Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This is a beautiful story on motherhood and how thing aren’t always as they seem. I loved the author’s debut book so I had to read this one and it was equally good, yet very different. Her first book was more about the end of your life and this one was about the beginning of life and growing up. I was hooked from the start. Highly recommend.

I went into this book expecting it to just be a fun experience, but it was so much more than I bargained for. I love the writing, the way the plot was laid out. I especially love how the author doesn’t explain scenarios to us, she immerses us in them from a first-hand perspective. The book didn’t lean too heavily on one narrative or the other. I really felt like I was getting the whole picture of this family. Some parts had me glued, others devastated me, and as I began to piece the puzzle together in my mind, I just couldn’t put it down. The chapters flew by. In the end, I was touched and very thankful I’d picked up this book! I greatly enjoyed it. Thank you NetGalley, the author, and Lake Union Publishing for this copy.

What an intriguing book. I greatly enjoyed it. I think all fiction lovers will love it. And I highly recommend it. It’s gonna be a great book.

The Last Time I Saw You by new to me author J. Leevers.
You know that book that you can’t stop thinking about? The one you find yourself recommending to anyone willing to listen? The one you want to read all over again?
This is the book for me. One of the most beautifully told romances I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading, this is the kind of story that stays with you, moves you, changes something in you. I fell every bit in love with the characters as they do with each other. Make room in your life to experience this rare gem of a story.

Beautifully written and packed full of emotions, this was a pleasure to read. I love family sagas, especially ones that have a bit of hidden mysteries. From the very beginning it was clear that this book would be an emotional one. Georgie is about to give birth, although her life feels like it’s not quite her own. She struggles with her future, given that so much of her own past is a mystery to her.

Nancy, her mother, abandoned the family almost twenty years ago, but Georgie and her brother Dan, never find out why. Their adult lives are tinged with grief and longing as they desperately pull themselves along, trying to ignore the gaping hole in their lives. Leevers weaves this absolutely heart wrenching story of chance encounters and family love, that had me needing to know what was going to happen next. I couldn’t put this book down, it was a joy to read and I can’t wait to read more of Leevers’ work, she has a knack for creating remarkable stories.

Georgie is 38 weeks pregnant when she sees a news story that stops her in her tracks. She is convinced that the woman in the viral video is her mum.. the mum she hasn't seen for twenty years. She calls her estranged brother as he is the only one who knows what they went through and through a road trip to go and see if this woman is their mum, they start to unpick their childhood, but is it too late to mend their relationship.

This was an emotional family drama told from Georgie and Nancy's present perspectives, while also through flashbacks to Nancy's teens. Great characters and a well-rounded tale made for a really good read.

Georgie and Dan’s mother, Nancy, left the family home 20 years ago when they were young teenagers. They have always wondered why and where she is now.

Out of the blue, Georgie sees a photo in the news about Nan who rescued a lost young girl in Scotland. Georgie immediately calls her estranged brother who drops everything to pick her up in an old Beetle and they head from London to Scotland. With Georgie 38 weeks pregnant. What could possibly go wrong.

The story is told from different POV’s and over different timelines as we are caught up and filled in with what happened before Nancy left and after. This is a rather dysfunctional family hiding plenty of secrets, lies and regrets. There are also references to coercive behavior and date rape by a supposedly trusted older man.

Jo tackles the difficult subjects sensitively from the rape to the feelings of failure as a mother and more, and I found myself absolutely immersed in Georgia and Nancy’s lives from the first word to the last. My interest did not falter once. And there were tears!

Oh wow!!! This book. It drew me in from the first chapter. I was so attached to the main character, and couldn't wait to see what would happen. A wonderful read.

I was nervous about reading Jo's second book. Her debut, Tell Me How This Ends set the bar incredibly high and follow up books can often surpass that, or fall flat. I shouldn't have been concerned, Jo vaulted over that bar with ease.

The Last Time I Saw You is an immersive and emotional powerhouse of a book. A story that asks you not just to follow the character's journey, but demands you join them on it. By the end of the novel, I was so fully invested in the world created on the page that I felt bereft when the characters left me.

Georgie and Dan's emotional journey is compelling, but it's also highly relatable. With immersive settings and complex character arcs, this novel is one that will knit itself into your heart and never quite let go.

With her debut, Jo Leevers marked herself as one to watch, with Tell Me How This Ends, she has firmly secured herself as a must-read author of emotional fiction.

Jo's ability to wrap her readers in a comforting cloak while teasing out all the difficult emotions is remarkable.

Tell Me How This Ends - an emotional and compelling read that will have BookClub readers begging for more, even if it does mean stocking up on tissues.

