This is a really strong debut from such a young author. I really enjoyed the story and found the characterisation was really strong. It's quite a slow burn, but I think that really works in terms of being able to understand what Liz's life looks like after the tragedy of a world-destroying storm.

Kind of The Last of Us, meets The Road. Liz has understandably taken shelter in the only place that feels familiar without being home. She has a pretty distinctive trauma-informed personality and is kind of neurodivergent. With that comes plenty of sarcasm and dry wit, but also her vulnerability when it comes to the reality she's facing. Maeve is a really nice balance to Liz because where Liz is self-conscious and hesitant, Maeve goes in all guns blazing (sometimes literally) and together they learn to be better versions of themselves.

Definitely one to add to library collections for older teens. I'll use it in my year 9 booktalks because they love apocalyptic and dystopian fiction.

For it's genre and it being a debut, a solid 4/5 for me.

I'm sorry to say this needs a lot more work. At times it makes a fair effort at setting atmosphere, but mostly I found myself boggled by its gaping holes in character motivation and the kind of wacky things the author thought it could get away with. I kept getting the sensation that I'd fallen behind, but I hadn't - the narrative just keeps unevenly jumping across yawning holes.

Strangely, simultaneous to leaving gaps in all the wrong places, the novel is also packed with all this extraneous stuff that kept me from becoming invested in the content. 'The Last Bookstore on Earth' ends up with a whole lot of insubstantial puffing out anď a whole lot of wasted words. The novel could have had at least a third shaved off and lost nothing in the process.

Mostly, I detested the way the whole mystery of Liz's past is handled; matter of fact, it became infuriating. More than three quarters of the book is spent hinting, and nudging and winking, dropping mentions and tantalising hints. Yet after about a quarter of a novel's length of that kind of business, it just gets really flipping tired. In the end, it comes across as juvenile.

I got to over three-quarters of the way in and I made a note that the author STILL hadn't cleared up the obfuscation of Liz's past. I actually no longer cared to find out how or why she ended up in the last bookshop on earth (the author actually never pays us the courtesy of telling us). I didn't care about Liz and Eva's secret past or whatever the hell they'd gone through (spoiler alert: it's nothing! They used to work together - literally nothing more!); I didn't care about Liz and Maeve's pairing.

The story limps towards its end, finally popping the comically lacklustre bubble of Liz's _supershady_ backstory (after 80% of refusing to tell us, the 'secret' is that she hesitated to open a door!), and staging some truly motivationless, unprompted yet overwrought 'fight' scenes, there's absolutely zero payoff for having lasted this out. I'll never get the hours of my life back that I spent on reading this. Save yourself and DNF it at the earliest opportunity (or better yet, don't let the cool cover and Sapphic tag lure you in)!

Reading this made me realise that when the world does inevitably end one day, I would like to be tucked up in a bookstore and writing down the stories of passersby in exchange for snacks and batteries.

This was my first read in the dystopian/end of the world genre, and I loved it so much! This was such a cosy YA read, with themes of survival, a race against time, found family, and the complexities of finding love in the face of grief and loss.

I loved the format and flow, we slowly learn about what Liz went through in the days leading up to the present, as well as getting to read snippets of the stories of those who have passed through the bookstore.

The Last Bookstore on Earth is fast-paced, heartwarming, and has characters you’ll fall in love with.

⭐️3.5 stars

Thank you to Net Galley and Penguin for the early copy.

A page turning read that will have you hooked from page 1. A brilliant atmosphere, intriguing protagonists and a plot that will keep you captivated right till the final page.

A heartwarming and semi self-aware post-apocalyptic tale about a bookstore being a last place of refuge, living with the ghosts of our decisions, and coming to terms with your own small strengths. Bonus sapphics!!

I enjoyed Liz as our narrator, an accidental recluse who’s survived a year in her local bookstore when The Storm hits and turns the world into a dangerous and volatile place. Everything changes overnight, and Liz retreats to her last safe place: the bookstore.

Now, a year later, we follow Liz as the days up to the next Storm dwindle, outside threats start creeping closer and a potential future busts in during the middle of the night (literally) with the intent of sweeping Liz clean of all she’s worth. But Maeve ends up staying, and Liz ends up finding the future she had given up on being brave for.

This was a fun romp, a sweet tale I managed to breeze through quite quickly. Elements were pretty formulaic, but Liz was a fun and complex narrator, realistically written for those of us who like the idea of badass sword wielding protagonists but who’d probably crumple at the first sign of danger. Go introverts! I liked Liz and Maeve’s relationship, but they did have Communication Issues.

Though, overall this was a cute if imperfect end of the world love story, and I hope when the world does end, there IS a one last bookstore where I might leave a letter for a loved one…

If you love “All That’s Left at the End of the World” or literally *any* dystopian YA book - this fills that void with a thrilling sapphic twist!

I love Lily’s writing style and the way she gives you such a vivid backstory for the characters and the experiences they are living through.

