Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this Arc in exchange for an honest review.

I read this book in one sitting, so don’t read it expecting it to last a long time as I can assure you once you are invested you won’t be able to put it down.

Would 100% recommend this book to anyone who loves a good romance novel however some kind of trigger warning may be needed as there is a strong element of trauma from the very beginning so may not be suitable for everyone.

The story begins on a train ride home, where Abbie and Tom cross paths. Their eyes meet, sparking a connection that neither can deny.

However, their encounter is just the beginning of a journey filled with unexpected events. A life-changing incident soon unfolds, bringing them together while also tearing them apart. The novel unfolds over seven years, exploring the impact of that first crucial meeting on Abbie and Tom's lives.

As they navigate the challenges and changes that life throws their way, the story delves into the possibility of finding one's way back to a lost connection.

I loved every word of this. I was immersed in its world, characters and story.

Really enjoyed this - the first 20% took me a little time to get into, but I whipped through the last 80% in about 24 hours.
I really liked Abbie and Tom as characters, although I’d have liked a bit more complexity with their partners - Sean and Samantha were a bit easy to just paint as “villains” when relationships are rarely that simple.

I really enjoyed it though!

This was such a beautiful, lovely, amazing book! I love a book which is really character-led, with such fabulously developed characters that they feel real and like you’ve genuinely got to know some real human beings! I don’t know how authors manage to do it, and probably not that many actually do, but Elle Cook certainly does!

Which is not to say that there’s no story here, there truly is, but it was very largely about the two main characters – Abbie and Tom – and the unfolding of their lives over the course of five years, from 2005 to 2010 (and a little glimpse beyond).

Starting in 2005, Abbie and Tom first meet on the tube, travelling home after a night out. A big event happens that binds them together. What happens next… is a lot! Told from each of their points of view, we follow their lives from that moment forwards. Sometimes they are connected, sometimes they’re not. But things only seem to make sense when they’re together.

Oh, I went through all of the emotions with Abbie and Tom, throughout their good and bad times. I cried with them, and yelled at them not to make certain decisions! And I just loved them, and I loved how the story finished. I think I even miss them a bit!

Just wonderful. And I can’t wait to read more from Elle Cook, once my heart has recovered enough to meet some more of her characters! And if The Last Train Home isn’t made into a movie then it’ll be an absolute travesty, because it would be absolute perfection!

I loved The Man I Never Met and knew I would love this book. Elle Cook is a master at the Will they/Won't They and really ratchets up the emotions. It was well timed, with a number of key plot points perfectly added in for extra heartache.

Thank you Netgallery for the ARC!

Abbie meets Tom under terrible circumstances and although they would not normally move in the same circles their paths keep crossing. The path of true love does not run smoothly and they very much are the right person for each other but at the wrong time. Will the thing that brought them together keep them apart?
I enjoyed this book. I've read another book by Elle Cook and the themes of timing in love were very similar. I would certainly read this author again.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was exactly how I imagined it would be, an amazing read. After reading Elle's 1st novel, The Man I Never knew and loved it I had high hopes for this one and it didn't disappoint. I loved the characters of Abbie and Tom and there many will they won't they moments. I loved the back drop of London and thought it was beautifully written.

The Last Train Home was such a fun, interesting read, I managed to finish it in just over a day!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In 2005, Abbie and Tom meet on the tube home, and they start chatting. Until the train derails and Tom literally saves Abbies life. The pair begin a fast and intense friendship until one night that changes everything.

Fast forward a few years and Abbie and Tom are no longer friends, living 1000s of miles apart and lives they would never have imagined back in 2005. Until a chance meet brings them back into each others lives. Will they be able to build their friendship back up to what it once was?

This book was so heartbreaking and it just made me want to shake both Abbie and Tom. They are both such genuine characters it makes you want to be friends with them. I really loved the whole premise for the book and would highly recommend!

Thank you Elle Cook, Netgalley and Penguin for this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. The Last Train Home comes out on October 5th!

A Fateful five-star read. What if you had a moment that would change your life forever, sometimes it takes a moment and sometimes it takes years. My goodness the nostalgia I felt reading this one, just blew me away, I adored the story and the characters. Tom and Abbey will make you smile, they will sometimes annoy the bones out of you, but that’s more the way they interact with others, but do you know what in the end, you will just adore their Tom and Abbeys stories, they will suck you in and enthral you with the story. There is something about their crazy meet cute, it really shouldn’t work, as its such a powerful moment, but its so beautifully done, the time taken to tell the story, it all works so well together, Elle Cook is just a great writer.

Possibly one of my favourite books of 2023 (its so hard to choose) It’s a romance, it has suspense, it’s unputdownable and I’ll definitely be buying copies as presents.

This was such an adorable love story 🥰 I completely fell in love with Tom from the beginning and it only grew as the story progressed. It’s a story of the right person, wrong time and although there were times when I wanted to smack them across the head for being so oblivious, I really enjoyed their journey. AND that ending!!!!!

This is my second book from Elle Cook and I absolutely love her writing. If you’re a fan of Emily Henry then you need to read her work.

This book has
🌺 Strangers to friends to lovers
🌺 Right person, wrong time
🌺 Angst (the best kind)
🌺 Cute romance

#TheLastTrainHome #NetGalley #ElleCook
#5star-read

WOW!! Just WOW!!

I was excited to be accepted as an ARC reviewer for The Last Train Home by Elle Cook. I have not read any of her books and in all honesty, the book cover and the blurb dragged me in. I had no idea what to expect.

