Synopsis: Kayla Carter is moving into her newly built house at the end of Hockley Street. She is a little trepidatious about moving as her husband died in the house after a tragic accident and there are odd occurrences that have taken place around the house and the surrounding land. Ellie Hockley has returned to Hockley Street after leaving forty years ago after her summer working with SCOPE, the Summer Community Organization and Political Education project that involved helping the African American community to get registered to vote after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This story is told in dual timelines as Kayla discovers secrets about her community and her house, and as

Ellie’s story is revealed. The two woman meet and help each other move past the secrets of their community.
What I liked: I love a historical fiction novel that reveals aspects of history for which I was not aware. I had no idea that students from the Northern US came to counties in the South and educated and assisted the African American community to register to vote. I also loved that Ms. Chamberlain subtly educated the importance of this right to vote. I also enjoy a romance that is challenged. In this story, the romance is pretty much doomed from the beginning but I still rooted for the two involved and was devastated at the ending.
I also liked in this story that Ms. Chamberlain’s portrayal of the “heroes” and the “villains” was very gray shaded. For the storyline set in the mid-1960s, the characters I thought were good turned out to have ingrained biases that make the reader question their motives, their actions, and the results.
What I didn’t like: The interaction between the students from the North and students from the South was very stereotyped. Kayla’s story wasn’t the most interesting story to me. And the lady at the beginning that seems to be otherworldly at first was odd to me. I was able to get over that and everything did come together nicely at the end.
The reveal and resolution was very satisfying to me. There were plotlines I didn’t see coming. There were character reveals that shocked me. That makes a very good book to me. This wasn’t the best Diane Chamberlain book I’ve ever read, and I’ve read quite a few, but overall, very true to Ms. Chamberlain and a good read that will teach the reader a lot about our history, get the reader googling quite a bit as it’s read, and make the reader question our own biases and understand how much more work is needed for racial equality.
Thank you to the #netgalley and #stmartinspress for the advanced e-copy of #thelasthouseonthestreet. I look forward to Ms. Chamberlain’s next book.

In typical Diane Chamberlain form, this is an easy 5 ⭐️. I loved the dual timelines, multiple POVs and the historical aspects of this book. It helped to show just how hard it was in the south in the 1960s for the people in the civil rights movements. And of course, like most of her book, knew just how to tug at your heartstrings. Kayla, Ellie and Win will be with me for a long, long time.

I'm grateful for receiving an ARC of the Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain. I loved the concept of the book blending the turbulent times during the Civil Rights movement of 1965 and more contemporary times of 2010. The writing was exceptional as you were effortlessly pulled into the lives and events of the characters. I found myself learning so much more about the 60's in the South and the SCOPE movement. It was informative and eye-opening. I'm a huge fan of Ms. Chamberlain's books and commend her on dealing with this sensitive and controversial issue that affected families in the 60s only to still impact their lives in this new century.

I've read and enjoyed several books by this author, but for some reason, it does often take me quite a while to get into the books and sort out the dual timelines and what exactly is going on. This one was no exception that way but I'd say it took me even longer than usual to catch the thread of the story. It was also extremely sad from the get-go, which I suppose is the case with a few of her other books as well but it hit me hard and I didn't feel a strong desire to pick it up and immerse myself in the story. I blazed through the second half on audio on a long car ride, and I am ultimately glad I read it, but my experience with it wasn't as gripping as it would be for some people.

I read Diane Chamberlain's 2020 book Big Lies in a Small Town and I thought it was so well done! I was thrilled to receive a review copy of this book - her latest - The Last House on the Street!

This author does such a great job weaving in historical fiction with current day narratives and I enjoyed it very much! It's also a timely novel because voter suppression and the national election process are still under attach...LONG after President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Oprah did an episode on her talk show with the Freedom Riders years and years ago, and I intend to rewatch that episode after finishing this book!

This book is also an important read - shedding light and insight on previous generations views on race and integration and equality in comparison with the current generation. This book, while fictional, also indicates the gap on the work that may still be yet to come, while allowing a compelling fictional storyline with wonderful characters all along the way.

In a book spanning two time periods, Chamberlain takes us to North Carolina where in 1965, the college-aged daughter of the town’s druggist becomes involved in the Civil Rights movement and getting Blacks registered to vote. Ellie’s family is furious that she would do this. Her involvement with a young black man gets him killed and she ends up in San Francisco, only to return 40 some years later to care for her ailing brother and her fragile mother. In 2010, Kayla, a recent widow moves into their dream home, built on property bordering that of Ellie’s family. Kayla is constantly facing actions which are attempting to force her to move. She becomes friends with Ellie and is confronted not only with the fact that her father and Ellie were almost an engaged couple in the 1960’s but she and Ellie come face to face with the history of the local Ku Klux Clan and who was involved in the death of Ellie’s Black friend. Taunt and fast-paced, the reader becomes involved in a gripping story of how the past impacts the future.

