Last Girl Breathing, by Court Stevens.
3.5/5⭐️⭐️⭐️

TRIGGER WARNINGS-
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Death, kidnapping, abuse, murder,

Eight years ago seventeen year old Lucy's younger brother, Clay died in a flood of water during heavy rains that aided in causing the dam to brake. Now Lucy's hoping to make the Olympic air rifle team when another tragedy hits her small home town- two of her loved ones are found dead and the number one suspect is her ex-boyfriend. As secrets start to come to light Lucy starts to see that not everyone is as innocent as they claimed to be.

The book launches right into the story/plot with very little to no background right away. You do learn the main back story as you read. The book goes between what happened before the damn brake to current time. I found the beginning to be a bit slow and drawn out but it did pick up and drew you in once it gets to part three. It definitely kept you guessing and had a lot of good twist, and turns.

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

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3

I'm breaking this review down into mini sections because different aspects of the story were 5 stars for me while others were 3 stars, so to do this review justice...stick around ;)

Plot: 5/5
I made the mistake of reading this book at night before I went to bed, and man, did I get spooked easily by the slightest noise, hahaha. It was thrilling. Suspenseful. My eyes bugged out a handful of times. Got chills. Was devastated and awed by how the author even thought of such a nail-biting plot like this. The plot was so good--no complaints here.

Characters: 4/5
The MC in this story, Lucy, is a really well-developed character. She feels grief. She has to be stronger for others so they can be broken. She's by no means perfect, which makes her all the more real and relatable. I really enjoyed having the story narrated solely through her POV. The character's mom was a little *too* emotionally dependent on her daughter, which made her not my favorite. Everyone else was great, though!

Themes: 5/5
This story, in many ways, reminds me of Caroline George's "The Summer We Forgot" with its YA themes of teenage love, broken relationships and trust, learning how to heal, etc. I really loved the themes in this book--they were deep and relevant and important.

Content: 3/5
Here's where I have some issues with the book...I was a little over halfway done with the book, no issues whatsoever, and then bam...two things made me mad, haha. I'll try and make this as non-spoilery as possible.
1. A couple page scene about two characters, who were twelve (or thirteen, I believe) having their first kiss + moments leading up to it/during it/after it. Way too descriptive for my liking. Started reading it and ended up skim reading because I didn't feel comfortable with that, especially given the character's ages.
2. Sooo...basically, to summarize this second complaint, there was a weird relationship thing going on between one of the main characters and her stepbrother. I actually had to stop and go back for a second and make sure that he was actually her stepbrother because...y'all, it got weird for a hot minute. Ended up skim reading this because it just felt so weird and totally unnecessary to the story and made me drop my rating from 5 stars to 3 :(

If you're wanting to read this book but skip those scenes, let me assure you that they're just sections of one chapter and not scenes that are carried out throughout the entire book (towards the 60% mark, I believe).

Besides those two things...this book was good. And I wish I could give it a higher rating, but the content concerns I had kept me from doing so. Thank you to NetGalley and the author for an eARC of Last Girl Breathing. A positive review was not required, only my honest opinion. All thoughts are expressly my own.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love mysteries. They’re arguably my favorite type of book. I love looking for clues and guessing whodunnit. One of my biggest pet peeves in a mystery novel, however, is when the main sleuth is constantly jumping from suspect to suspect with very little proof.

I actually liked Lucy, and I enjoyed almost all of Last Girl Breathing. I think it was a strong mystery, and a very strong contemporary lit about a small town that sucks you in and keeps you down. I do think the mystery could’ve used a little help - no spoilers, but I wasn’t fully satisfied in the end with how everything unfolded.

I also wasn’t fully invested in the hunting/outsoorsy/gun aspect of this book, but I’m not typically into those things in real life, so I just couldn’t relate to a lot of it.

I would, however, recommend this book. I felt a strong connection to Lucy’s need to constantly fix and take care of everyone around her, and did like a majority of the story. I would recommend this to anyone who likes foggy outdoorsy mysteries.

Wow! If you love suspense books, Court Stevens is a queen of suspense. This book keeps you guessing until the end! Definitely worth reading, even through the sadness and tragedy.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance ecopy of this book!! All opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Last Girl Breathing
By Court Stevens
Pub Date Nov. 7, 2023
Thomas Nelson
Thanks to the author, publisher and Net Galley for a great YA mystery,
This is a new author for me but it kept me guessing and flipping the pages, I had a slight problem with keeping up with which kids belonged with which parents throughout the book,
Nods to environmentalism, gun rights and rural culture.
4 stars

Court Stevens never fails to keep me interested in her books. They are ones that you need to pay attention to as you read, otherwise you will end up with the wrong person guilty. Several times.
Last Girl Breathing starts with the murder of two of the towns beloved sons. Lucy is thrust into the middle of the crime because one is her brother and the other one of her friends. Who has the talent to kill them both?
As the crime unfolds, Stevens continues to hand your clues, you have to shift through them to figure out the answers. It makes for a fun read.
If you haven't read any of Stevens other books, this is a great place to start, just be forward you are in for a bumpy ride.

