Member Reviews
This was a very enjoyable and fast read. The characters were very interesting and lots of fun plot twists that I enjoyed. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy in exchange for review.
4.5/5
Great beach read! Full of twists and turns and secrets. Kate’s mother is murdered and there are a lot of suspects. Kate’s best friend from long ago comes to be with her and ends up trying to help Kate solve the murder. The ending was carefully crafted with no loose threads. Many thanks to Harper Collins Publishers and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.
The Last Time I Saw you started out strong and grabbed my attention from the first page...unfortunately the last 2/3 of the book were a let down.
Dr. Kate English’s affluent mother Lily has been murdered and now the killer is targeting Kate. Kate’s previously estranged best friend and best selling crime author, Blaire has returned for Lily’s funeral and is now staying with Kate and her family in the wake of the tragedy. Blaire has also vowed to help Kate find Lily’s killer. As the killer continues to taunt Kate by sending her threatening emails, texts and nasty surprises, she begins to question everyone and everything around her.
This book had a lot of promise. I found the beginning strong and I was interested in figuring out “whodunnit”. However, there were so many plot holes and inconsistencies that I just couldn’t ignore. The second half of the book was repetitive and slow. I also didn’t find it plausible that a wife would suspect her husband of murdering her mother but at the same time allow him to continue living in their home with their child. Lastly, one of the two major plot twists could be seen from a mile away. I don’t want to give away any spoilers but the ending felt rushed and it seemed as though the authors didn’t have a solid conclusion in mind, so they decided to give us several loosely tied ends.
I think some readers will enjoy this book, especially if they’re newer to the thriller genre. However, if you read a lot of mystery/thrillers, I’d skip this one.
Thank you to Netgalley, HarperCollins, and Liv Constantine for allowing me to read and review this arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Fans of The Last Mrs. Parrish will love this book. It begins with Kate trying to cope with the unsolved murder of her beloved mother, who doesn’t seem to have an enemy in the world and was loved by all. As Kate begins to receive threats directed to her and her daughter, she begins to question and suspect everyone in her life. With full time security inside and outside her home, the threats continue and become more personal, Kate realizes that the threat is someone trusted and near to her and her family. When her mother was killed Kate had separated from her husband at the realization that he maybe having an affair, but now for safety reasons he has moved back in to protect his family. Friends new and old are under suspicion in this taut psychological thriller. Excellent, fast paced read.
I read a lot of thrillers, and I am usually pretty good at suspending my disbelief, but this book really stretched my ability to do so. It’s an okay read, but honestly just a little too implausible and inconsistent for me to really recommend it. None of the characters were particularly likeable—which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, to be clear, but it made it harder for me get invested in the story.
If you enjoyed Liv Constantine's "The Last Mrs. Parrish" you will certainly enjoy her latest, The Last Time I Saw You. From page one, readers will be hooked. With interesting, wealthy characters who live lavishly, and an increasingly suspenseful plot, this is one book that it impossible to put down.
The Last Time I Saw You exudes mystery from the very first page. The reader is immediately thrust into the exclusive and extravagant world of “old money” as a murder within high-society creates a spiral of events. This story is one that begs to be read quickly and I finished it within a couple days. I love a good whodoneit! Just when I thought I had it all figured out, the twist set in right on cue and served me a piece of humble pie. I totally had it all wrong. I love when that happens, though. This is a perfect quick read for travel or lounging poolside this summer. Add it to your chick-lit list for a fun read! 3.5/5 stars rounded up to 4.
When a customer comes up to me in my store and asks me for a recommendation, 9 out of 10 times I will recommend Last Mrs. Parrish. When this book was announced, I was excited and wanted to like this book so much. However, it really didn't do it for me. It was as if a completely different author wrote it. It felt like the author tried to hard to build her world by going in too much detail and over using the tool of repetition. For me, she failed in building any tension and she also didn't make me invested in any of the characters. The outcome felt forced to me, as it seems like she wanted to give you a juicy twist but did not remember how to. In the end, I was very disappointed in her way of writing, the storyline itself and the outcome.
