The Last House on the Street kept my attention and I really enjoyed it. The rhythm and flow were coherent even with the dual time lines. The characters were well developed and interestingly woven. The terrible times, in the deep south, during the Jim Crow era, were described without any of the author’s political bent. I appreciated how it was depicted without personal bias. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. I will highly recommend it.

I read Diane Chamberlain for the first time just two years ago, when I devoured and adored her novel, The Dream Daughter. It has stuck with me, becoming one of those books that I continue to think about long after I’ve closed the cover. Her latest novel, The Last House on the Street, is going to have the same effect on me.

Kayla is just easing back into work after losing her husband in a tragic construction accident. A strange elderly woman comes into her office, full of secretive information about Kayla’s life. She warns Kayla away from moving into her new home in North Carolina, leaving Kayla with an ominous threat hanging heavily in the air. The home that was once Kayla and her husband’s dream home is feeling more and more like a nightmare, as the under-construction subdivision of Shadow Ridge has a dark past that is steadily working its way to the surface.

While Kayla tries to understand the woman’s threats in 2010, the novel flashes back to 1965, before Shadow Ridge existed and the land held one single home on a dirt road. Ellie is grieving the death of her beloved aunt while finishing her sophomore year at college. When she learns about the SCOPE program to help register black voters in the South, she leaps at the chance to continue her aunt’s social justice work and maybe atone for her own past mistakes. Her actions have a ripple effect, all the way to Kayla in 2010.

Once again, Diane Chamberlain’s words pulled me in from the first page. This novel is well paced, drawing the reader in and tugging at their mind whenever they aren’t reading. The dual timeline narrative is engaging, with each timeline being equally enthralling. There is a bit of suspense, but not of the nightmare-inducing variety.

The dual timeline accomplishes the rare feat of both timelines being equally engaging; I left each chapter wanting to learn what happened next, whether that chapter was set in 1965 or 2010. The combination of pacing and excellently developed characters is a big component of why both narrators and times are so intriguing. Both dangers feel present, as Kayla tries to solve the mystery of what happened on her land and Ellie is battling entrenched racism.

This novel does tackle difficult topics, and though it is handled sensitively, it’s also faced head-on. There is no softening the horrors of what happened during the Civil Rights era nor should there be; this is an important part of our history. I will include a trigger warning below, with plenty of advanced notice, for anyone who would like a heads up about the racially motivated violence that occurs in this book. As I’ve learned from the two books I’ve read, Chamberlain doesn’t hesitate to break your heart.

Every character is thoroughly developed, from the main characters to a four year old to minor side characters. The combination of these well-crafted characters in this well-illustrated world makes the plot believable and the reader’s empathetic response strong.

This is the kind of book you stay up late reading, the page-turner that will help get you out of your reading slump and make you immediately want to read the author’s entire backlist.

If you loved The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson, Southern Fiction, historical fiction, dual timelines, and multiple narrators, this is the book for you.

Thank you to Diane Chamberlain, Net Galley, and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy such that I could write this review.

The Last House on the Street will be available January 11, 2022.

(There is a trigger warning included in the original blog post, but I left it out here to avoid spoilers.)

I loved this book and I love this author! It was such a bittersweet book set during the civil wrights time period and also in present day. I fell in love with the characters! I think this would make a great movie. I cant wait to share this book with the patrons of the library.

The Last House on the Street
A Novel
by Diane Chamberlain

1965

Growing up in the well-to-do town of Round Hill, North Carolina, Ellie Hockley was raised to be a certain type of proper Southern lady. Enrolled in college and all but engaged to a bank manager, Ellie isn’t as committed to her expected future as her family believes. She’s chosen to spend her summer break as a volunteer helping to register black voters. But as Ellie follows her ideals fighting for the civil rights of the marginalized, her scandalized parents scorn her efforts, and her neighbors reveal their prejudices. And when she loses her heart to a fellow volunteer, Ellie discovers the frightening true nature of the people living in Round Hill.

2010

Architect Kayla Carter and her husband designed a beautiful house for themselves in Round Hill’s new development, Shadow Ridge Estates. It was supposed to be a home where they could raise their three-year-old daughter and grow old together. Instead, it’s the place where Kayla’s husband died in an accident—a fact known to a mysterious woman who warns Kayla against moving in. The woods and lake behind the property are reputed to be haunted, and the new home has been targeted by vandals leaving threatening notes. And Kayla’s neighbor Ellie Hockley is harboring long buried secrets about the dark history of the land where her house was built.

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.

Thanks NetGalley for the oppunity to get an advance copy to review for my honest opinion.
A beautiful , well wrtten book I was got lost in I felt the book ...and KNOW even today the book will stay in my heart.

Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced copy! I have read Diane Chamberlain books before, so I was excited to get a copy of this one!

The book did not disappoint! In this read we follow Kayla, a recently widowed single mother, architect, who is moving into her new custom built home. This home is the first house built in the new Shadow Ridge Estates. In addition to Kayla, we follow Ellie. Ellie used to live in the area now known as Shadow Ridge Estates. We follow flashbacks of Ellie in the 60's and her work with civil rights. During this time, her family is not happy with Ellie's choices and she ultimately leaves home without turning back after her boyfriend was killed. We follow both Kayla and Ellie and see how their lives are intertwined. This book keeps you guessing until the very very end. very well done.