Set in between two different times in history - 1965 and 2010, with two strong characters, Ellie Hockley and Kayla Carter. Ellie Hockley in 1965 was at a pivotal time in her life and in history. The Civil Rights movement was in full swing. She looked up to her Aunt and her Aunt saw something in Ellie that she knew she could not sit idly by when the black community had no voice. There was somethings that I learned from this and I will share. The Black community were frightened to register to vote. They had to be able to read and pass a test before they could. Ellie had a relationship and a future in College but took a different path of the civil rights movement. The program was called SCOPE which stood for Summer Community Organization and Political Education Project. Where white students along with black students would go to small communities in the South to register voters, inform them of their rights and political leaders. Ellie was strongly discouraged by her family and boyfriend to volunteer for the summer but she forged ahead and was accepted in the program.

Meet Kayla Carter who in 2010 just built a house down from Ellie's family. It is filled with history, mystery, and evil. Her own husband was tragically killed at the house site before they could move in has a family. Kayla is forging ahead with the move because of her husband but is warned by a crazy woman who threatened her days before she moves in.

The narration is told in the setting of time between the two women and how their stories are tied. It is a large build up but the reward is there. A book with a thrilling aspect along with history, and a well thought of plot.

A special thank you to St. Martins Press and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

The past and present come together in this heart-wrenching, dual timeline novel by Diane Chamberlain. When Kayla finally moves into the house which she and her late husband designed, she is unnerved when strange events cause her to have second thoughts about living there. Neighbor Ellie lived on the same street in her childhood until unspeakable events the summer she was 19, caused her to move across the country. Now she is back to take care of her ailing mother and brother. Secrets from the past come to light and explain the mystery at the last house on the street. The book provides a good history lesson on the efforts to register black voters in the 1960's, and the efforts of the KKK and others to prevent that from happening.

4.5⭐ - this book was intense and well done! I liked how it was obvious from the start that the past and current storyline were connected, but that it took a while for everything to fall into place. I loved learning about the history of the Scope project and voter registration. Such an emotional read...

1965
Ellie is a pharmaceutical student from a small town in North Carolina when she decides to spend the summer working on the SCOPE Project, a project announced by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that recruits white college students to prepare African Americans for voting once LBJ signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Ellie faces much disapproval from her family and friends but she goes to work for the Project anyway. Her family continues to dissuade Ellie from participating in this project; but as Ellie gets involved in demonstrations and dangerous activities, she disregards the desires of her family. Soon the situation escalates and Ellie breaks from her family and moves across the country, not returning until 45 years later.

2010
Kayla, a recent widow, and her young daughter move into a new house, down the street from Ellie’s old family home. Kayla’s house is the culmination of a dream she held with her husband - to design and build their dream house together. But without her husband, Kayla no longer wants to live there.

Determined to make the best of things, Kayla tries to appreciate her new house. But someone doesn’t want her there. There are mysterious happenings and threats. Secrets from the past come forward to endanger Kayla and her daughter and she is tempted to give up and run.

𝙈𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨: Going into this story I was expecting more of a domestic thriller. It takes awhile before the the conflict and issues come to a head. The author spends quite a bit of time on Ellie’s story but I found myself more curious about Kayla. Though the author does a great job weaving dual timelines and points of view, there is not much interaction between Ellie and Kayla until the end.

My sincere thanks to NetGalley for my gifted copy! My thoughts are my own.

Absolutely loved this book!! A little bit of history, politics, racism, family and truth. When a southern white female makes the decision to join a group educating black people about registering to vote in 1965 North Carolina, her life gets turned on it’s head.
Follow different lives from 1965 - 2010 to see how pasts can be intertwined and deceiving. Segregation, KKK, voting rights, racism, family secrets, interracial friends, it’s all here! Incredible story, great for bookclubs, but be ready for uncomfortable and possible surprising conversations.

I definitely want to read more of Diane's books. For me this story, is just so sad about that time in our history. I loved Kayla and Ellie. The story did a great job of bringing the timeline's together, but keeping the reader interested by slowly showing the connection between the two.

The Last House on the Street made me think about how the world hasn't changed enough in 50 years. The two women are a generation apart but their stories mesh well. Good story and I recommend it highly.

The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain is the story of two women's, Ellie and Kayla, stories, one from 1965 and one from 2010. Their stories intersect when both women meet in Round Hill, North Carolina's new development, Shadow Ridge Estates. Full of deep, dark secrets, the two women find themselves connected in a search for answers and justice dealing with a horrible tragedy from the past. This well-written mystery will have you guessing until you reach the end of the book.

