Another timely story by Diane Chamberlain.

As always, the writing is spot-on for the era and for the characters. I felt the story flowed well and the dual timelines worked well. The characters were well-developed, and I thought their individual voices came through.

A novel of shocking prejudice and violence, forbidden love, the search for justice, and the tangled vines of two families.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review.

In 2010, Kayla, along with her daughter, has just moved into a new house that she and her husband designed, but her husband was killed in an accident during the construction of the house. This already has her wondering if moving into the house was the right move, then a strange lady threatens her and tells her she shouldn’t live there. Then we get the story of Ellie back in 1965 as she volunteered with a movement to help black people register to vote which was not at all well received by her friends and family in North Carolina. Kayla’s new house is on the same street where Ellie’s family home is.

This was definitely a general fiction or women’s fiction novel, not a mystery, in my opinion. There are reveals at the end but we don’t even know what the mystery is until shortly before it is solved. This is a timely novel and it is interesting and informative about voting rights in the south in the 60’s and the attitudes of white people at that time. Though outside of my usual genre and a bit slow to develop for me, it is a really well written book. I thought I remembered a little more mystery in previous Diane Chamberlain novels but I could envision myself reading more from her in the future.

I wouldn’t classify this as a thriller or page turner but I really liked Ellie’s storyline and felt her backstory gave an interesting perspective of the Civil Rights era. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this story. The dual timelines spanning 45 years as well as dual protagonists kept me turning the pages to find out how one relates to the other. I was hooked from the first chapter. Like any book set in the American South in the 60s, this book will make you angry and break your heart. There are plenty of characters to hate in this book, but there are also plenty to love. I would have liked to have seen a slightly different ending, but overall it was a great read. Huge thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for giving me a sneak peak, and special thanks for Diane Chamberlain for being such a master storyteller.

There are parts of history you think you know until you read a book like this. The message is historically powerful with an unexpected ending.

Ellie was enrolled in the UNC in Pharmacology in 1965. She decided to apply for a special summer program that helped Blacks in the south to become comfortable with voting. The program recruited workers from the North and West universities but Ellie decided as a southern girl, she could fit in well with her interest in helping Blacks with the Voting Rights Act that President Johnson was trying to pass. She talked to the leaders and with her submitted forms, she got accepted.

However, she would be going from a lily white area into a place of great poverty farm lands where Black folks lived and if she returned, she would no longer be welcome in her community. It would not only be bad for her but also for her family who strongly opposed this program.

Ellie was determined to join this civil rights group and she bravely left in spite of her parents objections. She said, "During my week in Atlanta, I think I went through a sort of metamorphosis." It was certainly a wake-up call for Ellie who came from a "little white vacuum." She was now living in poor conditions in houses owned by share croppers. Instead of bathrooms with tissues, she was now using an outhouse with hay and corncobs.

The book has another timetable with Kayla in 2010 which weaves in a story from the future into the 1965 past with Ellie. She moved into her dream house that was previously used as a burial ground for the KKK. Kayla's father was Ellie's boyfriend from 1965 that she dumped for a Black student of the program. You can imagine how that went.

Diane Chamberlain is a master with character development and making you feel that you are there with the civil rights workers desperately trying to help people without being knocked down. I had no idea that in 1965, there were 10,000 white supremacist in North Carolina. She did an incredible amount of research to write this.

While I knew I was reading what happened almost 50 years ago, I didn't realize how much the history impacts so heavily on the current state of affairs. This book is highly recommended for a historical story that allows us to understand more about our country and where we are now.

My thanks to Diane Chamberlain, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced copy with an expected released date of January 11, 2022.

This was one of those dual-timeline novels where I was more invested in one storyline than the other. A decent read.

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

I generally don't care for books that go back and forth between characters but I didn't mind with this one. This was a very emotional read for several different reasons but again I didn't mind. You will feel for both Ellie and Kayla. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was never quite sure which path it was taking and it was wrapped up nicely at the end. I do not want to risk spoiling anything so I will not go into detail. I would highly recommend this book, I had a hard time putting it down.

Loved this book! The storyline is awesome!

It's a dual timeline story:
1965 -- Ellie is from a North Carolina town, steeped in tradition and secrets. Instead of working in her father's pharmacy for the summer, she joins a civil rights movement that is traveling around her county registering black community members to vote. She is discovering new prejudices and another way of life.

