The Last Place You Look

by Norma Curtis

The new contemporary novel of life, love and how to survive it, from the acclaimed author of Quality Time and Living It Up, Living It Down. Faye Reading has given second place to her career as a lighting designer in order to be a good wife and mother – to her husband, Nick, their adopted son Samuel and their daughter Isabel. If her lifestyle has been on the reckless side, Nick’s conscience, sense and good nature have always compensated, giving her the security she has craved since childhood. At least until now. For a message on the answerphone, a visit to the doctor and the return of Samuel’s natural mother – Nick’s wayward young sister – are about to upset the balance of their lives, casting shadows where there was light, and doubt where there was certainty. As they each confront their own personal demons, Faye and Nick must find a way forward, but first they must learn where to look… Theirs is a story of courage, tenderness, fear and faith, which Norma Curtis deftly recounts with her unique blend of dry humour, warmth, wisdom and originality.

Genres: Romance, Fiction

352 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1998

About the author

Norma Curtis was born near Wrexham, North Wales, where her family still resides, and now lives in London, England, with her husband and a son. She is a novelist and short story writer, and she was elected the twentieth Chairman (1999–2001) of the Romantic Novelists' Association.

Her first novel, "Living It Up, Living It Down", published in 1994 by HarperCollins, won the Romantic Novelists' Association New Writers’ Award, and also featured in the WH Smith Fresh Talent promotion. Her other books, The House Husband (Quality Time) and The Last Place You Look have also been published by HarperCollins. Her short stories have appeared in Woman, Woman and Home and Woman’s Own, anthologies and teenage magazines. She writes with a unique blend of dry humour, warmth, wisdom and originality.

Reviews

[Shai]

I have a long list of to-read books and I was kind of hesitant to read this due to the average rating and some of the bad reviews. But I gambled on reading it first instead of those that have high ratings; unlike the others who wrote a review here, I was not that disappointed after I'm finished reading it.

The story or rather the ending encourages us to forgive those who hurt us, to keep moving on forward, and to be happy and enjoy life. And if you do those, "the last place you look" or to mind is death because forgiveness, loving, being happy and positive will help you forget fear and death.

[San-Dee Keefner]

Good God this book was all over the place. Hard to write a review when I myself am not to sure where the ending is?!

SPOILERS*** SPOILERS*** SPOILERS*** SPOILERS***

Hard to call this a romance novel cause there is no HEA. Husband falls in lurve with wife's friend from work. She over hears a conversation on the phone recorder. She confronts him and he lies. She finds out that she has lung cancer and so he feels he needs to call off the affair that had not quite taken off yet. NOW THIS IS WHAT GOT ME.... he goes to church and prays to God for a sign that it is ok to have an affair with OW. can we say A@@hole??? Shortly after that she finds out she has lung cancer.. So according to H this is his sign to have the affair. He prays for h's death and he can shag the OW! So while h was in the hospital having surgery and recuperating he was sexing up the OW in his and h's house. With the kids down the hall. TOP NOTCH GUY HERE. So she comes through the surgery and doctor said she will live. This is the point where the H brings down and realizes he just really messed up. She catches on and figures out he has been with the OW and kicks him out of the hospital She goes home and finds closure with herself. I mean she survived cancer. There are other things going on here like a crazy SIL and a MIL that is in denial about her kids. After the h tells the H to go after the OW cause she was done he realizes what type of woman the OW was. B/c she kept pushing for a relationship with H and H kept saying he was not leaving his wife. She ends up going to Disney World France with her kids and her father and tells him to move out. He say he does not want to move out and they he is there for her.

What ever that means...

So does the h go back to the H?? Does the H move out?? Does the H go to the OW?? Do they get a divorce?? We do not know they book ends. So many unanswered questions.

The book itself was kinda hard to follow along. The writing was all over the place.

[LeinF]

What kind of ending was that? There was no resolution to the cheating thing, and the H who is an asshat get away scott free. This was such a disappointment.

[Nerissa]

1.5

Badly lacked depth, lacked emotion, lacked real emotions and reactions. The style of writing was weird but I'm sure some people would find it poetic. I just found it annoying and lacking depth.

There was no grovel. There was shown no remorse or love. There was no comeuppance for the ow. There was no emotional reaction from the wife.

There was no reprucussions. It was pathetic really.

[Katharine.]

There are chapters that make no sense. I won’t try to decipher them. The story is basically a youngish woman who smoked herself into lung cancer. Her parents divorced when she was a child. Her husband had been falling in love with her friend. They had one adopted child and one birth child. He was dedicated to his faith so when his wife got cancer he and his lover decided to wait until she was dead to openly date(it didn’t stop them from having sex while she was recovering from surgery). When he found out she was going to survive he cursed in front of her and that’s when she figured out the affair. She told him to leave but he decided to stay until she recovered. Nice. She reconnected with her birth father. Her husband decided to stay. She didn’t act too whelmed(over or under) because she, her father and the kids were in France at Disney World. Sooooo in one or two leetle remarks we find that several years ago she had a thing with a co-worker. Several patients she met at the hospital died and she appeared more upset about that than her failing marriage. I never did figure out if they really loved each other. Oh, yeah, the friend just disappeared from the story.

[Phyllis C Surface]

Three stars

the book was Kind of depressing for me. I meant it was real enough or perhaps too real for some that have actually experienced what Faye went through. Wouldn't recommend this one.

[Gail]

Disappointing

[AngryGreyCat]

The Last Place You Look was a free book on Amazon for Kindle. I haven’t read the author before to my knowledge. The book centers around a wife and mother, Faye, who has life start to throw a series of curve balls at her one after another. Alicia, the birth mother of her adopted son, who also happens to be Faye’s husband’s sister reappears after a long absence. Faye develops a cough that leads to the discovery of a shadow on an x-ray and a whole new slew of medical tests and procedures. Faye’s friend, Susie, has set her sights on Faye’s husband, Nick and Nick isn’t trying very hard to avoid her. Faye’s father attempts to reconnect after “abandoning” her many years before. The story is interesting and I found myself rooting for Faye to overcome each of these difficulties.

Faye is a strong character, who finds even more strength as she overcomes each obstacle thrown in her path. Nick, her husband is an utter jackass. His behavior and Susie’s is just appalling and it makes you root even harder for Faye.

I did enjoy this book although I will say I wasn’t thrilled with the resolution at the very end, but it worked, it just wasn’t the ending I wanted for Faye.

[Heather]

This took me a little while to get into and certainly a while to warm to any of the characters! I found myself plodding along with the story and did get to a stage where i needed to know how the story would finish.

The weaving of the story is very good and I'm glad I pesevered!

[RomeoJuliet]

whats with the ending?

Did she forgive him? Will he be faithful to her OR find another sign in future to cheat on her again?

There were too many characters and too many monologes. Got boring after a while but I kept reading to see HOW badly this will be resolved and it was BADLY resolved!!

[Yvette]

The Last Place You Look by Norma Curtis (1970)

[Sarah]

A bit strange. Took a long time to get into.