present and her Mother, Donna in the past. The book
alternates between the timelines, building characters and providing details.

Eventually, the two time periods intertwine and the action begins to ramp up. We find out that there are several secrets. Once the story began to take shape, questions started to get answered and I was just flipping pages. The buildup could of been shortened a drop so the action started sooner.


“The Last One Home” is a very light mystery.

Many thanks to Net Galley, Lake Union Publishing, and the author for a chance to read and review this book. All opinions are expressed voluntarily.

Victoria Helen Stone had a stupendous success with her novel Jane Doe. I haven’t read that book but had surely heard lots about it from my fellow bookworms. The Last One Home is surprisingly a very mild domestic suspense from the same author. In a way, I feel that we have been spoilt ever since the Gone Girl craze, you know, the more shocking the revelations the more thrilled we are. If there are no jaw-dropping secrets that are revealed, we feel as if the story is missing something crucial.

The first part of the book is devoid of any major adrenaline-pumping emotions, in fact, the story has a slower tempo than most suspense stories that it takes time to grow on you. The ranch and the surrounding area could have been used to a more menacing effect but again there seems to be a lack of electrifying events in the life of Lauren even as she’s residing all alone with a weird neighbor and a stalker serial killer on her toes. The threat from the serial killer never materializes fully for the reader, everything is a slow-burn.

Irrespective of all the above-mentioned points, there’s something catchy about the story that I did have a hard time keeping it down. The entanglement of relationships between Lauren, Donna, Michael, and the grandmother was intense and quite captivating. The suspense element of the tale was not exactly an “Oh, MY” moment coz nothing is particularly hidden in the story, most of the facts that form the crux gets established by the first half and it is more or less a choice left to the reader as to whose lies or truths do u wanna go with.

3.5 stars for keeping me hooked on to my kindle.


This review is published in my blog https://rainnbooks.com/, Goodreads, Amazon India, Meduim.com, and Twitter.

I really like this author. She is always amazing.
Is a good book. I recommend for who likes a good read.

3 stars. This was a good story, but I was waiting for something MORE. I managed to figure outwhodunnit before it was revealed, but not by much. This was more domestic suspense than a thriller. I don't know if I will be reading more by this author. If you're looking for suspense or a lot of twists, this is a skip.

This latest suspense novel from Victoria Helen Stone starts off with a very intriguing and original plot.

Lauren Abrams spent the early part of her childhood growing up with her single mother Donna, constantly moving from one run-down apartment to another as her mother worked in a string of dead-end jobs. Before she was born, Lauren’s father Michael, a married man, had been convicted of murdering a young woman, partly as a result as testimony by Donna at his trial. However, when Lauren was a teenager, her father was exonerated and freed. Lauren finally got to meet him and his mother Elizabeth (her grandmother) and spend time with them at the family ranch in the hills outside Sacramento. Not being able to forgive her mother for lying, Lauren went to live with her father and cut Donna out of her life. After college, with her father remarried and starting a new family, Lauren moved to LA where she had a nice apartment and work as a freelance graphic designer. Now with her grandmother moving to a nursing home following a stroke, Lauren has moved back to the ranch and agreed to buy it from her grandmother. Afterall, she’s always loved her visits there and can do her graphic design work anywhere.

So, the mystery here is why did Donna lie in court all those years ago when she was pregnant with Lauren? Who was the young woman killed and why did Donna implicate Michael?

The mystery is unravelled from two points of view, that of Donna’s when she was pregnant with Lauren in 1985 and that that of Lauren’s in the current time as she starts renovating the house and yearns for her recent ex, a self-centred man left behind in LA. Despite their different personalities, Donna fierce and feisty, Lauren, indecisive and unsure, the women are more alike than they realise, both gullible when it comes to believing flaky men.

It’s best to go into this not expecting a fast-paced thriller, as instead it’s a slow burner of a domestic suspense novel, taking its time to set the scene for the twists and revelations that will come later in the last chapters of the book. The drama is in fact fairly flat for at least three quarters of the book and would have benefitted from a little more action to spice up the suspense (something the author has a talent for). There is a subplot involving a serial killer that could have been more prominent to add some intensity. However, the ending is well done and provides some of the frisson we’re all looking for in a good suspense novel.