2010 -- Kayla and her daughter are moving into their new home - designed by Kayla and her husband, who was killed in an accident while working on their dream home. She is approached by a mysterious woman about the secrets in town and how she shouldn't be moving onto her new property.

How the two stories tie together is so cleverly crafted and the story so interesting.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a temporary, digital ARC in return for my review.

I thought the book was okay. The modern time line with Kayla ,her daughter, the new house and the wooded area was tedious at times. The incidents that occurred in and around the house were dull. The story of SCOPE , Ellie and Win and a small white town experiencing the civil rights movement in the 1960’s was more engaging. People are often not whom we think they are and this book showed that. This book dealt with forbidden love, prejudice, secrets, and injustice.

I'm a fan of Diane Chamberlain and this book did not disappoint. I felt it was a little difficult to get into at first, but soon found it highly entertaining. I learned a lot about the time period and enjoyed the plot twists.

Diane Chamberlain has been one of my favorite authors for some time now. But that doesn't mean that I don't read her books with a critical eye as I do everything else that I choose to spend my time reading. Honestly, this latest title by Chamberlain may very well be her best. There is still the familiar concept of dual timelines that her readers adore. But this time she had tackled a very timely issue of race relations and how people of color relate to white people and vice versa in 1965 and in 2010. The 1965 story of civil rights workers in the south will be eye-opening to many, it was to me. The concept of racism being an ugly, hidden, quality is something that should be written about more. I adored this book and it even has the bit of mystery that Chamberlain is so good at it. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced reading copy. I cannot wait to hear all the splash when this title hits the shelves!

1965. Ellie, a Southern girl, works to get black people registered to vote. She and a young black man, Win, fall in love. They are parted by her town and she leaves for 45 years.
2010 Kayla, a young widow, moves into the dream house she and her husband designed. A woman shows up and tells her not too. Odd things start happening.
Ellie has returned to help with her sick brother and mother. She and Kayla are thrown together to find out the answers to current and a 45 year old mystery.
Secrets from a town you thought you knew, friends and family can be the most devastating.
Diane has once again written a " can't stop reading it" book. It had me up all night.
Thank you NetGalley!

In the past I have really enjoyed books by this author but unfortunately, this one was a little bit slow for me. I kept hoping that it would captivate me more.

The premise of the story was interesting as Kayla and Ellie's lives intertwine but the reader has to keep reading to figure out how they come together.

The story is difficult to read as it involves the racial injustice that took place in the past and still rings true today.

Thanks so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc. The opinions are my own.

In many of her books, Diane Chamberlain does a really good job of bringing a difficult bit of history to light. In this book, she tackles Civil Rights and the fight back in the 60's to help make it easier to for black people to register to vote. It's a very timely story given many of the issues that we have seen in the news in 2020-2021, unfortunately, these issues have been going on for a very long time in one form or another.

This book has a dual narrative - one that takes place in 2010, and one that takes place back in the 60's. At first it's really unclear how these two narratives have anything to do with each other, but as the story progresses, that becomes clear. The character development of the central characters was really well done.

I felt like Ellie was extraordinarily naive given the place and time that she grew up, so some of the things that she did were pretty shocking because one would think she would have understood the cultural consequences of the time. For someone who wasn't raised in that place and time (i.e. this reader), the story does help make some of the history more real (and definitely painful)

This is a well-written book, fast-paced and hard to put down. Some of the things that were brought up at the end I expected, but there was a little twist that certainly did not expect.

My thanks to #NetGalley and #DianeChamberlain for the free Advanced Digital Copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions related to this book are purely my own.

Another great read from one of my all time favorite authors. Everyone reading this review...read all of Diane Chamberlains books! I finished this one and immediately picked up Pretending to Dance. Back to back Diane Chamberlain made for an outstanding weekend. No two books of hers are the same but they are all great reads that stay with you. The Last House on the Street was a beautifully written story about social injustice expressed in a thoughtful manner through complex characters with ever more complex relationships plus a love story that brought me to tears. Thank you Diane Chamberlain, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC!

The Last House on the Street kept my attention and I really enjoyed it. The rhythm and flow were coherent even with the dual time lines. The characters were well developed and interestingly woven. The terrible times, in the deep south, during the Jim Crow era, were described without any of the author’s political bent. I appreciated how it was depicted without personal bias. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. I will highly recommend it.

