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The Last Thing He Told Me

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The Last Thing He Told Me: A Novel Hardcover – May 4, 2021

by Laura Dave (Author)

4.3 153,911 ratings

Editors' pick Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

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Don't miss the #1 New York Times bestselling blockbuster that's sold more than 3 million copies
An Apple TV+ series starring Jennifer Garner!

The "genuinely moving" (New York Times) and "gripping thriller" (Entertainment Weekly about a woman who thinks she's found the love of her life—until he disappears.

Before Owen Michaels disappears, he smuggles a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers—Owen's sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother.

As Hannah's increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, as the FBI arrests Owen's boss, as a US marshal and federal agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn't who he said he was. And that Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen's true identity—and why he really disappeared.

Hannah and Bailey set out to discover the truth. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen's past, they soon realize they're also building a new future—one neither of them could have anticipated.

With its breakneck pacing, dizzying plot twists, and evocative family drama, The Last Thing He Told Me is a "page-turning, exhilarating, and unforgettable" (PopSugar) suspense novel.

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books
Publication date

May 4, 2021
Dimensions

6 x 1 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

1501171348
ISBN-13

978-1501171345
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Popular Highlights in this book

What are popular highlights?

In one way or another, this is the deal we all sign when we love someone. For better or worse. It’s the deal we have to sign again and again to keep that love. We don’t turn away from the parts of someone we don’t want to see. However quickly or long it takes to see them. We accept them if we are strong enough. Or we accept them enough to not let the bad parts become the entire story.
Highlighted by 10,163 Kindle readers
This is the thing about good and evil. They aren’t so far apart—and they often start from the same valiant place of wanting something to be different.
Highlighted by 8,986 Kindle readers
This is the terrible thing about a tragedy. It isn’t with you every minute. You forget it, and then you remember it again. And you see it with a stark quality: This is what is required of you now, just to get along.
Highlighted by 8,240 Kindle readers

From the Publisher


	The Last Thing He Told Me	Eight Hundred Grapes	Hello, Sunshine

Customer Reviews	153,911	15,977	3,488
Price	$9.48	$10.44	$11.79
	✓	✓	✓

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of May 2021: The day the feds raid his high-tech firm, Owen disappears and leaves behind his new wife, Hannah, with $600,000 in cash, his sullen teenager Bailey, and a hand-scrawled note: “Protect her.” The rapid-fire pacing never lets up as Hannah delves into Owen’s past and excavates layer after layer of lies, discovering truths even Bailey never knew—as well as a lethal enemy. Interweaving the complex family relationships of Little Fires Everywhere with the suspenseful twists of Big Little Lies, The Last Thing He Told Me will trigger goosebumps and tears as you flip pages like mad to see how Hannah will handle the bombshells lurking in Bailey’s past. —Adrian Liang, Amazon Book Review

Review

"Dave’s neat trick is to unveil revelations at a brisk clip that does not overwhelm character development. The novel’s richness comes from the way Hannah and Bailey realize they need each other in the face of staggering loss; the mutual trust that grows between them is genuinely moving. As both daughter and stepmother come to realize, “That’s how you fill in the blanks — with stories and memories from the people who love you.” — The New York Times Book Review

“Page-turning, exhilarating, and unforgettable.” — PopSugar

“Gripping.” — Entertainment Weekly

“The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave is a fast-moving, heartfelt thriller about the sacrifices we make for the people we love most.” — Real Simple

“Light and bright, despite its edgy plot.” — Vogue

"You will not think that this is Laura’s first suspense novel as it's so sharp and well done." — Book Reporter

“A page turner.” — Associated Press

“Dave pulls off something that feels both new and familiar: a novel of domestic suspense that unnerves, then reassures. This is the antithesis of the way novels like Gone Girl or My Lovely Wife are constructed; in The Last Thing He Told Me, the surface is ugly, the situation disturbing, but almost everyone involved is basically good underneath it all. Dave has given readers what many people crave right now—a thoroughly engrossing yet comforting distraction.” — BookPage

“Laura Dave's The Last Thing He Told Me is a thrilling roller coaster of a novel. This smart, intimate exploration of love and family is the foundation of a beautifully constructed mystery filled with twists and turns. A must-read.” — Jean Kwok,New York Times bestselling author of Searching for Sylvie Lee

