This was the first book I have read by this author. I was surprised by the book. For a long time I wondered where it was going; it seemed to switched back between the two women but the purpose was unclear. During the second half of the book, it really took off and became a lot more compelling. There is a lot to contemplate and was a hard book to put down.

It's great to read about white women reckoning with their role in racism through dual timeline. Some parts didn't work for me, but overall, I think all white women read this book.

The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain is the story of two women, a generation apart, find themselves bound by a small town and a decades old mystery. In 1965, Eleanor “Ellie” Hockley grew up in the well-to-do town of Round Hill, North Carolina. Raised to be a proper Southern lady, she enrolled in college and is practically engaged to her bank manager boyfriend. Inspired by her late aunt, Ellie decides to spend her summer break as a volunteer with the SCOPE project helping register black voters. Forty five years later, Kayla Carter prepares to move into the dream home she and her husband designed in the new Shadow Ridge Estates development. As she moves in, a mysterious woman warns her against living there as the woods and lake behind the house are rumored to be haunted. Soon she’ll learn the dark history of the land and a long buried secret that someone will do anything to protect.
Diane Chamberlain is known for her intense dual timeline stories. She often features the dark and difficult racial history of the South and The Last House on the Street does not disappoint in that realm. Ms. Chamberlain does not shy away from the horrific, evil and vile acts done against the black community. It is a story that slowly builds to the climatic last chapters as the events seem to build and unravel at a fast pace. As I began to read, I was drawn more to Kayla and her story than Ellie. While I admire Ellie’s commitment to helping the black community gain their civil rights, I felt she was very naïve and even selfish. She was so determined in her desire to help that she plays down the potential violence and even the actual violence doesn’t open her eyes that she’s walking a dangerous line. Overall, I enjoyed the story. If you are a fan of Diane Chamberlain, you may enjoy The Last House on the Street.

The Last House on the Street is available in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook

Historical fiction isn't usually something that I read but I think I will be looking into the genre. This is also my first book by Diane. I will be reading more. I highly recommend you getting this book. It came out yesterday.

This book is so good. It is sad, heart warming, and shocking. This book hurt me. It's a horrifying and painful story. Keep some tissues handy. I cried more than once.

There is a dual timeline. We are going between 2010 and 1965. 1965 is right in the middle of segregation and the KKK was going strong. Ellie is right on the middle of it. Ellie in 2010 is still dealing with some of the pain from 1965.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC! ❤

What a thought provoking thriller!
Alternating between the timelines of modern day south and the 1960's civil rights movement, an intriguing plot unfolds as the narrative connects the two stories.
The historical portions are well researched, and each chapter moves fairly quickly keeping the suspense building and tension mounting.
A gripping tale of secrets, betrayal, romance, hatred and hope.
*Thank you St. Martin's Press, Diane Chamberlain and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

In dual timelines from 2010 back to 1965, The Last House on the Street is part historical fiction and part mystery, with some romance thrown in. When Kayla’s husband dies in a freak accident during the construction of their dream home, she’s rightfully apprehensive about moving into it. When she receives threats from a random woman telling her not to move in, she’s even more nervous. But what could be so bad about the last house on the street?

Wow. This is one heck of a book! Ellie’s time working with SCOPE to educate and register Black voters during the Civil Rights Era was absolutely fascinating. I loved her strong, principled, resilient character. She’s an idol. I wasn’t sure how Ellie and Kayla’s timelines were going to connect, but it was heartbreaking and perfectly overlapped. This is a really unique read - it was compulsive and distressing but also lovely, touching on an important period of history and showing how pervasive racism was and still is today. Absolutely worth the read.

This book most certainly shouldn't be passed over. Kayla and her daughter are doing their best to move on after a life shattering incident left her a widow. When she starts mingling with the people on her street, the past comes back to everyone involved and they find out they have more in common than they thought.

🎂Happy Book Birthday📗

Thanks to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the eARC of The Last House on the Street. I’ve read a few @diane.chamberlain.author books and she never disappoints.

Told from the point of view of two women in two different time frames, this story starts with a bang. Kayla (from 2010) is thoroughly creeped out by a prospective client at her place of business. A woman who knows too much of Kayla’s personal information and refuses to share her own identity. Creepy factor off the scales. 🥴😵‍💫

Kayla moves into her brand new home with her young daughter and quickly tries to befriend the only other resident(s) on her otherwise new construction block.

Ellie has flown back to North Carolina to take care of her ailing brother and aged mother. She hasn’t been home since 1965 and would preferred to have kept it that way. She meets Kayla, who helps her bring in groceries one day. It appears a new friendship might be forged between these women, despite their age difference.

The story then begins to flip between Ellie’s summer of 1965 and the 2010 timeframe. The women’s stories begin to interlace right up to the very end when all is revealed. And 🤯.

The story has a smidge of a slow burn vibe for me, but I wholehearted enjoyed it. I highly recommend this historical fiction novel and can’t wait to read more Diane Chamberlain in the future. I’ve got The Silent Sister and The Stolen Marriage on my TBR backlog, perhaps I should bump them up since I enjoy her writing style so much?

