The last house on the street book

2010 What had been an exciting chapter in their lives changes into a sad step forward for Kayla Carter when her husband dies while building their dream house in Shadow Ridge Estates, Round Hill, North Carolina. Now Kayla and her four year old daughter are moving into the huge, finished home and Kayla feels dread and sadness rather than the excitement she would have felt if her husband was still alive. What had seemed like a happy place before, now seems closed in by the surrounding woods, too big, too full of memories, even though the place hasn't been lived in yet.

1965 The same location and Ellie is a young college student, ready to tackle the social ills of the time. The SCOPE project needs white volunteers to live with black families to help prepare them and their neighborhoods to get out and vote. Everyone in Ellie's family and community is against Ellie volunteering for this project but Ellie is not to be deterred despite being admonished that her joining the project is destroying her family, the family business, and the community. Ellie follows her heart when doing do isn't allowed and she and those dear to her pay the price.

It's hard when a dual timeline story has a timeline that is much more appealing than the other timeline. I preferred the 1965 timeline to the 2010 timeline and felt jarred whenever we were taken to 2010. Meeting Ellie and other characters from 1965, in 2010, feels anticlimactic and lessens the tension of the events of 1965. What happens in 1965 is heartbreaking so maybe it's best that the later timeline allows me to stand back from the 1965 events, but that earlier timeline is the one that captured my heart. I do love how Chamberlain has taught me so much about past events that I wasn't aware of, in this book, and other books I've read by her.

Publication: January 11, 2022

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

This book is a historical fiction novel. Its about the Scope Project which I never heard of before, and I learned a lot from it. There are dual timelines. The timelines are 2010 and then goes back to 1965.

2010
Kayla is at work and her new administrative assistant comes into her office and tells her that a lady told her that she has an eleven o'clock appointment with her but she is not on her calender. Kayla tells her to send her in her room.
The lady's name is Ann Smith and she looks like she is 65 or 70 with vivid red hair and she is wearing sunglasses and is wearing red lipstick.
Kayla introduces herself and Ann tells her that she wants an addition on her house and wants to add a sunroom. She tells her that she has just lost her husband and wants to make some changes to her house.
Kayla lost her husband, Jackson recently and Ann tells her you understand how it feels to lose your husband. Kayla wonders how this lady knows that she lost her husband. Kayla's husband died falling off the staircase while he was building their new home. Then Anna Smith asks her how she can live in the house that her husband died in. She also tells her that she would not want to move into Shadow Ridge Estates. Its no place for a little girl.
Kayla is shocked! She wonders how this woman knows so much about her and even knew about her daughter Rainey. Then the lady asks her do you know what keeps me up at night. I am thinking about killing someone. Kayla tells her to leave.

1965
This is about The Scope project and its about college students living with black families and they go out canvassing trying to get the blacks to register to vote.

I love this author! I loved all the books that I read by her. I did not know anything about the Scope Project and learned so much from it. I loved the 1965 timeline the best. My favorite characters were Ellie and Win. I loved how Ellie fought for what she believed in even though everyone was against her, including her parents.
I loved the creepiness of the background. This was an emotional read and it punched me right in the gut and tore at my heartstrings.

I want to thank Netgalley, St. Martin's Press and the author for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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A story that will stick with me for a long time.

It’s 2010, and Kayla’s husband dies just before they move into their North Carolina dream home in the gorgeous Shadow Ridge Estates. Kayla and her young daughter proceed with moving in. The house is newly built, and backs into the woods. Kayla is instantly uneasy as she is confronted by an older, mysterious woman telling her she shouldn’t be living there. Kayla doesn’t know what the lady’s deal is.

Then, she meets neighbor Ellie Hockley, a 65-year old who returns to her home after years of staying away. Ellie’s family refused to sell their house to the new home developers, and thus theirs is the only old house on the street. Ellie is initially welcoming, but quickly becomes a bit cold when she learns something about Kayla that brings back painful memories.

Back in 1965, Ellie was a young woman who crusaded for Civil Rights, specifically the right for Black people to vote. What kept her away from home for 45 years? And what does the last house on the street have to do with it?

Told in dual timelines, both equally enthralling, I could not put this down. Diane Chamberlain is one of my favorite authors, and she really knows how to pack an emotional punch. I felt so much while reading this: anger, frustration, heartache. As one can imagine, 1965 in a Southern state does not make for an easy read.

My heart broke at what some of these memorable and highly believable characters went through, and my blood boiled reading about the ignorant and hateful people who put them through it.

As always, Chamberlain writes with sensitivity, but doesn’t shy away from tough topics. She brilliantly ties the past to present and gives care to every character and thread. This is not an easy read, but it is important and still relevant today.

I was crying by the end. I’m tearing up as I write this review and reflect on what I read. I will continue to tear up when I think about this book long after I have read it.

I’ve been writing/editing this review for awhile now, and I’m having a hard time articulating what this story meant to me. Even though my review doesn’t do the book justice, just know that I highly recommend it.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, who kindly provided me with a widget of the ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Expected Publication Date: 1/11/22.

Review also posted at: https://bonkersforthebooks.wordpress.com

In the 1960s, Ellie, a college student at UNC, joins the SCOPE Project, an organization focused on voting rights for African Americans. Being a white woman from a privileged family in the south, Ellie becomes embroiled in controversy. When she develops romantic feelings for a black man, she becomes a target of the Klan.

Shift to 2010, and the reader meets Kayla, a young widow who has just moved into a beautiful house in what was once an uninhabited area. When someone begins leaving threats around her house, Kayla begins investigating, which leads her to uncover secrets about the past, including ones involving her father.

Told in dual timelines, the narrative alternates between the 1960s and 2010. Ellie narrates the 1960s chapters and Kayla in 2010. Ellie’s chapters had depth, whereas Kayla’s chapters were more of a plot device. Kayla’s character wasn’t fully formed, and it took some time for me to warm to Ellie. She has a childish voice (IMHO) that annoyed me, but she eventually grew on me.

The themes center on systemic racism and oppression, but Chamberlain only touches the surface. I would have loved more on the SCOPE Project, more on Wyn and the oppressed vs. Ellie and her family. Instead, this is a story about Ellie and Kayla and righting the wrongs of the past. There are lessons to be learned, but they are wrapped in a white savior narrative.

