This was a really good piece of historical fiction of the Depression and Dust Bowl era, and a specific activity about which I knew nothing, the community of dance marathons. Evie is a poor girl with a dreadful mother who is a child vaudeville dancer turned nurse turned marathon dancer. The book covers abuse, hidden homosexuality, and deep poverty and hunger and yet had a lot of uplifting joyful moments of friendship, dance and camaraderie, It really made me feel the era in a way that other books of this era have not. Just the logistics of getting from place to place made me feel the time period. Very well written and great story. I'll be recommending this one to friends.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. This book wasn't quite what I was expecting when I started reading it. I enjoyed learning about a form of entertainment during the Great Depression that I had not heard of before. But I found it hard to connect with the characters, there are a lot of them, and it is a bit hard to remember them all.

Did not care for this book and found myself skimming parts. Started off strong but I lost interest as the novel began to unravel a bit. Not going to finish this story.

First off, I am a Native Texan and was born in Houston and know and love Galveston Island. So this little gem about the area alone is what drew me in. You don't have to be a native Houstonian to find this enriching detailed story a delight. The author, Sarah Bird gives the reader a beautifully detailed story about growing up in the late '20s during the Depression Era. How dance marathons were a thing of entertainment, complete with spectators that would throw money (coins) as a "shower" for their favorite dancing couple. Exhausted and sleep-deprived dancers would dance for 24 hours with only a 15-minute nap every hour.
The book starts in 1932, Evie is hurt, confused, and heartbroken. How could she be the cause for the man she so dearly loved to kill himself? She only wanted to honor her late father, Denny Devlin and become a registered nurse and live a good life away from her mother, Mamie.
Evie Grace Devlin found her out of Houston's Vinegar Hill, streets filled with decaying shacks and small crumbling homes. Her out was the St, Mary's Hospital School of Nursing, she earned the scholarship, a Catholic school located on the island of Galveston, Texas. Galveston was known for the big-name vaudeville entertainers and cutthroat criminals.
Evie found herself haunted by her childhood, a prodigy vaudeville star that earned the majority of her education on the road. Her mother, Mamie resentful and vindictive towards Evie, and then her father who adored her and fed a nurturing and catholic relationship with Evie. Her father passed away and Mamie was more than relieved so that Evie could get back to earning money for the both of them all while attending high school. As we find Evie embarking on her journey to join the nursing students. Upon her arrival, she is quickly denied acceptance into the school. The director found she was not a true Catholic, and that isn't acceptable. Sofia "Sofie" Amadeo steps up and helps Evie's application to be approved. Evie at first didn't recognize Sofie's familiar last name until Sofie had taken Evie on the grand tour of Galveston Island. Sofie was an "Amadeo", the name of the family that owned the law and did business their way.
Sofie and Evie are roommates throughout her schooling and become as close as sisters. When it comes time for their pinning ceremony, their completion of nursing school, and the state-required test Evie is not allowed a pin she so rightfully earned. I will not give spoilers as to why.
Defeated and heartbroken, Evie finds solace and a means to survive with a traveling dance marathon group.
She treats the mild injuries from the dancers and the workers that travel together, but she begins to become enamored with Zave. Zave is known as the "handsome hoofer" and one of the famed dancers that pulls the crowd to the shows. Zave and Chloe are the dynamic dancing couple that creates an illusion of love and glamor. Something happens in Chicago that breaks Evie's heart and Chloe is there as an unsuspecting friend to help put the puzzle pieces together.
Zave and Evie form a friendship and Zave assures Evie he will help her earn her RN pin. Slowly Evie begins to fall for Zave, sadly it is a one-sided love. As the characters pass through Evie's life you begin to see how Evie has to continuously fight for everything she has worked so hard for. Mamie is constantly there blocking Evie's successes. The depression is the backdrop to this story and the heartache that ensues. Traveling from Galveston to Chicago back to Galveston, Evie shows grit and resilience in her story. The Depression took away so many things from people, money, jobs, homes, family, and their will to survive.
The Starlight Pier is a rundown pier that we hold the huge dance marathon that Evie and Zave will dance in, along with their friends and locals. Evie finds that something just isn't right with her. Is it the mobster family hosting the dance marathon? Or is it her?
I truly enjoyed this book it was rich with details of Galveston and Houston and the history that made Houston and Galveston Island such a glamorous place in the roaring '20s. Last Dance on Starlight Pier gives such a beautiful story about how the American people can come together and overcome such struggling times. Something we can all relate to. I will tell you that there are mentions of the dark side of the early vaudeville days and hidden gay romances. So I do not recommend it to young readers,
Thank you, NetGalley, Sarah Bird, and St. Martin's Press for providing me with my ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