This book was good. It kept my attention and was an easy read. However, the culmination of all the events at the end left me saying, "come on, already!" Simply put it went from good to absolutely, way too far fetched. I think if it were simplified, it would have made me appreciate the story line more and would have made it more believable. A fun thing I really liked about this book were the references to actual places and foods that Baltimore is famous for!
I just don't know where to go with this book. It definitely wasn't what I was hoping for or expecting. I don't really have a lot of words...
This book was good... slow, but good, for the first half. I wasn't sure exactly where it was going to take me. I didn't know who to trust. Who was sane. Who wasn't sane.
Then the second half of the book hits... I thought for sure things were going to really heat up... Unfortunately this is where the book took a dive for me. It lost me. It derailed. It completely spun out of control. I figured out pretty much everything really fast. And the twists were just so unbelievable and in left field, I felt highly disappointed.
I will be honest, I felt disconnected to these characters. I felt like I was in a fog, not quite able to see them in my head. They just didn't do a lot for me. Maybe that's because the book ended up so far out in left field that I just had a hard time digesting everything as a whole.
I won't let this deter me from reading future books from this author. I have loved her previous co-authored books. This book just wasn't it for me.
I loved this book- I really had no idea what the outcome was going to be so that kept me flipping pages as fast as I could to get to the end. It was a perfect version of a "thriller" for me where I wanted to know what would happen but didn't feel too freaked out by it. Lots of secrets, tons of lying and a collection of incredible characters. Perfect book to escape with- but just make sure you have the time because it's hard to put down! A great read and suspenseful from the get-go! Loved it. Thank you Netgalley, the authors and publisher for an ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
The Last Time I Saw You by Liv Constantine
3 Stars
In The Last Time I Saw You, we are introduced to Kate English, who's mother was just unexpectedly and brutally murdered under suspicious circumstances. It doesn't appear to be a home invasion or robbery - so why did the gracious and beloved Lily end up dead? And then when Kate herself begins to receive threatening and creepy messages, it definitely takes a personal turn. But who killed her mother and now is after her? And why?
Kate feels suspicious about everyone in her life, including at times her father and even her husband. It seems the only person she can fully trust is her reunited best friend, Blaire. The two of them try to solve the sudden and sinister mystery.
While the premise sounded promising, this story didn’t deliver and fell a little flat for me. There were so many characters and quite a lot of backstory that got a little hard to keep track of.
While some aspects of the ending did surprise me, I saw a lot of the twists coming and it didn’t really have that suspense or that “gotcha” moment where everything gets turned around. It’s a little like going down a river, there’s a few twists and turns, some of which you can see from a distance, some catch you a little off guard... but the rapids you were expecting never come. It’s still a nice ride, but not what you were hoping for.
Overall, I was engaged but the story just felt like it took a while to get where it wasn’t going, and it was hard to connect with the characters. It definitely had a sinister, whodunnit vibe though, and if that’s your thing or if you loved The Last Mrs. Parish, I would say read it and I hope you enjoy it more than I did!
So I start this review by saying I believe when you read a thriller, you need to somewhat suspend your sense of reality. If you do that, you will have fun. This book was definitely a fun read. I read it in two nights because I just wanted to know what would happen. Kate English seemingly has it all, But then her mother Lily is killed. An old friend from Kate's past returns, someone she has been estranged from for many years- Blaire Barrington. And thank goodness she has Blaire. It seems that there is no one else she can turn to . Kate becomes stalked by the killer, and begins to teeter on the edge of a breakdown. Secrets and lies are everywhere, and nothing is what it seems. Of course, the end is a bit far fetched. That is what I mean by you can't read a thriller and look for it to make perfect logical sense at the end. I don't want to give any spoilers.
I think you will have fun reading this book. It is a perfect escape. This is the kind of book I love to stay up late finishing, or read on a beach. I recommend this book for a fun, suspenseful escape from the everyday!