A mystery with roots in loss and deception. Her baby brother died due to a flood and she holds herself responsible. Now her step brother is among the three missing people. The search takes up a lot of the first part of the book, which dragged for me. The second part happens two years later when more of the truth gets revealed

I ended up liking this book but the first half was very slow, I almost gave up. A town full of tragedy, complicated family and friend relationships. Economics tied to a dam. The first part of the book is about the search for three missing people, the main character's step brother, the police officer son of another police officer and the sister of the man she was dating. The second part is the aftermath, Is the right person in jail. Many suspects and danger still looms.

Court Stevens did it again! I really enjoyed this one. Sadie was one of my favorites of 2020 and I was blessed to get an e-arc of this! A new favorite!

4,5☆

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Fiction for an ARC of this book (all opinions are completely my own).

This was so good! This was the second book I have read from this author and their writing is so captivating. I loved how the characters and settings were built and the realtionships between the characters were explained well. I especially loved Lucy, the main character. Something about her just made me love her from the first page till the end. The quick pacing and short chapters were something I liked a lot as well!

I think the ending is very fitting and while I could guess most of the twists and turns beforehand I still ended up being surprised and shocked by some reveals. The book kept me on my toes and I wanted to read this as quick as possible to find out what happens next.

So, a very good book that I would recommend to anyone who loves stories/mysteries spanning years or just to someone looking for a captivating YA mystery!

A devastating flood and subsequent dam collapse rocked Lucy’s small town eight years ago. After losing her brother to the waters, she’s thrown herself into her family, relationships, and her dream of representing her country for air rifle at the Olympics. And all seems well, until tragedy strikes her family again, in the same place, next to the same dam. But as Lucy digs deeper, she realises that the danger is far from over, and the flood that killed her brother may not entirely have been an accident… and the killer could be anyone she loves, just waiting to strike.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

This was SUCH a beautifully written murder mystery, complex and hard-hitting - while at the same time imbued with a gritty sort of hopefulness.

The author’s writing style isn’t for everyone - for example, one of my favourite quotes was ‘You're young; you're formative; you're lateral. In the strangest innate way, you carry a secret that neither of you can understand or voice; a guttural knowledge that you will outlive your parents and the resulting bond between the two of you is different from the bond between them and you.’ …it resonated with me and reminded me of my bonds with my own siblings, but I can see how bits like this wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea. But it worked for me, and I’d say it did a great job for this novel as a whole - Lucy was a lovely main character, with such a distinct voice. You can’t help but want to root for her even if you don’t entirely understand or relate to her, which is not an easy feat for an author to undertake - to make their main character come alive in a way that shows all their flaws and dreams and hopes in one book, and do it so well that we root for her against all odds.

Grief is a central part of this book - how it drives people apart, how it brings them together, how it impacts lives and relationships. It was written in a way that resonates and shows the complexities of grief, and how its impact varies per person. The author never shied away from emotions or hard truths, while at the same time extending a measure of compassion but not excuse to all their characters.

The setting was also really well-developed, I felt like a citizen of Grand Junction after a while. It was homey when it needed to be homey, alien when it needed to be alien, and always immersed me in the story and added to the plot/character development. I really loved all that.

And best for last - the thriller, murder mystery aspect of this. Y’all. I have read many, many murder mysteries, many of them popular, many of them not. This is hands down one of the best I have seen. It makes sense, is realistic, is not confusing, and COMPLETELY hooks you. I read this book in one bated-breath sitting, and while in other novels I usually have some idea of the culprit, I only had a vague guess of who they might be mere pages before they were revealed. And what a reveal! The foreshadowing was all there and it was great, but enough to give away the twist before it needed to be given away.

This book also… it just made me feel so many emotions. The epilogue and time skip near the end made me almost cry. I really felt for Lucy, for everyone in Grand Junction, even for the murderer (while not excusing their actions, of course, the author does this very well - showing how people can be awful and also hurting), and this book appealed to universal truths and struggles and emotions. It made me think deeply about my own life and goals in a way that most books don’t. Pick this one up, folks. It lingers far beyond its last page - and it‘s so worth it.

A very suspensful, mystery novel that was well written that focused on the complex relationships between family members in a small community and the impact of a terrible accident on one family and then two murders!

