What really happened to Sadie the night of the Plus One Party? Her best friend Avery is convinced she did not commit suicide, despite the note and notebook the police found (wait for it). Sadie was a Loman, a member of the family which almost literally owns the resort town of Littleport, Maine. Avery works for the Lomans managing their properties. This highlights some of the differences between the "visitors" and the locals, as well as between rich and poor but it's really more about Avery trying to find the truth not only about Sadie but also about herself. It moves back and forth between the ill fated party in 2017 and the following summer of 2018 when a memorial to Sadie is about to be dedicated. It's a little twisty, with a some things that surprised even me. If there's a fault to this it's that we don't get a better grasp of some of the characters such as Faith and Luce. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A good summer page turner!

I'm not going to redo the summary, if you are looking at the book, you've read it. There's a lot in this read, and Megan Miranda pulls things together at the end. I loved the whole idea of the suicide or murder, the setting of the stage, how it all came together. This book is in two different time periods, the party and present day, Megan clearly marks the periods. I never saw 'that' coming. SHOCKED! Thank you Netgalley!

I really wanted to love this book, but it just didn’t sit well with me. I just couldn’t see the characters as anything more than their former teenage selves. The people of the little town surrounding Breaker Beach all acted so immature and high school drama-ish that I couldn’t commit to seeing them as adults throughout the book.

It was OK on the mystery aspect, though redundant and I just didn’t seem to care about any of the characters enough to want to really know who did it.

I do enjoy stories about summer, beach houses, and oceans. I liked that it kind of had that Dirty Dancing/The Last Time I Lied vibe flowing through parts of it. I also enjoyed the backstory, but really it wasn’t ever brought to the forefront the way I would have expected it to.

Typically the locals and the summer visitors don't mix much in the resort town of Littleport, Maine. But when summer resident Sadie Loman and local Avery Greer meet, they form a fast, intense friendship that lasts nearly a decade. It ends the night of the Plus-One party--the one night where locals and summer guests come together at the summer's end. It's also the night Sadie dies; her body is found on Breaker Breach, where she has drowned after falling off a cliff. The police believe Sadie has committed suicide, but Avery isn't so sure. A year later, she begins digging more into Sadie's death. What she finds leaves her more convinced that ever that Sadie's death wasn't at her own hand--and the more she discovers, the more she wonders if she's in danger, too.

So, I read this book in about 24 hours. It's a fast, quick read. A lot of the plot seems familiar--it was the second book of the last three, I'd read, for instance, where someone died suspiciously after falling off a cliff. The plot definitely has the tried-and-true feel of "friend obsessed with richer/prettier/etc. friend's death yet won't leave it to police even though it makes no sense to investigate on their own." You know where I'm coming from, right? You've been there before.

In this case, Avery is, of course, the local, with no money, who has been taken in by Sadie's family. They've funded her coursework, given her a place to live, and a job--she oversees all of the Loman's rental properties in Littleport. They even bought her grandmother's house. So Sadie--and her family--mean a lot to Avery.

"Sadie was my anchor, my coconspirator, the force that had grounded my life for so many years. If I imagined her jumping, then everything tilted precariously, just as it had that night."

The book is told entirely from Avery's point of view, but it goes back and forth in time. We get the night of the party, when Sadie died, and then the present, a year later. A memorial is coming up for Sadie, dredging up memories for Avery and causing her to question what happened that night. It's an effective formula--Miranda is good at playing with time.

The book has an ominous, creepy feel to it. Weird things start happening at the rental properties for instance, and you can't help but feel that something bad is going to happen. The setting is a good one--a beachy, resort town--and it's easy to visualize the scene. I did enjoy how much this one kept me guessing. Maybe I should have figured things out earlier, but I didn't. I was intrigued about what happened to Sadie, and I kept reading because of that. That being said, I didn't really care about any of the characters in the book. Most of the characters, including the Lomans, seem rich and spoiled, and somehow, I just couldn't find a ton of affection for Avery. I was reading more out of curiosity versus an investment in their storyline.

Overall, this thriller is a quick read that kept me guessing. The characters aren't particularly likeable but the mystery is interesting and the setting somehow both ominous and picturesque. 3.5 stars.

Dull and Dreary

The Last House Guest is a slow-burn mystery about a girl from the wrong side of the tracks whose world is shattered when her best friend is found dead of an apparent suicide.

Littleport, Maine is a town built on a class divide between the townies and wealthy vacationers. After a rich girl kills herself, her best friend begins to question the events that led up to the suicide. Alternating timelines from the past and present lead to secrets being unearthed.

I had such high hopes for this book--I knew going in it wasn’t going to be All the Missing Girlsand I tried to lower my expectations but I apparently didn’t lower them enough.