This book was amazing, it was quite the roller coaster with very unexpected twist and turns. If I wasnt reading the book, I was thinking about this book and wishing I was reading it. I did not want to put this book down at all.

Aside from such an incredible and emotional journey, my favourite thing about this book was how real the characters were. They were flawed, they were people that we instantly feel that we know. We can see parts of ourselves in these characters. I also loved that it was based in the 2000's and I remember these events. The author writes these events and the impact of these events very well.

This books takes place over time. It is very heartfelt and at times, you want to cry and shake the characters. You feel their pain and their love, but you also feel their internal conflict. You hurt because of the decisions that they make, but strangely you are also very proud of them for doing it.

Do yourself a favour and mark your calendars for this release!!!

Oh this book…
It had everything in it that I did realise I wanted. I read it very slowly due to being busy but could so easily have binged in a very short time. My tiniest criticism is that I wanted to get more romance to enjoy it fully but I completely loved the story of Abbie and Tom

The Last Train Home is the second novel for Elle Cook (although readers may know her historical fiction offerings under Lorna Cook as well). I really loved her debut novel and was delighted to be asked to read and review this one.

Two strangers exchange some flirty banter after a night out while riding the tube home. However, tragedy strikes when the train is derailed and Abbie and Tom find themselves thrown together (literally and figuratively) as they process the trauma that they both go through. They are attracted to each other but is this a good basis for a relationship - or will life and all its messy business get in the way.

The story follows little twists and turns which are hugely enjoyable and I loved the setting in London in the early 2000s as I also lived there at that time. Tom and Abbie keep surfacing in each other's lives - I won't give away the ending - but the fast pace of the novel and the totally relatable characters kept me reading and I devoured the book in less than 2 days! Another fabulous romance from Elle Cook - can't wait for the next one.

Many thanks to the publishers and netgalley for an advance release copy in exchange for an honest review.

Elle Cook has been a favourite of mine for a while, and this just cements her place on that list! i loved this story. Abbie and Tom had my heart from the first chapter. The will they wont they, should they shouldn't they? Perfect! I devoured this book in 2 days as i couldn't put it down. Beautifully written and i cant wait for more from Elle!

This was such a beautiful book that I thoroughly enjoyed! I was instantly drawn in by Abbie & Toms initial interaction and loved both their characters. Then I was absolutely blown away by the first few chapters because of how unexpectedly emotional they were! The writing based around what they experience was brilliantly done. In the following chapters I found myself liking Abbies character more and more as the story went on, she was just such a real and likeable character who even though you wanted to shake her at times, her experiences, mistakes and everything in between made you love her. What I loved most about the story was that it was just so realistic, there was so many relationships and life changes and choices that were so true to the real world and even though you could see characters making bad decisions, you could absolutely see why they were and it just showed how choices and actions can shape so much in peoples lives. I was surprised by how emotional this story really was! And Toms character development was PERFECT. It was a great story with some witty characters and overall it was lovely, emotional, thought provoking and I definitely recommend it

I was lucky enough to read this author’s previous book and adored it, so this novel had a hard battle to win to impress me further.

It is a beautifully written love story. There are elements of ‘One Day‘, particularly early on - but this is a stonking novel on its own merit. The characters are completely absorbing and it’s the story moves at a perfect pace. I also enjoyed the length of the story - too often they are very short and, whilst I was disappointed to leave the characters behind, it is easy to see that this is a well edited, story of perfect length.

Highly recommended. Will wait for the next novel now!

This story spans 7 years and follows the lives of Tom and Abbie after they share a chance meeting in extraordinary circumstances. Their relationship is told through both of their perspectives and there were times I was totally feeling what they were feeling as I read. I was completely drawn into their lives and honestly just wanted to pick this book up whenever a window of opportunity presented itself!
I really cared about these two people ( and developed a little crush on Tom) because I think Elle Cook writes her characters so well that you really get to know them. This book is about the impact of trauma, the complexities of adult relationships and how the deep connections we develop with individuals are worth fighting for.

I stayed up until 4am to finish this book!
It caused so many emotions to go through what Tom and Abbie experienced and I was still heartbroken at the end and yet so happy. This beautifully written love story is born from a tragedy and an awkward beginning of friendship that is evidently something that should be so much more and yet timing, circumstance and misunderstanding leads to years of nothing, with just glimmers of hope for even just friendship that ends up causing more pain and heartache. And yet through all of it you want to believe that they are meant to be, that whomever they meet in their lives is never going to be good enough.
I appreciated how interlaced with their friendship and their own lives progressing there was always this underlying trauma that they were coming to terms with and it was dealt with in what I think is probably a very realistic acceptance that people don't talk about trauma and their struggle.
Elle Cook has written two wonerful books I have really enjoyed now and I will certainly look forward to reading more from her!

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

Having loved Elle Cook's previous novel, The Man I Never Met, I was looking forward to reading this one. I wasn't disappointed, the book had a great storyline and flowed along nicely. I wanted to know what happened to these two characters who were thrown together in terrible circumstances, would they become friends, could a friendship last under these pressures? The story is written over several decades and had lots going on to keep me interested and wanting to pick the book up and continue reading at every opportunity.

Abbie and Tom were well-written characters, both traumatised by events and needing each other to get through it. They did at ties need a bit of a push and I just wanted them to talk to each other, but then if they had, I suppose, there wouldn't have been so much of a story to tell.

Elle Cook writes a really good romance, there is plenty going on and lots to keep the reader intrigued. I would recommend this story and look forward to future books from this author.