The Last House on the Street invokes the stories of two female protagonists, separated by a span of decades, to underscore the dark legacy of racism that ripples through the nation to this day.
The Last House on the Street opens in the year 2010, as a rather unpleasant, anonymous visitor darkens the door of Kayla Carter's architectural office. The visitor, who calls herself Ann Smith, warns that she is kept awake at night, "thinking about killing someone." Kayla has recently lost her husband in a tragic accident, and Ann Smith reveals that she knows far too much about Kayla's life, and the extraordinary home that she and her husband designed in the neighborhood of Shadow Ridge in Round Hill, North Carolina.
A second narrative ensues, some 45 years prior, in the same small town: that of Ellie Hockley, a young idealist who hopes to participate in the SCOPE (Summer Community Organization and Political Education, see Beyond the Book) program that facilitates the education of potential Black voters in anticipation of the voting rights bill under President Johnson. Seemingly unrelated, the two narratives slowly begin to overlap as Kayla meets Ellie, now in her 60s, and learns that she was once romantically involved with Kayla's father, Reed. Reed and Ellie have clearly drifted apart, and Kayla is left to wonder what dark secrets the two refuse to reveal. Or is the town itself that hopes to bury its past?
Initially, Kayla's narrative proves more engrossing as she becomes victim to strange events that begin with Ann Smith's visit and include the temporary disappearance of her three-year-old daughter Rainie, as well as the defacement of her new home. In contrast, the initial pace of Ellie's story feels a bit plodding, as it provides rudimentary exposition of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. For readers that have even a passing familiarity with the era, this history lesson may feel didactic and unnecessary. However, Ellie's narrative soon gains momentum as she is thrown into the thick of racially charged protests. Meanwhile, Kayla's trajectory begins to feel a tad fantastical: Her daughter's kidnapper leaves her in a treehouse on their property, someone hangs dead squirrels from the trees, and the window that is unlocked according to her elaborate security system is, of course, unlucky number 13. Yet in time, the two narratives begin to work in tandem and the overall pace quickens, resulting in a deeper investment in the fates of both characters.
At times the symbolism feels obvious; we can assume bad things will happen at a place called Shadow Ridge. Additionally, there are more than a few serendipitous coincidences: Ellie's return home to Round Hill despite a decades-long absence just at the precise time Kayla builds her home on a fateful lot with a sordid history. Fortunately, Chamberlain builds her characters in such a way that provokes reader investment and the hope that good will prevail. Through her characters, Chamberlain explores how heavily racism was entrenched in communities throughout the nation during the civil rights movement, despite passed and impending legislation. She also underscores how racial lines triggered divisiveness even amongst immediate family members.
Chamberlain uses the SCOPE program as another lens with which to view the reverberation of racism, which infiltrates the nation and families alike to this day, as well as the importance of advocacy. Ellie Hockley's willingness to put herself on the front line of what her friends and family consider to be not "her fight" serves to remind that America was built on the premise that all Americans possess agency.
In fact, the characters who participate in the SCOPE program are most memorable of all as Chamberlain deftly captures their vacillating, complex perspectives on race, as well as the defined social order which often binds them from acting on their passions. Win, an earnest, serious young Black man, is particularly endearing and worthy of investment as he endures oppression while simultaneously steadfastly persevering towards the goals of the program. The Last House on the Street may initially seem like a quick beach read, but the moral and historical threads laced throughout are fodder for deeper discourse.

I thought the premise of The Last House on the Street was interesting, but it failed in execution, in my opinion. The characters were not interesting or well developed to me and I did not feel any motivation to keep reading to find out what happened to them or what their connection was.

Fantastic book! Diane Chamberlain once again did not disappoint. Thanks to Netgalley for receiving a digital ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

Diane Chamberlain is, by far, one of my favorite authors so it pains me to say that this one just did not live up to what I have come to expect. I mean, she knocked Dream Daughter out of the park and Last House on the Street just really fell flat.

I was engrossed in Ellie’s story, which is pretty much what kept me reading. I really loved learning about the SCOPE project, and I was definitely invested on how it was all going to play out for Ellie (although it was pretty obvious). The current storyline of Kayla was just, well, boring. And it seemed to be there just to connect Ellie’s story to the present rather than standing on its own as a real story line.

I am clearly in the minority here as there are tons of 4- and 5-star reviews, so I urge you to form your own opinion. However, for me, having read so many of Chamberlain’s books, this one just didn’t do it for me.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for my copy of this book via NetGalley

Thank you to the publisher for my review copy. All opinions are my own.

Look. I am a die hard Diane Chamberlain fan. This one though. I put it down. There was not a defining moment, it did not keep my interest. Sadly.

I am still planning on reading Diane anytime she has a book drop. This one...was not for me.

Synopsis excerpt from Goodreads:
"A novel of shocking prejudice and violence, forbidden love, the search for justice, and the tangled vines of two families."

This book is a dual timeline from 1965 in North Carolina to 2010 in the same place. It follows Ellie(1965) and Kayla(2010). I really preferred the 1965 story. The 2010 was drawn out and slightly unrealistic.

I went in to this one pretty blind (seems to be a normal thing for me). I don't think you lose anything knowing more about it.

This one broke my heart.

Thanks to @netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.