“What starts as an intimate meditation on found families deftly turns into a heart-pounding mystery reminiscent of the best true crime stories. But both work so beautifully in this gripping, perfectly-paced novel. I dare you to stop reading.” — Susie Yang, New York Times bestselling author of White Ivy

"With dizzying suspense and gorgeous prose, The Last Thing He Told Me tackles tough questions about trust, marriage and what it means to be a family. A page-turner of the highest order." — Riley Sager, New York Times bestselling author of Home Before Dark

“Laura Dave is a master story-teller. Gripping, big-hearted and twisty, The Last Thing He Told Me grabs readers from the very first page and never lets go.” — Greer Hendricks,New York Times best-selling co-author of The Wife Between Us and You Are Not Alone

About the Author

Laura Dave is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me, Eight Hundred Grapes, and other novels. Her work has been published in thirty-eight countries. The Last Thing He Told Me has sold three million copies and is now a limited series on Apple TV+. She resides in Santa Monica, California.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

1. If You Answer the Door for Strangers… If You Answer the Door for Strangers…
You see it all the time on television. There’s a knock at the front door. And, on the other side, someone is waiting to tell you the news that changes everything. On television, it’s usually a police chaplain or a firefighter, maybe a uniformed officer from the armed forces. But when I open the door—when I learn that everything is about to change for me—the messenger isn’t a cop or a federal investigator in starched pants. It’s a twelve-year-old girl, in a soccer uniform. Shin guards and all.

“Mrs. Michaels?” she says.

I hesitate before answering—the way I often do when someone asks me if that is who I am. I am and I’m not. I haven’t changed my name. I was Hannah Hall for the thirty-eight years before I met Owen, and I didn’t see a reason to become someone else after. But Owen and I have been married for a little over a year. And, in that time, I’ve learned not to correct people either way. Because what they really want to know is whether I’m Owen’s wife.

It’s certainly what the twelve-year-old wants to know, which leads me to explain how I can be so certain that she is twelve, having spent most of my life seeing people in two broad categories: child and adult. This change is a result of the last year and a half, a result of my husband’s daughter, Bailey, being the stunningly disinviting age of sixteen. It’s a result of my mistake, upon first meeting the guarded Bailey, of telling her that she looked younger than she was. It was the worst thing I could have done.

Maybe it was the second worst. The worst thing was probably my attempt to make it better by cracking a joke about how I wished someone would age me down. Bailey has barely stomached me since, despite the fact that I now know better than to try to crack a joke of any kind with a sixteen-year-old. Or, really, to try and talk too much at all.

But back to my twelve-year-old friend standing in the doorway, shifting from dirty cleat to dirty cleat.

“Mr. Michaels wanted me to give you this,” she says.

Then she thrusts out her hand, a folded piece of yellow legal paper inside her palm. HANNAH is written on the front in Owen’s writing.

I take the folded note, hold her eyes. “I’m sorry,” I say. “I’m missing something. Are you a friend of Bailey’s?”

“Who’s Bailey?”

I didn’t expect the answer to be yes. There is an ocean between twelve and sixteen. But I can’t piece this together. Why hasn’t Owen just called me? Why is he involving this girl? My first guess would be that something has happened to Bailey, and Owen couldn’t break away. But Bailey is at home, avoiding me as she usually does, her blasting music (today’s selection: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical) pulsing all the way down the stairs, its own looping reminder that I’m not welcome in her room.

“I’m sorry. I’m a little confused… where did you see him?”

“He ran past me in the hall,” she says.

For a minute I think she means our hall, the space right behind us. But that doesn’t make sense. We live in a floating home on the bay, a houseboat as they are commonly called, except here in Sausalito, where there’s a community of them. Four hundred of them. Here they are floating homes—all glass and views. Our sidewalk is a dock, our hallway is a living room.

“So you saw Mr. Michaels at school?”

“That’s what I just said.” She gives me a look, like where else? “Me and my friend Claire were on our way to practice. And he asked us to drop this off. I said I couldn’t come until after practice and he said, fine. He gave us your address.”

She holds up a second piece of paper, like proof.

“He also gave us twenty bucks,” she adds.

The money she doesn’t hold up. Maybe she thinks I’ll take it back.

“His phone was broken or something and he couldn’t reach you. I don’t know. He barely slowed down.”

“So… he said his phone was broken?”

“How else would I know?” she says.

