The beginning of this novel felt familiar and I almost stopped reading. I’m so glad i didn’t. The young women portrayed were so flawed and scarred from their pasts that my heart hurt. Not a story for the faint of heart, but an important one that has recently made headlines. Loved the ending!!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Who would have thought you could write a BDSM cult book that is also an examination of feminist theory! Oh, and the main character was a Miss Texas. Let’s go!

Shay is living a charmed life as upper crust Dallas housewife. Then, she hears a shocking revelation on a true-crime podcast. Not just any crime but one that literally and figuratively calls to her from her college days, when she was a coed at a progressive university in upstate New York. Her college roommate has committed suicide. However, she did so a decade after their other college roommate committed suicide in the exact same manner.

She heads back to New York to dig into the death and ends up digging into her own psyche; realizing her long buried self-destructive tendencies, in fact, still live deep within her and are tempted to rise again.

***It almost goes without saying there are going to be a lot of triggers in this book. If this is an issue for you I would absolutely look into other reviews that give a few spoilers.***

Shay is a fantastic character - multifaceted and real. She is examining how to be honest with herself and forgive who she used to be. All the while, we tag along as she goes undercover into places that most of us will never experience toward a NXIVM style cult that her darker desires entice her into losing herself to.

This was one of my favorite books of the year. It is an absolute a stay awake, turn the pages, ignore all your obligations type of read.


⭐⁣ OVERALL RATING:⭐⁣

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Amazing & Passionately Recommend - I loved it. It struck a chord, I am thinking about it long after the last page, and I want to talk about it. Afterward, you might find me binging all other books by the author or finishing the series in days..

❤️ ROMANCE/ STEAM RATING: 🔥

❤️❤️ | There is a romance element and while they are nice together, if this was real life they might break up. Our main character definitely has some issue to work on before she should be in a relationship. And, it seems realistic that she could self-sabotage. That being said, the relationship that is introduced is wholesome and you are rooting for them.

🔥🔥🔥 | This is hard to rate for steam because while it is about a BDSM sex cult it is not very sexy. There are a few steamy scenes, but for a book of this subject, it is not overtly graphic on either end of the spectrum. In fact, this is probably not even true BDSM and much more Submission-Domination cult-life (a.k.a. no safe words).

Thank you @netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for early access to this ARC in return for an unbiased and voluntary review #NetGalley #thelasthousewife @bookmarked

This book was wild! It was extremely dark, fast paced and oh so good. It was a book about cults, murder and getting revenge. The book was filled with suspense and the ending was twisted and shocking (in a good way to me). If you can look past the dark subject matter (sexual sadism torture) then I recommend.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I wanted to love this one so badly, but it just didn't 100% work for me. Maybe it 35% worked? It was sooooo slow to start - I was about 40% in before I felt like anything was really happening and the only parts that really felt exciting or interesting was the end 15%.

I fell like it tried to hard to be a feminist book, but came across as a few shock value moments and too many info dumps - the podcast, in particular - felt unnecessary since it was just the two of them sitting there and could have easily just been a conversation. It added nothing for me and those parts were very much "tell me" rather than "show me" - like a dump of passive information telling us half the story instead of showing us how things went down though a plot? Also, her marriage? Such a weird random "not telling" part that felt vague and almost like an afterthought? I was left kinda confused about some things unexplored, and others "too" explored?

I do enjoy her writing style - Fool Me Once was a big hit for me, so maybe it's a case of it's not you, it's me? (Still need to read In My Dreams, but trying to forget a spoiler I was exposed to!) The gross stuff and icky bits didn't bother me at all (I personally love the ick!) - so it wasn't that. It just felt like it was a rehash of a very similar story that's been in the news recently, with a lot of telling and not enough showing for my taste. And the female empowerment angle got lost for me and there was just a lot of disconnect.

About the book:
"While in college in upstate New York, Shay Evans and her best friends met a captivating man who seduced them with a web of lies about the way the world works, bringing them under his thrall. By senior year, Shay and her friend Laurel were the only ones who managed to escape. Now, eight years later, Shay's built a new life in a tony Texas suburb. But when she hears the horrifying news of Laurel's death―delivered, of all ways, by her favorite true-crime podcast crusader―she begins to suspect that the past she thought she buried is still very much alive, and the predators more dangerous than ever.

Recruiting the help of the podcast host, Shay goes back to the place she vowed never to return to in search of answers. As she follows the threads of her friend's life, she's pulled into a dark, seductive world, where wealth and privilege shield brutal philosophies that feel all too familiar. When Shay's obsession with uncovering the truth becomes so consuming she can no longer separate her desire for justice from darker desires newly reawakened, she must confront the depths of her own complicity and conditioning. But in a world built for men to rule it―both inside the cult and outside of it―is justice even possible, and if so, how far will Shay go to get it?"

This it's a very well-written thriller that had me turning pages from start to finish. It is dark and deals with some very difficult themes, but it does reflect the depravity of some cults which actually do subjugate women in terrible ways in the real world. It reminded me a bit of the Kubrick movie "Eyes Wide Shut," and the ending had something of a Quentin Tarantino-type ending. I won't say more than that to avoid spoilers,
Overall, it's an entertaining and interesting read for those who aren't too squeamish and can deal with reading stories that may make them feel angry, at times, and repulsed, at others.

When she hears of the death of her college friend, Shay travels to upstate NY to find out what might have happened to her. What she discovers is more than she could possibly imagine - a powerful cult where men of privilege are subjecting women to unimaginable horrors. What was most disturbing is the correlation to what seems to be a trend in America today to bring women back into a role of submission. There is sex, violence, suicide and murder but that theme is what will stay with me.