The Last House on the Street was easy to read. The narrative flows and parts were compelling. I expected to be gutted, and while I was moved, I wasn’t as emotional as I anticipated. I didn't love this book, but I appreciate that it introduced me to the SCOPE project.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review.

I was fourteen years old during the summer of 1964 when I heard the news about three young civil rights workers who were murdered in Mississippi. Andrew Goodman, James Earl Chaney and Michael Schwerner were spending the summer in the South to register Black voters. Their disappearance and tragic end may not have been the first time I’d heard about student civil rights workers, but it was the first time their work had an emotional and intellectual impact on me. The junior high school I attended in Plainfield, New Jersey was well integrated, and I was awakening to the injustices faced by people who looked like my classmates. It was impossible to grow up in Plainfield during that era and be blind to the inequities, even in the North. I was moved by the courage and passion of those young civil rights workers who were willing to face danger to do what they felt was right.
When I reached high school age, I often found myself in the library stacks lost in books and articles about racial injustice. At some point, I stumbled across information on the SCOPE program. The memory of that program stayed with me and inspired Ellie’s story in The Last House on the Street.
Although much of story related to the SCOPE program is based on truth, I took liberties with specific facts related to it. For example, while the program was publicly announced by Hosea Williams in late April, Ellie learns of it a few weeks earlier. The orientation dates, however, are accurate, as is the orientation setting of Morris Brown College in Atlanta. Hosea Williams and Andrew Young were at the orientation and Reverend Young’s conversation with the young female civil rights workers is based on reality. Martin Luther King Jr. did indeed deliver a speech at the orientation.
The most dangerous work in SCOPE took place in the deep south, but I wanted to write about my adopted home state of North Carolina, where SCOPE’s work was limited to the “Black Belt” counties of Martin and Warren. However, since I was creating my own fictional world, I invented Derby County and its various towns so that I was not constrained by real events. It is true that the KKK had a very strong and growing presence in North Carolina in 1965, inspired in great part by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It’s also true that the registrars’ offices in those counties shut their doors prior to the August passage of the Voting Rights Act, which left the SCOPE students having to focus on community work other than actual registration.
How wonderful it would be to be able to say that the Voting Rights Act signed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson in August 1965 put an end to voting discrimination. As President Johnson signed the bill, he stated that the right to vote was “the basic right without which all others are meaningless.” The Voting Rights Act struck down literacy tests and other regulations that blocked the right to vote and also provided federal protection to people as they registered. Most importantly, it required that states known for impeding voting rights had to “pre-clear” any changes to their voting laws with the federal government. In 2013, however, a Supreme Court decision did away with that pre-clearance requirement. As a result, as I write these notes in April 2021, legislators in at least forty-three states are considering over three hundred and fifty bills that will make voting more difficult, particularly for people of color. Several bills have already been signed into law. It’s distressing that politics continue to play such a pivotal role in what should be a basic American right.

Her storytelling has the power to sweep me away, completely. When I get my hands on one of her books, I spin around in circles like Snoopy doing a happy dance. I did that with her latest, The Last House on the Street, but then a weird thing happened. I set it aside and read dozens of others ahead of it. I just NEEDED it to be so good that I was scared to read it.

Fortunately, it is good. Really good. In true Chamberlain fashion, The Last House on the Street is a dual-timeline narrative set in North Carolina. The contemporary story features a young grieving widow, Kayla, piecing together a new life for herself and her daughter, and the historical story focuses on a 20-year-old white woman, Ellie, in 1965 who goes against her family’s wishes to dedicate her time to SCOPE. The Summer Community Organization and Political Education project was a voter registration civil rights initiative conducted in six southern states. The goal was to recruit white college students to help prepare Black Americans for voting and to maintain pressure on Congress to pass what became the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Typically dual-timeline narratives have one treasure and one turd, but I found both women’s stories equally compelling. Kayla and Ellie are likeable and easy to root for, and it was satisfying to see how their lives intertwined at the end.

As for the inclusion of the SCOPE project as a central plot point, I'm happy this aspect of American history has been brought to my attention. Chamberlain just scratches the surface of it by using it as a backdrop for a forbidden interracial relationship though, thus my desire to learn more about the project will send me to nonfiction resources in the future.

So will The Last House on the Street be recalled as one of my favorite Diane Chamberlain novels? No, she’ll be hard pressed to top Necessary Lies and The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes in my eyes. I will always recommend her books to people looking for page turners though, and this is no exception.

I was gifted advance copies for review by St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio. The audiobook features one narrator, Susan Bennett, despite the novel’s dual-timeline/-main character format. Ms. Bennett is a very capable performer though, so it was never difficult to discern any of the who/what/whens of the story. If you prefer the audio format, you won’t go wrong here.

The Last House on the Street is now available.

Blog: https://www.confettibookshelf.com/

I’m back: .....[with basic general details -- but no spoilers -- all the best parts are left out of this review]

There was an instant ease I fell into while reading “The Last House on the Street”. It’s a page turner told in duel time lines. (1965 and 2010).
Both storylines are emotionally powerful and intimate….and blend beautifully together.
Themes cover racial prejudice, interracial relationships, forbidden love, resentments, small town community, love, loss, death, activism, social justice, family, friendships, heartbreak, warmth, and humor. It’s the type of novel that keeps you reading well past midnight.

The dramatic tensions and mystery kept growing to the very end. Its a story that could have ended several different ways…(readers ‘will’ think about this long after the final page). I respect the ‘ending-choice’ that Diane Chamberlain made. It was a wise choice….but it was still a little fun for me to explore alternate endings.

When Ellie Hockley grew up in North Carolina, a Southerner from Round Hill; Derby County, her Aunt Carol, a bold, blunt, activist, left a great impression on her.
Aunt Carol was the only person in the family who seemed to understand Ellie. Or, as Aunt Carol told Ellie, one time, Ellie was the only person who seemed to understand ‘Aunt Carol’”.

