This is the story of Hannah who marries a man with a daughter who isn't accepting Hannah. Then, the man disappears and Hannah must help the daughter and herself try to find out what happened to the man.

3.5 stars rounded up! This was a good classic mystery novel. This book was not a super suspenseful thriller, keep you on the edge of your seat book. The storyline unfolds more slowly taking some time to get to the plot. It has a lot of family drama added in. I enjoyed it with the exception of a couple parts that were too slow for me. The ending was bittersweet and anti-climatic. I was hoping for a bit better of an ending. Overall, a good read and I would recommend.

Thank you Simon & Schuster and Net Galley for the ARC in return for my honest review.

To be honest, I almost gave up on this one. It started really slow, in my opinion. However, once we got to Austin, I felt like the plot and pace picked up much more. This is obviously much different than Dave's previous works and I am not upset about it. Her writing is fantastic and I highly enjoyed this one.

Published: May 4, 2021
Simon & Schuster
I received a copy of this book for free, and I leave my review voluntarily.

Laura Dave is the international bestselling author of Hello, Sunshine, Eight Hundred Grapes, The First Husband, The Divorce Party, and London Is the Best City in America. Her novels have been published in eighteen countries and optioned as major motion pictures. Dave’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, Glamour, Self, Redbook, and Cosmopolitan. She lives in Santa Monica. 

“One line, its own puzzle.”

Hannah learned early in life that people could and will disappoint you. After being abandoned by her mother, Hannah grew up under the creative and loving eyes of her grandfather. So when Hannah meets the dashing and somewhat elusive Owen, she is hesitant and willing to let herself love him. And his daughter. When Owen goes missing, Bailey becomes the most crucial aspect of Hannah’s world. Bailey's safety and happiness. As the two women try and figure out what happened to Owen and start uncovering past secrets, Hannah realizes the only thing that matters to her is Bailey.

Holy buckets. It has been a while since a new to me author has written something that has captured me the way this book did. From the very first sentence, I was hooked. I couldn’t read this novel quickly enough.

There are so many significant aspects to this intricately twisted book. Hannah is such a complicated yet straightforward character. I love that she comes from a reasonably sad backstory. Her mother left her as a child, and the lesson Hannah took from that is to become observant. To notice the details.

When Hannah meets and ultimately falls in love with Owen, Hannah understands that he comes with nonnegotiable baggage in the form of a daughter. Hannah realizes that if she and Bailey are going to have any relationship, it must be mainly on Bailey’s terms. And Hannah embraces that. She does not try to force herself into Bailey’s world, and Hannah doesn’t placate Bailey with pretty lies. Hannah is always open and honest, and understanding.

Looking at Owen and what he represents is a little darker. We want to like him, want to believe he is a good guy. A doting my father who lost his wife tragically. A guy who has fallen in love with someone and is getting his “second chance at love.” But it’s much more complicated than that.

I cannot rave enough about how clever this book is. The way it is written, the manner the story is told. It leaks intelligence. As I rode through the pages, getting more intertwined with the details, I found myself captivated.

The plot is brilliant. The characters are sheer perfection. And there are so many twists and turns, and you will never guess what will happen next. Nobody is what they seem, yet everyone is what they seem.

In an incredibly complicated situation, one thing remains clear. Hannah wasn’t chosen at random. As Hannah discovers more and more about the past, she focuses harder on the future. Bailey’s future.

I could not put this book down. I started screaming at my bookish best friend about three chapters in. I demanded she preorders this one right away. And I stand by that. This is a book that will hit every emotion and take you through such a wild ride.

The journey is twisted. The players all have their motives. But one thing is sure, Hannah will do whatever possible to protect Bailey. A mother’s love knows no bounds. There isn’t enough darkness to prevent the light that true love shines upon a person.

Our past shapes us into who we will become. And our choices define us.

My first Laura Dave book is in the running for one of the top ten reads of 2021. With a few chapters giving you a glimpse into the past, you are quickly emersed into the life of Owen, Bailey and Hannah; and you slowly learn that what seems like a typical blended family might be anything but. My favorite character was Hannah. The grace, patience and empathy she displays and the strong desire to protect Bailey that seems to come without hesitation, had me falling in love with her almost immediately. There were some really intriguing twist and turns that kept me guessing and completely sucked in. If you're a Laura Dave fan or love a good suspense/mystery, you should add The Last Thing He Told Me to your TBR!
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Thank you NetGalley & Edelweiss for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Review on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CNr1sNlrZ50/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

This is a good old-fashioned mystery--no high-speed car chases, no unreliable narrators, and really no last minute revelations. It is just a step by step building of an answer to a question and along the way as an added bonus the forging of a relationship between two disparate people that became a family. The characters are who they seem to be (I kept expecting the US marshal to be the "bad guy", but he was what he was and in a way it was refreshing to be able to trust the character of the characters. My only disappointment in the book was the ending, I think the characters saw it as a good ending, but I think I wanted the perfect ending--the fairy tale ending byt Ms. Dave gave the reader a real ending.