Another hit from Liv Constantine! The Last Time I saw You is a twisty thrill ride of cat and mouse....but who is the cat? Wonderfully flawed characters pull you into their lives and drive the film noir storyline.
2.5 stars
Well, I didn't have quite the same good reading experience with this one as I did with The Last Mrs. Parrish. I think I would have enjoyed this one more as a novella rather than full- length book because the longer the story dragged on, the less I cared if something bad happened to the main character.
Dr. Kate English is devastated when she finds out her mother Lily was brutally murdered. Even though Kate has been estranged from her childhood friend Blaire for years, she still reaches out to her for comfort and the two are quickly able to pick up their friendship. While the police are investigating the murder, Kate starts getting creepy text messages. It is soon apparent someone is out to destroy Kate's life and there is quite the list of suspects who might want her dead. The story goes back and forth between the perspectives of Kate and Blaire.
So the authors (Liv Constantine is a pen name) do set the stage for what should be an intriguing mystery. Unfortunately, I figured out a little too early into the story which direction it was going to go and was really disappointed when I turned out to be correct. I like being fooled rather than being right. Now, I will say I did not guess correctly the entire plot but enough of it that it did feel like a letdown when I finished the book.
Kate just became increasingly more and more annoying as the story progressed to the point I was actually rooting more against her than being on her side. I get that she was under stress but still lady, you got to treat people a little better.
This book just wasn't on the same level as the authors' previous novel. At times the writing veered into bad cheesy soap opera territory. At the core, there are many good elements of the story but I think it needed a little more tlc before going to publication. With that being said, I look forward to reading any future books the authors write as I do think they have talent even if this particular book wasn't a winner for me.
Thank you to the Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read an advance digital copy in exchange for an honest review!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this advance Kindle copy of The Last Time I Saw You by Liv Constantine. I enjoyed Ms. Constantine's last novel, The Last Mrs. Parrish, so I was looking forward to read her latest offering. The Last Time is Saw You is a worthy entry into the "Gone Girl," "The Girl on the Train" genre. The story of Dr. Kate English, her husband and their young daughter takes a turn for the worst when Kate's mother is discovered dead in her home. The list of suspects grows over time to include Kate's estranged best friend, Blaire. The plot takes several twists and turns and becomes a compulsive read. In the vein of any good suspense novel, I thought I knew who the real suspect was, but of course, did not. I knew it had to be too simple but it ended up quite frenetic. Kate questions her sanity - she can't trust her husband, her friend, the babysitter or even her own father. While the ending was a bit overblown, The Last Time I Saw You is a great beach read.
I was provided an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Wow... There aren't took many books that I don't finish, but this one was a struggle. I haven't read this author before, but since I had seen so much high praise for their writing I dove right into this one.
The plot has so many holes and inconsistencies. It's hard to give too many details of my dislikes without providing spoilers to the storyline.
I would be hesitant to try another book from the author.
I tried really hard to like this book, but I just couldn't connect with the characters, and I found the whole storyline implausible. I can suspend disbelief in thrillers, but I felt the ending was just a bunching of hand waving and tying up loose ends.
I imagine that lots of fans of The Last Mrs. Parrish will love this, but the in my opinion, the ending here was not nearly as satisfying.
Another addictive mystery from the authors of The Last Mrs. Parrish! This book has all of the same intrigue and scheming that I loved about their first, but the writing is even better and the plot is even more unpredictable. Very fun and fast-paced read as you simply have to find out who the murderer is and if they will strike again.
The Last Time I Saw You is a fast paced, tension filled, twisty psychological thriller. It's a creepy murder mystery and so much more. Nothing is as it seems at first. It’s a complex web of human behavior and traits. The relationships among the various characters are tense and add depth to the overall plot. I was fascinated by the lives and problems of the main characters. Overall, I thought this was a masterfully crafted novel that kept me on the edge of my seat. I enjoyed the writing style and look forward to seeing what this author comes up with next! My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for an advance copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.