The Last Chance has a strong concept. It throws you into the life of a man haunted by his past, with one final shot at redemption. The stakes are high, the mood is heavy, and for the most part, the story delivers. I found myself genuinely invested in what would happen, especially once a few emotional gut-punches hit later in the book.

But here’s the thing, while the plot had me hooked, the execution didn’t always land for me. Some of the dialogue felt a little clunky or forced, like it was trying too hard to be gritty or profound. And a few scenes that should’ve hit emotionally just kind of floated by, mostly because the pacing was a bit uneven. The book moves fast, but sometimes at the cost of character depth or smoother transitions between big moments.

That said, the main character was compelling enough to carry the weight. You want to root for him, even when he’s clearly messing up. And Ron Dwelling definitely has a talent for creating tension. I just wished the emotional payoff had a little more subtlety, or that the side characters felt less like plot devices.

All in all, The Last Chance is still a decent read, especially if you're into redemptive thrillers with a darker tone. It’s not perfect, but there’s enough here to make it worth your time, just go in expecting a few bumps along the way.

I didn’t really enjoy this book, remaining unsure through the whole thing about why the story being told? What was the genre? The first chapter starts with multiple references to Stone; in the first 11 sentences (the number on page 1 on my kindle app) the name Stone is mentioned in 7 of them. I actually did jump a few sections of the book as I just could not get into it. I am glad other readers seemed to have enjoyed it as I do think some of it was well written.

I was super excited to get this one, I just feel like this one fell a bit flat for me. It had so much more potential!

Beautifully written, compelling and thought provoking, I was drawn by the cover and blurb, not one I would normally read but I’m glad I did, im recommending this to my book club as I’d love to chat about this to others, thanks to net galley for the advanced copy.

I am a massive thriller fan and although this is what this book was classed as, I'm not entirely sure I'd agree! I don't actually know what I'd class it as to be fair, more of a dodgy criminal story about shady guys always trying to make their next quick buck lol.

That aside, would I have read it if I hadn't believed it to be a thriller? No! Am I sad that I read it even through it didn't really turn out to be the kind of thriller I was into? Also no! I really enjoyed it.

The writing style is good and the narrative just flows. The chapters are quite short and they keep you wanting more. There are a lot of characters! A lot! But they are all well written and given individual personalities and characteristics. I actually really got sucked into this one and found it quite interesting the whole complexity of buying properties to renovate or having to deal with shady workmen or them not having the same vision as you do etc etc. It just all felt really realistic and accurate of the process which I loved! I

It's all bit, the old school gangster with the heart of gold type?! There are a few twists and turns and secrets being brought to light and people being betrayed and so on and so forth.........I can't really decide what genre to even put it in but all I can say is, it's a really good book woth a nice, original story and I loved reading it!!!