Member Reviews
A Christmas time mystery which was mainlt enjoyable however felt the ending spoilt the book a little.
Maria Frankland’s Last Christmas is a poignant and heartfelt tale that beautifully captures the complexities of love, loss, and the spirit of the holiday season. The story follows a protagonist grappling with the memories of a past Christmas that changed everything, as she navigates her grief and the challenges of moving forward.
Frankland’s writing is deeply evocative, blending moments of joy and sorrow with skillful sensitivity. The characters are richly drawn, making their emotional journeys relatable and compelling. As the protagonist reconnects with family and friends, the narrative unfolds with warmth and sincerity, highlighting the importance of connection during difficult times.
The pacing is steady, allowing readers to fully immerse themselves in the character’s emotional landscape. Themes of healing, hope, and the enduring power of love resonate throughout, reminding us that even in the face of loss, the spirit of Christmas can bring light and renewal.
Overall, Last Christmas is a touching and uplifting read that will resonate with fans of emotional holiday romances. It’s a beautifully crafted story that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the magic of the holiday season.
A brilliant Christmas book. If you are looking something to get you into the Christmas spirit this is the book for you , I loved it. Such a well written story with brilliant characters it had a bit of everything, humour, romance and intriguing story . I would highly recommend this book for a nice cosy winters night read by the fire .
Quick entertaining read spoiled by an amateur ending that involves the culprit explaining the story, a little bit odd
Last Christmas is a holiday themed mystery that was about Sacha and how she goes to visit her family during Christmas with her husband but what happens when tensions quickly rise. This was a quick page turning book for me that I enjoyed and would recommend to any reader who loves a good mystery. My only thing with this book was that their was a lot of family drama and the characters were okay. Overall the author wrote this book well and I enjoyed this one. Thank you to NetGalley and Publisher for this book in exchange of my honest review of Last Christmas.
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book. This was a heck of a ride! The story was not for the faint of heart! Terrible people doing terrible things but I loved it! Highly recommend
Filled with twists I didnt see coming, this is not a fell good book. Let me tell you. Full of unsavoury characters and told by multiple POV's. I couldnt put this book down.
Maria Frankland's Last Christmas is a tense psychological thriller ... kicking off with a couple visiting family for Christmas (always tense!). Add in depression and too much alcohol and you've a recipe for disaster. And a disaster it is ... with a terrific twist at the end.
I deeply inhaled everything about this book. It's a festive drama filled domestic thriller and it's one of those books I am planning to read more than once because it is so good.
Neil and Sasha are struggling with problems in their marriage; infertility, depression and Neil’s reliance in alcohol to deal with these issues. When Sasha’s parents ask them and her sisters, with their partners, to spend Christmas with them they cannot refuse. It will be the last one for Sasha’s terminally ill father.
Bickering breaks out almost immediately and Neil and his brothers in law fall out, a row which leads to a death, an attempted murder and so much more.
Well written and interesting, this was a good read with lots of bit part characters, some of which I felt I wanted to know more about but they didn’t feature as much.
Recommended to those who enjoy a family drama, set in the festive season where everything seems more tense and heightened.
Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.
Hands down for the perfect Holiday thriller. When families get together for the holidays, sometimes hatred, lies and devious behavior tag along too!
When three sisters and their families go home to spend one last Christmas with their terminally ill father, another unexpected surprise happens and will forever change all of their lives.
This book sucked me in pretty quickly and kept me questioning every single character. It was a brilliant read, perfect amount of twists, likable and unlikeable characters, sadness, remorse and relatable family dynamic issues.
This one is a must read!
Wow....what an incredible read! This has to be one of the best domestic thrillers I have ever read. I enjoyed the well written and somewhat relatable characters, the plot, and the twists....oh the twists! I have to say, I did not see some of that coming! This was a rollercoaster of a read right from the first page and left me wanting at least a hundred pages more.
#LastChristmas wow what did I just read. What a dysfunctional family but I enjoyed every bit of the lie, cheating and murder.
Sacha and her husband Neil are celebrating Christmas at Sachas parents new home. Sacha and Neil are having fertility problems which has put a strain on their marriage. Her father is terminally ill and this will be his last Christmas. Neil is struggling with depressing and drinking. He and his brother in law have a squabble which ends in mother in law telling them to take a walk and make up! The problem is only 1 will make it back home alive.
I love my family thrillers to be festive so this hit all the marks for me! Who killed her husband?? All the twists and turns enticed me. I could not stop reading.
Trigger warning regarding depression, bully, suicide related discussions, topics should have been raised somewhere in the summary - If I had known that, I would not have started with this one. I was looking for a Christmas Winter vibe nice suspenseful thriller, not a "dragging-down" book. I did not like it at all. It earned by me 2 star for the 1/3 of the book, that was constructed very nice and brought me into Christmas atmosphere: Sasha and his husband are preparing for traveling to Sasha`s family for Christmas, since this will be the last Christmas with Sasha`s father, who is terminally ill.
As the bookcover states already the husband of Sasha will die on Christmas Eve and several other miseries hit the main character Sasha, up to a point that it is just unbearable. The twists were forceful and did not make much sense.
I choose this book as most seasonal offerings are usually cute romances, which although I love the odd one to give me that warm fuzzy feeling, they are mostly just the same story! This however, is not like that at all! Quite a dysfunctional family with so much baggage ready to explode into the hothouse of festive celebrations. Lots of twists alongside the disagreements. Certainly a different festive read.
3.5 stars rounded up
Let me start by saying I have never not finished reading a book which is lucky for this one because it got off to a rocky start and there were a lot of ups and downs for me, it didn’t immediately draw me in and was very repetitive but I’m glad that I stuck with it. It’s centred around a very dysfunctional family at Christmas time. It took until part 2 of the book for me to start getting into it and for there to be any real action but after that there were a couple of twists that I did not see coming. This was an easy read which is more of a domestic thriller than a psychological thriller but overall I ended up enjoying the story.
I really enjoyed this book. It was a very good page turner. Unexpected turns though, thought I'd figured it all out, but I was so wrong
I wanted to read this because I hadn’t read a holiday thriller before. It sounded like an interesting story with lots of family drama. Last Christmas was a quick read, however I wish there was a more thriller aspect to the story instead of all the family drama.
I was drawn to the story. I couldn't figure the plot till the very end. I had to stop what I was doing to read the last few chapters. Its that good.