Very intense, interesting read,
This one had a ton of characters as well as many suspects.

We are in a small town, with lots of small town gossip, as well as camaraderie.

The story is centered around a tragedy that occurred several years ago, and our main character Lucy was there, her little brother was there, and a group of Boy Scouts was there too. Unfortunately, there were several deaths, including Lucy’s brother.

Fast forward (8 years, I think it was), and we are back in the same area, but now we have a whole new group of people…but Lucy is once again involved. And this time her boyfriend (ex) and her step-brother are involved as well.

Lucy is on track to be in the Olympics as a sharpshooter. And so is her boyfriend…

And then the floor drops out and all hell breaks loose…

Again, lots of suspects. Lots of suspense. Lots of nasty small town comments. Lots of little clues… And also a lot of…who can be trusted…and who cannot…

Multiple triggers on this one, as there are multiple deaths, jail, suicide… so be sure to check the jacket if these may affect you.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #HarperCollinsChristianPublishing and #TomNelsonFiction for an ARC of this audiobook which has already been released.

4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me!

#LastGirlBreathing by #CourtStevens

Check out all my upcoming reviews on Instagram @BookReviews_with_emsr

Thanks for reading! 📖📚

From the very beginning, this book had me hooked.

The short chapters filled with emotion kept me from pausing the audiobook for a single minute, waiting at the edge of my seat for the next clue and the one after that. I probably changed my mind a thousand times, trying to guess what exactly happened, and I don’t think I would’ve ever guessed correctly until just before the big reveal. Even the epilogue, the happy ending, broke my heart a little.

Probably my favorite mystery/thriller I read in the past few months.

I really like the main protagonist in this story. I felt a connection with her from the beginning and I could feel her emotions throughout the story. I love the small-town, rural vibes and atmosphere. It makes for a great backdrop in thrillers. There are many players in this story and nearly everyone has experienced grief and tragedy of some kind. It was quite intense, especially for a young adult, which I really appreciated. Sometimes young adult mystery/thrillers feel childish, but this story felt very real and had a mature nature to it. It was also very well crafted, with building tension and suspense. I did find some of the twists to be predictable, but possibly not so for someone who hasn’t read in this genre as much. While I liked the writing style, some of the later parts didn’t feel as cohesive with the overall narrative as I would have liked. The transitions were a bit jarring and pulled me out of the story. Overall, I thought is was a solid read. While it’s not something I think I’ll remember the details of in years to come, or thirty books later, there are some parts that will definitely stick with me. The narration was really well done and kept me engaged throughout. It really added to the atmosphere and tension of the story and I felt the voices of the characters came across really well. I’d definitely read from this author in the future.

Rating this more of a 2.5 than a 3, but rounding up for the author.

I figured out the perp immediately, but continued on in order to confirm my suspicions. It was kind of obvious and I was a little annoyed by it, but it has a satisfying ending which helps.

What I liked about this book:
-I enjoyed the ending to this book as we found out more about the killer and why they do what they do. It's very sad, but also doesn't negate the horrible murders that are committed by this person
-I thought Dana, one of the private investigators, was a great role model for Lucy and enjoyed her character. She was perfect for her role and I like that we continued to see her throughout the book

What I didn't like about this book:
-Every other character, particularly Lucy's mom and stepdad Robert. They were incredibly fucking annoying and I didn't feel bad for them at any point. The childish behavior and forcing Lucy to constantly be the adult got OLD very fast
-The weird relationship between Lucy and her stepbrother. Sometimes she would share a memory of her and Martin and I was like ummm is you fuckin your stepbrother... #weird
-The length. It was so incredibly long and I got kind of bored in the middle. I honestly felt like you could skip about 20% of the book and still have a complete understanding of the ending

Last Girl Breathing by Court Stevens. I loved the beginning and ending of this book however, the middle was a bit slow. It took me a while to get through. I really liked the narrator, characters and plot, I just though the middle could have been more action packed. Never saw the ending coming. I did overall enjoy this book. Thanks NetGalley and HarperCollins Christian Publishing, for the ARC.

Buckle up, this is a bumpy ride!
This book will have you flipping the pages so fast to see what happens. This was my first book by Court Stevens but it won’t be my last! There are a few trigger warnings in the story. Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Wow. The YA audience is in for a treat with this one!