I also appreciate the narrative surrounding how The Storm happened and it’s very terrifying parallels to current events.

Also, who DOESN’T want to be trapped in a bookstore for the end of days

Thank you to the author & publisher for this arc

This was such a lovely story, despite being dystopian! I wish it was longer and I wish there was more of the backstory because I loved it so much. Cosy and cute and the perfect read for a winters night

I was hooked on this book from the moment I saw the title! As a book girlie at heart, the idea of hunkering down in “The Last Bookstore on Earth” sings to my soul!
This book was fast paced and amazing fun, I read it almost in one sitting and I will not hesitate to recommend it to patrons looking for LGBTQIA+ stories in different genres.
Liz & Maeve may be a romance of forced proximity but the cosy vibes of this book make it the perfect Queer dystopian for younger secondary school readers!

The premise of this book is an interesting one - who knew the setting for a tentative YA sapphic romance would be a crumbling bookstore that survived an acid rain storm? This is a fun dystopian read but I would have loved to know more about the bookstore and Maeve's journey to Liz!

This was such a fun read. I have to admit, with the real apocalypse seeming more and more imminent, I’ve been enjoying post apocalyptic books less and less, but this one was different. The humour and tone of it, right from the start was great to just relax into.

There was no mention of autism in the book or the synopsis, but Liz felt very autistic to me. Whether she was or not, I felt very seen by this book. She is definitely autistic in my heart. What is mentioned is that she likes girls and that also was really nice representation to see. The romance was cute and I really liked both Liz and Maeve.

Honestly, this was just a really good read. The world felt a little too real, but not in a bad way, the characters felt authentic and the humour was just perfect. I was absorbed from page 1.

Looking forward to more from this author!

The end of the world happened and Liz tries to make the best out of what little is left in the world by hiding away in a bookshop and still providing books to a random assortment of customers. Then Maeve shows up and brings chaos into Liz's life in both good and bad ways.

I really felt like this book gave me an insight into how teenagers must feel right now. With their lives paused because of the lockdowns and their future being so uncertain because of the catastrophic destructions we keep raining on on our planet. It was heart wrenching to read the parts where Liz just talks about craving the banalities and insecurities of normal life. Craving it so badly that she created this pocket of normality for herself in a bookshop she loves so dearly. She was also such a relatable character. I think YA can often be extremely enjoyable and the characters can be fun to follow, but rarely they remind me so much of my younger self and make me appreciate the person I've grown into. This one certainly managed that.

I will admit certain choices in the ending didn't land for me but I enjoyed the whole story so much that it was easy to ignore those small hiccups. I would also love to explore the larger world of this story because this version of the end of the world seems extremely horrifying.

This short YA dystopia is a superb novel and one that I'll think about for a long time. Set in a close future USA in the aftermath of a toxic acid storm which claimed the lives of her family, Liz has taken to living in the bookstore where she worked before the storm. Haunted by memories, she lives alone and few pass by the shop, until Maeve breaks in one night and life changes for Liz.

This is a pacey story of survival and love in unlikely circumstances, where destruction and loss give way to a fight for what means the most. Liz's backstory is told through her memories, a nostalgic look at teen life and it's troubles, and the coming to terms of her actions past and present.

With a bookstore setting, LGBT+ characters and a superb narrative, this is a wonderful story and will appeal to fans of Patrick Ness and Erik J. Brown.

This was a sweet and easy-to-read end of the world story, which whilst not being particularly heavy on darker or elaborate plot elements, still had much to offer. It is just worth noting that the plot isn't the central, dominant driving force as typically found in this sort of book, otherwise you might be in for a surprise. The setting was an obvious hit for bibliophiles and had such heart and prominence that it became a character of its own (and a great one at that.) The characters were certainly a relatable bunch, although I will admit occasionally forgetting some of the side characters in between their rare appearances. Overall, I thought from prose to momentum to world-building that Braun-Arnold did a terrific job for a debut book (and I am definitely going to keep an eye out for future publications!)

3.5
Fair warning this book had more body gore/injury details than I was expecting made me feel nauseous at times
#ad I received this book as an ARC but the opinions are my own
While I enjoyed this book overall, the tone and story felt like the younger side of ya. This isn’t a major criticism of the author but it did read like a young persons debut novel, at times sentences felt crammed full of character descriptions while not totally necessary for that scene. Especially when the characters design had already been established. I also assumed a lot of the injuries were more severe than they turned out to be because characters fully recovered from them. Spoilers but at one point liz’s fingers described as hanging on, how did she recover in the epilogue? This could’ve been a moment about her living with her new disability etc but it just made the character seem like an inconvenience because of said disability. I expected the book to gut punch me with sadness and honestly I was more surprised when the characters made it out alive.

This was a cute and short intimate read which explored survival, forgiveness, and love in a post-apocalyptic setting. It's sapphic focus was also a refreshing take as a lot of these type of books recently have a lot of mlm focus - they both die at the end and all that's left in the world.