Then her phone rings—or I think it’s a phone until she picks it off her waist and it looks more like a high-tech beeper. Are beepers back?

Carole King show tunes. High-tech beepers. Another reason Bailey probably doesn’t have patience for me. There’s a world of teen things I know absolutely nothing about.

The girl taps away on her device, already putting Owen and her twenty-dollar mission behind her. I’m reluctant to let her go, still unsure about what is going on. Maybe this is some kind of weird joke. Maybe Owen thinks this is funny. I don’t think it’s funny. Not yet, anyway.

“See you,” she says.

She starts walking away, heading down the docks. I watch her get smaller and smaller, the sun down over the bay, a handful of early evening stars lighting her way.

Then I step outside myself. I half expect Owen (my lovely and silly Owen) to jump out from the side of the dock, the rest of the soccer team giggling behind him, the lot of them letting me in on the prank I’m apparently not getting. But he isn’t there. No one is.

So I close our front door. And I look down at the piece of yellow legal paper still folded in my hand. I haven’t opened it yet.

It occurs to me, in the quiet, how much I don’t want to open it. I don’t want to know what the note says. Part of me still wants to hold on to this one last moment—the moment where you still get to believe this is a joke, an error, a big nothing; the moment before you know for sure that something has started that you can no longer stop.

I unfold the paper.

Owen’s note is short. One line, its own puzzle.

Protect her.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books; First Edition, 21st printing (May 4, 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1501171348
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1501171345
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,019 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #139 in Family Life Fiction (Books)
- #190 in Women's Domestic Life Fiction
- #460 in Suspense Thrillers

Customer Reviews:
4.3 153,911 ratings

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Laura Dave

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Laura Dave is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me, Eight Hundred Grapes and other novels. Her work has been published in thirty-eight countries and The Last Thing He Told Me is now a series on Apple TV+. She resides in Santa Monica.

You can follow her on Instagram @lauradaveauthor

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

153,911 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the writing style well-written, straightforward, and beautiful. They also describe the emotional tone as gripping and realistic. Readers describe the book as a good, realistic read. Opinions are mixed on the narrator, characters, and plot. Some find the characters well-developed and true to life, while others say they lack depth. Reader opinions are mixed also on the engagingness, with some finding it hard to put down and others finding it thrilling.

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Readability Writing style Emotional tone Plot Narrator Engagingness Content Beginning

1,075 customers mention "Readability"1,075 positive0 negative

Customers find the book a good, solid read that's worth the time invested. They also describe the story as entertaining, tight, and realistic.

"...The ending was not expected but well done from the perspective the author wants us to understand." Read more

"I couldn’t put this book down. It was so good...." Read more

"...Wish I had read it months ago! Amazing book that was hard to put down." Read more

"Good, fast read. Good pace, good plot. Relatable protagonist. Interesting story with an unexpected twist...." Read more

811 customers mention "Writing style"693 positive118 negative

Customers find the writing style well written, quick, and simple. They also say the story flows smoothly with no hiccups. Readers also mention that the characters' journeys and personal growth are beautifully rendered.

"...It's a gorgeous and slightly bizarre area – permanent houseboats aren't exactly commonplace in the US! –..." Read more

"Good, fast read. Good pace, good plot. Relatable protagonist. Interesting story with an unexpected twist...." Read more

"...good at capturing the attention, had a great plot, but was not too complex to follow as a relaxing raid...." Read more

"Good reading. It was one of those I stayed up too late for. The ending was great in that it was a sensible solution...." Read more

121 customers mention "Emotional tone"90 positive31 negative

Customers find the emotional tone of the book enough to have them invested, bittersweet, contemplative, and heart racing. They also appreciate the author's intimate characterization of the changing relationship. Overall, customers say the book is gripping and easy to read.

"...of the bond between stepmother and stepdaughter is both heartwarming and heart-wrenching, showcasing the strength and resilience of the human spirit...." Read more

"...I liked that the emotions are rampant throughout this book. Really good read." Read more

"...were times where she came off as really (and I hate to say it), naive and whiny...." Read more

"...Enough emotion to have you invested but not have you in tears (if you’re like me at least)...." Read more

1,561 customers mention "Plot"1,022 positive539 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the plot. Some find the story engaging, thought-provoking, and twisty. They also appreciate the well-developed personal background. However, some readers feel the book is less thrilling than they expected, with a slow-moving pace. They feel the ending lacks the twists and turns they hoped for.