I've read better.

That's really it. This isn't a slow burn, this is a nothing and then a quick flame. Kind of like, when you first strike a match.

There's too much jumping back and forth and a storyline that's been done 100 times before.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

When I saw Stone was publishing another book, I immediately requested it on NetGalley. I didn’t even read what it was about, but I thought I’d love it because I love the Jane Doe series so much. But unfortunately, this book was not at all like those books. If I didn’t know Stone wrote this one, I’d say the Jane Doe series and this book were written by two different authors. It just wasn’t what I was expecting at all. It’s not a thriller. It’s not a slow burn. It’s not even a suspense novel. It’s more just general fiction. Literally nothing happed until the last 5%. But when things finally started happening it just abruptly ended. I wish the entire book was like the ending. Or there were at least a few exciting or shocking moments thrown in. Anything to keep me entertained. I really didn’t want to give this one two stars because of my love for the Jane Doe series, but this just wasn’t up to par. Maybe my expectations were just too high, but I’m very disappointed I didn’t enjoy this one.

Lauren Abrams inherits a house from her grandmother and has an estranged relationship with her own mother, who apparently lied and sent her father to the prison over the death of a girl. Now the person who actually did commit the crime is safe behind the bars and her father is a free man, happily married. Lauren gets messages from the killer himself who is in the prison. Meanwhile, she uncovers a secret in the house...

I haven't read her previous books Jane Doe yet, which is actually in my want to read book list so I was excited to try this book out first. The story is told from the perspectives of Lauren, which is present day and Donna, Lauren's mother, back in the 1980's when she was pregnant with Lauren, each recounting about their encounter with that particular house. To me, it wasn't fast paced but more like a sleepy thriller, not much twists and turns as I expect to from a thriller. The writing was however OK and good. It was however a short thriller but nonetheless I thought this was kind of an OK thriller--not like a dying thriller with twists and turns. Kind of predictable as well.

Overall, I give this book three stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Lake Union for this ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion.

Not exactly a favorite from this author but a decent mystery at that. It’s not fast paced but meant to be enjoyed slowly with the intensity it deserves. Told from the point of view of two women, Lauren and Donna. Donna’s story is from 1985 when she’s pregnant with Lauren and dealing with her boyfriend. It takes us from the moment she learns of the baby to leaving an unfortunate situation for her safety. Lauren, 35 years later, returns home to assist her grandmother and ends up doing home renovations along with her personal renovation. She learns things about her family’s history and starts to understand all the crazy stuff her mother would tell her. This a novel of personal growth and awareness, murder mystery and thrilling suspense. I’ll admit it took me about to really understand where the story was going but then I couldn’t stop myself. Netgalley provided the advance copy and I wrote this review voluntarily.

"The heat of this place grew serial killers."
Um, that's my hometown being referred to there. Do we have more serial killers than normal here? If I had to commit, I'd probably say our heat grows rapists. Not that either are preferable. But this opening sentence places the entire book into a dark, depressing frame of reference that it struggles to get out of for the remainder of the story. As a result of her father's unjust incarceration at the hands of her mother, Lauren's childhood and view on life are a bit skewed. But she thinks coming back to Sacramento might be the road to her own redemption. Sadly for Lauren it isn't. Sadly for the reader the story moves slowly. A lot of looking back in time through the eyes of Donna, Lauren's mother. And a lot of ruminating on her own issues for Lauren. Issues that don't really move the story forward. All the action, of what action there is, gets consolidated in a short section near the end. Not enough of one, however, to truly make up for all the reading to get there.

[Thank you to Lake Union Publishing for an advanced reading copy of "The Last One Home," scheduled for release on March 23rd].

It might be time for me to say good-bye to reading this author's future works. After very much enjoying Jane Doe, I didn't feel the same way about its sequel or False Step. Unfortunately, this one was also lackluster.

