Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review. This book was an amazing twisty ride! I loved that it kept me guessing, although I did guess a few things right towards the end. This was my second A. R. Torre book and I plan to read all of the others. 5 stars!

Woah. Add this one to your TBR now 🔥

My thoughts at only 14% in- holy sh*t, this is twisted! And I loved it! 👏🏻 I totally understand the hype and why the @thrillerbookloversthepulse group chat was blowing up over this book. It grabbed my attention from the very beginning and kept me hooked and guessing the entire time. I love Torre’s writing style and the way she tells a story- it’s entirely bingeable, but too good to rush through!

Perla has the perfect life. Loving husband and daughter, plus all the money they need. But it’s clear there’s something “off” about Perla and she isn’t content with living this dream life. She develops an obsession with a criminal imprisoned for the murders of young girls that took place over 20 years ago. Meanwhile, this murderer is being interviewed by a doctoral student who may finally get him to admit the truth about what happened that awful night. Through multiple points of view, the connections between these characters are explored and lead to a mind blowing twist.

Perla is such an unlikeable MC, the author does an amazing job at making you love to hate her. Comparing a cleft palate repair to her desire for a nose job and mole removal- “Were their facial deformities really any different from mine?” 😆

I was so excited to read this book because I’ve read three of Torre’s other books and loved them all. This most definitely takes the prize for my favorite of hers so far. I previously read A Fatal Affair and Every Last Secret (4 ⭐️), and The Good Lie (5 ⭐️).

Thank you so much to Amazon Publishing, NetGalley, and AR Torre for letting me read and review this book before it publishes in August!

A.R. Torre is an auto read author for me and her newest title “The last party” was twisty/thrilling and did not disappoint. The story surrounds a murder of young teen girls that took place 23 years ago. It’s multiple POV’s with different storylines that all somehow merge along the way. I did guess one of the major plot twists but it didn’t take away the enjoyment of putting all the puzzle pieces together. The FMC Perla’s POV gave me chills and was so creepy and kept me on the edge of my seat.

I've really enjoyed A.R. Torre's previous books, but I felt like this book should have come with a trigger warning. I had to stop reading--I'm sorry, I adore thrillers, and I adore this author's other titles, but I don't want to be inside the head of a woman who is clearly planning on murdering her child.

Thank you @netgalley for the Advanced Reader Copy of The Last Party by A.R. Torre. This is a thriller, and it goes back to a murder of two young girls that happened many years earlier at a birthday party. Perla now lives in a fancy Pasadena area, but she can’t forget about the murders, and the man who confessed and is in prison now. There are secrets and maybe things are not as they seem? It’s a fast moving mystery. #thelastparty #artorre #netgalley #advancedreadercopy #mystery #bookstagram #booklover #reader #bookblog #lovetoread #fictionreader #bookreview #bookrecommendation #readersofinstagram #bookloversofinstagram #takeapagefrommybook #readallthebooks #booksbooksbooks #booksofinstagram #bookwormproblems #bookaholic #booknerd #whattoread #readingtime #bookaddict #ilovetoread #ilovebooks #needtoread #readallday

This is my first-ever book by A.R. Torre, and I can tell you right now that there's a Torre-based bender in my near future. HOLY CATS. THIS WAS WILD!

Perla lives in a very fancy house in a very fancy neighborhood with her husband (Grant) and almost-12-year-old daughter (Sophie). On the surface, she seems like just another super-rich white lady with a nice car and too much time to spend micromanaging her life and appearance, but Perla also has a secret obsession with a murderer.

The structure of this was cool and really well done -- the story was told through multiple POVs and there were pull quotes from news coverage and neighbor interviews and whatnot at the start of each chapter as kind of a teaser for what was coming next. And I LOVED how she scattered the twists and reveals throughout the story, so there was never a boring moment. As the reader it was super fun to know *something* was going on that maybe some of the other characters didn't know about (yet) and to watch it all connect and get crazy.

This was everything I want from a thriller, and I would have happily read this in one sitting [alas, I had to leave my book and DO stuff ((EYEROLL))]. I'm so happy the @thrillerbookloversthepulse crew brought this book to my attention and I got to read it early!!! Read this!

* thanks to Amazon Publishing / Thomas & Mercer for the NetGalley review copy. The Last Party publishes August 20, 2024.

#thepulse #pulsepoint #thrillerbookloversthepulse

Thanks to #NetGalley and #Thomas&Mercer for the book #TheLastParty by #ARTorre. Wow, this book is incredible. It had me guessing the whole time and I still didn’t figure it out. Twelve years ago there was fatal stabbing of a girls 12th birthday sleepover. The father was convicted and put in prison. Was he the right person? This is a must read!!!