"...Given Dave's superlative plotting and prose, and the emphasis throughout the novel placed on divining the meaning of exceptionally specific details,..." Read more

"First book I’ve read by this author. Really enjoyed the story the twists and turns.The ending wasn’t happy ever after...." Read more

"...that the mystery around it was good but was kind of disappointed with how it ended. Thought there was going to be more of a plot twist...." Read more

"...Good pace, good plot. Relatable protagonist. Interesting story with an unexpected twist. I would enjoy reading more from this author." Read more

340 customers mention "Narrator"220 positive120 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the narrator. Some find the characters well developed and fascinating, while others say they lack depth.

"I loved the characters. They were so well developed...." Read more

"The middle 30% was pretty good for a beach read. The beginning failed to introduce the characters...." Read more

"...optioned by Hello Sunshine, it has exceptionally strong, well-written female characters, all of whom readily pass the Bechdel test..." Read more

"Good, fast read. Good pace, good plot. Relatable protagonist. Interesting story with an unexpected twist...." Read more

115 customers mention "Engagingness"59 positive56 negative

Customers are mixed about the engagingness of the book. Some mention it's hard to put down, while others say it'd be hard to get into.

"...Wish I had read it months ago! Amazing book that was hard to put down." Read more

"The writing style of Laura Dave is a bit hard to get used to with so many sentences that are not complete sentences!..." Read more

"...Hard to put down- hope it is the same for you!" Read more

"This story totally immersed me in the plot. It was difficult to put the book down. I kept reading to get the answers posed by the story!" Read more

64 customers mention "Content"36 positive28 negative

Customers are mixed about the content. Some find the book engrossing, provocative, and sharp. They also identify with the thoughts offered here, and say the book has a lot of potential. However, others say the story is unrealistic, doesn't go into enough detail, and is forgettable.

"...OVERALL</b>This was fun to read and relevant due to so many scandals...." Read more

"...novel's core point about truly knowing people, but I thought it was extraneous & distracting, especially given its level of absurdity in the context..." Read more

"...I loved that Hannah was smart, resourceful and not scared to bite off more than she could chew.It was also nice to have short chapters...." Read more

"...There is a lot of justification for really, really bad criminal behavior that the author tries to pass of as some sort of good and bad in everyone..." Read more

96 customers mention "Beginning"6 positive90 negative

Customers find the beginning of the book very slow. They also say the ending is a bit slow, and the book feels unfinished.

"...The story line was interesting. I thought it was a bit slow at times." Read more

"...I usually can’t put a book down, but this one was really slow to start, and once it finally got going, it ended with a whisper." Read more

"...It was less thrilling than I anticipated with a slow-moving pace, but still an entertaining afternoon of reading from a new-to-me-author...." Read more

"A bit of a slow start, picked up about a third of a way through. I’m so glad I stuck with it and finished." Read more

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M. Davis

excellent

Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2024

Verified Purchase

Very well written! A great story that builds suspense withe each chapter. The characters are well written. And you don’t know who to trust. Kept me guessing. The ending is not so much a let down, just very sad.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Good , fast paced

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2024

Verified Purchase

First book I’ve read by this author. Really enjoyed the story the twists and turns.
The ending wasn’t happy ever after. Surprised me… and I wish it was.
Only because life itself is …well life. So happy endings would be nice. We escape in books.

18 people found this helpful

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Bob B

Fantastic writing and plot. I could not stop reading it.

Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2024

Verified Purchase

I loved the characters. They were so well developed. The ending was not expected but well done from the perspective the author wants us to understand.

4 people found this helpful

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AE413

3.5 Stars

Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2024

Verified Purchase

I liked this story well enough and thought that the mystery around it was good but was kind of disappointed with how it ended. Thought there was going to be more of a plot twist. I still enjoyed the read and could't put it down at times but I think I was expecting more.

2 people found this helpful

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MKeegan

You don’t see that coming

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2024

Verified Purchase

Add to your read list - a twisty, surprising read.

Bonus: read the book before you watch the show on Apple TV.

2 people found this helpful

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kirker

A solid read, but the devil's REALLY in the details.

Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2023

Verified Purchase

I bought this book after watching the limited series of it on Apple TV+, for two reasons: the series received surprisingly mixed reviews for a novel hot enough to incite a bidding war over it – and I wanted to see if I could diagnose, if possible, how it ended up partially derailed – and, in an admittedly odd coincidence, I'm from Austin and have lived in NYC and the Bay Area, the three main settings in each iteration. I'll focus on that since plenty of others have covered its other elements.

Given Dave's superlative plotting and prose, and the emphasis throughout the novel placed on divining the meaning of exceptionally specific details, I was frankly taken aback by the lack of detail specific to Austin – or, rather, the lack of *accurate* detail. Her description of the University of Texas campus is accurate, as is one for an renowned 24-hour cafe. (Well, formerly 24 hours: they started closed at 10pm after their post-Covid reopening due to a lack of staff, but I assume Dave finished the novel before the pandemic.) The rest is surprisingly sloppy, and almost made me think I'd somehow purchased an early, unfinished draft. (I was startled to see a mistaken reference to Ethan in the first part of the book, set in Sausalito, for starters.)

After arriving in Austin, Hannah & Bailey check into a hotel near Lady Bird Lake, one which Dave places on the south side of the Congress Avenue Bridge (its correct name) – except she subsequently refers to it as the South Congress Bridge AND the Congress Street Bridge. (This for the same bridge, keep in mind.) She correctly cites its bats – it houses the largest urban bat colony on Earth – but mentions seeing "hundreds and hundreds" of them.

The bat colony has 1.5 MILLION bats, not "hundreds." Nitpicky? Sure, but the entire *novel* is an exercise in a form of nitpicking: sorting through all the tiny clues to divine what happened to Owen, and as it turns out divining Bailey's past while they're at it.

A few references make it sound like Dave's never been to Austin, period. She references "the lake muted outside the car windows" near the end, the problem being that the lake in question can't be seen from the road at all. (It's a manmade reservoir in the Hill Country – another Dave error btw (she refers to it as "Texas Hill Country," without the "the" – kinda the opposite of L.A. screenwriters who refers to freeways as "the 101" or "the 10," when in Texas I-35 is just called "35.") Hannah's hotel has a jampacked bar at 10am on a weekday; even the SXSW festival isn't *that* rowdy! And Downtown Austin is supposedly "lined with packed sidewalk cafes" – again, on weekdays: this wasn't true even *before* Covid, and isn't true today.

Another road error: near the end, out near the lake, they drive onto "Ranch Road." Dave should've done more homework on Texas's admittedly unique road-naming conventions. Texas has Ranch Roads (RRs). It also has Farm-to-Market Roads (FMs) and Ranch-to-Market Roads (RMs). It does not have *a* "Ranch Road," sans number. (Texas has over 3,500 FM / RR / RM roadways.) The only RR near an Austin-area lake is Ranch Road 620, which everyone calls 620 and absolutely no one calls "Ranch Road" (or even "Ranch Road 620" - it's just "620").

Going briefly to New York: Hannah's studio and shop are in SoHo. If she was a trust-fund brat who could afford $50,000-a-month retail rents, that'd be one thing, but we know she's not. Unfortunately Laura Dave apparently doesn't know that the SoHo art scene peaked in the '80s and was largely gentrified out of existence 20+ years ago; the upscale galleries are in West Chelsea, but Hannah's studio would more realistically be somewhere like Bushwick or Bed-Stuy. (Almost no galleries rely on foot traffic for any real business nowadays; it's all online.)

Switching back to the Bay Area: Dave admittedly does Sausalito justice. It's a gorgeous and slightly bizarre area – permanent houseboats aren't exactly commonplace in the US! – but Dave unfortunately derails a bit when the characters venture beyond it. Again, it's the nitpicky details: instead of much-closer SFO or Oakland, Hannah & Bailey fly to Austin out of San Jose. (Even Santa Rosa would be closer than San Jose!) Almost every scene in San Francisco is set in or across from the Ferry Building, as if it's the only thing aside from cable cars that non-locals would know about.

Onto a slightly more touchy subject: the characters in the book are EXTREMELY white. And heterosexual. In San Francisco. (The series wisely fixed this bit, turning Hannah's BFF Jules gay and Bailey's boyfriend Asian-American, plus Grady is Latino in it.) There's only a single person of color even referenced, but they don't have an active role in the plot and I can't say anything about said person without spoilers.

Okay, screw it: I think I need to delve into the spoilers...

