New York Times bestselling Sisters of Suspense join forces for a gripping standalone novel about a clique of popular girls whose high school friendship is marked by a tragedy that continues to haunt them decades later. Jackson and Bush take the reader’s hand and twist them through this shocking tale of suspense. First they were five. Then they were four. Whose turn will it be next? At Bristol … four.
Whose turn will it be next?
At Bristol High they were an elite clique known as the Five Firsts: Amanda, Bailey, Carmen, Delta and Zora . . . ABCD & Z. They could have accepted their classmate, Emmy, as “E”, but with her bookish disposition and her embarrassing status of scholarship student to boot, they rejected her and chose wealthy Zora instead.
At a pre-graduation party just before the end of senior year, Lance Ventura, the hottest guy in school, falls down an embankment toward the river and is barely rescued in time to save his life. One of the Five Firsts, Carman, rushes to save him, but isn’t so lucky. Her sudden death causes a community to mourn and rumors of foul play to swirl, but the tragedy is ruled an accident.
Fast forward ten years and the classmates all meet again at the high school reunion. Some of them have had good fortune in their lives. Others, not so much.
PRAISE FOR LISA JACKSON AND NANCY BUSH
“Superb . . . a masterpiece of romantic suspense.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Something Wicked
“A chilling thriller with enough false leads to keep readers enthralled to the finish.”
—Library Journal on One Last Breath
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While this book depicts high school and all the nonsense that truly goes on, I really enjoyed it.
One hot guy (Tanner) who has a problem keeping it in his pants is truly the cause of most of the issues with the First Five (Amanda, Bailey, Carmen, Delta, Zora) with poor Emily on the sidelines.
Tanner is Delta’s boyfriend and she knows that he is a cheater/liar, but still she marries him. Fast forward 15 years and numerous murders, accidents, marriages, divorces, and Delta is being accused of killing Tanner.
Once there was a friendship than there was a few accidents or were they murders? This is an edge of your seat, page turning, action packed, who dun it and I really enjoyed it.
#Delta #Tanner #Owen #Murder #Cheater #IFiguredItOut #NetGalley
Good story line!
Wouldn’t recommend, not as good as the author’s other books.Too many characters, not coherent ,,,layout is confusing.
Last Girl Standing is a thrill ride and a half, with action packed chapters and characters who just grabbed me from the beginning. The Five Firsts is a group of girls who are mean girls times ten. They include only their five and exclude everyone else, even those who once were part of their exclusive cliques. This set up the plot for the perfect storm, with murders and deception rampant throughout. Of course, the Five Firsts only date and marry the very best the town has to offer which means that Delta marries her high school sweetheart Tanner. Tanner who looks good on the outside but who is so flawed and just not the man she planned on spending her life with. I enjoyed the complicated relationships between the main characters, but there were so many that they were hard to keep track of. Then, the authors introduced minor characters and I felt like I needed to take notes. I enjoyed the mystery and mayhem and all of the machinations of the mean girls, but I didn’t really identify with any of them. Fans of mystery and suspense will enjoy this engrossing book.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley and I also won a copy from the publisher for my Kindle via a Goodreads giveaway. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”
The premise has been done before. It could have been a great book, but it was too long and the characters seemed rather shallow. I kept thinking as I was reading that I was the wrong audience—maybe should have been a YA story.
‘Last Girl Standing’ takes the reader on quite the rollercoaster ride with twists, turns, and surprises around every corner. While there were things that kept this from being a story that I would reread again, still it is a good story that kept me engaged and guessing until the very end.
I wish I could say that there was a character that I was rooting for throughout… but there wasn’t. I don’t know if the format of moving sections of the book to different time frames and back was the cause of that for me or if I simply didn’t like anyone enough to actually want them to turn out to not be the killer. I wanted to know who was the actual culprit and in the end, that need to know ‘who’ was what kept me reading. So ‘Last Girl Standing’ turned out to be a good book for me but not one that I’ll keep on the shelf to pick up again. This was a 3.5 star read that I’ll round-up for the vendor postings. In reality, the final decision whether you think a book is good or great lies with each individual reader, so if you enjoy Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush then you should read this one and make up your own mind.