The year was 1965. Ellie was twenty years of age. She was home from the University of North Carolina for spring break. Ellie was in a five year pharmacology program. She still had two years more to go.
Everyone was sitting in the living room. Daddy was reading the newspaper. Ellie’s older brother, Buddy,(mechanical genius), was tinkering with some small mechanical part from a car. Mama sat between Ellie and Brenda, (Ellie’s longtime best friend and dorm mate; practically a second daughter to Mama), admiring wedding dresses in a magazine.
Brenda, pregnant, would soon be marrying the love of her life: Garner Cleveland.
Garner’s best friend was Reed Miller.
Reed Miller had been Ellie’s boyfriend for the past four years. Reed was crazy about Ellie…..(wonderful, well-respected, smart, twenty-two year old, successful, handsome man).
Reed graduated early and was working a desk job at a bank. He was going to be the bank manager one day.
Ellie & Reed, and Brenda & Garner spent years double dating.
During this spring break…..Ellie had a ‘moment’….she could suddenly see ‘her’ future …. and it wasn’t at all what she wanted.
Her Aunt Carol, once an army nurse, and a champion of civil rights, was no longer alive…but Ellie wanted to follow more in her Aunt’s ‘fight-for-justice’ footsteps. Ellie had no interest in marriage.

Usually during summer breaks - home from college, Elli worked at the local pharmacy owned by her father. But this summer hundreds of white students from Northern and Western colleges were spending their summer in the Southern states registering Negroes to vote.
The students would canvass door to door, (live with assigned families in the area), and do all they could to get folks registered to vote. The program was called SCOPE, (Summer Community Organization and Political Education project).
Five hundred volunteers were being sent into seventy-five rural counties with the aim of removing racism from American politics.
It was exactly the type of program that Aunt Carol would’ve signed up for to help.
Most white families from lily white Round Hill, didn’t like the idea of crazy white kids from New York, or wherever descending on Derby County.
Nobody in Ellie’s family was an advocate for justice. Neither was Brenda, or Garner. Reed admired Ellie’s humanity - but he didn’t want to be away from Ellie an entire summer.
Being a white Southern girl, wanting to help Black folks vote was not an every day occurrence — it could also be dangerous. Ellie would need to be watchful.
North Carolina had more Ku Klux Klan members than all other states put together. White supremacist terrorist hate groups primarily targeted African-Americans. However, “The thing the Klan hates more than a Negro man is a white person who tries to ‘help’ a Negro”.
Ellie’s, parents, Buddy, Brenda, Reed, ….even Reverend Greg Filbern, from Darville, pastor of a Negro Church,(AME church in Turner’s Bend), in Derby County, on other side of town from Round Hill, tried to discourage Ellie in joining SCOPE.
Ellie joins anyway - determined to make a difference….to be on the right side of human rights.

In the year 2010….
Kayla Carter, an architect, had been designing a dream home for seven years — along with her husband Jackson, who was also an architect.
Jackson died from an accident while building their new home.
Kayla had many reservations about moving forward- moving into the house without her husband. She was still grieving. But she had a three year old daughter: Rainie, to think about….and her father, who lived near by. Kayla and Rainie would move into that large home. Kayla would have her sixty-five year old fit and healthy father nearby. And Rainie would grow up with a Grandfather in her life

The house was spectacular. Large. A contemporary home on four wooded acres.
It had floor to ceiling windows and was considered the best and largest of the lot in the new development (in Shadow Ridge Estates), surrounded by gorgeous thick greenery of trees.
Those woods were filled with Kudzu back in 1965. Children played in those woods. They thought they heard strange noises coming from the Kudzu plants. Those vines are treehuggers—bad for the ecosystems…
it was easy to imagine how kids thought the area was haunted.
Memories don’t die easily ….and even people still living in the area in 2010, thought the area might be haunted. Some tragic history lived in those woods….history that Kayla was unfamiliar with.

These two stories emerge…..
We meet a wonderful extended cast of characters in both time periods.
Diverse students - interesting families - in 1965 - horrific prejudice -
and some very emotional heartache.

We meet interesting neighbors - puzzling neighbors - Kayla was bumping up against mystery and history that she had no prior knowledge of in 2010. Secrets, rather withheld information, doesn’t rise to the surface easily….but when it does….it’s quite emotional.

Wonderful novel. I’ve come to admire and love Diane Chamberlain more and more each time I read her books. I could be friends with this woman. She’s wonderful. She is a best-selling author, having published thirty novels in more than twenty languages.
I say that’s a woman to admire.
Diane Chamberlain is a great gift to many readers for many years!!
Funny, I think the last time I read one of her books… I was going to be a retired reviewer. I failed - I’m still hanging around.

Thank you Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press (a wonderful publishing company with a staff with hearts bigger than the whole wide world),
and a special thanks to Diane Chamberlain.

This book divided into two time zones: 1965 and 2010 and introducing us marvelous two characters: Ellie Hockley and Kayla Carter.

Their stories intercepted at the trophy home in Shadow Ridge Estates , located in Round Hill, North Carolina, a haunted place holding tragic memories.

Kayla and her husband Jackson are both architects, have been designing their dream house for 7 years. But now her husband lost his life while he was building the house and she has to stay strong for her four years old daughter Raine even though she misses him a lot, suffering from grief and she has second thoughts to move to new house which will mean she will start fresh by letting her husband go. Her emotional wounds are still too fresh. They are still bleeding.

But she stays strong and as she takes her first step to the new development along with her daughter and 65 years old father, she gets impressed by the place. It looks amazing , a beautiful place, on four wooded acres, largest lot in Shadow Ridge Estates, surrounded by woods. But some many tragic things happened in the woods that merge two time lines and stories of Kayla and Ellie.

When we go back to 1965, we learn more about Ellie: the lovely neighbor of Kayla, we realize more about how those tragedies occurred, what kind of political, social circumstances created those incidents.

Ellie is twenty, enrolled to 5 years long Pharmacology program, coming home for spring break. She reunites with her best friend Brenda who is expecting and planning to marry with her love of her life Garner.

Ellie is also dating with Garner’s best friend Reed Miller for 4 years. He is handsome, trustworthy, caring 22 years old man, working at the bank, planning to be manager in near future. The four friends are inseparable. But as Ellie witnesses changes of socio-political atmosphere and its effects on their small town, she realizes she doesn’t want to live the life that’s planned for her!

