I normally like psychological thrillers about amnesiacs but this one did not quite hit the mark. It rambled a bit with unnecessary details of every day and had a lot of characters woven in. The premise was interesting and the details about memory were good to a point. It had a surprising twist and everything was tied up in the end. It just wasn't suspenseful enough for me. The main character is the epitome of the unreliable narrator. She shows up at a house that she claims to have lived in and indeed she knows its complete layout, but she has no idea what her name is or any other detail from her past. Tony, the owner of the house, is obsessed with memory, having lost his father to early Alzheimer's. He tells her she looks like a Jemma, with a J. How does he arrive at that name? Does he recognize her? From here we examine her every move for the next several days though it felt like much more time was passing. The detail here and the different characters' story lines cause the book to bog down a little here. With the twist in the book it becomes a book about revenge and moves a little faster. I did enjoy this book. I just didn't quite love it. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy for review. ( )

This book was just okay for me. It is most likely me not enjoying books about people with amnesia. I think that a lot of people will enjoy this book. I liked the writing style of the author and will certainly try reading more of his work.
Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an advanced copy of this book for my honest review. ( )

This book was just okay for me. It is most likely me not enjoying books about people with amnesia. I think that a lot of people will enjoy this book. I liked the writing style of the author and will certainly try reading more of his work. ( )

The Last Thing She Remembers by J.S. Monroe is a highly recommended novel of suspense.

A woman arrives at the cottage of Laura and Tony Masters in a Wiltshire village. She has just flown in from Berlin, realized her bag was stolen, and then couldn't remember her name or any details about her life. All she had was her train ticket home. She is sure that she used to live in Laura and Tony's home. The couple take pity on her and allow her to stay in their guest room. Tony declares that she looks like a "Jemma" while Laura calls a local doctor to set up an appointment. Unknown to Laura, there was a Jemma Huish who used to live in their current home. Twelve years ago that Jemma murdered her friend. She was locked up but then released from the psychiatric facility and no one knows where she is at. While locals in the village try to figure out who the woman is, the underlying question is: Could mysterious no-name-Jemma be the killer?

The Last Thing She Remembers is an entertaining psychological novel of suspense with several plot twists. You do have to suspend disbelief several times during the narrative. (Right at the start, when "Jemma" shows up at their door, who in their right mind would then invite this stranger to stay with them?) The good news is that there are enough shifts and twists to keep you guessing if you just make a conscious choice to set disbelief aside and go with the flow of the narrative. While the amnesia plot point makes character development less important than the plot and the action, the twists make up for the lack of initial character development.

The focus of the writing and the narrative is the plot and the many twists and secrets that will eventually come to light. This is a novel that is written for entertainment and it does deliver on that point. Monroe does add several different story lines within the main narrative that add to the intrigue. The Last Thing She Remembers is a perfect airplane book. It will hold your attention and entertain you, but you won't cry if you lose it or misplace it. (3.5 rounded up)

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Park Row Books.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2019/05/the-last-thing-she-remembers.html ( )

The Last Thing She Remembers is an exciting suspense thriller that rockets from character to character, taking the unreliable narrator trope up a notch or two. A woman takes a train to Willshire, an English village, and goes to a house, knocking on the door, claiming she lives there and that she does not remember her name. She really does not remember anything of her life, worse each new day is a clean slate requiring her to keep notes from day to day so she can remind herself what happened.

The homeowners are Tony and Laura. At first Laura is welcoming, but when Tony suggests the stranger looks like a Jemma and the local doctor wonders if she could be Jemma Huish who used to live in that house, Laura wants nothing to do with her. For good reason! Jemma Huish is infamous for repeatedly calling to warn she feared she would kill someone before she slit her roommate’s throat. The antipathy that should have been directed at the mental health system that left her out to dry was instead directed at her and the suggestion this young woman could be her stoked village fears.

Irresponsible police and dire public warnings but the newly minted Jemma on the run, seeking help from Tony whose own fears of hereditary Alzheimers makes him fascinated by memory and memory loss, thus fascinated by Jemma. But is she a murderer? Is she Jemma Huish and if she’s not, why did she come to Willshire? To add to the confusion, another local thinks she might be his daughter, a daughter he never knew he had. Still another local speculates she is a Russian mole.

There is plenty of misdirection in The Last Thing She Remembers and all of it is perfectly fair. Because it is so fair, we perhaps begin to discern the outlines of a scheme at play. Or more accurately, more than one scheme. The plot never stops adding to the tension, propelling the reader forward and compelling us to keep reading without stop. No sleep for you! It all hangs together and people act as you might expect them to act. It was a good, strong mystery. It is weakened however, by too much epilogue, too much wrapping up the loose ends and telling us what happened. The plot was ingenious so long as it was not reviewed in retrospect. Trust us readers to understand the story without tying up everything in a neat package with a epilogue bow on top.

The Last Thing She Remembers will be released May 28th. I received an e-galley for review from the publisher through NetGalley.

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2019/05/19/9780778307822/ ( )