This book was amazing, it had mee hooked immediately. I rushed to continue reading it whenever I had a chance. I will highly recommend this to all of my fellow readers. Hold on tight it's a great ride.

The book is interesting, not dragged out, and very easy to read. However, I did find some flaws in it. Why wasn’t a five-year-old child searched for by the entire town? The parents just sat there, waiting for the police to do something. Okay, the mother at least made some attempts to find the child, but the father? He just sat there, doing nothing. And this is his hometown, where he’s lived his whole life—he could have turned the whole place upside down, reached out to everyone he knew, searched every corner. But no, he just waited for the police to act.
Allen annoyed me the entire time. His character managed to both frustrate me and remain underdeveloped. I feel like there should have been more about his past.

This story is a parent's worst nightmare! With multiple POVs I couldn't begin to guess who the culprit was and there were a lot of tense moments. The pacing was great and I enjoyed the author's writing style.

A mom and dad worst nightmare: 5 years Emma gets kidnapped on the first day of school. I was absolutely hooked from the beginning because I wanted to know who took her. This book is told in different people point of view which I absolutely loved. I wanted a little more of a background info in all the characters but I really enjoyed it.

#TheLastMorning #NetGalley
Sadie Wilson’s heart stops the moment the phone rings. Deep in her soul, she knows what’s coming, and the voice on the other end only confirms her fears: Emma never made it to school. Her sweet, scared five-year-old climbed onto the bus for her very first day of kindergarten…and then vanished. Struggling to push aside her grief to focus on getting her daughter back, Sadie finds herself slipping deeper into despair. The growing list of suspects weighs heavily on her mind: the secretive teacher, the registered sex offender, the delusional neighbor, the disgruntled ex-wife, the evasive principal—everyone seems to have a connection to Emma. And a surprising grudge to bear. Thankfully Sadie’s got her loving husband, Allen, by her side. But she can’t help feeling he’s hiding something too.
Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for giving me an advance copy.

A very well paced and structured story. My first from this author tells the story of a missing child from various character POV’s. I genuinely didn’t guess the culprit and there were plenty of suspects. I’d recommend this. Thanks to the author & publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

First of all I’m grateful to have received this novel as an ARC. I leave this review voluntarily.

This one was a wilde ride! When Emma goes missing everyone seems to have something to hide and with each chapter I got more suspicious of everyone involved. The story kept me intrigued and was full of interesting surprises. Loved the twists and reveals at the end and how things come together.

A solid 4 star read and I would highly recommend reading it!

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I'm always very happy about an ARC and being able to give it a review! <3

I have to say I DEVOURED this thriller.

I loved the writing style and it was easy to read, the pacing was just perfect and exciting from the start. No unnecessary length or anything like that. The characters were perfectly developed. (Not too much and not too little)

I thought the switch between the characters, like the mom, the dad, the ex, etc., was really well done.

At the end, you think, "Meh... well, that ending was okay, I guess" but at the VERY end, there's another LAST chapter that changes everything! Wow!

I'd love to read more from this author!

My God, I just loved it, I loved the story, I loved the plots.
The final just wow love it
I spent the whole book pointing to two characters, certain that one of them would be the guilty! But this ending was a total surprise!

I want to read more by this author

Thankyou NetGalley & Thomas & mercer for this arc copy.

At first the book gripped me the characters made me feel so many emotions as the POV of each character showcased the reasoning for wanting Emma to be missing. It shows the pov of 5 characters and each one has a story that unravels which makes you wonder who was the culprit. You are also given suspects that make you instantly thing yep it was you, then after 50% of the book i felt confused the book took a different direction which made me question a lot of the characters motives. Following on the plot twists made me question what was going on in the book as o felt it didn’t explain the true reasoning. The essence of the book is revenge and I fully understood that but the revenge and reasoning why it took place felt rushed

‘Nooo’

This is Camden Bairds debut into psychological suspense thriller. It was an easy one day, two sitting read. The plot was interesting enough and I did like the premise, though in my opinion having a total 8 POV characters by the end was far too many. It ended up making things very convoluted and confusing. I wish some chapters had been cut entirely to either focus on things more important to the plot or just tighten the book up.

I initially liked that at 60% I couldn’t guess whodunit, which is attributed to the many POV characters with varying levels of connection and motive to the missing girl, but at around 80% when the reveal happened I was disappointed. Having so many POVs with different intentions could be interesting, but overall I think the author had a lot of ideas for this novel and couldn’t decide what to land on so tried to include it all. Unfortunately this made the ending very anticlimactic. The last chapter reveal felt entirely unnecessary yet also was one of the only things I’d (kind of) predicted.

