Loved this! Such a fantastic read, I was engrossed in this book, such fantastic characters.

I really liked the different POVs and how the book was set up. Don’t be fooled by this being YA, it covers some serious subjects sand is up there with adult thrillers.

I will be reading the authors first book asap.

This was fun! Some nitpicky things I had issues with (why do we keep going back to a literal murder scene?????) but it didn't ruin it at all! I really enjoyed this

Gabriella Lepore writes a classic whodunit mystery filled with familial drama, lies, and mistrust. Instead of following our main protagonist solving a crime, we follow Savana and Jesse before the murder. We have no idea who died. We have no idea who committed the crime. All we know was that someone was pushed at an abandoned warehouse.

The Good Things:
I loved this story mostly because of Jesse, one of our main characters. When we got to know more about his family problems I began to understand why he was such good friends with Raf, the controlling leader of the group. Both of them became friends, brother's even, because both tried to distract themselves from their home life as much as possible. Both had parents with a rocky relationship and both felt like they were untouchable as long as they had each other. But their friendship becomes tested when Jesse realizes that just maybe Raf doesn't have his best interests at heart. Whenever Jesse and Raf were in the room together you couldn't help but pay extra close attention.

I also understood Jesse's desire for structure. He needed someone to encourage him, to believe in him. He felt like he had to be better than his father and earn his parent's affection. He also felt like he needed to protect his younger brother Cody from the world because his parents were so irresponsible. Honestly his parents made me mad. A lot of Jesse's problems would have been solved if his parents tried harder to get their crap together. But I digress, Jesse reacts to all of this by trying to be the person his dad wasn't. Someone responsible, who had it all together. Often times when he lies and pretends everything is great, he messes up again. And I loved that about his character it really shows how we all need to be honest with one another, say what we really feel. We can't expect things to get better until we point out the problem. We also need to be honest that we cannot do it all, and that's okay. We are human, imperfect beings who (I believe) needs a God to come along side of us.

Raf was also an amazing character. He truly had this way of making everyone in the story have a strong reaction. The characters either praised him or hated him. He brought the absolute worst out of all the characters in the group. And I knew that he would be at the center of the murder. I absolutely loved to hate him.

Another major part of the story that I loved was the structure of the mystery. The story demanded my attention because I had to know who died in the group. A lot of mystery novels begins with right after the death of one of the characters. We usually know who died and then start our own suspect list. It becomes a lot harder to make a suspect list when we don't know who got murdered. And Jesse had to be okay because he was officially designated as my favorite character. So I breezed by the first part of the book because the tension leading up to the murder was so exciting, if not more exciting then discovering who did it.

Improvements:

Savana felt far to typical for me. When we started in her perspective I honestly thought I wouldn't like this book. She feels like all of the other ya protagonists that I have read in the past. A nerd who doesn't exactly fit in with the popular crowd starts hanging around the popular crowd. I only cared about what was going on in her chapters because it always focused on the group dynamic of Tara, Owen, Freddie, Raf, and Jesse. We hardly got Savana's personal life or her backstory. I almost felt like that was okay because I didn't want more of her backstory. Or maybe it was the problem because I didn't care about her much.

Savana's and Jesse's relationship reflects a lot of other relationships I typically see in YA. It almost felt to a certain extent that they were saving each other. Jesse always talks about her seeing him when no one else does. He constantly shows up at her house because it felt peaceful to be at her there. I wanted to scream at him that it feels that way because she encourages honesty. And there were times he avoided telling her the truth creating conflict in their relationship. I thought there was going to be a moment where he breaks down, cries, and tells her absolutely everything. Not that she would save him from his problems or anything, but I felt like it would help him realize that in order to start feeling better he has to talk about it. And this never happens! The other part of me also hates how authors constantly places romantic relationships on this pedestal on how your romantic partner knows the real you and they will help you out of your problems. And it's like no that's not it. My husband, for example, is a huge help to me and it helps to talk about things with him. But he doesn't have all the answers either. What I wanted is for Jesse to be completely honest with Savana and through the conversations he has with her to realize if he took this honesty to all the people he knows he will feel more free. But at the end he never really has this honesty with anyone. How do you expect people to see the real you if you do not let them see it?

The last thing that really needed improvement was Lepore's ending. The person who committed the murder didn't feel right. And the real reason why the murder went down didn't feel right either. It felt like the story built itself around one thing and the natural byproduct of all of the conflicts didn't reach the proper conclusion. I feel like Lepore wanted to surprise her readers so she didn't properly set up the real reason for the murder and who did it. Whenever I thought about the murderer committing the crime I always nixed the idea because the character hardly feels present for a majority of the novel. In a mystery I don't think the shock factor is what most readers are looking for. A twist only works when the revelation was hidden in plain sight. Like when you realize who did it you feel like an idiot because you should have figured it out from what the reader had previously given you. We didn't get a proper conclusion to Jesse and Rafs relationship. Our main characters hardly felt like they learned something or that they have fulfilled the major problems in their life. The familial troubles are kind of written off that we spent the entirety of the first half of the book getting to know. I almost feel like we need another full book for our main characters to heal because I worry about all of them.

4.5/5 ⭐️
This book had me gripped from go to woah! I loved the before and after split and the intertwined interviews and messages!! It kept me guessing right up until the end and I never once suspected the killer!!!!

*thank you HarperCollins for my eARC of this book*

3.5 stars

I LOVE A GOOD CONTEMPORARY YA MYSTERY! I was definitely compelled throughout and the dual timeline split from before and after made for a super compelling plot. I will say, that although I was intrigued, this book doesn't do a great job of distinguishing itself from its peers in the genre. however, I did thoroughly enjoy this more than the author's previous book and as always, appreciated the little sprinkle of YA romance throughout!!

Excellent! Suspenseful page turner that keeps you guessing. Perfect for fans of Karen McManus. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and couldn’t put it down! Highly recommend. Thank you NetGalley for the early read.

The Last One to Fall is a twisted mystery that will definitely keep you guessing until the very end. It's a quick, fast paced read, but well worth the time. Gabrielle Lepore was a new author to me but wrote an interesting story that kept me rapt and hooked to the page!