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Saturday, January 2, 2021

The Last To See Her - Courtney Evan Tate

The Last To See Her by Courtney Evan Tate

First Paragraph:

Genevieve tipped the courier and set the certified letter on the coffee table.  She knew what it was.  She'd been waiting for it for almost a week.  Every day, she'd wondered, Will it be today?  And each day it wasn't.  Until today.

My Thoughts:

The Last To See Her is my first book completed in 2021.  It was an OK-ish read.  That sounds terrible, but it's my honest opinion.  The first I've read by this author, who writes under the name Courtney Cole and also with darker stories under Courtney Evan Tate.  I was intrigued by the blurb and thought this would be an absorbing missing person story and it was to an extent.  Told through various viewpoints and back and forth in time, we learn that Gen goes missing when she walks out of the hotel suite she and her sister Meg are sharing in New York.  We hear about the 'before' from various people and the 'now' as well.  I would say that this is not so much about the missing aspect as about what the sister, Gen herself, and others thought or didn't think.  There were definitely twists, some I guessed and a few I didn't.  Lots of repetition though.  And by about 2/3 through the book, I just wanted to know the ending.  Almost turned to the end and peeked, but I read on.  I guessed the ending, closed the book, and said - OK, done with that, on to the next.  Not a bad book, but probably not one I'll be tempted to revisit. 

Blurb:

A woman disappears into the dark city night…

Gen is on the verge of a divorce from her cheating husband. When her sister, Meg, has a convention to attend in the Big Apple, she invites Gen along to celebrate her newly found freedom. But the perfect sisters’ getaway quickly goes awry when a tipsy Gen defiantly throws her wedding ring off the hotel room’s balcony. Then, wanting some fresh air, she decides to take a late-evening walk alone and vanishes without a trace.

The investigation that follows uncovers secrets—and betrayals—between sisters and spouses that will twist the truth in on itself until nothing is clear.

What really happened to Gen and who, besides Meg, was the last to see her?                                         

21 comments:

  1. Sounds decent Kay. I don't do well with series books generally. The Louise Penny series is and example. I've read about half of them but I'm all out of sequence LOL

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    1. That's so interesting about the series books. They are the bread and butter of my reading!

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    2. And I love series books too, though I do read a lot of standalones. Diane, this one isn't part of a series. Don't think it will be and honestly, I don't really care about what happens to the people after this. LOL

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  2. Don't you hate that "blah" feeling. "Why'd I bother"? It doesn't happen to me very often but when it does, yuck!

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    1. I don't usually continue a book that is not working for me, but I guess this one was working just well enough. I wanted to know what happened at the end. However, it hasn't made me want to pick up other books by this author. Ha!

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  3. I probably would have skipped to the end and peeked and then called it a day. I'm not a very patient reader these days. ;D

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    1. Lark, I was very tempted to do that, but chose to soldier on. Ah well.

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  4. Way to go on already getting one book done for the year. A bit of a bummer to start off with a book that doesn't quite live up to our expectations but at least it was a quick read and now you can move on to another read!

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    1. Yes, that's pretty much the conclusion I came to. LOL

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  5. Yay for already having finished a book this year! That's to bad about this one not being better though. I haven't tried this author before.

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    1. The author has a couple of other books that I've seen at the library. Not saying I'd never try another, just not for a while. It could have just been this particular story.

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  6. I like the sound of this one but this format can be a bit tricky. Sometimes it comes out fabulous and other times I feel like you and just want to hurry up and know the end!

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    1. Yes, somehow this one just annoyed me more than intrigued me. As you say, tricky. I can often do OK with the characters that I don't like, but one never knows.

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  7. Sounds like a bummer but yay, one book done for the year! Sounds like both writing issues and book being about something other than advertised were the big letdowns here. I'd also be very bothered by both.

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    1. It just wasn't a good match for me right now. Maybe at a different time I would have liked it better.

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  8. Yay for the first book done for the year! I thought the premise sounds intriguing, too bad that it's getting repetitive though. I'll have to think about this one.

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    1. Yes, the repetitive parts did annoy me. Bad match for right now. Not to say I'd never try another book by the author.

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  9. :) I read a lot of OK-ish books. They often decide for me if I want to give the author another chance. So...I guess I have degrees of OK-ish. :)

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    1. Yes, I like that. Degrees of OK-ish. Nice description of what I ended up with. I might try another book by the author at some point in the future, but not right away.

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  10. I love how honest you are in your review. At this point in my life, at my age, I will pass on anything that isn't amazing.

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  11. At least you made it through without skipping to the end, that's something!

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Thanks for stopping by! I am so happy to hear your thoughts and will respond as soon as I can. Happy Reading!