""The Last Verse" by Caroline Frost is an emotional story about a young woman's journey to finding her voice. Twyla loves music. She wants more than singing in the choir and joining Mama on the Mission trip. When her idol, Elvis Presley, passes, Twyla sneaks away to pay her respects. She catches a ride to Nashville and is soon caught up in the music and lives of the people she meets there.
This did not at all play out like I imagined. I found this book to be more like a Lifetime Channel Movie than a Hallmark Channel Movie. This is not a happy-go-lucky read, but Twyla found closure, and I did enjoy her story.

I was provided an e-arc by NetGalley and William Morrow in exchange for an unbiased review.

I did not enjoy The Last Verse, I never connected with the characters, story or writing style that Caroline Frost was using and I felt that this was a weird mashup of Daisy Jones & The Six and a mystery and I never felt it worked at all.

I enjoyed this book overall. It was a slow start and none of the characters were all that likable, but the story was entertaining. I agree with the reviewer who suggested to go into it blind as it is very predictable and all laid out in the synopsis.

My book of the year for 2022 was @carolinefrostwriter’s SHADOWS OF PECAN HOLLOW, and I’ve been anxiously awaiting her next book ever since. The minute I saw her cover reveal for THE LAST VERSE, I immediately began my efforts to get my hands on an early copy. When it arrived on my doorstep, I stopped everything and devoured it.

All that build up, and I’m sure you’re wondering if it lived up to my expectations. The answer is a resounding YES! 100% yes!

🌿 What It’s About
A young struggling musician in the world of 70s country music writes a hit song that promises her fame and fortune while also implicating her in a murder. Her dreams for the future and the secrets of her past collide into a narrative fit for a hit country song.

🌿 My Thoughts

I grew up in the 70s in small town Texas where country was king, so all of the musical references here took me right back to my childhood and the country music that was the backdrop for my life. The author captured the music scene of the time with absolute perfection, and that’s no small feat.

The immersive setting combined with the suspenseful and expertly layered plot, the theme of redemption and the outstanding cast of characters made this a hugely satisfying read.

I absolutely recommend this one! Don’t miss it.

My thanks to @williammorrowbooks for the opportunity to read and review this book before its publication date.

I read this author’s debut novel, Shadows of Pecan Hollow, and I loved the story so much I became an instant fan. So, when I saw this new release, I had to read it and was not disappointed. This author knows how to turn a phrase and puts the reader smack into the middle of the story.

First and foremost, I love the setting for the story. Nashville, Tennessee in the seventies, was the mecca, the launching pad for any new aspiring artist, and home of the country music industry. The author depicted each location in the historical setting with detailed accuracy.

Twyla Higgins is a character I could immediately relate to and root for. She is nineteen and stifled by her mother, who has turned into a religious zealot. But there is such an interesting backstory about Twyla’s father, who passed away when she was ten. He was a professional musician and songwriter, and he taught young Twyla things she embraced and never forgot. She adored her father. Twyla is a writer. It’s embedded in her DNA. I love the author’s description of how Twyla would sing in the church choir, all the while composing an entirely new song in her head. That is true talent and dedication.

This quote from the book describes it perfectly: “She was scared if she didn’t write them (songs) down, she would lose them forever. Daddy had often said every song is like a soul that wants to be born. If one came to her and she didn’t bear it forth, it would just go visit someone else.”

She loved everything about music and had lots of musical heroes, including Elvis Presley. It was the shocking news of his death that spurred Twyla into action. She had to get to Memphis to celebrate the King’s life. And she did. The way the story unfolds one delicious layer at a time shows Twyla’s naivete and innocence and her determination to break free from her mother’s strangling hold and experience life.

From Memphis to Nashville, her journey gets rocky and hair-raising and even includes her first love and a murder. I will not leave any spoilers here, but will say I was 100% invested in Twyla and her story. I wanted so desperately for her to succeed. Does she succeed, or does she wind up in a deeper hole than the one she left behind in Fort Worth, Texas? I won’t tell you. You’ll have to read the story to find out.

