The Last Page by Katie Holt ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

 

A bookseller with a dream of running her beloved bookstore vs. the owner’s out-of-touch grandson, who inherits everything. Game on.

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May 2026; Alcove Press; 979-8892424097
audio, ebook, print (336 pages); romance

Since my happiest shopping trips take place in bookstores, I love reading books about bookstores – not only the behind-the-scenes look at how the store is run, but also lots of recommendations for books to read.  The Last Page had both, along with a sweet romance that made the book even more interesting.

Ella’s first job was at the Last Page bookstore in New York City.  The owner was like a father to her and was teaching her how to run the bookstore when he unexpectedly died.  He had always told her that he would be leaving the bookstore to her.  Imagine her dismay when she found out that Leo had left the bookstore to his estranged grandson, Henry.  Henry lived in Tennessee with his aging mother and made the decision to go to NYC and make sure that the bookstore was running well, hire a good manager, and return to his home in the south.  When he meets Ella – who treats him terribly, he begins to realize that he may need to change his original plans.  Ella had run the bookstore for ages and had the respect of the booksellers who worked there, and she disagreed with all of the changes that Henry wanted to make to her beloved store.  When they begin to realize that the store is in bad financial shape, they decide to team up with each other and do what they can to save the store.  The more time they spend together working on saving the bookstore, the more sparks that fly between them.  Ella finds herself falling in love with Henry, even knowing that he plans to return to Tennessee – will their romance survive, or will changes have to be made in one of their life plans?

I really enjoyed the book – Ella was a great main character who loved books and loved finding the right book for each reader.  She was surrounded by some of the ditziest book sellers ever, and a lot of the dialogue between the book sellers was sarcastic and immature, but they still let Ella know that they had her support.

I did think that the book was too long, and some of the sarcastic banter between the booksellers could have been cut out.  There were several times that I thought they should be fired for their disrespect toward customers and toward each other.  But overall, I thought this enemies-to-lovers romance was cute, and I did like the book recommendations.

’Can you tell me why The Last Page is named The Last Page?’

‘Leo used to say that he hated when he got to the last page of a book.  He knew the book would be over and in some cases, you wanted the book to keep going.  So he wanted to change his mindset and make The Last Page a place you were excited to go.  Literally and metaphorically.  Because now when you got to The Last Page, you could be excited to start the next page.’

Buy The Last Page at Amazon

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is three hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.

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