Lucy's story flips between now and then---with then being flashbacks to the night of a fateful camping trip that led to a broke dam and the death of her 5 year old brother, Clay. In the now, Lucy is a long-range shooter with dreams of the Olympics, but a missing stepbrother and brother-like-friend soon turns her world upside down. And then there's a little flash-forward to keep the story moving. In all three times, the heart of the story is the small town where everyone knows everything about everyone one...and yet dark secrets still manage to take root and cause rot.

The story is quick paced, focused, and entertaining. The narrator is good and keeps the story on track. The characters are well-developed and unique. Even though I had the ending figured out pretty early on, I still enjoyed this book a ton!

Overall: 4.5 stars

I'll tell my students about: child death, mental health/trauma, death/violence/gore, alcohol, language, suicide

**Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Thomas Nelson Fiction for the free ALC. All opinions expressed are my own.**

* 3.5 stars *
Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Christian Publishing for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
Last Girl Breathing by Court Stevens is about Lucy, a future Olympian and a girl who has never forgiven herself for her little brothers death. Tragedy has struck again and with the connection to the death of her little brother she dives in to find out the truth.
This was a good and simple book. It was an interesting mystery following a good character. The main character has to work out her connection with the others around her and she doesn't know who she can trust.
However nothing seemed to stick out to me in this book to make it great for me. Also the audiobook narrator was hard to listen to because you could hear her breathing every other sentence which was so annoying. I would recommend this book if you just want a simple small town mystery with deep emotions. Just don't listen to it as an audiobook...

Lucy's family has already had their big tragedy. When the dam broke eight years ago, her family and others were out camping on her grandfather's land. While most of them made it out alive, her little brother didn't. The guilt they've all carried around for years hasn't vanished, and neither has the fear. Lucy is moving on though - she's trying out for the olympic air rifle team, her mother has married again after splitting from her father and she's just recently broken up with her boyfriend. When Lucy's stepbrother doesn't show up to his game, everyone is concerned. Then, the police find his car covered in blood. What at first looks like yet another horrible accident soon turns into a murder investigation, and it seems like the tragedies are connected in deeper ways than everyone thought.
Last Girl Breathing was a suspenseful read! I enjoyed the plot and how the characters were written, and I really liked Lucy as narrator of the story, with her insight and her thoughts about the ongoings. I definitely was on the edge of my seat about the solution. What I didn't enjoy was the time jump in the middle - I think this was unnecessary to carry the story further. I'm also not quite sure if *as* many deaths were necessary to tell this story in this way, but all in all I did enjoy it and would absolutely read another book by the author! The audio book narrator did a great job, too.

Ugh this book was just so ughhhhhh. Like in the best possible way. I have the biggest book hangover now. I don’t even know how to write a good enough review for this one. I suspected everyone throughout the whole book. Well except the dog.

One thing made me laugh and it’s a just me thing. I’ve had my name misspelled a lot but Joanny is a new one even for me. I wouldn’t have even assumed it was Joni if I hadn’t listened to the audiobook in tandem with reading the book.

Lucy is no stranger to grief and loss. When she was a child, her little brother and multiple boy scouts were killed when the LaRue Dam broke. Now, 10 years later, Lucy's stepbrother is missing along with the Sheriff's son and Lucy's ex-boyfriend's sister. When the bodies start to pile up, Lucy finds herself in the middle of a mystery that threatens to take her own life if she gets too close to the truth.

I am absolutely in the minority with a low rating for this book. The book SLAMS into the plot with no real character introduction, and I just found the characters too convoluted! I couldn't keep up with nicknames and how everyone related to one another, and that could be my own fault, I suppose. I should say I listened to the audiobook so I was unable to use the Kindle skeleton feature to go back and figure out who the different characters were.

Thank you to NetGalley and and the author for and audiobook ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really liked this one!

We read this book from one POV, Lucy, who tries to figure out the mystery behind the murder of these two guys (friends of hers), but this investigation seems to go back to something that happened in the past, which was a traumatic event to her. Most of the book is written in the current timeline, with some chapters from the past in which this traumatic event happened. This really helped us understanding Lucy, and her motives!

I loved that I kept guessing at what happen, why it happened and who did it. The author did a great job at making multiple people look like they could have done it.

To me the conclusion really did make sense, it did not come out of nothing.

Besides Lucy, I also really liked Danna (I think that is how you write her name) as a character.

Definitely recommend listening to the audiobook, it was really well done!

I received a copy of this from netgalley. Thanks, yo!