She wants to be part of a program SCOPE for removing racism from American politics by assigning 500 volunteers at the seventy five rural counties. She’s part of conservative family and as a white girl advocating voting rights of colored people can attract the attention of several white supremacist groups including Ku Klux Klan members in NC who are targeting African Americans.

Two time zones are fascinatingly well constructed. Tension is palpable! The big mystery of the story hasn’t been revealed till the end. The sensitive issues including racism, interracial relationship, activism, grief are realistically and objectively approached!

The both story lines picked my interest and make me up all night till my eyes hurt. It was remarkable, unputdownable, powerful, sentimental, thought provoking masterpiece I highly recommend to bookworms which earned my five blazing, intense, heartfelt, family, friendship, inequality stars!

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

Ellie Hockley is a naive 20 year old, “coming of age” during the time when President Lyndon B Johnson is about to sign into law the Voting Rights bill Act, with the aim of registering more black voters and removing racism from American Politics.

She joins a program called SCOPE-Summer Community Organization and Political Education Project, despite protests from her family and friends. Many White Volunteers spent the Summer, living with Black host families so they could canvas their neighborhoods and educate them on the importance of registering to VOTE, and following through with their vote on Election Day.

It’s sad that I grew up in the United States and am just learning about this actual project from a story.

What is even sadder is that 56 years later, we are actually suppressing Voter’s rights, and making it HARDER to vote, instead of easier, and that Racism still exists. 💔

2010

Kayla Carter and her husband, Jackson, both architects, designed their dream home, and built it on a prime lot, nestled in the Woods of the new Shadow Ridge subdivision, on the outskirts of Round Hill in North Carolina. But, Jackson died in an accident prior to its completion, and now Kayla and their 4 year old daughter, Rainie will be moving in without him.

Just prior to moving day, a mysterious older woman named Ann Smith, warns Kayla that she shouldn’t move in, and makes some threatening comments about wanting to kill someone. And, she may not be the only one that doesn’t approve of the last house on the street.

But why?
Who is she?
And, how do these two timelines intersect?

Diane Chamberlain has an engaging writing style, and I always love when a book has me “googling” for more information on a topic. But, I am a bit of an outlier by not finding it to be a 5⭐️ read…….

With the exception of learning about SCOPE, and being reminded about how cruel human beings can be to one another, (KKK) the fictional aspect of the 1965 timeline was MOSTLY predictable. And, I wasn’t SOLD on the motivation behind the “scare tactics” in 2010-the weaker of the two timelines. The threats were not well fleshed out, and it seemed like 2010 was included primarily to bring resolution to the events from 1965.

Still, it is an important and timely read, which would be a great book club selection as it offers much for discussion! 3.75 ⭐️ rounded up!

NOW AVAILABLE!!

Thank You to St. Martin’s Press for my gifted It was my pleasure to offer a candid review!

The Last house on the Street follows two timelines. In 1965, Ellie is trying to fight for what she believes in. She joins the SCOPE project despite the protest of her loved ones, and it changes her life forever. In 2010, Kayla is recently widowed and needing to move into her new house. But her husband died in that house, and now that she’s receiving threats she’s not so sure it was the dream she has expected.

This is the first Diane Chamberlain novel I’ve read but it definitely won’t be my last. I was absolutely riveted by this novel. I didn’t want to have to put it down. It touches on some very difficult and dark subjects in regards to Racism, which some may find difficult to read. It was haunting and chilling but so incredibly important too. I found it really interesting learning about the SCOPE project. But I was also horrified at how this is humanities recent past, and even present in many ways.

I completely fell in love with the character of Ellie. Her pure strength, bravery and kindness is something I have never seen in a novel. I think the reflection of people like Ellie and the other SCOPE volunteers in real life, is what made her so incredible to me. It was a reminder that there are people in this world who are willing to fight for what’s right, no matter the personal consequences. Unfortunately, I didn’t connect in quite the same way with Kayla. I just found her character difficult to sympathize with it times. I think I could have liked her more if she wasn’t having to compete with Ellie in mind. This novel compelled me to keep reading, pulled on all of my heartstrings, taught me so much and touches on some incredibly important lessons!

I recommend this to everyone, but please be cautious if some of the topics in this book may be difficult for you. I want to thank Netgalley, Headline publishers and Diane Chamberlain for allowing me to read this book and give my personal thoughts.

As two architects, Kayla Carter and her husband, Jackson, designed and built their dream home in the exclusive Shadow Ridge Estates in Round Hill, North Carolina. Backing onto woods, as the last house on the street, they had the prime location in the new housing estate and within walking distance of the Hockley’s home that stood for a very long time. Just before the house move, Jackson died in an accident at their new home, leaving Kayla unsure whether she now wanted to move or not. She is torn between the house bringing up terrible memories of Jackson’s death and memories of how passionate they were as they designed the house for each other and their daughter Rainie. Before Kayla moves, a strange woman warns her off moving into the house. Warnings aside, Kayla and Rainie move in and things start happening, leaving Kayla wondering if someone is playing tricks on them or do ghosts from the past have an issue with her house being close to woods that harbour secrets. These issues Kayla discusses with her father, who lives close by, and Ellie Hockley, who has returned to Round Hill for the first time since she left forty-five years ago.

In 1965 a young twenty-year-old Ellie Hockley felt compelled to join the SCOPE project to encourage black voters to register to vote when President Lyndon B Johnson would sign the Voting Rights Act. The SCOPE project was an incredibly ambitious scheme to recruit white college students (typically from Northern states) to live with Southern black families and encourage them to prepare to vote. As one of the only Southern students enrolled in the programme, Ellie faces incredible pressure from her family and friends and breaks off her relationship with long-term boyfriend Reed Miller. The hidden discrimination, even within families, is strikingly drawn in this novel. The incitement to the conflict that typically followed crowd gatherings, like the KKK (or Maga crowd), is startling how it can draw seemingly ordinary people into unconscionable actions.