I read Diane Chamberlain for the first time just two years ago, when I devoured and adored her novel, The Dream Daughter. It has stuck with me, becoming one of those books that I continue to think about long after I’ve closed the cover. Her latest novel, The Last House on the Street, is going to have the same effect on me.

Kayla is just easing back into work after losing her husband in a tragic construction accident. A strange elderly woman comes into her office, full of secretive information about Kayla’s life. She warns Kayla away from moving into her new home in North Carolina, leaving Kayla with an ominous threat hanging heavily in the air. The home that was once Kayla and her husband’s dream home is feeling more and more like a nightmare, as the under-construction subdivision of Shadow Ridge has a dark past that is steadily working its way to the surface.

While Kayla tries to understand the woman’s threats in 2010, the novel flashes back to 1965, before Shadow Ridge existed and the land held one single home on a dirt road. Ellie is grieving the death of her beloved aunt while finishing her sophomore year at college. When she learns about the SCOPE program to help register black voters in the South, she leaps at the chance to continue her aunt’s social justice work and maybe atone for her own past mistakes. Her actions have a ripple effect, all the way to Kayla in 2010.

Once again, Diane Chamberlain’s words pulled me in from the first page. This novel is well paced, drawing the reader in and tugging at their mind whenever they aren’t reading. The dual timeline narrative is engaging, with each timeline being equally enthralling. There is a bit of suspense, but not of the nightmare-inducing variety.

The dual timeline accomplishes the rare feat of both timelines being equally engaging; I left each chapter wanting to learn what happened next, whether that chapter was set in 1965 or 2010. The combination of pacing and excellently developed characters is a big component of why both narrators and times are so intriguing. Both dangers feel present, as Kayla tries to solve the mystery of what happened on her land and Ellie is battling entrenched racism.

This novel does tackle difficult topics, and though it is handled sensitively, it’s also faced head-on. There is no softening the horrors of what happened during the Civil Rights era nor should there be; this is an important part of our history. I will include a trigger warning below, with plenty of advanced notice, for anyone who would like a heads up about the racially motivated violence that occurs in this book. As I’ve learned from the two books I’ve read, Chamberlain doesn’t hesitate to break your heart.

Every character is thoroughly developed, from the main characters to a four year old to minor side characters. The combination of these well-crafted characters in this well-illustrated world makes the plot believable and the reader’s empathetic response strong.

This is the kind of book you stay up late reading, the page-turner that will help get you out of your reading slump and make you immediately want to read the author’s entire backlist.

If you loved The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson, Southern Fiction, historical fiction, dual timelines, and multiple narrators, this is the book for you.

Thank you to Diane Chamberlain, Net Galley, and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy such that I could write this review.

The Last House on the Street will be available January 11, 2022.

(There is a trigger warning included in the original blog post, but I left it out here to avoid spoilers.)

I loved this book and I love this author! It was such a bittersweet book set during the civil wrights time period and also in present day. I fell in love with the characters! I think this would make a great movie. I cant wait to share this book with the patrons of the library.

The Last House on the Street
A Novel
by Diane Chamberlain

1965

Growing up in the well-to-do town of Round Hill, North Carolina, Ellie Hockley was raised to be a certain type of proper Southern lady. Enrolled in college and all but engaged to a bank manager, Ellie isn’t as committed to her expected future as her family believes. She’s chosen to spend her summer break as a volunteer helping to register black voters. But as Ellie follows her ideals fighting for the civil rights of the marginalized, her scandalized parents scorn her efforts, and her neighbors reveal their prejudices. And when she loses her heart to a fellow volunteer, Ellie discovers the frightening true nature of the people living in Round Hill.

2010

Architect Kayla Carter and her husband designed a beautiful house for themselves in Round Hill’s new development, Shadow Ridge Estates. It was supposed to be a home where they could raise their three-year-old daughter and grow old together. Instead, it’s the place where Kayla’s husband died in an accident—a fact known to a mysterious woman who warns Kayla against moving in. The woods and lake behind the property are reputed to be haunted, and the new home has been targeted by vandals leaving threatening notes. And Kayla’s neighbor Ellie Hockley is harboring long buried secrets about the dark history of the land where her house was built.

Two women. Two stories. Both on a collision course with the truth--no matter what that truth may bring to light--in Diane Chamberlain's riveting, powerful novel about the search for justice.

Thanks NetGalley for the oppunity to get an advance copy to review for my honest opinion.
A beautiful , well wrtten book I was got lost in I felt the book ...and KNOW even today the book will stay in my heart.