The Last Housewife is extremely dark. And I mean extremely, please check all trigger warnings before picking this up! The brutality that laid inside these pages was something i was not expecting but wow. There were some big twists in this one that I did not see coming, it continually kept me guessing and gave me the nastiest feeling all at the same time. I loved it though.

An explosive and emotional ride. This book is so well written and I recommend it to anyone interested in cults.

This is my third book by Ashley Winstead and she continues to deliver 👏

I always appreciate when authors include trigger warnings at the beginning of books — this one has a lot! This dark thriller drew me in immediately. I couldn’t put it down because I was so determined to figure out what sinister happenings were occurring. The dark subject matter is enough to make you cringe, but in a way where you can’t stop reading.

Read if you like ~
▪️cult stories
▪️true crime podcasts
▪️dark & twisted thrillers
▪️female revenge stories

After reading both of Winstead’s thrillers, I can’t wait to see where her creative mind takes her next!

I really, really tried to finish this novel. I'd heard a lot of good things about the author's other book and was excited to get approved for this one. Finally gave up at 39% after trying all summer to get through it. I don't mind a little "adult" activity in my thriller novels, but there just didn't seem to be anything else to this one. Just not for me.

This book wasn't for me. It was to dark and disturbing but not in a way that made me keep reading. I did not connect with the characters and their actions.

A thank you to Netgalley for sharing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was super excited about this one, but it didn't quite pan out as expected. There's definitely a mystery to be solved and a true crime pod angle is pretty much always fun. Interesting at first, but then it dove so dark into the beyond women hating to dark sexual sadism torture with a cult feel, it just got to disgusting and far to visual for me. By the end, I had not only lost interest, but couldn't wait for it to be over. Could've ended sooner and was just so ick.

Shay is newly married to her wealthy husband, Cal, in a beautiful but sterile home. She has everything she could ever want but still something is missing. She loves true crime podcasts and regularly listens to one that her best childhood friend, Jamie, does. Listening one morning she hears him talk about the death of her college friend, Laurel, on their college campus. It appears to be a suicide but Shay can’t believe that. Jamie also knew her college friends and he seems to be sending her a message so she decides to call him.

In college, Shay, Laurel and Clem were best friends but now they are both dead under mysterious circumstances. In college, the three girls fell under the spell of a charismatic man who used them for his own purposes. It appears that his influence has expanded and there is a cult exploiting women. Shay decides to meet-up with Jamie and sends her husband who is out of town, a message. Shay is a writer but has had trouble working on her first novel and she told Cal she was going to upstate New York for inspiration.

After meeting with Jamie, Shay decides that something isn’t right and decides to investigate, with Jamie’s help. The more they investigate to try and find out what really happened to Clem and Laurel, the more dangerous the situation becomes especially because it awakens things in Shay that she thought were dormant.

Told with part prose and part podcast transcripts, The Last Housewife is a dark psychological thriller that isn’t for everyone. There is sexual violence, cult manipulation, political corruption and more. Despite all of this, I couldn’t put this well written mystery down. If you have read it, I would love to hear what you thought of the ending.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for an Advanced Reading Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Share

This has true crime, cult issues, and thriller all wrapped up in a neat package. On the death of her college friend Shay decides to try and solve the mystery. She will encounter a childhood friend that does true crime podcasts that brings it to life and helps in the journey.

Definitely a good read. Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

The Last Housewife is the first book I've read written by Ashley Winstead but it won't be my last! I've already put another book by her on my library holds list. In this book, Shay learns that a former friend has died. She believes the death is linked to an odd experience she and her friends had with an older man when they were in college. Through the help of another old friend who has a true crime podcast Shay is swept deeper and deeper into a mysterious world of intrigue and secrets. Read and enjoy!

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book flowed pretty well and the story was interesting. It’s pretty graphic, sexually, at times so if that offends you this book isn’t for you. I wasn’t bowled over by the book but it kept me turning the pages and there were some interesting twists.

Wow, this book was something else. It kept my attention from page 1 and I loved the true crime aspects of the book! This book is definitely dark though.

I'll start by saying that I LOVED In My Dreams and have been recommending it to literally everyone for the past year+. After reading this book, I'm dying to read Fool Me Once and honestly, everything that Ashley Winstead publishes in the future.

While I didn't think it was quite as good as IMD, it gave me the same, rare "Ohmygod I can't stop reading this" feeling. It's super dark, twisted, and the opposite of fun, but also addicting and intricately thought-through.

I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for a dark, dark thriller/cult-type read.

When the podcast of her ex-bestfriend investigates the mysterious "suicide" of her college roommate, a powerful sex cult from her past seems to be at the root of all of Shay's demons...

This was fine? I didn't feel a real connection to any of the characters, except maybe Nicole. The story and the driving issue at the center of the plot just didn't really intrigue me? A devious sex cult? (But not too devious cause let's let people enjoy but they want to enjoy but also it's terrible but no it's not it's okay no never mind it's definitely terrible!) It all felt a little too over the top and too forced and so I found it hard to believe something like this could truly happen (and no, I don't need anyone commenting about Epstein and the pizza parlor fronts and what have you). When all is said and done, this was just an okay thriller. None of the reveals or turns were that shocking, but it was entertaining enough to keep me reading until the end. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it, the plot and the characters just didn't wow me.

This was a good book. It was entertaining and fast paced. I was able to figure out the story pretty early on so that definitely ruined parts for me. Overall, I would recommend if you are looking for a quick read.