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Thank you NetGalley and Diane Chamberlain for letting me ARC read such a well researched and captivating read.

Two women. Two stories. Both on a collision course with the truth--no matter what that truth may bring to light--in Diane Chamberlain's riveting, powerful novel about the search for justice.

The Last House on the Street is one of the best historical fiction books I’ve read. So many emotions and so powerful! I had never heard of the Scope project so learning about it while getting acquainted with the cast of characters kept me flipping the page. I love when an author can keep my attention with a dual timeline but also be so descriptive I know what decade I’m in from page to page. Definitely one everyone should add to their 2022 TBR pile and bookshelf.

Stunning new novel by Diane Chamberlain! The past and present weave together in an engaging story of two women in a small southern town during the 60’s and today. The early times a fraught with social injustice and racial tensions. The current times hold mystery and secrets of the town. Highly recommend this 5 star book and any of Diane Chamberlain’s books. I’m a huge fan of her backlist so I was thrilled for the opportunity to read and review this one.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this book to exchange for an honest review.

Email: DaniReadsTooMuch@comcast.net
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You will be thinking about this novel for a long time to come.

A historical fiction novel with a hint of mystery thrown in will keep you turning pages late into the night. Expertly shifting between 1965 and 2010, Diane Chamberlain brings to light racial tensions and American politics. A cast of characters hiding their past and the truth from one another until the heart-breaking, gruesome truth finally comes out.

This is the first novel I have read by Diane Chamberlain, and I will definitely be reading more!

I want to thank Netgalley, and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This was my first read of this author, and i don't know why i waited so long. This book was touching and gave me all the feels, i couldn't put it down. Told with dual time lines, it was easy to follow and the characters pulled you into your lives. It really was so good.

I really enjoyed this historical fiction. Set against two timelines, an area of the Carolinas is coming to terms with the Civil Rights movement in the form of the Voting Rights Act in one timeline, while in present day (2021) a new tenant takes residence on a street riddled with that history. It seems many people do not want this housing development to take place, but why? While the mystery was fairly straightforward, I enjoyed the rich history and character development. I honestly found the 1960 timeline more interesting than the present day timeline.

"The Time is always right to do what is right." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Two women, two tragedies, a chance encounter and worlds collide!

1965

Ellie Hockley is a young woman who wants to stand by her convictions. She wants to do what is right. She applies to take part in the Scope project, trying to get people to register to vote. She will be living with black families, while she and her fellow volunteers try to get them to sign up and vote. It's not an easy feat. The Klan is not happy. They are burning crosses and doing worse, much worse. There are those in Ellie's life who are angry at her involvement, they do not like her decision and her involvement in Scope is affecting their lives.

2010

Kayla Carter's husband has died in an accident while building their dream home. Now she is a raising their four-year-old daughter alone. She has been told not to move in. In addition, strange things have been happening, dead animals are being left behind. When Kyla meets Ellie who has come back to town after being gone for 45 years, she begins to learn more about her neighbor, her father, and the land around her home.

I enjoyed how the dual timelines were told and how they intersected. Usually, while reading dual timelines, I tend to like one more than the other, but I have to say that I enjoyed both equally. I enjoyed how the timelines intersected and how the central mystery would unfold.

I was not disappointed. This was a well written and perfectly plotted book. I love a book that not only entertains me but educates and moves me as well. This book fit the bill. I was not aware of the
Scope Project or its purpose.

Diane Chamberlain never disappoints!

Riveting, well written and thought provoking.


Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

I loved this book. It was a beautifully written novel that led the reader thru one of the most turbulent times in history. Great characters, a fast moving plot that kept the reading engaged and entralled till the end. It was a nail bitter.

The Last House on the Street is another heart wrenching, heartwarming tale by wonderful author Diane Chamberlain. This is yet another brilliant story spun by this seasoned author. Her stories speak to the heart and in doing so can turn the reader inside out!

Once again this author shows her mastery of the generational dual timeline as she brings together Ellie Hockley of Round Hill, NC, a child of the 60’s, and Kayla Miller Carter, a millennial, in 2010. Kayla, who was recently widowed, and her young daughter Lainie are ready to move into the home she and her late husband, both architects, had designed. Kayla has very mixed feelings about the move as her husband had died in a tragic accident on site. And she is even less sure when several ominous, even threatening, things happen.

Ellie Hockley is back at her home at the other end of the same street for the first time in 45 years. She is home mainly to assist her older brother, Buddy, as he deals with end stage congestive heart failure, and her mother, who deals with dementia and has been in assisted living until Ellie’s return. She left home after the disastrous summer of 1965.

In the few months that Ellie and Kayla know each other, much comes to light as buried secrets of a shameful history from when the South caught fire with the passing of the voting rights amendment are unearthed in their small North Carolina town. And the connections that tie the two women together are more than having homes on the same street.

This poignant story will be hard to beat in the 2022 world of literary fiction. This mystery thriller is so well plotted with both rich characters and an even richer history! I very much enjoyed this book and I wholeheartedly recommend it!