*I received an e-ARC of this novel from Kensington Books via NetGalley. That does not change what I think of this story. It is my choice to leave a review giving my personal opinion about this book.*
There are 5 girls who rule the school. There are several young, hot guys. One is particular is Tanner. Gorgeous he is … and he knows it. Delta is supposedly his girlfriend, but Tanner does like the ladies .. and doesn’t understand why Delta would be upset. Among the girls there is a rule .. no stealing each other’s boyfriends. Unfortunately not all the girls follow the rules.
And then one of the girls is eliminated. Accident … murder… suicide?
And then there were four.
Five year high school reunion …. everyone is a bit older, but are they any wiser? One of the girls who has now become a cop lets one of the ‘hot’ boys take her for a ride in the woods. The next morning they are found … victims of a murder/suicide?
And then there were three.
Ten years later, Tanner is stabbed multiple times. His wife, Delta, is the prime suspect. There are three girls still standing who still have feelings for Tanner …. did one of them try to kill the man of their dreams? Do mean girls remain mean through adulthood?
The story is told from the viewpoint of multiple people. Back and forth from high school to the present, from one person to another. There are lies and secrets that have been held for years … there’s also resentments and jealousies that persist. Who lies and who doesn’t?
Many thanks to the authors / Kensington Books / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction of suspense. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
Loved it
Five friends attend a senior barbecue at one classmates houses. There is drinking and drugs. When things happen, and a classmate dies, the friends graduate and go their separate ways. They all think about what happen at the barbecue, but don’t think of it as anything else other than a terrible tragedy. But years later, when one of them is found murdered and his wife, another of the group is blamed everyone begins to question what happened that night.
I have been a fan of Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush for years. And I live the books they write together. This is no exception. This was a great book. It kept me guessing and drew me in from page one. I found myself not able to put it down. It is wonderfully written, and the characters are all so amazing, and come to life off the page. You feel like you know them, and feel for their troubles and fears. I definitely recommend this book. Another great story from these two authors.
LAST GIRL STANDING……Lisa Jackson..
There were five from high school calling themselves The First Five they ruled and mocked others and it seemed like they were stilling doing it, as adults. By chapters you meet them. Then there was four, etc. Then there ten year reunion, and was like a television soap story of who slept with who. Not her usual good mystery. Given arc for my voluntary review and my honest opinion by Net Galley and Kensington.
This book was full of surprises from start to finish. This book follows the story of five friends and their lives and it alternate between high school and present time. During a party right before graduation one of five friends sees something she should not have and she ends up dead. Everyone believes it was a tragic accident accept her best friend who believes she died because of what she witnessed but was unable to share with anyone else at the party. Over the years tragedy seems to happen to all of the friends and the people that attended that party and death is a common thread. Now, the rest of the five friends are dying.
This book had me guessing who the killer was from the start. I would think it was one person then go with anther and keep changing my mind. I loved how I could not stay with one suspect until
The very end and then I was wrong again. This was a great book by a great writing duo.
Last Girl Standing gets five out of five stars!
Found this to be a really good thriller. About a group of people that all went to school together seeming to get into trouble while following the Leader Tanner. Death after death occurs over time and ,Chris who is now a detective must sort through the past to get to the truth and find out who’s killing everybody off . Kept you on edge wondering who is really doing it and who is going to be next.
5 stars
I don’t really know how to write this. I’ll be honest, I almost didn’t read it because of other reviews but once I started, I couldn’t put it down. Im not fond of books that go back and forward between past and present. So I’ll try to give a little something about this.
Delta is one of the Five Firsts, a nickname given to her and her friends, when in high school, they had a senior picnic and one of the classmates drowned. Ten years later at the reunion two more are killed in a supposedly murder/suicide. Now Delta’s husband is stabbed and she’s the blame.MaCrae is a classmate and a police officer now. He’s investigating the stabbing and still looking into the murder/suicide when two more are killed in a car wreck. Can he find the killer before more of their group dies?
* Voluntarily read and reviewed this for NetGalley *
Last Girl Standing is written by one of my favorite authors, I love a good suspense thriller but for me this book just didn’t grab me in the way I would like for a book to do. I really found it almost impossible to like any of the characters, although she did work to redeem one or two before the ending of the book. The book did improve the longer you read it, and I wasn’t really able to figure out the main culprit until it was revealed. Overall I would suggest those that enjoy suspense thrillers read the book for themselves, what one person really likes others may not.
I received a Advanced Readers Copy from NetGalley and the publisher, and this is my fair and honest review.