Contemplating the two timelines illustrated in the novel, we cannot help but consider how much things have changed from 1965 to 2010 and how much they have remained the same. The step forward to racial equality in the US is a torturous one, and reflecting the 1960s onto today’s world shows the open disparity in the treatment of blacks and whites. A story with voter suppression as its central theme and the brutality handed out to prevent blacks voting may not be as brutal today, but it certainly has the same objective, albeit more covertly. Recently there have been excellent books, like “Sing, Unburied Sing”, “The Prophets”, and “The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois” from black writers who convey a perspective and a deep pain that cannot be tapped into by white authors. However, I appreciate how Diane Chamberlain provides the view of white people who have taken up the cause for equality, regardless of race, colour or creed.

I thoroughly enjoy reading a book that, on its face, is a fascinating story with drama, suspense and mystery, but layered on top of historical events that educate and inform. Diane Chamberlain is building a reputation as an author that can uniquely deliver this with the right balance between storytelling and fact. The more intriguing timeline is 1965 with the dangerous situation Ellie encounters; although there are moments, I had difficulty accepting the choices made. The 2010 timeline with Kayla seems to be of secondary concern and mainly used to tie up several mysteries from the past without a strong theme of its own.

I enjoy Diane Chamberlain’s writing and her desire to share her perspective on racial discrimination in the US. I would recommend reading this book, and I want to thank St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing a free ARC in return for an honest review.

Diane Chamberlain is one of my favourite authors. I'm always excited when she has a new book out. I've read many of her books and she is a powerful writer.

In saying that I was a little disappointed with the start of the book (well the first chapter starts off rather intriguing...but then I found it to run pretty slow right up until the 50% mark.) The first half of the book was a definite 3 stars for me. The second half took off and I'm grading that part a full 4 stars. Hence my rating for the full story averages out to a 3.5 stars.

It's a dual timeline that alternates between 1965 and Ellie's story and 2010 and Kayla's story. The 1965 story was the highlight for me. It involved the civil rights movement, bigotry and the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina. It was a very emotional story that enraged and saddened me. Kayla's story tied in nicely at the end but I was not as invested in it.

For the most part I enjoyed it although IMHO this is not Diane Chamberlain at her best. With an extraordinary catalogue like hers it's understanding that she will have the occasional mediocre one. I will still read any book by her in a heartbeat.

I'd like to Kindly thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for granting me access to this Advanced Reader Copy.

Two women, two tragedies, a chance encounter and worlds collide!

1965

Ellie Hockley is a young woman who wants to stand by her convictions. She wants to do what is right. She applies to take part in the Scope project, trying to get people to register to vote. She will be living with black families, while she and her fellow volunteers try to get them to sign up and vote. It's not an easy feat. The Klan is not happy. They are burning crosses and doing worse, much worse. There are those in Ellie's life who are angry at her involvement, they do not like her decision and her involvement in Scope is affecting their lives.

2010

Kayla Carter's husband has died in an accident while building their dream home. Now she is a raising their four-year-old daughter alone. She has been told not to move in. In addition, strange things have been happening, dead animals are being left behind. When Kyla meets Ellie who has come back to town after being gone for 45 years, she begins to learn more about her neighbor, her father, and the land around her home.

I enjoyed how the dual timelines were told and how they intersected. Usually, while reading dual timelines, I tend to like one more than the other, but I have to say that I enjoyed both equally. I enjoyed how the timelines intersected and how the central mystery would unfold.

I was not disappointed. This was a well written and perfectly plotted book. I love a book that not only entertains me but educates and moves me as well. This book fit the bill. I was not aware of the
Scope Project or its purpose.

Diane Chamberlain never disappoints!

Riveting, well written and thought provoking.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Read more of my reviews at www.openbookposts.com

Told in two timelines, this historical mystery focuses on the 1960’s voters registration civil rights initiative in the southern states. The Summer Community Organization And Political Education (SCOPE) Project was a movement where young White men and women canvassed door to door in rural Black counties encouraging the citizens to register to vote. Though voting was legal for all citizens, law makers and enforcers in these southern states did everything they could to make it difficult and often impossible for Blacks to vote.

An informative look at this important time in our history. I recognize and appreciate all the research that would have went into creating this story. Learning about SCOPE was fascinating. The dedication of these members was inspiring and hopeful, especially coming from such a dark and difficult time where it was a constant challenge and often dangerous to move forward and try to make change.

The author does an excellent job educating her readers on this important civil rights movement, however, I had no connection to the characters. I appreciate this for being an educational read only. The mystery, the storyline, the characters — none of it worked for me which is very unusual for this author. While the plot involved very important subject matter, it was not conveyed in a convincing manner. I had zero connection to the main character in either timeline which prevented me from feeling any sort of investment.

The Past timeline ending is intense, but I wasn’t emotionally involved so it lacked the powerful punch it should have had. The Present Day storyline was dull and predictable.

Overall, this was and informative and educational read, but not an entertaining or enjoyable one. I am a big fan of this author and would rank this book my least favourite of hers. I encourage you to pick up any of this authors other work before this one, however, I am the outlier in my opinion as many have loved it.

Thank you St Martin’s Press for the digital review copy!

Another deeply moving and meaningful book from Diane Chamberlain.

This is a dual timeline novel. It alternates between Kayla in 2010, a young widow who has just moved into a house with her four-year-old daughter that she and her late husband had designed. While at work one day, a woman comes into her office and knows far too much information about Kayla and her property and warns Kayla away from living there among other dire proclamations. The second timeline is 1965, where Ellie is a college student. She learns about the SCOPE project (Summer Community Organization and Political Education) whose main purpose is to help Black people register to vote. Ellie is passionate about joining the cause, much to the dismay of her parents and her close friends. Despite their ardent disapproval, Ellie becomes firmly committed to the mission of the group and becomes close friends with Win, a young Black man she is assigned to canvass with. In 2010, Kayla becomes acquainted with Ellie, who has just returned to town to care for her ailing mother and brother. The two timelines will intersect in ways no one can imagine.

I became completely captivated by the narrative from the beginning. I was incredibly curious as to the identity of this mystery woman trying to warn Kayla away and what her motive might be. I was caught up in learning about the tremendous obstacles in place to keep Black citizens from registering to vote. Even the white college students' lives were in danger for helping the cause. The fact that this occurred within the lifetime of many people alive today is astounding to me, and it makes this fictional account all the more important for the education of readers about bigotry and deeply held prejudice.