Evie Grace Devlin wanted to put her past behind her and become a nurse but things never turn out how we plan. Evie finds herself part of a dance marathon after she runs away from the nursing program after the director confronted her about her past. She falls for her dance partner but now she is trying to figure out how she could have caused his death and not accepted him for who he was.

This book wasn't my favorite as I felt it have to many characters and could have gotten to the point of the story a lot sooner. Please not this is not a romance book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read Last Dance on the Starlight Pier. I was drawn to this title because of its depiction of the dance marathons of the 1930s. Dance marathons now are usually fund raising events, frequently on college campuses. During the Depression, a dance marathon could mean eating or having a roof over one's head, however briefly. While providing cheap entertainment (and, again, a temporary shelter) to the masses, for the contestants the dance marathon was grueling and painful. I enjoyed the story of the camaraderie among the contestants, but Evie's personal story was a little too black and white for me, with a villainous nun, a heartless mother, and tragedy and loss all around. While not generally my sort of book, I did find it a fairly fast read and entertaining.

A saga set around the time of marathon dancing. I enjoyed learning about the ins and outs of how dancers survived with all the rules they had to follow or be eliminated. A wonderful work of fiction with characters so well developed I lost myself in their lives. A great story.

Evie Grace Devlin escapes from her difficult childhood in vaudeville to Galveston, where she has been accepted to nursing school. She is ready to start fresh, become a nurse, and help others. But when the director of the school discovers that she lied about her past and education just before she is to receive her nurse's pin, Evie gets kicked out and is forced to return to Houston. She ends up working with a group that puts on and participates in marathon dances. This leads her to Chicago and then eventually back to the Starlight Pier in Galveston.

I know quite a bit about the history of Galveston, which is what initially drew me to this book. The depiction of historical Galveston was pretty accurate. It was interesting to read about the dance marathons that were held during the Great Depression. I had not been aware of them before I read this book. As historical fiction, I definitely give this book 5 stars.. I took away one star for my rating because none of the characters felt truly real to me. They all served their purpose for the story, but I felt they needed to have more dimension for me to care about any of them.

Sarah Bird has been one of my very favorite authors for many years. This book is not my favorite of hers, but it is definitely in my top 3. I recommend this book to book clubs for the discussion it will bring about and to anyone who is interested in reading about a segment of life during the Great Depression. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the digital arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Very good read! Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book!

Set in Galveston during the Great Depression I found the premise of this book intriguing however I do not feel the book lived up to its potential.

One of the few novels I've read set during the Great Depressions that wasn't considered a classic. This one focused on what people did to forget that the country was indeed in the middle of a depression. The less depressing book I've read set during the Great Depression.

