An Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestseller.A novel of love, lies, and deceit from the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Everything series.Lifestyle journalist Ella Skye remembers every celebrity she interviewed, every politician she charmed between the sheets, and every socialite who eyed her with envy. The chance meeting with her husband, Damien; their rapid free fall into love; … husband, Damien; their rapid free fall into love; and their low-key, intimate wedding are all locked in her memory. But what she can’t remember is the tragic car accident that ripped her unborn child from her. Ella can’t even recall being pregnant.
Hoping to find the memories of a lost pregnancy that’s left her husband devastated and their home empty, Ella begins delving into her past when she’s assigned an exclusive story about Nathan Donovan, a retired celebrity adventurer who seems to know more about her than she does him. To unravel the mystery of her selective memory loss, Ella follows Nathan from the snowcapped Sierra Nevada to the frozen slopes of southeast Alaska. There she discovers the people she trusts most aren’t the only ones keeping secrets from her—she’s hiding them from herself. Ella quickly learns that some truths are best left forgotten.
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Domestic suspense at its best! Meet Ella, a reporter who shows up with no memory of the accident that put her in the hospital… or the loss of the baby she was carrying. Meet Damien, her husband, who seems to be protecting the answers to Ella’s memory loss at all costs. Readers will be quickly engaged, alongside Ella, on her quest to bring back the memories lost. In a quick race to the finish, loaded with outdoor adventure and characters you won’t forget, readers will find themselves turning each page feverishly, for answers. Authors spend months writing and reviewing their works of art, I almost feel bad reading such a great story in one sitting, but you will find it hard to put down once you start! A perfect book to add to your summer reading list! Don’t miss this one!
LAST SUMMER by Kerry Lonsdale is an action-packed and riveting thriller that hooked me from the first pages and never let go. Once I started reading, it was impossible to put down. The unique and intriguing story line and the complex characters kept me guessing right up until the shocking ending. Just when I thought I had it figured out, the plot took unexpected twists and turns I could never have anticipated. I don’t want to say much about the story because part of the beauty of this book for me came from not having any preconceived notions of what might happen. LAST SUMMER will leave you wondering if you can ever truly trust or believe anyone. I thoroughly enjoyed this gripping story of love, trust, betrayal and forgiveness. It had the perfect blend of mystery, suspense, emotion and intrigue. I highly recommend it! Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read an early copy.
Kerry Lonsdale This is a rack your brain crazy coaster ride of a story that will shock you and keep you guessing at the ending! Ella Skye, a Journalist with Luxe Avenue magazine, wakes up in a hospital room, and doesn’t remember the accident that caused her to lose her baby. She actually doesn’t remember being pregnant at all. She is married to Damien Russell founder and CEO of a private global cybersecurity firm. Damien is shocked and tells her she wasn’t supposed to forget their baby “Simon”! The memory loss occurs several days after the accident. Ella goes home with Damien and is frustrated that she can’t remember and her husband refuses to talk to her about it! She gets a call from Luxe to do a follow up interview on Nathan Donovan, who is an outdoor adventurist and TV celebrity. Who happens to look similar to her husband. She doesn’t remember him yet she spent almost 2 weeks with him and the first story got canceled! How is that possible she wonders? Hoping he may be a key to remembering she agrees to do the interview. Nathan wants Ella to get to know him again, before telling her what happened between them. Can Ella get her memories back? Does she really want them back? How many secrets are there out there? How much pain and deception is there hiding in her forgotten memories? This is an amazing story that you won’t regret reading! Kerry Lonsdale always has a way a bringing unique twists and turns to stories that leaves her readers begging for more!
Soooo, you wanna book with not so perfect characters, with blurred lines, moral issues, secrets in relationships, personal losses? You wanna book that will capture your attention and challenge your imagination? You wanna book that will throw you left and right and during which you’ll change your mind over several times (and feel guilty, and I mean for real, about your previous choice(s)…because we all have to take someone’s side, right?) and in the end you still will not be able to guess what the hell happened here. I have a book for you.
