Rating: 
Summary: Have read much better!
Review: I thought this was awful! It was confusing at times and the ending certainly didn't tie up any loose ends. If anything, it made the confusion worse! The description of the book sounded quite interesting, but I was far from interested after the second page. I think the best part of the book was the vocabulary Shreve used. The story though left an awful lot to be desired.
Rating: 
Summary: Major Disappointment from a favorite author
Review: I'm a big Anita Shreve fan...and eagerly await each new book she writes. That said, however, this one is truly terrible. Was this really written by the author of the incredible "The Weight of Water"??? She forces the comparison, since this book is a vastly inferior sequel. Both books had a gimmick at their core, but the gimmick is all this sequel is about. This isn't the first book of hers that's poorly plotted, but usually her moving prose and intricately-drawn characters more than compensate for any weaknesses of story. But this time, even her prose fails her. The writing is, at times, excruciatingly bad and laughably self-conscious. If that wasn't bad enough, she tacks on a so-called "twist" ending that's infuriating in it's absurdity. More than that, the contrived twist ending is basically a big screw-you to the readers who've slogged through this embarrassing gimmick masquerading as a novel. Don't bother with this one, folks.... and cross your fingers that Shreve returns to her excellent form in her next book.
Rating: 
Summary: Read this before Weight of Water
Review: Although this is the most recent of Shreve's books, I recommend reading it BEFORE her earlier WEIGHT OF WATER. The same main character (Thomas Janes) has his life examined in each book, but I think the impact of the powerful ending of THE LAST TIME WE MET would be diluted if you read WofW first.
Rating: 
Summary: The Ending Will Astound You
Review: This is the story of an ill fated romance told backwards. It begins with an encounter between Thomas and Linda at a writer's conference. They haven't seen each other in 20 plus years. The fire of love is rekindled. The book then moves to their adulterous romance at age 27 which came to a tragic end, and then their teenage love at age 17. Despite the passage of years they are soul mates and each time they encounter each other they are inexorably drawn to each other. But the story we think we are reading isn't quite what we thought. In the end everything we thought we have come to understand about their lives is shaken. The poignant ending stunned me. It will make you weep.
Rating: 
Summary: The Last Time They Met -- Repetitive
Review: I find that Anita Shreve knows how to write about two things -- grievance, and adultery. Shreve's creativity is limited in my opinion. The Last Time They Met was very similar to the Weight of Water, so similar in fact, that I thought they could have been sequels. Also, it seems that she enjoys reuniting people from the past in her stories. In order to keep interest, authors need to learn to put other ideas into play in their novels. Next time, Shreve should choose another topic all together.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down........
Review: I have read all of Anita Shreve's books and this is one of my favorties. However, it is confusing at the end and I plan to read it again. Although it is unnecessary to read the book twice, I am very much into the lives of Linda and Thomas and I'm not ready to leave them. Anita Shreve's words are so beautifully written and easy to identify with that I kept a pencil with me and underlined many of the phrases. It is one of the best books I have read!
Rating:
Summary: Elegant writing but not up to Anita Shreve's par
Review: The Last Time They Met has so much going for it--elegant writing, a rich storyline much of which is set in a magnificent African landscape--that I was left high and dry at the ending. I truly felt that Shreve just didn't quite know how to wrap up the story and chose a Hollywood kind of manipulation to end it. Aside from that, I thought it a wonderful idea for Shreve to go into further depth with a character--Thomas Janes--we had met in an earlier Shreve novel (The Weight of Water, a near flawless book). I hope Shreve continues to expand on her "family of characters" in more books. My other thought was that the correspondence between Thomas and Linda in Africa, although beautifully written, was not credible, as the letters sounded like they were composed in the same style by the same person (yes, by Shreve), and not by two different individuals with different writing styles. I have read all of Shreve's books, and although this was better than her most disappointing novel, Fortune's Rocks, to me it still could not shine as much as all of the previous books written before Fortune's Rocks.
Rating:
Summary: Please, Anita, you can do better than this!
Review: While Anita Shreve's prose is always haunting and lyrical, her use of a manipulative plot device leaves one not breathless, but infuriated. I have been a fan of Shreve's for years, and when she is good, no one does it better. This book, however, is a huge disappointment. Perhaps she is being rushed to press. Perhaps she simply underestimates her audience. Whatever the reason, this reader was both and annoyed and irritated with Ms. Shreve for so hackneyed and trite an ending!
Rating:
Summary: Plot twists revealed....
Review: I loved this book, then bought "Weight of Water." Although I ultimately enjoyed "Water," I was distracted by the fact I knew the book's tragic ending because I read "The Last Time They Met." Then I realized with horror that "Water" also reveals the surprise ending to "Last Time." In retrospect, these books compliment another, but if you've read one, it takes away the shock value of the other. I would recommend reading "Last Time" first, since the ending left me breathless and if I had known what was coming, it would have destroyed the whole book....there is still much to gain from "Water" even if you know what happens to Thomas and Jean.....
Rating:
Summary: CONFUSED
Review: THIS BOOK KEPT ME INTERESTED THE ENTIRE TIME BUT THE ENDING THREW ME OFF. I JUST DO NOT GET IT!
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