Upon learning her grandmother had a stroke and will be re-located to an assisted living facility, Lauren Abrams purchases the family home from her and attempts to start fresh on the land. With too much free time on her hands and eager to reignite a relationship with her ex-boyfriend, she starts on a home improvement project for the main house. Soon, she's dredging up more than anticipated while pulling out the floorboards and attracting more than just the attention of her ex-boyfriend. In her search for answers to what really happened in a decades-old crime, she begins to realize that the old adage might just in fact be true: Mother really does know best. Lauren was still in her mother's womb when Donna accused Lauren's father of murdering a cocktail waitress. He was exonerated but the damage to her mother's reputation had been done, and Lauren went to live with her father and his mother. Is it possible that Lauren has believed the wrong parent all this time?

One thing the novel suffers from is being inaccurately described as 'suspenseful.' Everything is properly laid out on the table for the reader from the beginning. From there, very little happens until the last 20 or so pages of the novel. Even then, it doesn't feel like there's a pay-off. Even then, it doesn't feel like there's a pay-off. The writing sort of just let it end on an anemic note.

This book was just not a right fit for me! I just could not connect with the characters at all...I didn’t think it had any substance to the story line at all.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

Lauren Abrams wants nothing to do with her damaged mother whose suprious testimony sent her father to prison for murder. After a serial killers confession to the crime restored justice, Lauren chose to live with het father and grandmother. But now she has decided to return to her Sacramento family estate.

It's been years since Donna made her cheating husband pay, but she hasn't forgotten the past. She knows her estranged daughter has made a terrible mistake by returning to the estate. But what secrets does the family ranch hold? Lauren may not be able to see the truth to save her life.

The story starts off at a slow pace but as the pace picks up, it becomes quite chilling. It's narrated by Lauren in the present and Donna in the past. I did ike the authors style in writing this book. As stories from the past come to light, Lauren doesn't know who to believe. The characters are likeable but flawed. I did guess where the story was going but that doesn't spoil a book for me. This is not a gripping thriller but it's still a really good read.

I would like to thank #NetGalley, #LakeUnionPublishing and the author #VictoriaHelenStone for my ARC of #TheLastOneHome in exchange for an honest review.

Lauren in the present and her mother Donna in the past tell the story of a really dysfunctional family and a murder for which there has not been true justice. Back in 1985, Donna's testimony sent her husband Michael to jail but, as it turns out, a serial killer was responsible for the murder of a young woman. Things weren't easy even before that and Lauren's main bond was with her grandmother. In the present, Lauren has broken up with her boyfriend (trope alert) and moved back to care for her grandmother but this also opens her up to discussions with her mother. While you might guess what really happened, no spoilers from me. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It's well written and twisty.

A suspenseful physiological thriller that examines the threads are are woven through families. Great plot and character development throughout. This book tells the story of Lauren Abrams, her mother she wants nothing to do with, and her new life she is trying to build. As the story flips between Lauren and Donna, we start to discover the unfortunate truth and lies the characters are part of.
High,
Highly recommended for fans of this genre!
* I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book from NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing in exchange for my honest review.

I was so excited to get this one. Honestly, Jane Doe, Victoria Helen Stone's previous thriller is one of my all time favorite books and I also enjoyed the sequel, Problem Child. The first chapter was promising with the reference to all the serial killers that have emerged from or operated in Sacramento, California, but then nothing really happens for a LONG time. I thought the book was well-crafted with the alternating chapters between Lauren with the present day story and with Donna's story from 1985 (you don't find out until well into the book that they are mother and daughter), but nothing really happens until about 65% into the book. After the first chapter and then much longer than halfway through the book it was like boring and bland--I wasn't even really convinced I was reading a thriller! It kind of felt like a bad romance which is NOT my thing. The last third was more of what I like--an action packed thriller with twists and turns. The beginning could have been shortened and more exploration of the serial killer, Kepnick, could have been developed--I wanted to know more about his other crimes and wished there had been an actual in person interaction between Lauren and him that would also have made him taking the blame for the murder more plausible . The premise of this one was great, but it fell down with the execution...