This was a very interesting thriller that kept me guessing until the end. It was a little hard to get into this story as I really wasn't into the characters right away, but they did grow on me and, by the end, I was hooked. The back and forth between then and now was a great plot point that revealed little by little, even if you weren't sure exactly what you were getting at the time. I would definitely pick up another book by this author in the future to see where it can go! Will definitely recommend to the YA patrons at the library. This book definitely has some male appeal to it!

I had trouble in the beginning with this book. There are lots of people in this story and it took a while to remember how the relationships worked. In addition the narration is almost chain of conscious. I persisted, and by the time I had figured everything out I became obsessed with finding out who was responsible for the deaths and I was on Lucy's side as she was determined to find answers about the collapse of a dam, and the deaths of her childhood friends. It was a well done mystery and I was only one step ahead of Lucy at the end. The end is more nearly about real life because Lucy's future life is not tied up in a neat bow. This is a worth reading book. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc and for not pressuring for a good review.

Can’t explain enough how amazing this book was! Fast paced, amazing characters, so many twists and turns throughout. I loved how the background to the story was run through the main story so it kept it to the point, relevant and well paced. Really enjoyed the splitting of the story and starting again a few years later, was really unique and was a great addition. The ending was just mind blowing!

An adrenaline-pumping thriller that had me gripped, teetering on the edge of my seat throughout. I found immense satisfaction in reading this one; undoubtedly, it ranks among the finest books I've encountered this year.

Wow!! This is an amazing story that pulled me in from the first page. I couldn’t stop reading. I wanted to keep reading so that I could figure out who was behind the murders and put all the pieces of the puzzle that the author created together. My only complaint is that the switching back and forth between the present and past was a little confusing. As the Court Stevens laid out the events it eventually came together and told the story, but it was a little confusing at first. The Stevens did a great job of developing the characters and as a reader you feel that you are a part of the community. I highly recommend this book. I have students coming into the library looking for mysteries and adventure stories and I will be sure and recommend this book to them in the future.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an advance copy so that I could leave a review!!

Finished it in one sitting. Fast paced even tho the writing felt off at times.
I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked that the main character, Lucy, was training for a different Olympic sport than most books use. It added a nice twist to the storyline. I thought it was well written, the pace was great, and I liked the characters. I'll be looking for more books from this author to read.

This book left me guessing until the end on who was behind all of the chaos! It's been eight years since Lucy's brother was lost in a flood when the dam burst. Now she's preparing for a shot at the Olympic air rifle team. But when her stepbrother goes missing just before he's about to reveal a big secret to Lucy, suddenly the whole town is searching, and the secrets are going to come out eventually.

The book was a quick read for me because of the authors writing style. I like the suspense that grips the reader till the end.

Trigger Warnings: Child abuse, narcissistic parent, descriptive kissing between two 12-year-olds, imprisonment, malice, codependent relationship, murder with a firearm, blackmail, coercion, suicide. #NETGALLEY #LastGirlBreathing

Trigger Warnings: Child abuse, narcissistic parent, descriptive kissing between two 12-year-olds, imprisonment, malice, codependent relationship, murder with a firearm, blackmail, coercion, suicide.

Phew, the Last Girl Breathing was a roller coaster ride of a book. I was skeptical about reading this because YA books, especially thrillers, have been subpar lately. I believe that Stevens did a wonderful job setting up the characterization and setting in the book. I enjoyed the story's premise and kept reading because I just had to know what would happen.

Lucy was in a flood at the local dam with friends and family eight years before the current story. When the dam lets go during a large amount of rainfall, Lucy loses her little brother Clay in the washout. The story touches on the stressful areas of grief within the town of Grand Junction for Lucy and her family and friends.

In the current timeline, we find that Lucy is now seventeen and an Olympic hopeful in sharpshooting. She has a new stepfather and stepbrother, and as readers, we soon find that her stepbrother is missing. The police gather people to begin searching when they find that not only Lucy's stepbrother is missing, but also a new deputy and a second teenager. The story began to move quickly, and I found myself engrossed in it and could not put it down. Lucy is a strong protagonist, and the story surrounds her past and present throughout the book. There are a few things that I found slightly cringy, but all in all, the story was good. 4/5 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for the complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I thought this was an entertaining YA murder mystery. Lucy was a very likeable main character who did a really good job of leading us through the mystery to the eventual solution. Set in a rural location near a wildlife preserve, it is the perfect place for the suspense that is created in the story. The secondary characters were interesting and varied and the plot twisted enough to keep it very interesting. I think YA readers who are fans of the murder mystery genre, will enjoy this one.