After Side Trip (another one you really should read) I became a fan of the way Kerry Lonsdale builds plot and brings its unfolding. After Last Summer I can say that, although I feel a bit unsettling after the end, I also love the way she manipulates with readers’ feelings and thoughts.
If you have that much time at disposal, and I hope you have because that means you are somewhere on vacation, this is single sitting book. You have to get answers to all the open-ended questions and you have to get them now. In addition, this is a great book for book clubs. Complicated topic and complex relationships like those are just ideal for lively debates.
If you aren’t an open minded person and if you love only fairy-tale relationships then this isn’t right book for you. Your disappointment certainly wouldn’t be on account of plot twisting or writing style, but it’s possible you wouldn’t justify all those decisions of main characters. For everyone else who wants a crazy and unpredictable ride, definitely a huge recommendation.
Well, it certainly took me long enough to read a book by Kerry Lonsdale, but I am not mad that I started with Last Summer. I expected this to be more along the lines of romance but was pleasantly surprised that while it does have some romance and steam, it was also very twisty! I loved the aspect of Ella’s lost memory, and I loved the ride we go on as she tries to figure out what she forgot. Her husband Damien and celebrity adventurer Nathan are both super hunky and there is romance and some open-door steamy scenes which I know a lot of people are into. They never got too graphic which was nice for me but was just enough, and I loved Ella’s chemistry with both of them. The story really is quite heartbreaking thanks to her losing her child, and I loved the blend of different genres. Lonsdale explores all sorts of heavier topics, including grief, and I definitely teared up more than once.
The audio of Last Summer is narrated by Cristina Panfilio, and while it was a little off for me, I still thought it was good. I loved Panfilio’s voice for Ella, I just wasn’t a huge fan of her chapter transitions. It is hard to explain, but I still think audiobook lovers would like it fine and it wasn’t a bad audiobook by any means. There are so many times while reading this that my mouth dropped open and a couple of things actually gave me chills which I loved. I really enjoyed Lonsdale’s writing and I can see why she is a favorite author for many people. I was glued to this story and it went pretty quick despite being a bit of a slow burn. Memory loss is thoroughly explored in Last Summer, but it is not your typical amnesia story and I loved every single one of the twists. I can’t wait to read more by Lonsdale, and I am excited that she has such a great backlist!
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Ella writes for a prominent lifestyle magazine & interviews some of the most influential & well known people in the world. She is also married to a very handsome & successful man who adores her, Damien. When she wakes up after a week in the hospital following a car accident & miscarriage, she remembers nothing about what put her there. She goes back to work & tries to deal with the change in Damien since she told him about her memory loss, but it worries her. A celebrity who she’d interviewed the previous year requests she do another story on him, & as she spends time with him, her past begins to come back to her, but it isn’t what she expected.
This was an interesting & well written story. It is a perfect beach read & I absolutely recommend it.
Thank you to Netgalley, the author Kerry Lonsdale, and the publisher Lake Union Publishing for the free ARC I received in return for an honest review.
A story of just how far people will go to get what they want. It starts with the main character awakening in a hospital with no recollection of the last several months of her life. As the story evolves, the investigation into her lost memories uncovers a trail of deception, lies and betrayal involving everyone around her. This twisty and engaging plot gets a little muddled at the end, but does wrap up adequately. This is my 5th Kerry Lonsdale book, though not my favorite, it’s still a good read.
Well I didn’t see that ending coming! An excellent tale of misplaced trust, guilt, secrets and lies, with brilliantly fleshed-out characters that felt real, raw, vulnerable and oh-so-human. Off to get myself all of Kerry Lonsdale’s other books now as she claims a spot on my “favourite author” list!
This is the first book I’ve read by author, Kerry Lonsdale. It was a quick read with a pretty unique twist to it which I found interesting but questionable. The writing was good and the story moved right along. The problem I had with this book was the main character, Ella. She just got my dander up. I’m curious to try another by this author.
Talk about convoluted!
What a crazy train wreck that was! But man was it amazing! These characters are so complicated, both good and bad in the same person! Very interesting read.
