I need to start by telling you I hate giving a bad review. Having said that, Ms Knowles give us a story about two women who while in their teen went their separate ways. They never forgot the other. When Lane Hudson goes to work at a music festival in Georgia she is finally able to try making thing right with Alison Bickford. Should and could have been a great story but unfortunately she fall short. We have some flashbacks telling us just what happened but even these are slow and boring. Sorry to say but this wasn’t the story I’d hoped for.
eARC via NetGalley

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40201933-the-last-time-i-saw-her" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="The Last Time I Saw Her" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1527132296m/40201933.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40201933-the-last-time-i-saw-her">The Last Time I Saw Her</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4836937.Kathleen_Knowles">Kathleen Knowles</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2420598311">2 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
A storyline that covers the music festivals of the 1980's with main leads Lane and Alison who meet as teenagers in the 60's/70's and re-connect in the 80's. The author does a wonderful job describing the women's music festival settings but I found the plot too long and quite slow. It pains me to only rate this book 2.5 stars.<br />I rec'd an ARC from NetGalley/Bold Strokes Book for review.
<br/><br/>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/31134832-gail">View all my reviews</a>

I couldn’t get into this one, it was almost a DNF. Not because it’s badly written, but just because I found it a bit of a slog. It’s the first I’ve read by this author, and didn’t make me want to try another. I didn’t like either main character, found the setting boring (I had thought the music festival setting would be a fun backdrop, but not so much) and honestly found the time period (80’s for the present, late 60s early 70s for the flashbacks) a bit off putting. Not sure why, it just didn’t gel for some reason. The flashbacks also added nothing to the story that couldn’t have been covered by the character’s thoughts or through discussion and were therefore unnecessary. Might also have helped if it wasn’t told in first person, but I doubt having Alison’s perspective would have made me like her more. 2 stars.

This was my first experience with a Kathleen Knowles book. I always enjoy reading books written in the first person because I can really get to know what the main character is thinking. The use of flashback to explain how Lane and Alison met when they were teens was easily identifiable and helpful in creating the today version of the characters. I think maybe this book was a little long given the story content, and the version I read had probably two dozen missing periods at the end of sentences. Since the story was set in the 1980s, I would have enjoyed an epilogue describing their lives today.

This book was well written. I had to keep in mind the time periods it was set in while reading it due tothe labels used. I think it accurately portrayed what being a lesbian in the 1980's was like. The interaction between the characters seemed forced but again I believe this was done intentionally to add to the overall mood. I think there were quite a few sterotypes in this book and that was a bit off putting but as I said in the 1980's some people were fitting those just to fit in. Overall it was a well written and edited book.

I found this book quite boring. The story of two women who meet in adolescence, in the sixties and seventies, and who meet again in the eighties, I would have been much more interesting, from my point of view, without all the gibberish related to the music festival for women in which the reunion takes place. In addition, the past is explained in small flash backs in the middle of the story that often does not clarify much the alleged problem that had the two protagonists in adolescence. In addition to the little interest that the festival and its preparations have had for me, the two protagonists have not seemed engaging enough to me, neither together nor separately. In short, a boring and uninteresting book, only recommended by some anecdotes that can be credible of the life of the lesbian community in the eighties.

<i>An ARC was sent to me from Bold Strokes Books through NetGalley for an honest review </i>

Sadly I can’t think of a single good thing to say about this book. The writing was tedious with way too many boring details about how a festival works. The main characters were annoying. Nicknaming someone Miss Tits and using that name endlessly for half the book was offensive. By the time I’d read up to the dated goddess ritual I was losing the will to live. But then for yet another dire moment there was probably the worst line I have ever read in a lesbian romance.  “She was sweet but I tasted a faint undertaste of garlic”. In what way is that romantic?! Total mood killer.

okay, so this book was okay, i would say a three star read!
there was nothing wrong about this book for me but there was also nothing mind blowing.
i would like to read more of the authors work, to see if i like those novels more so i shall add some to my future reading list

Interesting setting with a storyline that fell flat. First of all, I enjoyed the women's music festival concept. Second, I like the idea of reconnecting with women from festival-to-festival. Third, some of the personalities and issues being dealt with were on point and interesting. On the other hand, neither Lane or Alison were very interesting to me. With the story told from Lane's point of view, did not help this reader appreciate what was taking place. I only finished it because I value finishing what I started and in this case, it was a challenge.

I have to put this in the strictly just okay category. This is my third book I have read by Knowles and unfortunately all three have been 3 stars each. I think the problem is I just don’t really click with her writing style. I’m a character driven reader while I think Knowles is more of a plot driven writer. Although to be honest I had issues with both in this book.