Diane Chamberlin’s The Last House on the Street uses alternating time lines to link actions in the past to the present. This is a story that deals with love, loss, social mores and consequences.
The story drew me and piqued my curiosity about the people living in the last house on the street. What are their secrets? Do they impact the neighbors?
The story is well written with descriptions to make you experience the story and identify with the characters. The characters are interesting, some more relatable than others who make you shake your head at their attitudes.
I looked forward to reading this book. Ms. Chamberlain writes books with interesting storylines. This was not an exception. It has an intriguing plot with interesting characters. I have been purposely vague about the story because I don’t want to ruin it for others by saying too much.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good book. Thank you #StMartinsPress for approving my request. All opinions contained in this review are solely my own.

The Last House on the Street is a heart-breaking, generational, mystery and thriller that will leave you with both a broken heart and a warmed one.

Bouncing between the lives of two women, separated by a generation and tied together in multiple way The Last House on the Street gives us the stories of Ellie from 1965, her bravery, her love, her passion and her life, and of Kayla, a recently widowed mother of a three year old who sets to move into the home she and her husband built, and in which he died from a freak accident. As Kayla prepares to move into her new home she is threatened by a strange woman who stops in her office, and soon after moving in begins to discover more secrets and more threats as the days go on. Back in 1965 Ellie uses her summer break after sophomore year at college to be a part of SCOPES, mainly white northerners, helping black folks in the south prepare to register to vote as the country waits on LBJ to sign the action into law. It's here, as the only southern white girl, that she meets Winston. The handsome young black man, she quickly falls in love with. Ellie's eyes are painfully opened to the racism and presence of the Klan, not just in her home state, but also in her hometown. And, could it be true? In her family's home as well.

The two stories of these women quickly become entwined in many ways and together they carry each other and find safety in each other as they grow closer through the stories of loss in their lives.

I have so many words on this book and also no words at all. All at the same time. To say I loved this book feels wrong. but I did. It drew me in, making me feel the deepest of emotions, shed tears, and want to fight for both of these women.

I am giving this read a full 5 stars. Something I rarely do. I highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and author Diane Chamberlain for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Reviews being posted to Amazon and B&N at time of review, happy pub day! And to my Instagram account @the_literary_fox, later this week as I have more time to process everything I just read.

4.5/5

The Last House on the Street is now my second time reading Diane Chamberlain, and once again I was amazed. For the majority of this book, I was feeling a 4/5 for a star rating but once that ending hit and everything was revealed, I knew I had to go up. The story is told from Kayla's viewpoint in present and Ellie's viewpoint in past, and I was into both storylines, but I was especially curious about what would happen with Kayla. Both timelines ended up shocking me, but I also liked the way they ended up tying together. Ellie's POV is in North Carolina in the 60s and it hurts to read a lot of her viewpoint due to all the racism. Seeing what was happening through her eyes as a white girl was very enlightening, and I thought the way Chamberlain handled it all was very well done.

It took me a little bit to get into the book, but that was more about me than the story. I started the audiobook on the NetGalley Shelf app which is completely horrible unless you listen below a 1.5x speed, and I can't bring myself to listen below a 2x speed these days. Due to this, the narrator sounded robotic instead of normal and this definitely took away from my enjoyment at first. Luckily, Scribd had it, and once I got to listen to Susan Bennett in her normal voice, The Last House on the Street hit me harder and got me more invested in the story. At first, I thought there were 2 different narrators, and I loved that about Bennett's narration! She made the 2 character voices feel very different and was definitely the perfect person to voice this story. I really want to get into more of Chamberlain's backlist and if you like historical fiction with some mystery, you must read The Last House on the Street!

Thank you to the publishers for my advanced listening and digital copies of this book. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

Excuse me for a moment while I piece my heart back together and recover from sobbing uncontrollably.

Chamberlain is a master storyteller and The Last House on the Street is no exception. Two different stories, told by two different women during two very different time periods slowly intersect weaving a tale of social injustice, personal tragedy, and heartbreak. But amidst the sadness, there is beauty and strength and a raw humanness to which I found totally relatable.

Parts of the story felt almost like a thriller - Kayla and her home being targeted and vandalized, her husband tragically and mysteriously dying, the woods feeling haunted, etc. Other parts read as a historical fiction with Ellie seeking social justice and racial reform during the tumultuous 1960s. And still others felt like forbidden romance and contemporary fiction. I loved that the story (stories) didn’t fall into one bucket and it helped keep my interest because at times I did find the pacing a bit slow.

I also really liked that we knew fairly quickly how Ellie and Kayla were connected though we didn’t get the full picture until the very end. The two stories were so radically different that I was relieved Chamberlain didn’t keep us totally in the dark about they related to one another.

Themes of racism and bigotry felt uncomfortably current and Chamberlain did a tremendous job making the reader feel the plight of the Black community. Ellie’s coming of age and growth were eloquently written and made her character very empathetic.

This book was really well done and one that would appeal to most audiences. I definitely recommend.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a copy of this wonderful novel.