Six friends. Five suspects. One murder.

Savana Caruso and Jesse Melo have known each other since they were kids, so when Jesse texts Savana in the middle of the night and asks her to meet him at Cray’s Warehouse, she doesn’t hesitate. But before Savana can find Jesse, she bears witness to a horrifying murder, standing helpless on the ground as a mysterious figure is pushed out of the fourth floor of the warehouse.

Six teens were there that night, and five of them are now potential suspects. With the police circling, Savana knows what will happen if the wrong person is charged, particularly once she starts getting threatening anonymous text messages.

As she attempts to uncover the truth, Savana learns that everyone is keeping secrets—and someone is willing to do whatever it takes to keep those secrets from coming to light.

The Last One to Fall is a YA mystery/thriller novel with hints of romance by author Gabriella Lapore. In the story, we meet friends Jesse, Raf, Owen, Freddie, and Tara who are the top dogs at school, and Savana who lives next door to Jesse.

The book begins in November with Jesse texting Savana to meet him at the group’s local hang-out ‘Cray’s Warehouse’ down by the port. Just as she is approaching the warehouse a body falls from the fourth floor. Savana calls the emergency services and tells them that her friend has fallen. Next, we see her at the police station and the person who fell has died, the other four people who were in the warehouse, plus Savana, are suspects in a possible murder.

The book then goes back in time to July of that year and is told through the eyes of Jesse and Savana in alternative chapters. The plot features the six friends every day lives, problems with their families, and issues they have with each other.

I’m not usually a fan of dual POV books but this works really well and the two main characters, Jesse and Savana were both great, enjoyable characters to spend my time with. I love how the author doesn’t sugar-coat being a teenager and tells the reader exactly how it is in real life, especially behind closed doors.

The book doesn’t tell you who fell from the window until late in the story so you have to try and work that one out for yourself, to be honest, I didn’t get the right person.

Overall, The Last One to Fall is a fast-paced, gritty mystery that kept me entertained the whole way through. It kept me guessing from beginning to end and I loved the use of the social media, messages, emails, etc throughout that brought this book bang up-to-date.

Gabriella Lepore is a YA author from South Wales in the United Kingdom. She lives in the countryside with her husband and daughter.

When she isn’t reading or writing, she can usually be found exploring the coastline. She loves autumn days and cups of tea, and is always searching for the next mystery.