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC.

This book is a mystery/thriller about a dam break in a small town and the secrets behind it. At the beginning it switched from past to present and I was a bit confused but by the middle of the book it came together. I was kept guessing until the end and wanted to find out everything that had happened. The relationships in the book were somewhat complicated and had depth to them. Overall, I liked this book and would give it 3.5 stars. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Nice Fast pace and plot for teen audience. Writing a bit clipped and time lines a bit jumbled .
I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Last Girl Breathing by Court Stevens
Publisher Thomas Nelson
Genre Murder Mystery YA
Release Date November 07, 2023


Characters: 5/5
Plot: 4/5
Pace: 4/5
Suspense: 4/5
Overall Enjoyment: 4/5

*My Thoughts*
I have just recently started reading Books geared to the YA readers and found that I really enjoy the ones that do not contain writing that is juvenile, which I have found is only a few. So if the blurb looks good, I am ready to read it.
I started reading this book and really like Stevens ability to tell a story and keep the readers engaged and entertained the whole time. The story has a great build up of the characters as well as the suspense. The setting and her descriptive nature was so very well developed that I honestly felt as though I was in the book myself. Grief is the main focus with the characters and the way that the author weaves that into the story is perfect. Not overly done but it allows the reader to understand the and feel the intensity of how grief can overwhelm people.The other great part is that you may or may not have a clue who the culprit is but that does not change how the story is exposed to you, the reader. I truly could feel the emotions that the author set out for the reader and I so wanted Lucy to make all of her dreams come true.

*Premise*

Eight years ago in the town of Grand Junction, Lucy lost her brother Clay when a dam broke due to very heavy rainfall. Lucy continues to feel as though she is to blame. She was responsible for watching him. Now at seventeen Lucy has aspirations of going to the Olympics on the rifle team as she is a skilled air rifle shooter and most of all graduating from high school. However, tragedy strikes again and poor Lucy is thrust right back into the center of it. Two of her best friends were found murdered in the exact same place that her brother died and the prime suspect is none other than Lucy’s ex boyfriend. Yet Lucy has no idea if she can believe that. So she sets off to investigate the matter herself. Lucy is very strong willed, smart, confident and persistent. It all pays off for her because during her snooping she finds that not everyone is telling the truth and and they have some secrets to hide. Can Lucy figure out who killed her friends and can she do it before someone else is killed?


4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley as well as the author and publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my unbiased and honest review.

I couldn't put this book down. Seriously, I had to sneakily read it during work because I was so invested. Great characters, great plot, great ending.

This book grabbed me from the very first page. As I read on, the author kept me wanting more of the why’s and how’s of the story. It is the kind of book you can finish in one sitting, and want to.

I recieved the book 3 days back and i started reading it immediately because i love the synopsis. The book is a quick read for me because of the writing style. I like the suspense which grips the reader till the end. What i was confused about is the collision of past and present which at the beginning create some problem for me to understand the character. Remaining books is fanatically written.

Much like Court Stevens other books, this was an excellent young adult thriller, suspenseful every step of the way. The main character, Lucy Michaels, is appealing as the protagonist. She is unflinchingly persistent in her quest to arrive at the truth of more than one mystery. As she tries to find the answers to what happened when her young brother died from their local dam breaking and washing him away as well as life as she knew it, the bodies pile up and the mysteries keep coming.
The book has a great pace and good characters that you will love and hate, including Lucy's mother for her weakness following the tragedy and her reliance on Lucy to be the strong one. This is definitely a page turner, one that I will highly recommend.

The premise sounded interesting, but the book missed the mark in execution for me. The storyline felt disjointed/all over the place. I did like the main character, who was believable. Some parts were a bit uncomfortable too read due to overdetailing, such as the relationship between one of the main characters and her stepbrother. It was awkward and unnecessary. It turned me off, in fact. Though it was a small part of the story, it made it hard for me to get back into things after reading it.