Lane spends her free time volunteering for lesbian festivals in the late 80’s. The newest one is in Georgia where Lane will be in charge of security. When she noticed the name of one of the festival’s nurses is Alison, she immediately wonders if it is her childhood first love. Sure enough it is the Alison of her past. Can Lane and Alison rekindle their love or is there too much baggage from their past?

I enjoyed the week long setting of the lesbian festival. I thought there was going to be a lot of fun maybe even humorous occurrences that would happen when Lane was on duty. Unfortunately, that wasn’t really the case. Everything was pretty minor and didn’t bring the fun or excitement I was hoping for. I thought it was a missed opportunity.

I had a lot of trouble connect to either main character. I didn’t dislike them I just didn’t honestly care that much. Lane especially came off as very immature. I did not feel like she was a woman in her 30’s at all. 21 maybe and the story would have worked much better.

When it came to the romance I did not feel any chemistry or real connection. I didn’t understand why Lane loved Allison so much. I am not a fan of flashbacks, but this was the kind of story that needed them. There only were a few, but they didn’t really focus on the connection. I needed to know their history to understand their supposed love.

Parts of the story were pleasant, but it never really worked for me. This book wasn’t bad but there was nothing that moved me. Sometimes we just don’t click with certain authors, so to be fair this may be that last review I do of Knowles’ books for a while.

*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.*

I would give this book 0 stars if I could. I really did not like this book from beginning to end. This book was all in first person in Lane's point of view. Lane is working security at a lesbian musical festival, where she is working with her old love from Girl Scout camp, Allison. Lane just seems to be still be in love with Allison, even after a long period of time. She wonders if Allison feels any feelings for her and she starts to try and find out. 

There are a couple reasons I did not enjoy this book. One, I did not like Lane's point of view. She seemed like an obsessed, childish puppy the entire time. She tried convince Allison to love her, it seems more sad than sweet to me. Two, it was poorly written. There were points where I couldn't remember all the characters in the book. That could have just been my lack of interest, but still. The whole book was not written well and I found a couple typos in the book as I read. Three, They talked about Lane and Allison at Girl Scout Camp a lot. They only seemed to vaguely explain their relationship from then. I thought, going into this book, that there would be true flashbacks to their time together then. There were very few flashbacks and they more just explained what happened back then. Four, and maybe the most important, there was no character development and no attachment to any of the characters. It seemed more like Lane seemed less adult and interesting as the book went on. The whole book took place over ten days and it wasn't even an interesting ten days. 

I would literally read anything again before reading this book. I would read many other much much better novels before this one. This is not a good book I would recommend to anyone.

The Last Time I Saw Her by Kathleen Knowles is a story set in the 1980's at a women's music festival in the South. Lane discovers that her first love Alison will be in attendance. Even though it has been fifteen years, Lane still loves Alison and regrets the fight they had on their last day together, ending their relationship. This book is about the healing of old wounds to make way to a new, free, future.

Unfortunately this book was not for me. The story was interesting, but it unfolds so slowly, it was hard for me to stick with it. Because of this, neither Lane or Alison were very appealing to me. The story is told from Lane's point of view and all she really does is talk about how much she misses Alison. There are flashback's to the early 1970's when the women were young and their relationship was just beginning.

The setting is interesting. I liked the atmosphere of the all women's music festival, but that wasn't enough to carry the novel. I think that if this had been a novella it may have worked better for me.

I was given an ARC of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in return for a fair and honest review.

It wasn’t really my cup of tea but it wasn’t half bad. Couldn’t remember commit myself to it and that’s okay, I know it wasn’t bad and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it too.

Set in 1987 at women’s music and comedy festival in Georgia, Lane Hudson is part of the safety and security team, a position she’s held at a few festivals before this one. When she sees Alison’s name on the list it is with mixed feelings that she hopes it is, in fact, the Alison who broke her heart 15 years earlier at camp. It is her, her first love and the one she never stopped thinking about.

This is a fairly easy going read but not as dynamic as I’d hoped and I felt melancholic most of the way through (but that might just be me). The story is written from Lane’s point of view in first person but I found it didn’t really open her up as a character. She’s been in love with Alison for well over 15 years but I wasn’t entirely sure why. What she loves about Alison doesn’t come to the fore in either the present or in the flashbacks (and there aren’t many). Alison is the object of her affection but there is lack of conversation between them about who they are now, what they’ve done and both of them gloss over their previous relationships.

The setting of a women’s festival and the era had a lot of potential but I didn’t get a strong sense of 1987 in fashion or attitudes. It was mentioned that women could express their relationships in public at the festival but not in their everyday lives but a little more exploration would have been nice. Essentially, this could have been set in any year from then to now.

Towards the end one gets a much better gauge of both Alison and Lane through lots of dialogue and engagement with each other. I’m sorry more of the book wasn’t like this but overall it was a reasonable read.

Book received from Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.