Well balanced plot and characters as well as a page turner. This book keeps you wanting more. Enjoyed reading this one!

A hunter and a survivor are pitted together in this gripping cat-and-mouse tale. With a job as a teacher of special needs children, and deemed the hero of a mass shooting at her school, Jessie is a character you are immediately supportive of and rooting for as the tale unfolds. This is certainly a book you will have difficulty putting down.

This is certainly one of those books that gets your attention from the early pages. It felt really odd reading this as i'd just wantch a programme on tv that was based around a high school shooting. This kind of helped in my reading and i was visualising what i'd seen on the tv as scenes from this book. It made my reading experience a little more vivid. It did feel odd that i'd chosen to read a book i'd had a long time and then the theme of the book was similar to a programme i'd watched. almost felt spooky.
This was an interesting and intreuging read. It grabbed me early on then seemed to cool down a little before grabbing me again and spitting me back out at the end.
It's been an easy read and i've managed to read this in quick time. Interesting characters, i think the author has done a great job making this fictional book quite realistic.

Oh my word this book was just fantastic. An absolutely gripping psychological thriller that had Neón the edge of my seat at times.

Unfortunately I didn't really enjoy this book. I found it slightly predictable and a bit boring. I probably would not recommend it

Really enjoyable read. Good characters and a Good story. Well worth a read. Think others will. Enjoy

Jessie is a special education teacher, who killed a gunman after to students began firing automatic weapons around the cafeteria. Two students were killed before she was able to shoot one of them. She is hailed as a local hero, but suffering from PTSD and recovering from her injuries, she just wants to be left alone to deal with the memory of killing a 14-year-old child. The media is klammering to get an interview with her, but she refuses. One reporter desperately needs an interview and she goes after Jessie with a vengeance. Digging into her past, she unearths information that no one knew and Jessie had hoped would remain buried. Meanwhile, there is a serial killer looking for his next victim. He's armed with a knife, a gun, and a longbow. He kidnaps his victims, drives them into the mountains, turns them loose with a 5-minute head start, then hunts them down. To date, no one has survived. He has set his sights set on Jessie, figuring that she will be a fighter and he loves to be challenged. He has no idea how much of a fighter Jessie is.

This plot is not new, but it is well written. The pace is slow during the build up, but then it takes off. I liked most of the characters, especially Jessie. She is a damaged character who makes a good anti-hero. Her husband, Mark, is a good man and he loves his wife, but when he is blindsided by Jessie's secrets, he isn't quite sure what to think. I really liked Mark's brother, Ace. He is an ex-felon who will do anything for Jessie. She stood up for him against his family and he loves her for that. Of course the characters we are not supposed to like, Caleb and Darla the reporter, are easily disliked. The POV switches between Caleb's and Jessie's perspectives, and allows for insight into both of them, thus giving greater depth to the book. I enjoyed this story, racing to the end well after I should have gone to bed. I recommend this one to those who enjoy thrillers, especially those with a cat and mouse chase in the plot as well as a well written story.

Last To Die by Arlene Hunt is a fast paced, edge of your seat thriller previously published as 'The Chosen'. Opening with a school shooting which is unfortunately so topical these days, it's a story that keeps the reader gripped throughout.

Wow! I really enjoyed this and I couldn’t put down.

It starts off with a high school shooting and the main character Jessie Conway saving the day. Wracked with guilt, she pushes her friends and family away. She refuses to talk to the media and this pushes the local reporter to go to ridiculous lengths, publishing an embellished story about Jessie and her past. Caleb Switch, a smart, ruthless killer has her in his sights. He’s a hunter and he wants to hunt her.

The whole story was really well written and kept you drawn in. I honestly didn’t want to put the book down. The different perspectives made it better also. It was a really well rounded story.

For me the last part was the most interesting.
From Jessie’s kidnap to her survival in unknown woods with a killer on a tail.
I don’t want to give too much away but it was gripping. The characters were engaging and I liked them all. Except for Darla the reporter.

My only real complaint is that I think this could have been a little longer, padded out just a little bit more. I was a little unsure of the timeline because it’s not really explained.

Arlene Hunt is a new author for me but this definitely won’t be the last book I read from her

Jessie Conway is at the heart of a shooting at the school where she teaches. She escapes with her life but ends up in the media spotlight. While trying to stay under the media radar, she catches the attention of Caleb Switch, a heartless serial killer. Jessie finds herself in a game of cat and mouse and must keep her wits to escape alive.

This was a fast paced thriller that was hard to put down. The beginning was a little bit rocky in my opinion because quite a few characters were dropped into the story in relation to Caleb Switch. There wasn't much introduction to those characters and I found myself looking back through previous pages to see who I was reading about. As it turns out, many of them met their death quickly and didn't play a huge role in the story. I suppose it was supposed to be setting up Caleb's character. The only other thing that nagged at my mind was Jessie's talent at becoming tangled up in deadly situations. I think it's unlikely that one person end up in that many life or death situations by chance. All in all, a good read. 4 Stars.

