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The New York Times bestselling author of Dark and Shallow Lies delivers another chilling supernatural thriller filled with murder, romance, and a decades long mystery that haunts a small Florida town. The perfect blend of Natasha Preston, Krystal Sutherland, and Delia Owens, with a paranormal twist. Mount Orange, Florida, is famous for two things: Cerulean freshwater springs, ideal for free divers who aren't afraid of lurking gators. And the gruesome cold case murder of best friends, Bailey and Celeste, twenty years ago. Bailey and Celeste's murders cast a permanent darkness over sunny Mount Orange. Tru has always lived in that shadow. Now she's supposed to head to FSU in the fall with her boyfriend, but those unsolved murders -- and the death of her own sister -- invade her every thought. It’s only in the shadowy deep of Hidden Glen Springs that she can breathe. When a strange girl named Rio rolls into town, hell-bent on figuring out who killed Bailey and Celeste, Tru can't resist entangling herself in the thrill of solving the decades old mystery any more than she can resist her familiar, aching attraction to Rio. As the summer heat ignites, so does the spark between Tru and Rio...along with their other-worldy connection to Bailey and Celeste. But when someone begins stalking them, the girls become convinced the killer is back in town. And if they keep digging into the past, Tru and Rio know this time, it could be their blood that makes the springs run red.
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0Thanks so much to NetGalley and Penguin Young Readers Group for access to an eARC in exchange for my honest review!!
what’s it about? ⬇️
The murders of best friends Bailey and Celeste have haunted the Florida town of Orange Springs for the last twenty years, attracting attention all the whole from podcasters and other true crime fans, and with the twentieth anniversary coming up, this summer is no different. Tru and her friends have all grown up hearing stories about what happened to Celeste and Bailey that awful night, and the fact that the murders went unsolved has remained a dark mark on the town ever since. But now, when Tru is already buried under the pressure she feels to graduate and go away to school with her boyfriend, her lackluster at best home life, and the trauma she still carries from the loss of her sister years earlier, she's started having nightmares about that night in alarming detail, especially considering she wasn't even alive at the time. The only time she gets to escape the insanity of her every day life is when she's freediving in Hidden Glen Springs, letting all of her troubles melt away into the cool, clear blue water.
But when a new girl named Rio breezes into town planning to solve the murders once and for all and reaches out to Tru specifically for help, Tru feels like this is what she's meant to be doing for some reason. Like she and Rio are the ones who are supposed to learn the truth of what happened to those girls they're both having strange dreams and visions about. They dive deep into their investigation, discovering all sorts of dark and dangerous secrets about the town, Bailey and Celeste, the people Tru grew up with, and even themselves along the way. By the end, Tru will be questioning who is left that she can really trust, if anyone, and if the answers to this mystery will turn her or the people she loves into the next Mount Orange cold case.
my thoughts? ⬇️
I'll admit that One Last Breath took a little while to warm up and get into the real meat of the story, but even still, the characters were all fun to read about and the scenery of Mount Orange the way Ginny Myers Sain writes it was so beautiful to imagine. Tru's relationships with the people around her were so relatable and varied that I was never disappointed to see her interact with the different characters who populated the idyllic, haunted town of Mount Orange, and when she and Rio dove into the deep end of the mystery and started figuring things out, it was so fun to watch them put together the pieces and to figure things out along side them. The twists were twisting, the red herrings were intense and threw me off more than once, and despite my surprise when things got a little more mystical than I'd expected going in, One Last Breath was such a fun read from start to finish. Plus, the way Tru's relationship with the water is described was so stunning and I loved getting inside her head in those moments, and I am a sucker for a sapphic thriller (or any sapphic story at all, tbh.)
based on your other likes? ⬇️
If you like any of these listed below, I think you might enjoy this and vice versa!
0How I read this book: eBook
So the reason I wanted to read this book is because the description sounded like it was going to be something mysterious and creepy and just a good read. Friends, I was so right, this book was a whole ass ride. From the very start of this book it was thrilling and fast paced and left me wanting to read more with each and every chapter. I knew there were going to be some supernatural elements within the book but I was not expecting the extent of what we got. It was so cool to see those elements be placed into a mystery/thriller and I thoroughly enjoyed them. This book kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time, the suspense throughout was a lot. The twists and turns at the end of this book made going through the panic and horror of the book worth it. Another thing I really enjoyed was the way that the author laid out the pages, they very much did it in a way so we felt the urgency of certain parts of the story. The character development for most of the characters was beautiful also, there were so many characters that I absolutely adored and found myself getting attached to. According to Goodreads this book is under YA however it did not read like a YA book at all, I also probably wouldn't recommend this to anyone under 16. I would however recommend this to anyone who wants a good queer mystery/thriller. Overall I loved this book a lot and I will definitely be picking it up when it comes out.
My Favourite Characters:
Dill & Derry: I'm going to put these two together because there almost aren't any scenes where you have one without the other. I loved them so much and they gave Tru and Rio that maternal and paternal figures they desperately needed to guide them throughout the book. I wish we got to see more of them.
East: I mean this in the best way but you can tell East is a man written by a woman. I loved him so much throughout the book and he was an absolute angel.
Rio: Rio for me had some of the most character development throughout the book. She starts off very secretive but I absolutely fell in love with her by the end.
My Least Favourite Characters:
Knox: Knox is the towns mayor and he is legit the biggest piece of shit I've ever read about in a book. I hated him so much and actually wished we got less of him.
Tru's Mum & Dad: I apologise I don't think we actually got names for them but for good reason. Tru needed her parents more than anything with everything that she had been through and neither of them could be arsed to be there for her.
(If you'd like to see more of my reviews please go to my blog:
https://doesden.blogspot.com/)
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