Georgie is just a couple of weeks away from becoming a mum for the first time when she sees a news story about a woman who has rescued a missing child in Scotland, she realises that she recognises the woman as her mum Nancy, who disappeared without a trace twenty years ago. Georgie needs answers and there's only one person she can call on to help, her estranged brother Dan. Will travelling the length of the country bring them the answers they crave and will it mend the rifts in this dysfunctional family or has that particular ship long since sailed?

This latest contemporary fiction by Leevers is an emotional and captivating read, focussing on families, relationships, loss and abandonment. The story is told across dual timelines and from the perspectives of Georgie and Nancy alternating in short chapters, just as I like them. I immediately warmed to Georgie and Dan and loved the brother/sister bond that they quickly rekindled, even though they hadn't really spoken in the last couple of years. I wasn't sure about Nancy at first, I couldn't grasp how any mother could leave their children willingly but, as her story unfolded, I found myself becoming more sympathetic towards her at the turn of every page, she really had led a tragic life. The author covers some very delicate subjects in this book; abuse, coercive control, stalking, grief and neglect and she does this with compassion and integrity. I really enjoyed this new to me author and I look forward to reading her previous book which I've already added to my kindle.

I'd like to thank Lake Union Publishing and Netgalley for the approval, I will post my review on Goodreads now and Amazon on publication day.

I loved this authors last book so I was looking forward to this and I wasn’t disappointed. This book centers around Georgie whose childhood and the desertion of her mother as a child has coloured her life. Told in dual timelines and from the POV of Georgie and her birth mother Nancy this is an emotional read. Well paced and well written with short chapters making this a fairly quick and easy read.

Briefly, Georgie is just weeks away from giving birth to her first child and her partner has had to go abroad leaving her at home alone when she sees a news story that gives her a massive shock. It’s was 20 years ago when Nancy walked out of the family home leaving her husband and two young children, Georgie and her brother Dan and now she has been photographed in Scotland. Georgie needs answers so asks Dan to come with her to find their mother.

Georgie and Nancy are both great characters. Both have been through traumatic experiences that have had a massive impact on their lives, and not in a good way. Georgie and Dan’s Dad remarried but they never really got on with their stepmother, Georgie and Dan are estranged following the death of a friend, so basically none of the family have much contact. Can anything mend their broken relationships? A heartwarming story of families, relationships, long hidden secrets with details of physical, mental and self abuse and other emotional events handled sensitively. Very enjoyable read.

A great story about difficult family relationships, long kept secrets, and manipulative communication.

I loved seeing the story unfold in the past, highlighting the way everyone remembered the same facts in different ways, assigning different meaning to the same situations. And in some cases, with no communication or with someone dictating what meanings are 'true' this can result in a lifetime of regrets and resentment.

Some great twists made this quite an addictive read, and I finished the book in a couple of sittings.

Definitely a book to look out for!

The story is told with different characters and over several time lines. Georgie is weeks away from giving birth to her first child when she sees someone on Social Media that looks familiar. Could it be her Mum? Nancy made a decision to walk away from her life 20 years ago leaving behind Georgie (12) and Dan (10). Georgie embarks on a journey that almost stops in its tracks due to train strikes. She calls her brother Dan, they haven't spoken in 2 years. Georgie and Dan start to travel to Scotland where the missing girl had been found and the photo had originated of Nancy. I found the story to be unputdownable and how secrets and lies can lead to misunderstandings. In the end, all the sub-plots are brought together and leads to a lovely conclusion. I highly recommend this book.

I cannot fully explain just how much I loved Jo's previous book, Tell Me How This Ends. It was heart-breaking and beautiful and tender and sympathetic and just gorgeous. And so when she got in touch asking if I wanted to read her new book, I practically screamed at the chance! I knew that if it was anything like the first one, it would be sublime.

Each chapter is from the point-of-view of either Nancy (the Mum) or Georgie (the daughter), covering from 1984 to 2015. I blow hot and cold with multiple POVs, as they can get too complicated, but she's done well to just use the two main players. It gives us different views to the events but makes the reading seamless.

I liked Georgie. She is heavily pregnant when we meet her, and she's often thinking about whether it was becoming mother that made her mum walk out, so she's worried she will be the same. But I liked her. She felt very normal, just trying to get through life whilst battling a lot of problematic memories. We also meet her brother Dan in her chapters, and he was also a problematic soul, and I really felt sorry for him, almost as if he was my younger brother.

Nancy...what did I think of Nancy? At first I wanted to dislike her. I mean, what mother walks out on her young children? What reason could she possibly have that makes that the only decision? But the more I read about her and her upbringing and whatnot, the more layered she became and the more I started to see things from her sie. She was endlessly fascinating, and so was the comparison made between her and Georgie, especially now Georgie was about the become a mother.

There are 55 chapters, which might seem like a lot but for me who likes a shorter chapter, I liked it. 320 pages in 55 chapters makes for quick reading.