I also don’t think there should be four instances of grown characters inner monologue saying ‘Nooo’ totally seriously, no tone of sarcasm. ‘No’ works fine.

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer for a digital advanced reader copy via NetGalley of The Last Morning by Camden Baird.

This was an arc thanks to NetGalley of an author I had not read before and I was pleasantly surprised. Read it t during a 14 hr flight and it passed away a good few hours. It was interesting and kept me engaged loved the twists and turns and the storyline was intruiging. All in all a decent read thank you

[arc review]
Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
The Last Morning releases September 16, 2025

It’s an ordinary day when five-year-old Emma climbs aboard the school bus for her first day of kindergarten, except thirty minutes later when attendance is being taken, no one can account for her.
What happened in such a short amount of time, and who is responsible for her disappearance? Is it the teacher with childhood ties to Emma’s father? The suspicious neighbour who went to high school with Emma’s father? The disgruntled ex-wife and mother of Emma’s jealous half-brother? Or perhaps the local registered sex offender?

Short chapters and multiple pov’s kept up the suspense and pacing, but I almost couldn’t make it past the stilted writing style, and I suspect that might be a make or break factor for others as well.

Ex.
<i>“Life would be easier for him if I didn’t. I’d published professional papers besides. Loads of them. Allen and I met in grad school. But he didn’t study the stars. He got his MBA. We met at a bar near the campus.”</I>

cw: infidelity, dissociative identity disorder, abuse (taking advantage of someone with dementia)

This was an ok read. Not very interesting, or well written. Pretty predictable. The twist wasn’t very exciting.

I very much enjoyed this book! It was tense and exciting, with lots of twists and surprise reveals, but easy enough to follow all the way through. I liked the style of chapters, and I felt that the characters had distinct enough voices

SPOILERS BELOW

However, there were some issues in my opinion. I loved the characters and felt like some of them got a rough deal/much better deal than they deserved.

Allen was an absolute douchebag all the way through and never got any comeuppance or justice. Sadie forgave him for cheating without a second thought, almost as if it were obvious - why?? I would have liked to have seen him suffer more. Sadie and Emma deserve better.

O’Reilly was similarly irritating, dumping the woman who’s apparently the love of his life for the last 2 years over her childhood trauma (yes, that really is the reason) without a backward glance. He immediately shacks up with a minor character, and we’re supposed to be pleased about this.

Lastly, I felt like Kate/Katherine suffered a massive injustice. She has all sorts of serious trauma in her past and has essentially clawed out a life for herself anyway. She’s a POV character but somehow ends up as a villain, and gets a prison sentence at the end of it? There’s no mention of her at the end. I really felt like she was a tragic character and honestly my favourite, and it was a shame that she was treated so badly, opening herself up to O’Reilly only to have him betray her so callously.

I don’t think I’ve ever left such a long review, but I definitely did enjoy this book!

The story is absolutely gripping. If you want to pick something up to read in a couple of days this is the one. Love reading from the many perspectives. There are many trigger warnings that apply, so please look those up and make sure they are listed in the front.

A really solid, fast paced thriller here! It's all about every parents worst nightmare... you put your young child on the bus for their very first day of kindergarten, sending them out into the world for the first time. Only later, you get a call from the school because your child is absent. Seems they never made it off the bus. So what happened? How did you put them on the bus only to have them not make it to their destination?

This story had quite a few twists and turns, some predictable and some not. There were so many possible suspects from the parents themselves to the school teachers and principals, the bus driver, strange neighbours and angry exes. Basically, everyone was hiding something so any one of them could have kidnapped a child. So many secrets and lies! It was quite entertaining to read as the story unfolded. Would recommend!

The Last Morning by debut author Camden Baird, published by Thomas & Mercer is a complex, fast paced thriller full of twists and turns that had me in suspense from start till the last chapter.
Excellent written beautifully thought out and told, a fantastic read, 4,5 stars.

Sorry to say this one didn't work for me
Found the pace very slow and I just couldn't get into it. I tried to persevere but unfortunately I didn't finish it.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an unbiased review

The Last Morning was a fast paced read with a thrilling twist. I enjoyed the chapters being narrated by each character and felt it gave the characters more depth and realism. There were a bit too many characters to keep up with and for that reason, I would say the storyline could get messy for some readers; however I did enjoy the characters and felt the storyline was not messy for me. If you are a fan of Frieda McFadden, then you’ll love the writing style and story.