This was one gripping novel! Wow!!

Hannah's husband Owen disappears one day just as his boss is arrested by the FBI for fraud. Around the same time she receives a note saying "protect her" meaning to protect his teenage daughter, Bailey. But we don't know who the note is from or why she is asked to do it.

Hannah sets out to try to figure out the mystery of who her husband really is and where has he gone. The story alternates between the past and present day.

Overall, I really enjoyed this the novel it was well written and completely engaging. I can imagine many people will enjoy it. The ending was just perfect! Highly recommend.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This wasn't my typical read, but the cover intrigued me and I decided to take a chance on it. I'm so glad I did. What a great story!

Fun, fast-paced thriller - really enjoyed it! This will be a wonderful summer beach read. The writing was great and the chapters were short with catchy titles. Lately I’ve been reading so many books that have that Scooby Doo kind of “and I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for you meddling kids” kind of endings...too tightly knit, almost silly stretches. This has none of that schlock. It was pure fun - I didn’t know where it was going or how it would end and I cared about the characters. Brava!

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for this book - I’m so grateful. Go get it!

Thank you NetGalley for my arc. This was packed full of twists and secrets. One day you come home to your husband disappearing and realizing you knew nothing about the person you were married to. I just couldn’t put this one down.

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave is a great read! I had absolutely no clue what I was starting when I picked this one up and I had never read this author before, either. This story will grip you with the prologue! Then it goes on to establish a solid character background with part one and completely captivates the reader for parts two and three. I was drawn into this story and couldn't put it down until I knew the answer to the mystery.

This is a compelling mystery with a very touching and sincere subplot exploring the relationship between a step mother and daughter. The tension is realistic and palatable. There were parts I had "figured out" or "predicted" but that did not take away from my enjoyment of the story at all.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read and would recommend it to anyone looking for a mild thriller with a great mystery.  
Thank you Netgalley, Simon & Schuster, and Laura Dave for a #gifted copy of this book.

I wasn't familiar with Laura Dave before this book. It's a good thing, because most of what she has previously written wouldn't be books I'd normally pick up (tending toward romance and what is often referred to as "chick lit" - which is a term I hate) and then I might have missed this one...

Picture it. Your spouse doesn't come home. You have no idea what is going on. All you have is a note sent via an unknown messenger with two words: Protect Her. It is a wild premise and the unraveling of it all is even wilder than the premise suggests. But yet despite this, it felt believable and possible in a way that made the hairs on my arms stand on end.

This was an excellent story about trust and what it means to know someone. It was full of twists and turns and more secrets, lies, and misdirection than any spy tale. The writing is excellent. The characters are fully relatable, even when they're at their worst. The revelations felt natural and organic within the developing plot. Everything about it was spot-on.

I do hope she writes more in this vein - and may even give her lighter fare a look now, based on the strength of her writing and characterizations here.

What happens when you husbad disappears and you discover that everything you knew about his past was a lie? I liked this one. It was told in a non-linear timeline which helped build the story and the suspense. The relationship between the teenage girl and the stepmother was completely believable. Recommended.

The Last Thing He Told Me is a novel about love, family, the suspense of an unknown past, and the choice made for an unforeseeable future.

Hannah relocates from her life in NYC to a houseboat in Sausalito with the man she loves, Owen, and his teenaged daughter, Bailey, the only child of a deceased mother. When Owen disappears, Hannah and Bailey begin their journey to discover Owen’s secret past.

I was pulled in from the very beginning of this family’s story and found it very difficult to put the book down once I started reading it. It is truly one of the best books I have read in a long time.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the advanced reader copy for my honest review. All thoughts are my own.

#TheLastThingHeToldMe
#NetGalley
#SimonandSchuster

Tense edge of your seat thriller. When Hannah gets a note from her husband that says “protect her,” she knows the note pertains to her step daughter Bailey, but she doesn’t know why. When her husband doesn’t come home and the police are at the door, she knows her beloved husband is on the run, but she has no idea the reason behind it. As the story unravels and Hannah tries desperately to find her husband, she knows it’s not just a case of embezzlement, but something much more dangerous. This book is full of suspenseful twists and turns, impossible to put down until the very climactic end. Would give way more than 5 stars if possible.

This was the first book in a while that I stayed up late to finish, and that's a beautiful feeling. I connected with the characters despite not having a ton of development, and the unique storyline had me hooked right from the start. I'm not sure how realistic the plot is, but it wasn't so far-fetched that I couldn't suspend any reservations and enjoy it anyway. Laura Dave never disappoints!