I usually love Diane Chamberlain but this one wasn't her best. I wish I could say I loved it. I did enjoy the flasback chapters as that was definitely an interesting POV.

Lovely little story, the plight of the Magdalene girls is so sad and a very shameful part of Irish history. If only more people had made such a small humane gesture….

Master storyteller, Diane Chamberlain, does it again combining a harrowing period in US history with a story full of mystery, heartbreak, poignancy and a touch of hopefulness.

Alternating between the present day and the 1960s in a small town in North Carolina and two female points of view. Ellie Hockley has lived in Round Hill her whole life, only leaving to study pharmacology st Chapel Hill. Instead of working at her father's drugstore, she decides to work with SCOPE for the summer to help the poor Black community get registered to vote. While she knew her decision would be controversial, she was surprised at the vehement disapproval from her family.

In the present day timeline, a young widow and her daughter plan to move into the house where her husband died in a freak accident when a strange woman threatens her about moving there.

As their stories combine, it builds to a tragic crescendo with plenty of unexpected twists. Highly recommended.

I don’t normally like books that are told in different timelines, but this one really sucked me in. One tells the story of young Ellie getting involved in the Civil Rights movement, against her family’s wishes. The second timeline let’s us visit Ellie 45 years later. I felt the “mystery” in the second timeline was a little clunky, but overall this was a great book!

The Last House on the Street (Diane Chamberlain)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I had a hard time putting this one down. Ellie Hockley takes us through her experience growing up in the 60’s and going through civil rights movement, and Kayla Carter attempts to move forward after her husband’s sudden death. When Kayla’s new home seems haunted and a mysterious woman threatens her, Ellie and Kayla realize they are more connected than they thought.
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Thank you to @netgalley for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

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Fast moving, highly readable book. I could not put it down once I started! Will definitely be recommending to others!

The Last House on the Street is incorrectly billed as a mystery/thriller, likely due in part to the genre’s wide appeal and voracious readers, and in part to the novel’s straddling of genres, with its civil rights storyline and Southern Gothic elements sprinkled in. While I generally like books that refuse genre conventions, or that meld or transcend genres, this feels more like it doesn’t know what it wants to be. The set up is all mystery/thriller: a young widow and her toddler move into the house she and her husband built before he was killed in said house, only to find it’s haunted— but by what, or who? But as the story unfolds through two points of view and two timelines, it becomes more disjointed, as the two POV’s are also in separate genres. While they inevitably converge in the present, the story never feels cohesive. Now, don’t get me wrong, I really like that author Chamberlain delivered an unexpected and unusual storyline, as I don’t think I’ve ever read a mystery/thriller involving civil rights in the Jim Crow South... But I think it could be for reason. I commend her for her ambition, but it ultimately didn’t work for me.

The Last House on the Street doesn't disappoint. The little nuggets of truth dropped in as the story develops help to build the suspense of learning the whole story.. The weaving of the relationships, past and present, draws in the reader and keeps you right there, wanting more.

Cannot get book to download, Says it is on my Net Galley Shelf but it is not and won’t download again

I enjoyed this new Diane Chamberlain novel. I am a fan of her books in general and this one is definitely worth reading. As usual, her character development is excellent - I cared a great deal about all of the characters and what happened to them over the course of the story. This is the story of two women in different times - Ellie in 1965 and Kayla in 2010. Ellie is a young woman in the South who has an awakening about racism and her desire to effect change in the civil rights movement and how her choices will play out for the people she loves. Kayla is a widowed mother who is trying to move on in her life after her husband tragically dies in the house they designed and built together - in a place that holds a great deal of pain in the community. I wonder how some fans of the author will react to the content of this book. It shows the very dark and insidious racism that existed in the South in the 1960's. I would have liked the author to say more about how that racism continues to be a part of the current story of our country, not just the past - and I expected this to show up more in Kayla's story but it did not. Considering that Kayla's story is in 2010, I thought perhaps the end would show her young daughter 11 years later (2021) and perhaps tie the theme in that way. Not sure why this didn't happen, but overall, great book.

Diane Chamberlain never disappoints! Her dual storylines are always relevant and fascinating. A young woman in the 1960’s decides to join a program helping poor black families register to vote. In 2010 a young widow moves into a new home she planned to share with her husband. Their stories are very different, but end up intertwined. Wonderful storytelling.
Thank you Netgalley for the e-ARC!

Wow! I really didn't see that coming. Once I started this book I didn't want to put it down. The story is told in 2 different timelines. I've always liked Diane Chamberlain books and this one didn't disappoint!

I love the authors previous works and this book did not disappoint. Though I had figured out who the mystery woman was who was introduced at the beginning - getting to the point of disclosure and finding out the story set in the past - was very good read.

I would like to thank NetGalley and St Martin's Press for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC for my honest opinion.

First off, Diane Chamberlain is one of my favorite authors. I love her writing style, she is able to mesh one time period to another smoothly and relevantly. Ellie's story starts in 1965 with her dedication to the Civil Rights Movement SCOPE and meanders to Kayla in 2010, a young widow with a child.

This book will stir lots of emotions in you. One woman giving up so much for Civil Rights and the ripple effect 45 years later . It was a very hard book to put down, as are all Diane Chamberlain books. You don’t want to miss this one, honestly,you don’t.

The Last House on the Street is a beautiful, bittersweet, poignant novel. Though I knew what was coming, I couldn’t put the book down until I finished—highly recommended.