3.5 stars

Fast-paced and engrossing, this is a YA thriller at its best. While I found the whole book was written really well, I thought that the scenes of the first tragedy were particularly exhilarating, and I found myself holding my breath throughout.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for a review. This was my first Court Sevens book but it won't be my last.

"Last Girl Breathing" is a standalone ya mystery thriller written by Court Stevens.

The story follows 17-year-old Lucy Michaels, a resident of the small town of Grand Junction, Kentucky. A seemingly peaceful place marked by a profound tragedy. For eight years earlier, following heavy rains, the dam broke, destroying the landscape and killing people. Clay, Lucy's five-year-old brother, was one of the victims. Lucy was with him that terrible night at the time of the accident. She should have protected him, kept him safe, but instead the flood swept him away. Lucy has always felt guilty about what happened. That fateful day, the town and all its residents, changed forever. Now, eight years later, everyone is moving on. Or at least trying to. Lucy is focused on two things: making the U.S. Olympic air rifle team and protecting everyone in her life from any kind of trauma. However, life has other plans for her, and with graduation and the Olympics on the horizon, her world is shaken again when a new tragedy strikes Grand Junction, and once again Lucy ends up right in the middle of it. Two of her closest friends have been killed in the nature preserve adjacent to town, on the same plot of land where her little brother died, and suspicion begins to be aimed everywhere in the community. The main suspect? Lucy's ex-boyfriend, who has just returned to town. Lucy begins to investigate and soon begins to uncover long-buried secrets in the community, leading to unpredictable developments.

Wow!!! I absolutely loved this read! Compelling, engaging and enthralling, it kept me glued to the pages from beginning to end. I started with high expectations, intrigued by the premise and was not disappointed at all.

I found the author's style bewitching and captivating, able to pull me into the vortex of the narrative. The fast pace, combined with the presence of short chapters, made it difficult for me to put the book down.

The setting won me over. Grand Junction is a small town in Kentucky, where civilization and nature sit side by side. Located next to a nature preserve, renowned for hunting and also home to marshland, it is sadly known for the dam collapse eight years earlier. In my opinion Court Stevens has succeeded in creating a vivid and evocative location, rendering the sense of community and the various interactions within it very well.

The plot gets off to a fast start, drawing the reader directly into the mystery. I admit that I spotted the solution in advance, but that did not stop me from enjoying the whole thing. I found the mystery component really well done, executed in a coherent and believable way. I was able to feel the suspense, the doubt and the danger increasing more and more over the course of the book. Yes, I guessed the solution, but some of the twists and turns along the way I didn't expect at all and I was blown away. In a good way. Despite the rapid narration, the book takes its time to analyze everything, without rushing and leaving nothing to chance, arriving at an epilogue that satisfied me. I add that I particularly appreciated the alternation between past and present, with mostly scenes from now alternating with shorter scenes from the fateful day of the dam break, eight years earlier.

Lucy, the protagonist and only first-person pov, is a character I liked very much. Lucy is a seventeen-year-old girl, a skilled air rifle shooter who aims to make the U.S. Olympic team and graduate from high school. Lucy is a rescuer in her soul, someone who seeks to help and support everyone she knows. Determined, logical and strong-willed, she is actually deeply scarred by the death of her little brother, Clay, in the dam break eight years earlier. Lucy in fact was with Clay at the time of the flood and failed to protect him, failed to bring him to safety. She feels guilty, she can't forgive herself, and it continues to eat away at her inside, day after day, even though on the outside she tries to appear strong. I think Lucy is a wonderful character with incredible characterization. She is a girl so full of emotions, dreams, fears, remorse and flaws! I couldn't help but suffer and rejoice for her. I loved the descriptions of deep affection between her and her little brother, and I was moved several times when reading about Lucy's pain, her remorse in that sense.
More generally, I enjoyed all the secondary characters. Who more and who less, they seemed to me well-drawn in their merits and their flaws. For many I even felt a sense of emotional involvement, just to make it clear how intense they seemed to me. I enjoyed a lot the bonds present between the characters, they seemed deep and I confess that I got quite emotional at certain moments.

Ultimately I found it a wonderful ya mystery and I can't help but recommend it if you are a fan of the genre!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.Thank you to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review.