Much like Jo's first book, this had me hooked instantly. She has such a talent for writing very real and vulnerable people. I devoured it in a matter of ours. I sat down to start it and didn't move until I'd finished.

It's so moving, in a variety of ways. In sad ways, yes, but in angry ways, despair, wonderful, happy, joyful, hopeful, and loving ways too.

It's so heart-breaking but heart-warming. It's about family, blood and otherwise. It's about making your own family and letting go. But it's also about the importance of forgiveness and moving forward.

It shouldn't come as a surprise to say it does deal with some difficult topics, including relationship problems, emotional abuse, stalking, drinking problems, coercive control, manipulation, abandonment, separation, loneliness, death, grief etc.

I don't think Jo realises the hold she has over me with these books. Every sentence is exquisite. This is just Jo's second book and it, and she, is exceptional. One of the most talented writers of raw emotion, and I would implore everyone to red at least one because she is an absolute master storyteller.

This is an absorbing tale, the further into it I read, the harder it was to put down. It is quite a dark story, but at the same time full of characters who you easily warm to and can completely empathise with the situations they have found themselves in.

Georgie has recently moved to Devon where she lives with her husband and she’s looking forward to the birth of her baby which is only a couple of weeks away when the book begins. Yes Georgie is excited at the prospect of becoming a mother, but at the same time she worries, and hopes that she’ll make a better job of motherhood than her own mum. Georgie last saw her mum 20 years ago and hasn’t heard a word from her since. How could she just abandon both her and her brother all those years ago. She can’t help feeling at times that it’s something Georgie did wrong, perhaps it was her fault that her mum went.

When she sees a news article of a woman who rescues a young missing child, she recognises the woman to be her mother. Feeling desperate to get some answers she contacts her brother who turned his back on her a few years ago, but he wants answers as much as Georgie and agrees to drive them both to Scotland in the hope they’ll find her before she disappears again.

Through the long road journey we find out what happened all those years ago when their mother left. We learn that Dan has his own personal problems to deal with and from here we watch them on a cat and mouse mission to catch up with their mother.

It’s a sad story for all involved, covering coercion, abandonment and the lasting effects that a family break up handled badly can have on children right up into adulthood. This is an excellent book which will have you on the edge of your seat one minute and feeling great empathy the next, hoping that things will turn out OK for everyone. It has very believable characters and I’m sure different aspects of the storyline have probably touched on many families lives in one way or another. This is the second novel I’ve read from this author and enjoyed them both equally. Hopefully there will be more to come.

The Last Time I Saw You is a skillfully crafted story about generational trauma, love and forgiveness. The story immediately hooks you in, making you care about the cast of characters from the start and as you learn about what each generation has had to cope with, your empathy for them grows.. Another brilliant read from Jo Leevers.

I was lucky enough to read Jo Leevers' The Last Time I Saw You as an advanced reader copy (it comes out in July 2024) and I loved the fresh take on what could have been a cliche or trope of a mother leaving her young family. Thanks to dual points of view, the character of Nancy remained as nuanced as that of her daughter, Georgie, and I loved this family drama turned mystery as Georgie, now an adult on the brink of motherhood herself, follows fresh leads to find her mother. Pick this one up for sure!

Jo Leevers has a superbly simple tone to her writing that hits all the right notes and reminds me of Maggie O'Farrell. I was completely drawn in and invested in Georgie and her missing mother, Nancy. I loved that we got both sides of their story in the dual timeline and dual narrative. This is a journey in the literal and metaphorical sense as Georgie and her brother search for answers about loss and abandonment, of what family means and how their childhood shaped who they became as adults. It is a layered and utterly compelling read.

Georgie, alone in a new village, pregnant a world away from her busy former life in London sees a newspaper article with a picture of a woman who is startlingly familiar. Could it be that after all these years later, the mother that abandoned her and her younger brother has finally broke cover?

What follows is an unscheduled road trip, with her estranged brother to locate their missing mother and find the truth as to why she abandoned them all those years ago.

Nancy is panicked at the thoughts of her cover being blown, she starts to run again, but not for the reasons you might think.

Deftly written tale of love, loss and forgiveness.

Georgie is about to have her first child — but before she becomes a mother she has to find her own.

Whilst Leevers’ debut centres around the end of life and the regrets we hold, this story is about motherhood and birth. It’s an in-depth exploration of how brutally our own childhood affects that of our children. Whilst at times heavy there is always warmth and, most importantly, a sense of hope that we are able to break generational trauma and not repeat our parents or abusers’ actions.

Leevers writes with such compassion for her characters; sharing their experiences, mistakes, trauma and healing. I found myself utterly gripped and longing to be back with Georgie and Nancy each day. The characters are so well crafted that even the side characters stayed with me long after I’d finished the book.

An emotional and evocative story that I cannot recommend enough.

Thank you to Netgalley and Lake Union for the ARC.