The Last One Home by Victoria Helen Stone is a thriller novel. The story in The Last One Home is one that is told by changing the point of view between the characters and also by alternating between a past timeline and the current timeline.Lauren Abrams has always had a rocky relationship with her somewhat erratic mother but now she is choosing to leave her for good. Lauren’s mother had once put her husband, Lauren’s father, behind bars but after all that time a serial killer admitted to the ver...

Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope! This is not what I expected and yearned for reading!I don’t know how quick I clicked the request button when I see Victoria Helen Stone’s name and find titles section on NetGalley! And as you may imagine, I gloated and gathered my friends to celebrate with early happy hour 9:30 am in the morning. I couldn’t wait to jump into her new thriller even though its blurb was a little evasive. I read 100 pages, nothing intriguing happened so I thought this was slow burn thriller...

3.5 rounded up. Part of the story follows Lauren Abrahams who moves into her ninety year old grandmother’s house in the Sacramento Valley with the intention of caring for her after she suffers a stroke. Her grandmother offers her the house on very favourable terms and Lauren sets about a renovation project. The second part takes the narrative back to 1985 to Lauren’s pregnant mother Donna who is being made false promises by Lauren’s father Michael .....I like the premise of the book and it’s ver...

I was initially so excited for this book, then dreaded it after seeing some lackluster reviews. I didn’t necessarily dread reading it, but I rarely felt the excitement. Years ago, Lauren’s father was in prison for murder. He was released when she was 10, after a serial killer confessed to the crime. Lauren was thrilled, except for the fact that her own mother’s testimony put her father in jail in the first place. Now, years later, Lauren has just moved into her paternal grandmother’s home. Her g...

I was so excited to read this book, because I am an unrepentant superfan of Victoria Helen Stone’s Jane Doe. Stone is one of those authors whose tone always resonates with me and whose writing usually always keeps me interested, with lots of fun description, unlikable but interesting female characters, great narrative voices, and sneaky feminist humor.So I was a little (ok, very) bummed that I didn’t love this one. The premise is a good one: Lauren is moving back to the family home after a fract...

I was so excited to read the newest Victoria Helen Stone book, and the first chapter didn't disappoint me - much.Why did I get the impression, as I was plodding through the remaining chapters, that this was an old manuscript that was dusted off and given a quick edit to take advantage of the demand for new titles during these COVID Times?The main character, Lauren, comes across as vapid and directionless, and she really only grew a spine towards the end of the story. The plot went in so many dir...

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 tee...

Okay, admittedly, this is not what I was expecting from the author who brought us the insanely delightful sociopath, Jane Doe. Having said that, I read many of the reviews before I started this book, so I didn't go in expecting a thriller or suspense story. I went in expecting a family drama...and that's essentially what I got. And it's not a bad story. Not at all. I think folks are simply being thrown off by the synopsis, and the author's previous works. Told from two points of view, Lauren'

Lauren is called back to her childhood home which is full of wonderful memories of her father (Michael) and grandmother. Unfortunately, Lauren's life wasn't always so rosey. When she was very young, her mother Donna testified that Michael confessed to a murder. He was incarcerated until Lauren was 10 years old, at which point he was exonerated as the real killer came forward. Over the years, Lauren and Michael built a solid relationship while Lauren slowly pulled away from her lying mother. Year...

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 reve...

I really enjoyed this book. It has a 3.49 rating and I can understand why. This author wrote Jane Doe and it was wildly successful and while The Last One Home has a mystery to be solved I would not call this a thriller, it is more of a domestic drama. The book is in my favourite format....two timelines from two points of view. While some readers don't like this style I LOVED it, it was like two stories in one with a climax that converges the two at the end. And what a satisfying co

A pulsating family thriller filled with deception, a dark past, secrets and betrayal. This was a gripping read that takes some time to play out but it is all worth the wait. Who knows what to believe in this psychological mind twister that has you on your toes until the very last page.

I LIKED IT.Normally when I read a book with a dual time line, I tend to prefer one storyline over the other one. I kept going back and forth between being really invested in Lauren, to being even more interested in Donna... and then a couple of scenes later, I'd be riveted to the other! This is a slow burn of a domestic suspense/drama that really just fit into what I needed to read right now. If you've only read the author's Jane Doe's series so far, then don't expect this to be as fast paced an...

It was a surprise ending. I wasn't expecting but it was indeed a razor-sharp twist in the end. Easy read. Took me two days to finish. Or because it's not too busy at the hotel due to the holidays. I've been reading a lot of psychological thrillers lately and it's mostly husband and wife. To change it a little bit, I chose this book because it's focused on the mother and daughter. This is the fifth book I've read by the author Victoria Helen Stone. The first book was Evelyn, After to which I own

Gripping and relentless, THE LAST ONE HOME stalks you like the serial killer within its pages: you know danger is right around the corner, but you don’t know when it’ll strike. And just when you think you have the story figured out, Victoria Helen Stone rips the rug right out from under your feet. Highly recommended!

THE LAST ONE HOMEBY VICTORIA HELEN STONEThis is the first book that I have read from this acclaimed author who is well known for her Jane Doe series that a lot of people liked so I thought I would give her a try. I didn't like this slow moving tale about a man named Michael who we hear the story narrated by both his daughter Lauren and her mother Donna moving back and forth in time alternating in time periods and Donna voice and Lauren's. This was not a thriller and the story only picked up mome...