The Last Thing He Told Me was nothing memorable really….

The month of July started off with some great books and then I got into a reading slump again. I recently finished “The Last Thing He Told Me,” by Laura Dave this morning. Hannah Michaels is living a happy life with her husband Owen Michaels and his daughter from his previous marriage, Baily. Everything changes when Hannah gets a note from Owen telling her, Protect her. Owen has disappeared and Hannah finds out that Owen isn’t who he says he is. Hannah and Baily  team up together to find out where Owen is and who he really is.

Pros

The plot had a good idea which is what made me want to try it. The cover is gorgeous with the floating houses since in the book their home is a floating house in Sausalito California. Unfortunately this is where it ends. 

Cons

Unfortunately there’s a lot to unpack here. While the plot was enough to keep me reading, surprisingly the story took too long to get going. I also felt it didn’t help that it kept going back and forth between eight months ago, two years ago, eighteen months ago, the present and then at the end eight or ten years later. When it did get interesting it was toward the later part of the book. Also Hannah made some very stupid choices in the book and really none of the characters were very likeable or interesting. I did feel bad for 16 year old Baily because Hannah made a choice that Baily didn’t have a say in. The ending also felt rushed and abrupt.

Overall

While the plot had a good idea, unfortunately the story itself failed to deliver. Too many things were unresolved. In the author’s note, Laura Dave mentioned that she started writing this novel back in 2012 and then didn’t come back to it for a number of years. It seemed to me she wasn’t very invested in this story hence the abrupt end and unresolved issues. I’ve read mixed reviews about this book and I still thought this was something I would like. Sadly this is not. Does it mean I won’t give Laura Dave another chance? Nope. I think she’s got potential for other good books.