I was in tears by the end, as the 1965 timeline drew to a close. The 2010 storyline was definitely the weaker of the two, as Kayla is not as developed and well-drawn as Ellie. I never really felt her fear or her loss like I did that of Ellie.

I both listened to the audiobook narrated by Susan Bennett and read a print copy. Bennett does an amazing job with her narration. I love alternating between the two formats because it means I can always be reading regardless of what I'm doing at the moment.

Regardless, this is a wonderfully written book. Fans of Diane Chamberlain and those who have never read her books before should definitely pick it up when released in January 2022.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.

Moving, thought-provoking, and soul-stirring...with just a hint of mystery!

Diane Chamberlain has a gift for intertwining the past neatly with the present, and in The Lase House on the Street, she explores the idea that the more things have changed, the more they have unfortunately stayed the same.

It's 2010 and Kayla is recovering from the loss of her husband in a tragic accident. The two were architects, and Kayla arrives at the home they were supposed to share together with young daughter Rainie, ready to embark on the crusade of single parenthood. Her neighbors seem a bit hesitant to have her move in, however, and one woman in particular warns her that moving in could be dangerous. Another resident, Ellie, welcomes Kayla with open arms and offers her tea and yoga sessions...although it's clear her past is far from buried and there are secrets just WAITING to be uncovered...

We then jump back to 1965 in North Carolina, where Ellie has an opportunity to step outside of her personal comfort zone and across the lines drawn between the North and South. Her best friend Brenda is pregnant with boyfriend Garner's baby and is ready to settle into domestic bliss, but Ellie is searching for a higher cause, and finds it through SCOPE, an organization comprised mostly of Northerners who are waiting on President LBJ to pass the Voting Rights Act, and are encouraging black Americans to register to vote as soon as they are able. Ellie's parents and brother are of course adamantly opposed to her participation, but Ellie hears the voice of her progressive Aunt Carol in her mind and can't miss the opportunity to expand her horizons and hopefully inspire positive change. When she meets her fellow crusaders and begins to bond with them, however, she forms a connection that will change everything. As she learns to duck when a truck goes by, to hide in the shadows, and gets a firsthand look at the ugliness of hate groups such as the KKK...and for the first time, she is forced to reevaluate her life, what she has, and what she's willing to risk to follow her heart's desires.. Will her summer with SCOPE change her life forever? Can she protect those she loves, or can a force stronger than sheer will tear her whole world to pieces?

Chamberlain has chosen an interesting time to explore the issues present in this book, as voting rights have been thrust into the national spotlight yet again with our most recent presidential election. The fact that we are still lamenting a broken system while so many of us feel powerless to change it speaks to just how devastating it is to so many Americans. My only frustration with Chamberlain in this novel is that the SCOPE group (which I had never heard of until reading this book, sadly!) fell into a bit of the 'white savior' narrative and felt at times a bit stereotypical. Ellie is praised again and again for how 'good' and virtuous she is by different characters, and it felt a little inauthentic at times. I know standing for these causes at the time (especially in the deep South) was a statement in and of itself, but the adulations did feel a bit redundant to me after a while.

I also think there is something problematic with presenting racism (in today's more informed world) as solely 'belonging' to outright hate groups like the KKK. A deepening conversation across the country points to the INSTITUTION of racism, which is a systemic problem, rather than simple bigotry, and unfortunately is upheld in so many different areas, from gentrification of cities to gerrymandering...which again, hinders voting rights. In this respect, I applaud Chamberlain for focusing on voting rights in the narrative, I just wish there was more of a balanced perspective from ALL of the characters.

All of that being said, there is a lot of heart and food for thought in this narrative and a bit of mystery to keep you guessing until the end. The tragic ending might be a bit predictable in some regards, but the resolution felt fitting. Fans of Picoult (and obviously Chamberlain) will enjoy the balance in this one between what has been and what can be, and I appreciate Chamberlain's willingness to explore this time period and hopefully someday, her 2010 timeline will feel as 'in the past' as the initial civil rights push of the 60's...but until then, as Ellie and her compatriots sang:

The truth will make us free, the truth will make us free,
The truth will make us free someday.
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe,
We shall overcome someday.

We’ll walk hand in hand, we’ll walk hand in hand,
We’ll walk hand in hand someday.
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe,
We shall overcome someday.

4 stars

Deception comes in all sizes. Some from the little lies we tell ourselves to make us feel like we're standing on more solid surfaces. Some lies erupt after being marinated over decades and passed on from generation to generation. These are the ones that sink beneath the surface and decay holier ground.

Diane Chamberlain presents a split storyline that pivots from 1965 and lands on happenings in 2010. It settles itself near Greenville, North Carolina with a base located in the small community of Round Hill. Believe me. Prepare yourself to be tussled in both directions.

In more present days, Kayla Carter is a successful architect who is bogged under the weight of moving into her dream house in Round Hill. She and her husband, Jackson, designed and carried out the plans to the nth degree on this jaw-dropping property. But Jackson won't be guiding the moving van in front of this luxurious piece of real estate. Jackson died in a freak accident on the top floor. Kayla is torn as to the rationale for still residing in that house with its sad memory. But she justifies it with the hard work put into it by Jackson himself. She and her three year old daughter, Rainie, eventually move in with the support of her father, Reed.

Chamberlain adds a thread of mystery when a red-haired woman with reflective sunglasses visits Kayla at her office. Ann Smith seems to threaten Kayla if she intends on residing in that house. But within moments, this strange woman flits out of the office leaving Kayla with more questions than answers.

We now take a step back in time to 1965 during the Civil Rights Movement. We have the honorable Freedom Riders and those who worked diligently to secure the voting rights of the Black community in the deep South. There were an array of individuals who came from the North with a multitude of intentions varying from strong intent to mild curiosity. Some made successful inroads while others merely disrupted and endangered the lives of these families who opened their homes to them. It's still a heavy moment of deep reflection.

And here is where we are introduced to Ellie Hockley, a student attending the University of North Carolina. Ellie has a strong desire to become part of the SCOPE Project working in the Black community. But Ellie's naivete will draw the walls in closer and eventually bring the house down. Ellie will become the bridge between these two time periods in this novel.