I think this is AR Torre’s best thriller yet. You may guess the big twist early, but that won’t keep you from burning the midnight oil and staying up alllllll night to finish this.

The main character, Perla Wultz, is a cold hearted calculating narcissist whose motives and plans are seemingly incomprehensible. She is married to Grant, the ever doting and loving husband and father to their very intelligent daughter Sophie.

A 20 year old multiple murder of children that was committed by a death row inmate Leewood Fulcrum seems to keep Perla’s attention to the point of obsession.

I loved the little interviews, articles, podcasts and other comments start each chapter planting seeds to keep you guessing and second guessing what you’ve just read.

Full of dark devious characters this twisty thriller is a must read !

#TheLastParty:⁣
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Thank you @thrillerbookloversthepulse @amazonpublishing for my gifted copy of this wild ride!!⁣
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A.R. Torre is one of those authors that just will not disappoint you. This book was unhinged in the best day, darker than dark, and was very satisfying.⁣
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The darkness of the book reminded me of Sharp Objects. We got the brutal killings of children (three at the infamous Folcrum Party) and a wild and twisty ending. Now⁣
I’m not going to give anything away, which is very hard, but as a thriller lover, the twists made sense and I caught on to them. Do I think others will be jaw on the floor bamboozled? 100% ⁣
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It’s pretty pedal to the floor action once we start. The middle has lots of planning, because, ok, fair, but the ending is twist after twist. Perla is a narcissist (She literally airs around not denying she’s not a doctor to save someone’s life in like the 2nd page and is like oh.. me?) Sophie was cool and I loved her chapters. Wish I got more of her perspectives because a child’s perspective is always more than we give them credit for.⁣
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Overall, a wild ride, another hit from A.R. Torre, and another author buy author. I think this book is definitely one I’ll never forget, and can’t stop raving about it to friends. ⁣
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The Last Party does not come out until August 8th, but I promise you, it’s worth the wait!!⁣
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Predict text: The Last Party…⁣
The last party will be the last one to win the election.

This one was a crazy ride from start to finish. The little character statements at the beginning really makes you want to keep reading to find out what actually happens and what everyone is talking about. I did figure out what the connection was between the murder 23 years ago and the characters in the story, but it didn't take anything away from the reading experience. This was a fun and twisty thriller and I'm excited to read more from this author.

This is my first book by this author and it absolutely blew me away. It was a dark twisty thriller and I loved every single minute. Buckle up for a wild ride with this one.

Leewood Fulcrum serves a lifetime prison sentence after being convicted of murders at his 12 year old daughter's birthday party over twenty years ago. This crime was horrific and still comes up from time to time on podcasts and the like.

Currently Perla Wultz lives with her husband, Grant, and daughter, Sophie, not far fro the prison where Fulcrum is held. Their house is a mansion, bought from her inheritance, and they live well.
Perla's life looks envious to many, but we don't always know what goes on behind closed doors.
We learn that soon enough and what happens will have you gasping.

I feel like this is one of those reviews where you cannot give too much information. Just know this book is definitely one of the best I've read this year and I HIGHLY recommend it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an eARC, and to Thriller Book Lovers The Pulse and AR Torre for allowing me the honor to be a part of this tour for this amazing thriller.

What the heck did I just read? My word what a book.

You know of my love of books with podcasts (still having never listened to one 😂). There are multiple narrators. One is dying in jail. There are interjections from either the podcast or just random people on some future event. Things unspool slowly. Meaning I knew something happened yet I didn’t know what and the podcast and interjections slowly shed light in the event.

This kept me guessing. As I read I wasn’t sure if nothing was as it seems or everything was exactly how it seems. Instead of an unreliable narrator there was an unreliable book.

It’s dark. It’s unpredictable. There is some pure evil. Not just an unlikable character but a hated character. But that I really liked hating and needed to know more about.

Stop reading about this one and add it to your tbr.

I am a solid A R Torre fan. I think I’ve read almost everything she’s published under that name and also her other pen name Alessandra Torre so was a no brainer that I’d reach for The Last Party too.

The story follows mother of one Perla in her beautiful house with her carefully constructed perfect life. It also follows Leewood Folcrum - a convicted murderer. Seemingly two opposite stories which makes you wonder how they could be entwined. Perla appears obsessed with Leewood but it’s not immediately clear why and where that comes from. She sets out to plan a similar murder to that which Leewood was charged with and the story follows the lead up to that event. It is twisted and Perla’s inner thoughts, plotting and gaslighting of other characters was wild.