******************SPOILER ALERT! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!******************

When I started watching the TV series, it was obvious in the first episode that Owen left for reasons wholly separate from everything going on at work. I *literally* said to my family – jokingly, or so I thought – that the most totally cliche & ridiculous explanation would be him running from the mob.

<facepalm>

The mafia. IN TEXAS?!? I realize it's fiction, but the drug trade in the Southwest US has been entirely under Mexican-cartel control for a VERY long time, particularly in Texas itself. And speaking of fiction, the book's suggestion that Bailey's mom was killed because she was clerking for a "Texas Supreme Court judge" – another error (they're justices, not judges) – who was a far-leftist (!!) about to somehow singlehandedly issue a ruling that would ruin Big Oil (?!?), and she was murdered to "send a message."

In a book that already requires substantial suspension of disbelief, this is the single most ridiculous notion proffered. Texas is the energy capital of the world. Its state supreme court is 100% Republican – and like the U.S. Supreme Court, it has nine justices, and no single one of them can do jack by themselves – and even when it wasn't, it never issued any rulings that negatively impacted the oil-and-gas-industry in any substantive way. The entire *point* of the so-called "Texas miracle" (its strong economy) is predicated on essentially *zero* oversight (or as close to it as possible) of the oil industry.

I get that the point of this tale was to humanize Nicholas, despite Hannah already knowing he's a monster, and to further amplify the novel's core point about truly knowing people, but I thought it was extraneous & distracting, especially given its level of absurdity in the context of actual Texas life. (Also, Nicholas is the one who uses the term "Texas Supreme Court judges." A real Texas lawyer, and certainly one of his level of renown, would know they're justices.)

And yet, despite all my complaining, I enjoyed the book and did a speed-read of it in under 48 hours. (Seriously!) As I'd expect from any novel optioned by Hello Sunshine, it has exceptionally strong, well-written female characters, all of whom readily pass the Bechdel test (despite the story, at least at the surface level, focusing on finding a man two women desperately miss). Even after seeing it shown on TV, I was surprised to see a reference as specific as UT's Perry-Castañeda Library (PCL); now THAT is the level of attention to detail I appreciate, and it's the real-life place where a former UT student would go to look up something like a yearbook.

Dave even makes Hannah's astoundingly ballsy choice at the end – cutting Owen/Ethan out of her life, for Bailey's sake – believable, with the admittedly clever conceit of having the Big Bad be a mob lawyer, not a mafioso, and one who wanted to have a role in his granddaughter's life despite blaming Ethan for Kate's death. I did *not* see that coming on the series, but Jennifer Garner NAILED IT in that scene as well. (Also, the series allowed for scenes the book's structure – wholly from Hannah's POV – did not, e.g. Bailey meeting her extended family.)

But maybe spend a few weeks in a city first before you decide to set two-thirds of your next novel there?

72 people found this helpful

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Bea L

Intriguing

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2024

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This book was good at capturing the attention, had a great plot, but was not too complex to follow as a relaxing raid. The writing was solid, speaking as a person who appreciates quality structure, as well as content.

I’ve already purchased another book written by this author, and that speaks for itself.

One person found this helpful

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Dutchess

very enjoyable read

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2024

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Good reading. It was one of those I stayed up too late for. The ending was great in that it was a sensible solution. The storyline followed along well, no skips or turns that were forced.

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judy

Really good book

Reviewed in Canada on December 3, 2023

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Both sad and happy at the same time. It is a book that gets you thinking about your life. It also helps you rethink what is important.

One person found this helpful

Carla Guimarães

Love and courage

Reviewed in Brazil on July 12, 2023

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The book is easy to read.
The story is well told and the end is not the one you expect.

One person found this helpful

Diana

Excelente historia, la recomiendo

Reviewed in Mexico on April 24, 2023

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Buenísimo el libro, te atrapa desde el principio. Me encanto como se va desenvolviendo la historia, fácil de digerir, intrigante, los personajes muy bien descritos, los imaginas a la perfección, nunca te esperas que va a seguir. No esperaba ese final, me dio tristeza pero es como debía ser. La lección del libro “we always have a choice”. Muy recomendable

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INAYAT KAUR

Thriller

Reviewed in India on July 14, 2024

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One of the best books I've ever read!!

Barbara Davies

compulsive reading

Reviewed in Spain on June 24, 2024

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I could not read this book fast enough. VG

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