The idea of spending all your time and the rest of your days in a bookshop doesn't sound too bad, in my opinion.

Thank you so much for the early access!

The Last Bookstore on Earth follows teenage Liz, who has made herself the bookseller of the apocalypse. Her formulaic life is turned upside down when Maeve tries to rob her shop for supplies. Romance ensues.

I enjoyed the concept of this book. These two different approaches of dealing with the end of the world and with the loss that comes with that. I especially liked the type of apocalyptic disaster occurred in the story and the addition of Liz recording people’s stories. The discussion on the pressures of the future and then the sudden removal of that pressure was interesting and really fit this type of story.

However I really struggled with Liz as a character. She was naive to the point of irritation and at one point early on, based on the vague memory of a biology lesson, she out of nowhere shoved her hand into a generator and destroyed it down to bone and tissue. It just felt like it came out of nowhere as a way to push the relationship forward but in reality was a dumb thing to do. A couple chapters later they then go out hunting for supplies when the night before, Maeve had cauterised Liz’ wounds and I just couldn’t wrap my head around the ridiculousness of these events.

I’m sad because this book had a lot of potential but it just isn’t for me.

I absolutely loved this, a post apocalyptic dystopian world and possibly the last book shop in the world (well New Jersey I would hazard a guess!), which is run by Liz. A survivor of the world around her. This is a YA read, that flicks back and forth between the now and the before, Liz is bit of a trauma stubborn sapphic survivor. You could say reading this that she actually has not done very much at all other than survive but then comes Maeve. She is a further survivor who obviously takes her chances at entering Liz sanctuary.

This is a story very much of found family, being brave and having to make a choice that can cost you your survival. I enjoyed the slow burn chemistry between the two main characters. So much is hidden by them both that comes out throughout the story as they generally open up but this does come with consequences.

Small amount of world building which I actually enjoyed, I didn’t need to know why the world turned but it’s not zombies which made a refreshing change and generally if you were in that situation I doubt you would know much other than your living area.

The drama is all there ready to unfold, it’s a really good story that I did eat up very quickly as I enjoyed it so much. I did worry that it was going to be one of those open ended tales but again was pleasantly surprised!

Great debut, very enjoyable and would highly recommend. Thank you for allowing me to read this as part of an ARC via NetGalley. Look forward to more story’s from this author!

I was lucky enough to get an early copy of this from NetGalley and can see it being very popular. I’ll be honest and say the title alone made me want to read this and I didn’t even check the blurb. It was refreshingly different from books I’ve read lately with its apocalyptic theme and was very enjoyable. It features just one point of view, and I love the inner monologue. The book takes you through the emotions of what goes on throughout the book. I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars.

First and foremost, if the world had ended due to a climate change apocalypse, a bookstore doesn’t seem like the worst place to be. Aside from Liz’s clear loneliness at the start of the book, I think most book lovers can agree when we say there could be worse places to be stranded.

I really enjoyed the concept and writing of this book, the essence that the bookstore gives and how it represents Liz’s home on such a deeper meaning, especially after recently losing her whole family is truly quite comforting. She does encounter quite a harrowing accident quite early in the book (to keep it vague) which made my whole body feel quite uncomfortable, almost to the point where you’re imagining the pain of that happening to you. Reading about her experience during the first storm also broke my heart.

The love story between Liz and Maeve was refreshing, while they are initially very sceptical of each other, it’s nice to read about how they could still find some happiness and comfort in someone else despite the horrors happening outside their doors.

(Slight Spoilers!) The only thing that confused me a little is the timeline between Liv and Maeve meeting and the second storm. I thought that it had been at least about 3ish weeks (of their month countdown), which puts their timeline correct for when Eva comes back and says the storm will be in the next week, but it confused me into thinking it had only been a week or two which doesn’t seem like quite enough time for Liv’s arm to heal as much as it had? It may be my interpretation of the text, but it didn’t quite add up.

Besides that, I thoroughly enjoyed the book!

This is the first book I read in 2025 and what a way to kick off the year!

While there is romance in this book, it’s an apocalyptic survival story first and foremost. The cast of characters is small, with less than a dozen characters total, and only three at the heart of the story, but that’s to the book’s benefit. We get to understand how small Liz’s world has become, and we really get to know the characters and their relationships incredibly well.

I really enjoyed the flashbacks to life before The Storm, and I thought they fit in with the overall story really well. We slowly get to understand more of Liz’s character, culminating in the disastrous day when she lost everything.

One of the biggest themes of the book is, to quote Hamilton, ‘who lives, who dies, who tells your story’. Liz is a collector of other people’s stories, and it was a very powerful storyline to see her come to terms with her own story. She’s eighteen and still finding her place in the world, and that storyline really spoke to that.

This whole book is beautifully written, and explores the people – rather than the events – of an all-too-likely climate apocalypse. I believe there is something in this book for readers of all ages, who have ever experienced (and overcome) loneliness.

I received a free copy for an honest review.