I did not see the twists in this one coming. I was a little bit let down with the ending but the lead up to it with Perla’s planning and the slow reveal of the true identities of all the different players was clever.

This is not my favourite of Torre’s thrillers but I did love the similarity between this and Moonshot, a baseball thriller, with the addition of interview and newspaper transcripts throughout the book at the start of chapters. I love Moonshot - it’s one of my favourite’s that she’s written - so if you’ve not tried it you should give it a go.

‼️Warning! Outlier review!‼️

A.R. Torre is an absolute favorite author of mine. Any book she writes (under any of her pseudonyms) is automatically added to the top of my tbr list. This book was no different...

That is until I started reading…😫

Perla is living a quiet, unassuming life with her husband and daughter. But Perla has big plans! She’s about to put into motion something people will be talking about for years!

Leewood is serving a sentence for multiple murders. Over the years no one has ever come to visit.
Until a graduate student begins making frequent trips to the prison, hoping to hear from Leewood himself. What exactly happened all those years ago?

That’s it for the premise. Any more and it’s a slippery slope into spoilers.
I can say, this is one of her darker themed thrillers.

Ok… so what went wrong for me?
🫤I found the format a bit confusing. The transition of who was narrating was a bit choppy and I’d had to hit reverse and reread pages to make sure I had the right perspective.
🫤Unfortunately I guessed most of the twists, so nothing came as a huge surprise for me.

There are loads of fabulous five star reviews for this book (virtually every review) so I can confidently say it's a case of...

It’s me🙋🏻‍♀️ not the book!

Make sure to read all the rave reviews and I hope you love it as much as everyone else did.

Will this stop me or make me hesitate before picking up her next? Not a chance! I can’t wait to see what she working on!

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer

I was approved to read this book by NetGalley and Hachette Book Group - and my oh my am I SO glad that I was. Hands down, this is my favorite book I’ve read by Torre so far. Her plot was just so smart and well executed. I absolutely loved the different POVs as well as the flashbacks. The character development with the main character, Perla, was done SO well. There were parts in the book where quite a few of Perla’s thoughts really just gave me chills. Torre has a talent for writing about sociopaths, that’s a fact. The ending was perfect and didn’t feel rushed for me. I only knocked off half a star because there were parts that were predictable, but the ride through the book was still an amazing one. Pick this chill worthy thriller up when it releases on 8/20/2024.

There was a ton of early buzz for The Last Party at @thrillerbookloversthepulse, and I couldn’t wait to get into it. This book was complex, dark and insanely twisted, and I loved every single minute of it. I’m not sure how the author managed to dream up the plot for this one, but I’m glad that she did. The twists and turns were phenomenal, but there was one in particular that completely floored me. This is definitely a book worth adding to your TBR!

Read if you like:

✨ Unreliable main characters
✨ Explosive twists
✨ Binge-worthy reads

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read this ARC!

I love a psycho main character 😂reading their train of thought is almost humorous and it hooked me from the beginning with Perla’s thoughts and reading her daughter’s journal entries (I wish there was more of this maybe?) I started getting kinda bored with all the planning though and felt like there were a couple things I have read in other books (like the mentioning of laying pins on the floor for someone to step on, soooo baby teeth?!)
I’ve loved books by this author in the past but this wasn’t one of them sadly

Since I’ve hooked up with @thrillerbookloversthepulse I’ve handed out more five star ratings than I can count. But after reading The Last Party by @alessandratorre4, I’ve come to the conclusion that I have to adjust my rating system. I’d those other books were five star reads (and they were!), then this one is not. Instead, I shall bestow upon it an official six stars.

Also, it’s super unhinged, and people who actually have souls and are not dead inside like me might want to use caution

A.R. Torre, you took me on a wild ride with this one, I simply could not get enough of it!!! I can’t stop thinking about this one and I promise you’ll feel the same way! Please do yourself a favor and pre-order today! This is something you do NOT want to miss out on..

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
In the running for my favorite book of 2024!

You know the last couple chapters of a book where everything is explained and the devious plan is quickly exposed to tie up loose ends? Well, instead of a quick blurb at the end, this was the premise of the whole book. We walk hand in hand with Perla as she plots her dark disturbing crime. Murders take a lot of planning! Everything needs to be set up just right to ensure the blame falls on the right person.

The Last Party has very short chapters told from Perla and Inmate Leewood’s POV. Also sprinkled in are journal entries from Perla’s daughter and quotes from people in the community regarding their thoughts on the family. I found my heart literally pounding when I got to “the night”. I felt like I was there in the dark house unsure of what was going to unfold.

Simply, this was AMAZING! Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this ARC opportunity!

Pub Date Aug 20 2024