I received this book through Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Netgalley.com, to Bookouture, and to Arlene Hunt.

I don't want to give too much away about this book. It started off slowly, but built up in momentum and ended up being a really good read. I have read other books with a similar theme, but this is definitely one of the better ones.

To quote the author ' this is a true battle for survival and a test of wills. I have pulled no punches, and no character is above harm......An apex hunter, Caleb Switch is strong, capable, intelligent and utterly without mercy. He blends into his surroundings, the kind of man of whom his neighbours would say, 'Oh him? He just seemed a regular guy.' But there is nothing regular about Caleb Switch. You don't ever want to let him take you into the mountains. NOT EVER.'

Thank you to Bookouture via NetGalley for a digital ARC of Last to Die by Arlene Hunt for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

This book with a shooting in a high school and certainly wakes you up with the first few pages. Jessie Conway is a teacher and we see the events that follow after the shooting. Everybody thinks that Jessie is a hero, however sadly all the media publicity puts her firmly back in danger when Caleb comes on the scene.

Caleb is a decent character to read, he also happens to be a sadistic killer. He has his eyes firmly set on his prize in the form of Jessie. Out of the two characters Caleb was the one that caught my attention the most. Even though Jessie has a hidden and secretive past that even her husband is unaware of, I just found myself not caring too much either way about her. Caleb on the other hand with his twisted and depraved mind made for a much more engaging read.

However, I felt like although the first half was a it slow and the second half a lot faster paced it still overall felt a little flat. It was an enjoyable read, but to be honest didn't spark any real emotion from me either way and by the time I reached the end, I felt like maybe I had missed something? I know that this book has received rave reviews and it's far from a bad book, but for me it just fell a little bit too much down the middle road for my liking. I think that most of this was down to the characters, and the fact that the story felt like it lacked pace in places.

I enjoyed this novel so much I read it in a day! The plot moves fast and I couldn't put it down. I really enjoyed that the point of view switched between the character because it kept me reading to get back to certain character. Thank you for the read!

4.5 stars
Top notch from start to finish. I loved, loved, loved the ending! It was a perfect blend of feminism and realism. I was so into this book, that before I had even finished it, I had looked up other books by the author and made a purchase

Jessica tried fanning herself but it did nothing to dispel the heat. Tracey was a teaching assistant and as far as Jessica was concerned the best assistant Jessica had worked with. Jessica was a teacher and her students were the products of: appalling neglect, both mental and physical abuse. They were children of alcoholics and drug addicted parents, parents who spent their welfare on booze, weed and, crystal meth. That often left grandparents to have the children but they could only feed and House them As Jessica started to walk toward the cafeteria Kyle Sanders stepped out and had a semiautomatic weapon on him. Kyle started shooting and kids panicked and started running every which way. Some fell and were stamped. Jessica ran and tackled Kyle into the cafeteria and fought for control of the gun. There was another kid in black who Kyle yelled to and he shot Jessica but she got the gun shot Kyle and then shot in the direction of the boy in black.Jessica crawled over to the other boy but he died shortly thereafter. His name was Caleb Switch but he now went by the name Arthur Samuel Weils- Caleb had killed and buried the real Arthur. Caleb had a beard but close to the skin it hid a scar one of the many from his childhood and his father, Caleb considered his body a tool and maintained it to perfection. Caleb got his weapons got in his truck and went halfway up the mountain to Devil’s Ridge. He let the girl out of the compartment in the truck by the spare tire and and let the girl out explaining she had a five minute head start then he would go after her. He also told her the way to the road if she made it that far. Caleb was going to hunt the girl. Darla was a reporter and worked for the Gazette for four years. Darla hated her life and wanted a chance at that one big story. Nothing really happened in Rockville. Then Darla got a call from Pip Lowe from the newsroom and was told something was going on at Rockville High and there was a shooting. Darla said she was on it and her and Chippy who was the cameraman left to go to the H S. Jessica became the hero helping to save lives and taking down the two shooters. Darla wanted to interview Jessica while she was in the hospital but Jessica just wants to be left alone. Darla digs deeper into Jessica’s background and finds out things even Jessica’s husband doesn’t know about. Jessica grabs Caleb’s attention by being labeled a hero. Caleb is relentless, focused, cold, and smart. Jessica has PTSD , she has the shakes, and nightmares of killing a fourteen year old boy. But Caleb is determined to get Jessica and he does.
This was a good story and keeps you on on your toes even though you already know who the villain is. This story is well written and it grabs your attention right from the beginning and keeps it right until the end. But the story did drag some in the middle of the story. Caleb was shown as the serial killer he was with no mercy or conscience. I loved how Jessica stepped and took out the killers. I didn’t want to set this down except it took a little bit to get through the parts that dragged. I liked the characters a lot and loved the ins and outs of the story. I recommend.