My issues started right off the bat when just couldn’t connect with Avery, who is the narrator of The Last House Guest. I actually pushed this book to the side and started reading another. When I came back to it the second time around, I actually liked it more than when I initially started reading it. I slowly started to connect with the narrative but I was never able to fully immerse myself in the world of Littleport.

The Last House Guest is lacking in tension, suspense, drama, finesse, and depth. I needed more--I was expecting more. However, this is not a total failure. The foundation is there, but overall it felt incomplete. There are times when the mystery is intriguing and some of the revelations about Avery’s past made me want to know more about Avery in the present. At the same time, I was never able to get fully pulled into the story. I didn't care enough to about the characters, but I did care enough to finish the book and see how things would play out. It got better towards the end, but then it all crashed and burned once again in the final pages.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I was SO excited to get this one on Net Galley! I had heard nothing but good about this author and her previous book All The Missing Girls (Which I still need to read). This was the first one for me by Megan Miranda and I think it fell short for me. I REALLY wanted to love it but I just didn't. I don't know if it was my mood, the writing style, my lack of connection with ANY of the characters or just a combo of all of that. The story itself was ok and I didn't hate it even though I will say I found myself bored a time or two. So for that reason I am going with a 3 star rating for this one. I will definitely give this author another try though and am very grateful to have had an ARC of this one.

I loved this book I new right away when I started reading I wasn’t going to be able to put it down! Avery Greer lost her parents in a tragic car and is living with her grandmother. Sadie Loman who is the daughter of the richest summer families in littleport a beach town overlooking the ocean. Avery meets Sadie by chance when she’s working in the kitchen of a party Sadie’s families hosting. Soon they become fast friends. At the end of the summer Avery throws a party with Sadie who never shows. When the police come to the door and informs her that Sadie was found dead and it looks like a suicide. Avery finds it difficult to believe her friend who was so full of life would kill herself. Fast forward a year later Avery is working for Sadie’s parents as a property manager for the summer guests. When strange happenings start happening at the beach cottages like someone was going through guests property, candles being lit Avery begins to believe its connected to Sadie’s death. Soon Avery begins to investigate the night Sadie died and she believes Sadie was hiding a secret someone doesn’t want out and the murder suspect may had been at the party that fateful summer , and each guest had a secret they didn’t want anyone to know. The book jumped from the past which was the night part of the party and present with Avery trying to figure what happened that night. This book was filled with many twists and turns and so many secrets. I give this five stars I loved it!!

Megan Miranda’s newest adult novel still read like a YA book to me. While we figure out that the main characters are out of college and working (we were never directly told their ages), they still acted like they were in high school. The story was on the slow side and quite repetitive, but it did have a few good twists and turns and I do have to give Miranda props for an ending I didn’t see coming!

The Last House Guest is a slow-paced, sleepy tale of a mysterious death of a teenage girl in a New England summer town. Sadie Loman and Avery Greer are close friends in the seaside town of Littleport, Maine. Avery is a town girl who spends her summers managing properties for wealthy tourists. Sadie is one of those tourists, befriending Avery one summer. The two girls become close friends, until the day Sadie's body is found at the base of a cliff. At first, it appears to be nothing more than a tragic accident. However, Avery is not convinced that her friend's death was an accident. One year later, Avery begins to informally investigate Sadie's death. As she delves deeper into the event, an unlikely list of suspects begins to emerge. How innocent was Sadie's boyfriend at the time? Or Sadie's brother? Or even Sadie's parents?

The more Avery begins to take a closer look, it appears that Sadie herself had unearthed some information that someone else would ultimately like to stay hidden. It's not long before Avery finds that she might be in harm's way. Can she identify and reveal Sadie's killer before he/she strikes again?

This book alternated between present day and the night of Sadie's death. I found it to be rather slow, and fairly predictable. If you want a simple read that is mildly entertaining, this might be your book. However, this is not a suspenseful book that is going to keep you up late at night, desperate to find out what really happened.

Like many other coastal towns, Littleport, Maine is two separate towns. One is the busy destination of vacationers on their yearly sojourn to someplace other than their own hometowns. The second town is more laid back, more of a community of people who spend their summers catering to visitors and their winters recuperating from the summers. There are seldom friendships between the townspeople and the people who invade the town during the summer. But just such a friendship developed between Avery Greer, a resident of Littleport and Sadie Loman, an annual visitor. Their friendship lasted for a decade until Sadie is found dead on the beach. Sadie’s death is ruled a suicide. Avery believes that some of the locals and Sadie’s brother blame her for Sadie’s death. Sadie makes it her mission to clear her name before suppositions become set in concrete as truths.