(4.5 stars rounded up) Captivating, suspenseful, and fast paced. I didn’t want to put this book down! This is a story about love, trust, and family perfectly intertwined into a mystery.

People are deeply complex. And while you may know someone at their very core…the absolute essence of what makes them who they are, it’s also very possible you don’t have a clue what created that core. One day Hannah and Owen have a beautiful life together that they both love. The very next day, he’s gone. And all he tells her is to protect his daughter, Bailey.

This was exactly the right book for me at exactly the right time because I loved everything about it--- the love, the mystery, the danger, the bratty teenager, and even the longing I felt as the book ended (so much longing). The writing kept me captivated as I chased down the truth and became deeply connected to Hannah and Bailey. The flashbacks gave perspective and depth to all of the relationships and helped to paint a picture of Owen. The holes in the storyline (ie: a 3-4 year old’s memory being the bedrock for the entire unraveling of the truth) didn’t bother me. I was so invested in the characters and story itself that I overlooked any improbabilities. Maybe the most beautiful part of the story was Hannah’s determination to love and sacrifice for her stepdaughter even though Bailey is a quintessentially difficult teenage girl.

Dave reminds us that people are multi-layered. And often there is more grey area than the hardline black and white (good and bad) we tend to prefer.

Thank you Laura Dave, Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of this book.

A wife is left to pick up the pieces when her husband’s past catches up with him. When Hannah Hall opens the door, her life is totally upended. It isn’t a detective, a doctor, or a neighbor with bad news. It’s a twelve year old girl in a soccer uniform, with a note from Hannah’s husband Owen that says “protect her.” Hannah knows who the note refers to, but she can’t get in touch with Owen—he’s gone. This is a totally new direction for previous Summer Reading Guide author Laura Dave, and I think it’s her best work yet (I read it in one sitting!).

This is an example of suspense writing at its best and a great way for a writer that I've thoroughly enjoyed to break out into a different genre for her. I am so glad that I got an ARC from NetGalley - I jumped at a chance to read another Laura Dave book. Although a different genre, it still has Laura Dave's creative and unusual characters and settings. This book grips you from the first sentence to the end as we get clues as to why everything suddenly went wrong in the characters charmed lives. The book makes you wonder - how well do we ever know our significant others?

The book starts out with a mysterious 12 year old's arrival at Hannah Hall's front door. The 12 year old dressed in a soccer uniform hands a Hannah a piece of yellow legal paper that is the hammer that starts the crumbling of everything her life has been.

Set in charming Sausalito, across the bay from San Franscisco, the book features Hannah, who is adjusting to her new life living in a boat house on the bay. She is a wood turner who makes custom art pieces from wood following in the footsteps of her grandfather - the only parent she's really ever known. Hannah thrives amongst the artist community there after moving from New York following her marriage to Owen Michaels, a computer programmer. Hannah becomes a stepmother to Bailey, Owen's daughter, who greets her with total teenage angst. Hannah is patient and understanding with Bailey since Bailey like Hannah never had a relationship with her real mother.

Hannah reads the yellow handwritten note from Owen which has only one phrase on it: "Protect Her." Owen had given $20 to the soccer girl to deliver the note and said his cell phone was broken.

From there Hannah and Bailey are united in a journey to discover who Owen really is and what is going on with his life. Hannah is brilliant in sleuthing out clues as they travel to Austin and she and Bailey discover that they can rely on each other as Owen's past comes back to haunt them both.

The book has flashbacks that fill in the gaps in the story that are perfectly executed - they are gentle throwbacks that give us clues. There are several minor characters that also are well placed to get us going and are really well-written. The book is fast-paced with just the right amount of details to keep you guessing. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was kept on the edge of my seat through the whole story. I also recommend Eight Hundred Grapes and Hello Sunshine by Laura Dave - they are lighter reads that are equally well written.

Protect Her

A story of Mystery and suspense. Hannah meets and marries Own and moves to California from New York to be with him and his teenage Daughter Bailey. Hannah and Bailey have a hard time adjusting with each other, but they both love Owen , husband to Hannah and father to Bailey.

One day Owen does not come home from work. Then Hannah gets a note from Owen that simply says "Protect her". Then she hears of Owen's boss being arrested for fraud. When Bailey comes home from school with a satchel full of money that her father left in her locker with a note to her Hannah knows that she must get to the bottom of things and figure out what is going on.

As Bailey and Hannah work on the mystery of her father's disappearance they learn that Owen is not who he said he was and that Bailey's life has been a fabrication. In working to follow Owen's instructions and protect Bailey Hannah must walk through the lion's den and make a deal with a very dangerous person.

This is a good read, it will keep you engaged and keep you guessing. Lots of twists and turns and an ending you would never guess. I would recommend this to anyone that likes a good mystery.

Thanks to Laura Dave, Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of the book for an honest review.