THE LAST DANCE ON THE STARLIGHT PIER
BY: SARAH BIRD

I took a chance in choosing this bestselling Award winning Author, Sarah Bird, whose eleventh novel I have just finished and I LOVED IT! It is an expertly crafted historical novel that takes place during my favorite time periods--the Depression era. I find this time period very interesting because it is hardly ever on my radar of this genre. When it is I am all in because I usually come away more well informed than I was about how the United State's citizens were all but a few starving and the jobs were hard to come by. The thing I love most is I can usually count on a novel filled with lovable characters from the Depression time period and this one did not disappoint. This one certainly supplied them except for a few background character's that were only in a few scenes. The difficult characters in this one made life hard for the female protagonist Evelyn Grace Devlin. She has grown up with a terrible and a manipulating and vain mother who Evelyn calls Mamie. Mamie has made a living from featuring Evie in Vaudeville acts and using her to support them. Evie's feet are ruined from cramming them in ballet shoes as she was her mother's meal ticket and means of family support since the only parent that showed Evie any love and affection was her father. He was a famous Vaudeville dancer and died when Evie was five years old of congestive heart failure. Evie's mother, Mamie would enter her into Vaudeville solo to support them. In the act that Evie is hiding from her past is when she was nine years old and her mother entered her into a burlesque show which Evie knew was wrong as she was threatened by Mamie if Evie didn't do the striptease, Mamie threatened to place her in an orphanage. Mamie scared Evie over the course of her childhood telling Evie to do things or Mamie would have no choice but to place in an orphanage and she scared her into that striptease sort of show in Detroit, when Evie was nine and flash bulbs went off as she was told by her mother to bend over in an all male audience. Evie learned to disassociate at that time and float above her body. This is the secret that Evie is hiding and after leaving her mother at seventeen she takes the train from Houston to Galveston, Texas where she meets Sofie her new best friend. Together they spend three years at St. Mary's training to be board-certified Registered Nurses. The Director tried to persuade Evie that she was unsuitable for Evie's Scholarship that she won to attend Nursing School at St. Mary's by refusing to sign Evie's acceptance form because the Director said that Evie had to be Catholic, which Evie was Protestant. After Sofie whose mobster family runs Galveston has a word with the Director she signs Evie's acceptance form and it is three years later after they complete the training the Director denies Evie her Registered Nursing Pin. Evie leaves because she is embarrassed that the Director uses the newspaper clippings showing Evie bending over in the all male strip show that Evie has been keeping a secret.

With no place to go and refusing to return to her home to her mother she goes to her father's old dance hall and that is where she gets hired as a nurse at the dance marathon. This was such a great interesting historical novel that features the way people earned money from entering dance marathons that lasted over 500 hours. They would last twenty four hours dancing with a fifteen minute sleep break. There is a hint at romance but I found this to be a unique look at history where dance marathons had contestants dancing until they got disqualified from getting injured from the long lengths of time that they had to dance and stay awake for over 24 hours, day after day. I was surprised at how much that I enjoyed this. There is a lot of other surprises that I have left out for the reader to discover if they wish to pick this to read. I really think it is entertaining read that I recommend for lovers of historical fiction. This is nostalgic and for anyone that enjoys reading about characters who are underdogs and need to overcome challenges.

Publication Date: April 12, 2022

Thank you to Net Galley, Sarah Bird and St. Martin's Press for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#LastDanceonStarlightPier #SarahBird #StMartin'sPress #NetGalley

Last Dance on the Starlight Pier by Sarah Bird

Evie Grace Devlin had a sad upbringing. After her beloved father died when she was young, Evie was left at the mercy of a cruel, heartless mother. Her parents had made their living through vaudeville performances and once Evie's dad was dead her mother used Evie almost with no restrictions on what Evie was asked to do. If it brought in money, mom was happy to push Evie into darker performances.

At seventeen Evie breaks away and excels at three years of nursing school, in Galveston, only to have her success pulled out from under her on the day of her nursing school graduation. At this point, I feel that Evie had enough confidence building success and time away from her brutally abusive mother that she wouldn't choose crawling back to her mother as her only option but that's what Evie does. Thank goodness, once she's back in Houston, rather than finding her mother, she finds work as a nurse for a dance marathon outfit. Not only does Evie work as a nurse but also fills in as a dancer.

This is 1932 and dance marathons were the rage. The marathons provided food, shelter, and cash prizes in a time when so many people were suffering from few ways to survive during the hard times. I had no idea of the hardships involved in dance marathoning and how much a nurse would be needed to keep contestants on their feet. Dance marathoning was no walk in the park!

As much as I wished the best for Evie, I had trouble staying with the story. Evie makes such rash and unwise decisions that I just stopped caring what would happen next. There is too much to the story, too many characters who come and go, too many things going on, and once again, Evie making decisions that are wrong headed and confounding to me. This book did have me looking further into the dance marathons of the past, which I enjoyed.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

3.5 marathon stars

This sweeping historical fiction novel is set during the depression and features Evie, a young woman who started life as a dancer, following in her parents’ footsteps. She sets her sights on getting a nursing license to escape that life and make her way in the world. She’s working on a three-year nursing program in Galveston.