The story is told in the first person by Avery so the reader may not get a feel for the other characters because the author didn’t developed them for us. The pacing of the book was uneven, it started off sluggish, but picked up once Avery decided to investigate the death of Sadie. There were moments where the reader must suspend belief, i.e., when Avery decides to investigate Sadie’s death nearly a year has passed and is able to piece together the events leading to her death.

If you like cozy mysteries to begin with a slow burn and then pick up blazing speed, this is the book for you.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an eARC.

I am a big fan of Miranda’s books. Her last two are among the best books I have read. This one is right up there with them. It starts as a classic poor townie taken under the wing of a rich family who summers in her hometown story. There are twists and turns, things are not as they appear. Someone dies, but is it really suicide? The story kept me interested from the beginning.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for a copy of this in exchange for an honest review! The Last House Guest was a story about Avery and how she starts to suspect her friend Sadie’s suicide is not what it appears to be! I loved the story and it kept me guessing until the very end! I deducted 1 Star only because a few places I got a little lost and I wanted to know more about one of the characters at the end! This was an interesting mystery/thriller and I am so glad I got to read it!

I loved this book! The story was very engaging and kept me guessing on what had originally happened that fateful night. Loved the ending.

This is my first Megan Miranda book and in my opinion it was very slow to get into. There was nothing wrong with this book. It just didn't grab my attention and keep me guessing. It will probably be a breezy suspenseful read for others so hope everyone enjoys. Thank you to Nethalley and Simon and Schuster for my honest review.

Goosebumps from page one. Megan Miranda has such a different voice than most others in mystery writing and can make anyone a junior detective. I loved the hidden mystery underneath the family drama. Flipping between the 2 summers to put the pieces together was creative and kept me guessing. Love, love, loved this book!

I am a huge fan of Megan Miranda's books since her debut "All the Missing Girls". It's one of my all time favorite books and maybe now I'm forever going to hold her other books up to that impossibly high standard. I was very excited to read this one and really wanted to love it. But it didn't quite hit the mark for me. It's a decent book, just not the absolute best of the genre.

The book alternates between one night last summer and present day as the main character Avery tries to figure out what happened the night her best friend Sadie died.

Overall the book is very similar to Miranda's other books. At times I felt like I'd read it before or like it was the same protagonist as "The Perfect Stranger". It has the same dark feel, with a protagonist that isn't wholly reliable. There are definitely twists and turns and as a reader I was kept guessing. But the ending really missed it. It was contrived and didn't add up. I can suspend belief for the sake of a novel, but the ending was just too far off track to be believable.

Thank you NetGalley for my ARC!

Avery is left with her grandmother's house after she passes, a wealthy family buys it, and they hire Avery to manage this house and their entire neighborhood of exclusive, rented summer cottages.

Avery is an excellent manager, becomes friends with the Lowman's daughter, Sadie, and is treated like family, and then is faced with Sadie's death that is being ruled as a suicide. Avery knows Sadie wouldn't kill herself and especially on the night of the annual Plus-One end-of-the-summer party.

Avery stuck to her theory that Sadie didn't commit suicide, and she found a few things to prove the police investigation hadn't been thorough and that no one could be trusted.

Her investigation made me nervous, though, because of the way she went about gathering evidence.

We move from chapter to chapter telling the before and after of Avery and Sadie's friendship and of the goings on at the rental community. Was Sadie really Avery’s friend or did she think of Avery as the help and pretend to be her friend? Was anyone really Avery's friend?

I was a bit confused at first about what was going, but once Avery found evidence and clues about what really happened and things were revealed, the interest kicked up.

THE LAST HOUSE GUEST will be for you if you enjoy a beach setting, characters that have secrets, characters that are broken, and a mystery that keeps you guessing.

The ending is definitely a surprise. 4/5

This book was given to me as ARC by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was disappointed in this book. It was a slow starter for me and then the story line fell flat as did the characters. Bad girl Avery Greer turned good girl was best friends with wealthy Sadie Loman. Sadie was found dead at the bottom of a cliff and her death was ruled a suicide. A year later, Avery decides to try and find out what really happened to her best friend. The story is told back and forth from the night of the Plus One Party when Sadie died to present day a year later which at times seemed to jump around a lot. Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book and the plot kept me guessing until the very end. This book had the right amount of family drama with a couple of twists I didn’t see coming. I loved the coastal town setting and felt Avery was a strong and likable character who doesn’t stop until she learns the truth about her friend’s death. This would make the perfect beach/pool read.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance copy.

I really enjoyed this book! Similar to other books by this author, the time line hops between present and past, filling in gaps to solve the mystery of what really happened to Sadie. I liked how the book made me wonder what the twist would be: that something sinister had happened, or that it hadn’t. The ending definitely delivers!