This is a mix of past and present storylines. In the past: a flood happened and traumatized a town. In the present: a murder happens and traumatizes a town. At first I didn’t think this book would be for me. I am a bit embarrassed to admit I was bored. But then I was hooked and couldn’t put it down. I liked hearing about the sport of shooting…not something a book normally covers when discussing sporty stuff.

The one issue I had with this audio book was the writer would take audible gulps of breath and often. It was very distracting.

WOW! I did not see those last couple of twists coming! I was SURE it was her stepdad! This was a great read and had me glued to my phone while listening! This was my 1st book by Court Stevens but will not be my last, as I am adding all their books to my TBR!

#LastGirlBreathing
#NetGalley

ARC audiobook provided in exchange for an honest review.

McKenzie Fetters did a wonderful job with the narration! Her characters were spot on and I was always able to distinguish which character was speaking! The story itself is about a small country town that has been struck by tragedy in the past when a dam break kills some children and years later are faced with more missing, possibly in danger, people. It was intriguing and I really liked how all the characters and backstories really made you feel like a part of this small town life. I would definitely recommend to anyone who likes mysteries and thrillers!

I had a hard time with this narrator even listening at a higher speed but the story itself seemed interesting enough that I will keep an eye out of a hard copy or kindle edition as I could not finish and this rarely happens so I'm sorry

I will forever shudder when I hear the words “underwater” and “baby”. First book read by this author and I am a fan.

Eight years ago, Lucy Michaels experienced the devastating loss of her little brother Clay when he was swept away by flood waters. Lucy blamed herself for his death because she did not keep hold of him when the water from the dam breaking swept around them. Now seventeen, Lucy is close to making the Olympic team for air riflery when another tragedy hits her small town. Her stepbrother Martin and another friend are found murdered and another friend is missing. There are also new questions about what really caused the dam to break.

The story goes back and forth between present day and the time of the flood from the dam breaking. Lucy works well as a strong protagonist telling the story and the many supporting characters create a suspenseful YA thriller. McKenzie Fetters does a great job narrating the audiobook.

Thanks to Netgalley, Court Stevens and HarperCollins for an ARC of the audiobook.

Last Girl Breathing by Court Stevens

Thank you to @netgalley, @harpercollins, and @quartland for the opportunity to read this #advancedlistenercopy in exchange for my #honestbookreview. This book will be an available in both physical and audiobook format starting November 7.

Seventeen years ago tragedy struck in Lucy Michaels’ small town in the form of a river accident. Now in high school, Lucy’s world is upheaved once again when two of her friends are hunted down in a nature preserve. The entire town is then reeling and the heat is on to unmask the killer and their motivation. But secrets in this town are not in short supply and the everything is not what it seems. Is Lucy the next target?

This book was super twisty. I almost didn’t realize it’s YA when reading because it reads like a standard suspense novel. Definitely one where everything is not working to a peachy keen ending, which y’all know I appreciate. I highly recommend this for fans of mystery, domestic suspense.

TWs: bl*ckmail, violence, m*nipulation, more.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 4/4

Stevens last novel, We Were Kings, held me spellbound, so I was thrilled to receive an ARC of her newest YA mystery.

Tragedy struck the small Kentucky town of Grand Junction several years ago when the dam broke after excessive rain, and lives were lost. Among the victims was Lucy’s little brother, Clay. Eight years later, Lucy is focused on making the US Olympic air rifle team and taking care of her mother, who is still very fragile after Clay’s death. Tragedy strikes again when two of Lucy’s closest friends are found murdered in the same vicinity where her brother died.

Small towns seem to hold the biggest secrets, usually deeply buried, and Grand Junction is no different. Some characters have held them close for decades. The author created realistic and flawed characters, making it easy for readers to empathize with them. A wide net of suspicion is cast over the town, and there’s no shortage of red herrings to throw readers off the trail. I never got to a point where I felt as if I knew without a doubt who was behind the murders, and I love it when that happens. When all was said and done, it’s nothing I could have predicted.

The story moves seamlessly as chapters alternate from present day to the past, the weekend Clay died, and my heart went out to Lucy after the gut-wrenching nightmare she lived through. With Grand Junction being such a tightly knit community, the whole town grieved when the dam burst, and wounds are still fresh eight years later.

Passages of this story will break your heart, and the gripping mystery will keep you guessing until the end. I listened to the audiobook, and narrator McKenzie Fetters does a fantastic job. If you’re a fan of small town mysteries with realistically drawn characters, you can’t go wrong with Last Girl Breathing.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.