The Last House On the Street had a remarkable opportunity to stick solo with the 1965 storyline. The 2010 thread added present day tension and mystery and served as a connecting point. Although a fictional work, this novel had a thunderous avenue to gear readers into the lead up to the Voting Rights Act that LBJ insisted on treading water for far too long. Through the characters of Ellie and Win and the community at large, we would have had a vehicle of more profound understanding. But it's still a top-shelf, eye-opening read.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to St. Martin's Press and to the talented Diane Chamberlain for the opportunity.

Diane Chamberlain, one of my go-to authors, has done it again. With The Last House on the Street, she has crafted another intriguing family drama laced with mystery and set in an important historical era. This fast-paced read held my interest all the way, and I read it in record time (for me).

The story is primarily set in North Carolina in dual timelines. Our protagonists are Ellie during 1965 and her boyfriend Reed’s daughter Kayla in 2010. Both women are highly likable and well-developed, and I connected easily with both. Ellie has a keen interest in civil rights. In 1965, as a 20-year-old, she joins a group whose mission is to canvass Black neighborhoods encouraging the people to register to vote. In 2010 Kayla has just moved into her self-designed dream house with her young daughter after the untimely death of her young husband. The house is the last house on the street that Ellie grew up on. There is something unsettling about Kayla’s new home and the woods it abuts. They seem to be haunted. I was equally interested in both threads throughout most of the novel though the 1965 tale grabbed me more towards the end. Of interest, many of the same characters take part in both timelines.

Several mysterious happenings are weaved together to make this a compelling read. Ms. Chamberlain even throws in yet another mystery at 91%. I was unable to guess the outcome of anything until everything was revealed in the closing chapters. The story is full of family strife, suspense, and traumatic events. Themes include rascism, hatred, tragedy, betrayal, friendship, love, healing, and hope.

I must admit my knowledge base has a big gap when it comes to the civil rights struggles back in the 1960s. Ms. Chamberlain clearly did her research as she wrote the 1965 timeline showing us up close what those civil rights efforts were like. Things were very harrowing for the volunteers as well as for the southern Black population. I soaked up the knowledge like a sponge and learned a lot. This is a trademark of the Chamberlain books I have read. She always has as background an intriguing well-researched historical aspect that I never fail to learn from.

This book has a lot of heart and a hopeful ending. I highly recommend it to everyone.

I want to thank Net Galley, Ms. Erica Martirano of St. Martins Press, and Ms. Diane Chamberlain for an advanced copy of the book. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.

Moving into a new neighborhood can be a tricky thing when someone doesn’t want you to.

It’s 2010 and Kayla had a mysterious woman come unannounced to her office warning her off moving into her new house. A modern masterpiece SHE designed to her specifications. Why would she not want to live there?

Well, let’s see.

To do that, we have to go back to 1965 and explore Ellie’s family and a program called SCOPE. Ellie has developed a passion for community service and decides that she’s joining a volunteer group to sign up Black voters in rural areas. It’s a different time and she’s taking a stand for equality.

These two stories are connected but I don’t want to say more as the discovery was eye opening and you will want to experience it for yourself. A heartfelt book full of longing for a better world, I was taken with the subject matter and the dedication of the characters. In particular, it was fun to read about this period in the sixties which I remember, but was too young to participate in - beyond being a kid.

I can’t believe that I’ve never read this author before!

Thank you to NetGalley, Diane Chamberlain, and St. Martin’s Press for my electronic review copy set to publish on January 11, 2022

In 2010, Kayla Carter and young daughter Rainie are about to move into a newly built property in Round Hill, North Carolina. It’s a house that already has devastating tragedy associated with it as her husband Jackson suffers a fatal fall whilst working there. When malicious and threatening ‘Ann Smith’ visits her she makes Kayla feel even more fearful of moving in than she already is as it seems there is resentment of the building of properties on that particular part of Round Hill.

In 1965 twenty year old Ellie Hockley ,also from Round Hill, takes the decision to join the SCOPE project (Summer Community Organization and Political Education) where white volunteers live with black families and visit others in the vicinity to encourage them to register to vote once LBJ signs the Voting Rights Bill. Two storylines- how do they connect?

First of all, I’ve read quite a lot about the civil rights movement but didn’t know about Scope so I’m really glad to have learned something ‘new’. The novel starts well and I think the 1965 storyline is very good although apart from Scope it doesn’t tell you anything you don’t already know about the situation in the 1960’s. However, this part of the story is written extremely well and it’s very compelling and absorbing. Ellie is very likeable, her motives are good, she’s brave and she has to be as she faces tremendous opposition from family and friends. Her mother, Miss Pat, is something else although several characters hold views that are utterly appalling. As the storyline progresses we learn more about her reasons for volunteering as she confesses all to Win, a fellow volunteer who is one of the stand out characters of the book. These sections are full of danger, it’s creepy, chilling, tense, full of sickening bigotry and physical threats. The narrative takes you on an emotional rollercoaster and makes you feel a whole range of feelings from shock to anger, to wanting to weep with frustration and sheer sadness. Ellie’s story for me is what carries the book and keeps me reading on.

However, I don’t feel the same about Kayla’s story I’m sorry to say. I don’t feel the creep, it doesn’t jump out at the pages and speak to me. Saying something is creepy is not the same as making a reader feel it. I’m not at all convinced by the scare tactics of 2010 as they feel contrived and directed at the wrong person in particular the actions of the Ann Smith character don’t feel plausible. Some of what happens in this timeline becomes predictable, there isn’t much surprise when all the dots are joined and then it’s all sown up too neatly after all that build up. To be honest, I’d have preferred the book without Kayla's story as the same thing could have been achieved by focusing on Ellie in the same date.

Overall, though because the 1965 storyline is a very powerful one that carries the day and is the reason for my four star rating.

With thanks to NetGalley and Headline/Headline Review for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

I enjoy Diane Chamberlain Novels when I want to escape to the past. Her grasp on characters and events from the past really draw the reader in and in doing so we gain a little insight in a time of heartbreak and terror. It’s historical fiction and yet it encourages me to explore non fiction books on the events mentioned and that is why I enjoy reading historical fiction. The Last House on the Street is a story set in two timelines which I really enjoy when done well and I think the author has mastered this quite beautifully here.