The author writes in such a descriptive way. Here’s an example that struck me as almost poetic: “…It never ceased to amaze her how money hung in the air here like a scent. In the flamboyant azaleas, the geometric boxwoods, the football field lawns and rambling driveways, and absence of eyesores—dumpsters, billboards, litter—reserved for the rest of humanity. Was the air cleaner here? She’d wager it was.”

I loved all the flawed characters in this story. Each one deals with their own deep psychological issues, and they intertwine with Twyla and her fate. It’s such a good story and I highly recommend it.

Caroline Frost writes a powerful and moving story about Twyla who just wants to make it big in Nashville as a singer. Twyla draws on the inspiration of her musician father who died at his prime and ends up leaving her a beautiful legacy. Although Twyla has to overcome her overbearing mother and people who prey on her. Innocence, she comes out triumphant.

A nice follow up to Frost’s debut, The Shadows of Pecan Hollow. I particularly liked that it’s so different in tone and execution. Kudos to the author for taking this artistic risk. This is set in the 70s, with a flash forward four decades toward the end. It tells the story of a gifted, but tortured, young woman named Twyla with song lyrics and a mournful country western voice that she’s struggling to get out. She leaves the religious fervor of her home life to pay respects to Elvis in Memphis, and ends up in Nashville. It’s there that she starts to dabble in the country scene and meets a young musician, Chet, who comes from a family of means. On a fateful night, tragedy ensues and Twyla’s life will never be the same. Yes, there’s suspense and mystery, but the true gift of this novel is the lovely writing and deep characterization. This is another winner for Frost. Can’t wait to see what’s up next for her.

After loving Caroline Frost’s debut THE SHADOWS OF PECAN HOLLOW I was eager to pick up THE LAST VERSE. The story follows Twyla Finch as she leaves her Texas hometown for Tennessee to attend the funeral of Elvis and break into the 1970s country music scene.

While this was a great premise, it wasn’t executed as well as I expected. The Last Verse lacked the emotional depth and character complexity that I loved most about the author’s debut. Each character felt like a stereotype with not as much nuance as I would have hoped.

I did enjoy the Nashville music scene and the focus on songwriting but the pacing felt off and I had to suspend quite a bit of disbelief with many plot points. A few events came as a surprise to me, only to find out that essentially the entire book is given away in the synopsis. For this reason, I would highly suggest going into the novel completely blind and let the story unfold. This story wasn't a complete win for me but I do look forward to picking up what Caroline Frost writes in the future!

PUB DATE: March 5, 2024
RATING: 3/5

Many thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book ticked off a lot of boxes for me: set in the 70’s, musical aspects, and a Southern girl as the main character. Tired of being held back by her domineering and religious mother, Twyla leaves home to head to Memphis to mourn the legendary Elvis Presley. She ends up in Nashville to pursue a career in country music, encountering a young man named Chet.

An encounter out on the water goes awry, and Chet winds up dead. She pours her feelings over the situation into a song that she assumes no one hears. But someone has and uses it as their own. Twyla can’t claim it without being found guilty.

I really enjoyed this book for the most part. Twyla was a great character to root for. The only thing I didn’t like were the chapters dedicated to the former detective who takes on the case. Otherwise, this would’ve been a 5 star read for me.

Thanks as always to NetGalley for the ARC.

Set in the 1970s in Nashville, Tennessee this is the story of a young woman with big dreams and some very bad luck.
Twyla is a song writer who becomes involved in a terrible crime. Deeply unsettled she does what she does best - writes a song about it. She sings it one in an empty bar and doesn't seek to publish it. Shortly thereafter she hears another singer's rendition of the song. It is clearly becoming a popular song - the kind she needs to propel her to stardom.
She has to decide whether to risk capture for the crime or let her authorship go to someone else.