I listened to this one on audio during my daily walks and it kept me so riveted I increased my step count by several thousand! This book had me guessing every step of the way! Couldn’t put it down.
Oh my goodness! This book had my mind thinking and my fingers wanting to turn the pages faster. I couldn’t imagine being in Ella’s shoes and having selective memory loss. Talk about an intriguing story!
The Last Summer by Kerry Lonsdale is an interesting domestic mystery. It wasn’t very suspenseful, but it was still enjoyable and mysterious throughout. The mystery of The Last Summer was very well written and kept me guessing until the very end. I found the pacing to be perfect for Ella’s struggle to find out exactly what happened during the last seven months of her life.
Last Summer is a twisty novel with interesting characters. I recommend it for anyone who enjoys psychological suspense.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC! The opinions in this review are honest and my own. #LastSummer #suspense
So..I’m confused and it’s a good thing. All through this book I kept thinking I knew what was going to happen but then it ended and I was just thrown. And I think because of how much I’m thinking that it made me enjoy the book that much more. I’m torn between 4and 5 stars but can say that I might be thinking about this for a while. Puts me in kind of a Jodi Picoult book because it challenges your beliefs and makes you rethink things….
Kerry has done it again, weaving a story you are sure you have figured out only to throw in a plot twist. This physcological mindblowing story is filled with love, lies and deceit. Who is telling the truth, who is lying, and who is really truly in love? When should we bite our tongue and keep a secret from those we love and when should we be completely honest.
The story is all about Ella a journalist who is in an accident and loses her memory and her unborn son. She spends months trying to to remember last summer and how she got where she is today, she is confused about her marraige, her life, and her morals. She has had many losses in her life and maybe that is why she is unable to remember her pregnancy, the last summer, the accident and everything in between.
She goes back to Nathan to redo an interview from the preveious summer in hopes it sparks her memory. Meeting Nathan are stirred up more feelings of confusion, anger and doubt about herself, her marriage, her life in general. Her husband remain distant and cold throughout the book, which due to events in the book seem understandable,but are they really or is he playing his own mindgames?
I quickly succumbed to Ms. Lonsdale’s magic and tumbled right into an oddly unsettling yet mesmerizing vortex inhabited by her troubled characters. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, Ms. Lonsdale is deviously talented with the word voodoo! My opinions and feelings towards her characters turned on a dime, I couldn’t decide who was to be believed as none seemed trustworthy and all appeared to be harboring layer upon layer of secrets, tragic losses, and deep-seated issues that I was extremely curious to unearth. The writing was emotive and highly moody while the storylines were maddeningly paced and cunningly crafted. I was deeply annoyed and beyond irritated with each character in turn and biting my cuticles and lips with the ever-increasing and ratcheting tension. It was stellar!
This book keeps you guessing from the first page to the very last. Every time I thought I had this one figured out , I was wrong. EVERY SINGLE TIME ! Simply put one of the best books I have ever read, and I read a lot 🙂 I must have said OMG and WTH 10 times while reading this. Such a wonderfully written book. Enjoy !
Well. Where to begin? This book does grab you from the start and initially I was interested and affected by the story … but as the end of the story came into view, I was seriously annoyed. I felt betrayed by the characters and was sorely disappointed with the direction of the story. Everything I thought I knew about the characters was wrong … and it left me with a very bad taste. This is one of those books that I actually regret reading. So, for affecting me like it did – it gets 3 stars. Sadly, I cannot recommend.
OH WOW, Kerry Lonsdale outdid herself with this book, this has to be her best one yet! The love between Ella and Damien, between “Skye” and Nathan the loss of Simon, the plotting, the planning the intrigue! I just loved it all. Losing your memory due to an accident has got to be so frustrating but when Ella learns the truth(s) of the last year how she handles it all is amazing. As painful as life can be our memories should be cherished or put away but never ever forgotten because they make us who we are today. I realize that some people have very painful, horrific pasts but if we forget them will we somehow repeat them? Thank You Kerry very much for this great book, I can not wait for your next one “Side Trip”, I wonder were you will take us next!