Lucy's life is looking surprisingly good. Her family and community have done a lot of work to recover from a major tragedy in the past. She is amazingly talented at compartmentalizing her feelings in order to make things work for other people. She is close to guaranteeing her spot on the U.S. Olympic air rifle team (with her ex-boyfriend, but she'll be able to make that work, right?).

Then a text comes from her mom to say her stepbrother is missing, and everything unravels.

This is a terrific thriller from Court Stevens. Her last novel, "We Were Kings" made me a fan, and this one has solidified that for me. There are so many interlocking threads here. There is a close-knit community, and an even closer group of family relationships. There is a strong thread of environmentalism and concern about what our need for more energy causes us to do. There is a great deal around how important the family that we build for ourselves is. And somehow, Court Stevens manages to weave them all together, pull us in so that we genuinely care about the characters and always surprise us with an ending we didn't necessarily see coming. Lucy is a terrific lead character, and you really want to know how she is going to work through everything. My only quibble with this one is that I felt like we got a lot of important information at the end of the novel that for me, at least, came slightly out of nowhere.

Grade 7 and up will absolutely love this thriller, particularly any female-identified students who are really good at keeping their feelings in boxes, because that makes things easier for everyone else. If you have any readers who are target shooters, they will be thrilled to see their passion reflected here.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for the e-arc, in exchange for an honest review.

Last Girl Breathing is my first Court Stevens book and I’m already hooked on her writing style and carefully crafted characters.

Lucy is the definition of a survivor. After a horrific dam accident claims her brother’s life and the lives of many Boy Scouts camping in the area, Lucy is determined to be strong and carry on. Her resolve to power through everything falters when her two closest friends are murdered, a girl is missing, and her boyfriend is accused of the crime.

This will keep you guessing until the very end and you’ll love every minute.

I wanted to love this book, but it felt incredibly disjointed for me. The protagonist is fantastic, they feel authentic and real and current. However the writing style made reading this title, unenjoyable

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book. I LOVED it. Honestly, I don't know why people sleep on Court Stevens as a top author of suspense and mystery in the YA world. The twists and turns of Last Girl Breathing kept me wanting to read, to the point that I was frustrated when I had to stop to take care of immediate responsibilities. I can't wait to share this with students and put it down as a future battle of the books contender.

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for my honest review.

Just, wow. This is a very well executed complicated and multilayered book, with environmentalism, and gun control/abuse. We also have the consequences of what happens when past and present collide. It'll definitely have you rushing to get through it to find out what happens next!

I really enjoyed this book! I am a big fan of Court Stevens's writing and was not disappointed! It is a little slower paced at some points, but overall the plot keeps you guessing enough to push through. Although it is written for YA, I can see the younger side of this age group not being as interested in this title as it is more depth than pure entertainment in its reading. I like that the author included a main female protagonist that is interested in air rifle shooting - it is something that I can see appealing to some YA readers who don't usually see a combination like that. Overall, I really appreciated the character development and the comprehensive nature to the story which combined together past and present events.

Last girl breathing I feel name doesn't suit book doesn't make sense once read book or might just be me.
Loved this book and couldn't put it down it starts with finding out that Martin is missing, but there is a huge amount of blood found by his missing truck.
Then during the search party find out that Deuce and Astrid are missing as well.... why? and are they missing or is more going on.....
The first part of the book is about the missing people, the search and also going back 8 years when the dam broke and Lucy lost her brother Clay, now is she going to lose her step-brother...
2 bodies are found.... now there's a murder investigation Martin and Deuce are dead but where is Astrid...
Someone is convicted but is it the right person.....
part 2 is very brief and disappointing basically a chapter that is short of what Lucy done.
And then part 3 is 2 years after the murders.... The wrong person has been arrested and Lucy is determined to find out who is really responsible.....
Loved part 3 as was a twist at the end I did not expect it to be who it was.

#Netgallery #Lastgirlbreathing #courtstevens

Last Girl Breathing by Court Stevens is a young-adult standalone thriller novel. I believe this is the first book I've read by this author. I enjoyed the book, and it has a great twist at the end I didn't see coming.

Synopsis: Eight years ago, tragedy struck. Eight years ago, Lucy Michaels’s life changed forever. But under the surface of her small town lies a secret that could pull her under. Now eight years later, seventeen-year-old Lucy is focused on two things: making the US Olympic air rifle team and protecting everyone in her life from any type of trauma. However, with graduation and the Olympics on the horizon, her world is once again shaken when tragedy strikes Grand Junction, and once more, Lucy is right in the middle of it.

I felt the characters were well-developed and believable. The plot was good, and the story held my interest. The story kept me guessing, and I enjoyed how the author unfolded the story little by little.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

#LastGirlBreathing #NetGalley @TNZFiction