1965. A young white female student becomes involved in the fight for civil rights in North Carolina, falling in love with one of her fellow activists, a Black man, in a time and place where an interracial relationship must be hidden from family, friends and especially the reemerging Ku Klux Klan. As tensions rise in the town, she realises not everyone is who they appear to be.

2020. A recently widowed architect moves into the home she and her late husband designed, heartbroken that he will never cross the threshold. But when disturbing things begin to happen, it's clear that someone is sending her a warning. Who is trying to frighten her away, and why?
Past and present are set to collide in the last house on the street . .

This was quite an emotional read but a very satisfying one. I listened to this one on Audible and the narrator was excellent, I just wish I had a hard copy for my real life book shelf. 😉

The Last House on the Street is set in Round Hill, NC. It has two timelines. The first one is in 1965 and the second one in 2010.

In 1965, Ellie Hockley is a college student at UNC when she gets involved in the Civil Rights movement. Ellie decides to join the SCOPE project to make a difference. The program entails having white people motivate black people to vote.

By joining SCOPE, Ellie alienates her family, her friends, and worse she becomes someone the Klan is interested in. Ellie doesn't care about any of that after she starts visiting the homes of black people and learning about the importance of them voting to get the help they need like new roads, electricity, etc.

In 2010, Ellie is returns to North Carolina for the first time in over four decades. Ellie is back to take care of her dying brother and her elderly mother too.

In this same timeline, we also meet Kayla. Kayla Carter is an architect. She is also a recent widow. Her husband was an architect too and he died in an accident in her new home located in Shadow Ridge Estates.

Kayla has mixed feelings about the new home. On the one hand, the house was the dream that she and her husband created. On the second hand, she doesn't feel safe living there when weird things begin to happen.

There are so many questions...

What happened to Ellie in 1965? What is the connection between Ellie and Kayla? And why is someone threatening Kayla and her daughter?

The Last House on the Street was quite an interesting, compelling and engaging novel. I was fearful for Ellie and Wyn from the very beginning. I was also trying to guess what happened and fearing the worst. For me, hands down, the 1965 timeline was much more addicting than the contemporary one.

Why not a 5? I just didn't quite believe the big revelation at the end.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by St. Martin's Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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About the book: “From bestselling author Diane Chamberlain comes an irresistible new novel that perfectly interweaves history, mystery, and social justice.

When Kayla Carter's husband dies in an accident while building their dream house, she knows she has to stay strong for their four-year-old daughter.

Kayla's elderly new neighbor, Ellie Hockley, is more welcoming, but it's clear she, too, has secrets that stretch back almost fifty years. Is Ellie on a quest to right the wrongs of the past? And does the house at the end of the street hold the key? Told in dual time periods, The Last House on the Street is a novel of shocking prejudice and violence, forbidden love, the search for justice, and the tangled vines of two families.”

The timelines for this story are 2010 and 1965. Centered around the Scope Project, an initiative to increase voter registration in southern Black communities in the 1960s. It’s an emotional story of racism, the battle for civil rights, despicable and horrifying actions by those in power. It’s also a story about family.

Ellie is such a well-drawn, complex character full of heart. You just have to meet her. I enjoyed her story most, and I love how it was revisited through the present day.

The Last House on the Street is quintessential Diane Chamberlain: a well-written story highlighting a shameful but hopeful time in history, a thought-provoking rendering. It serves as a good reminder that civil rights are still in the foreground today, and the work is not over.

I received a gifted copy.

Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader

Chamberlain sets “The Last House on the Street” in dual timelines; in 1965 Ellie Hockley is home on spring break from University of North Carolina when she learns that university students from the north are spending their summer in the south to educate blacks on the importance of voting. Ellie is from an affluent family, one that expects their daughter to marry and become a wife and mother. The 1965 timeline encompasses Ellie’s summer when she defied her parents and did volunteer work for the SCOPE program.

The other timeline is 2010 where Kayla Carter is moving into a new home, designed by her and her architect husband. Her husband died in an accident working on the house; Kayla is moving in with her three-year-old daughter. Kayla’s father lives in town and helps Kayla as she struggles to create a new life in her dream home.

The women are tied together because they live on the same street. Prior to Kayla’s home being built, it was just the Hockley home on the street. Now, a new subdivision is going in, and Kayla’s is the first house. Strange things happen to Kayla before she moves in. A suspicious woman with red hair and reflecting sunglasses warns Kayla NOT to move in. There are rumors that the woods abutting her property are haunted and known to be a KKK meeting place.

The best parts of the novel are Ellie’s chapters. Chamberlain researched what that summer was like for those students who were placed in the deep south, attempting to educate the black community. As I read, I had forgotten how afraid the black community was of white people. They didn’t want to vote for fear of losing whatever menial job they had. They were fearful of retribution. The fear that the students endured is frightening. The dropout rate was high.

Kayla’s chapters build suspense. Kayla tries to unravel what is the basis of the rumors surrounding her property. It appears that there is someone(s) who doesn’t want her to use her property.

As in Chamberlain fashion, she builds suspense as the story unfolds. The last third of the novel is a busy page-turning activity. The historical-fiction portion about the SCOPE program is superb.

Diane Chamberlain grabbed my attention right from the start while creating some intriguing suspense around a hostile mysterious woman who comes to warn Kayla about her dream home. Located in the small town of Round Hill, North Carolina, it is the last house on a street that has only one other house on it. The story has Chamberlains' classic conflict elements with complicated dynamics while weaving together two timelines; however, some parts of the story felt more convenient rather than complex.

I loved the backdrop to the story that focused on the civil rights movement and the summer program SCOPE that mainly recruited white, Northern college students to prepare Black Southerners for voting. However, the story gets lost in the weeds with all the telling of what is happening around the characters day to day life. So much time is spent on Ellie's struggles to convince everyone to allow her to join the movement, it slowed down the story for me. What starts as Ellie fighting the good fight drags on losing stream and turning more into her selfish fight. Her character becomes more of a "white saviour," and it was hard to sympathize with her sacrifices. And we were told a few times what those sacrifices were through her storyline.

I enjoyed how the two timelines merged, building tension right up to the explosive conclusion. However, the journey to get to that exciting ending was a slow one.

I received a copy from the publisher