Her past comes back to haunt her though and she’s forced back into the dancing world, this time with a promoter of dance marathons. She meets some interesting people in this group, including the star dancer Zave, and wonders if this is where she was meant to make a life.

Along the way we get glimpses of her past and the hardships she’s had to overcome. Her mother is quite a piece of work!

Filled with tough times, speakeasies, Hoovervilles, and resilient people, this one shows a little different side of the times. I really wanted to love this one, but I just wasn’t connected to the characters and some of Evie’s choices really made me scratch my head in wonder! I would not describe this as a love story, more of a character-driven historical fiction novel.

I was SO excited to receive a copy of this book, because my father grew up along the Gulf Coast and I have been to Galveston many times. I've never seen it in this perspective, and I loved the switch between Chicago and Galveston. I typically think all books set during the Great Depression (and WWII) are similar, but this was a fresh story and kept me interested the entire time.

Genre: historical fiction, women's fiction
Pub date: 4/12/22
In one sentence: Evie Devlin has worked 3 years to be a nurse, but when her dream is denied, she finds herself swept into the world of 1920s/30s dance marathons and the arms of star dancer Zave.

I requested this book on a whim due to the beautiful cover, but I really liked following Evie's journey. She's so determined to become a nurse, but she refuses to give up when things don't go her way. I enjoyed seeing her find her way to the dance marathons, becoming a popular character as the nurse who steals the lead dancer's heart. I hadn't heard about this Depression-era entertainment, so it was a whole new world for me. In addition to the dance marathon and nursing plots, Zave has his own secrets, and Evie's BFF Sofie's work with a leading psychiatrist adds to the drama. There's a lot going on in this book, and I can see why some reviewers wanted to see a more focused narrative. 3.5 stars.

Trigger warnings: This book contains somewhat graphic depictions of child sexual abuse and anti-gay violence.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book! It brought me into a world I knew nothing about - the marathon dance competitions of the Depression era. The story is that of Evie Devlin, who just wants to escape her past (former vaudeville child star, who comes from the wrong side of the tracks in Houston) and become a nurse. And of the forces that will conspire to keep that from happening. I don't want to say too much, but I will say Evie finds herself attached to a marathon dance troupe first as a nurse, but also then as a dancer, and quickly falls in love with its star dancer, Zave.

The book opens with the burning of the titular Starlight Pier, and Evie's belief that the man she loves has killed himself in that fire. But the rest of the book concerns how we got to that moment during the past three years. Although I saw one of the "twists" coming, it still had a lot of an emotional punch to it, and I felt like at the end, I'd been on a real emotional journey.

I think this may be my first Sarah Bird novel I've read, but I'm likely now to seek out others.

This is a story about the Great Depression and marathon dancers. But it's also about love and acceptance.

Evie Grace is a nursing student who grew up on the vaudeville dance circuit and somehow ends up being part of a marathon dance show. The story begins with a fire on the pier and goes back in time to show how Evie got there, introducing us to characters who dance and travel together trying to scrape by during the depression.

Zave ends up being Evie's dance partner, and a link to her past, but he's a man with secrets that come to light only towards the last 25%. The main conflict comes from Evie's own failing to truly understand those secrets with a little mob drama added in.

This story reads quickly but also felt a bit scattered for me. The main plot of the novel was disjointed initially and sometimes the flow of the story just didn't work for me. I can't really explain well what I mean, but that said it was a good effort and an interesting and new representation of the time period that I haven't come across before.

Thank you to NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this book.

3 stars
Not at all what I expected. I do feel there is a audience for this book. It is not for me. Thanks for the ARC of this book.

I thought that this book was an interesting attempt to shine some light on dance marathons during the Great Depression. I really wanted to love the story, but it honestly fell a little flat for me. Elvie was one of the only redeemable characters throughout and trying to keep up with the vast number of characters left me frustrated. I did appreciate that this story had a little more "brightness" than the traditional Great Depression HF picks. Overall, it wasn't terrible, but it didn't wow me.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.