Rating: 
Summary: Great
Review: I read voraciously, but can not remember ever having been so shocked by the ending of a novel. I believe my mouth dropped open. I kept re-reading the last bit over and over interspersed with the occasional "Wow". Besides and including the ending I really, really enjoyed this novel and couldn't get it out of my head for days. Lovely story, excellent and skilled writing.
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Summary: First love...the love of youth...the endless joy of
Review: memories...the thrill of meeting again..of fulfilling that love again and yet again. All this is in this most wonderful novel that I finished and immediately turned back to page one to reread. I think if I read it again in a year I will have yet another perspective on the lives of Thomas and Linda.When was the last time they met? Were they really in love or was it just childish infatuation? The sheer joy in their meeting again will send chills down your spine. As their lives and love are traced backward from their last meeting to their first, you will share their joys and sorrows and run the gamut of every emotion in between. You will love this book: it's style, grace, prose and most of all its story line which will never, ever leave your mind. It is so well written and executed that the author holds you in her spell the whole time you are turning pages and living the lives of these two very real people with their story which they are dying to share with you.
Rating: 
Summary: A little disappointed, not her best, but not bad
Review: I think that Shreve's WHERE OR WHEN was a much better book and the plot is oh so similar. The ending disappointed me in that I couldn't ascertain the timeline b/c I couldn't adequately make the connection between the location of the last incident in the book and how that fit into the timeline. I like Shreve and this wasn't a bad book. Perhaps if I had read this first, prior to Where or When, I would have liked it more.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderfully Done
Review: In The Last Time They Met, Shreve has written a novel that is very hard to put down and even harder to forget. This novel will leave the reader mourning and aching. It is truly a once in every blue moon experience to find a book where one can get so attached to the characters. This will tug the heart strings of anyone who has a high school sweetheart and aches to know where they are now...if they are happy...if they are alright.
Rating:
Summary: A Dream Within a Dream
Review: The first thing I did when I finished this book was to turn to page one and begin again, frantic for clues to the shocking and unexpected ending. And the next thing I did was to acquire "The Weight of Water," hoping to find further clues. This is the first Shreve novel I have read, and I have been left in a state of questioning disbelief. Was that her intent? Is the reader meant to untangle the twisted paths of a tortured mind and discover the truth within? I'm not really sure. What I can say with certainty is that I found the story of Thomas and Linda, high school sweethearts who meet again at age 26 and 52, touching and troubled. Through the lyrical if spare prose of the author, one can feel the almost palpable yearning of the two lovers. And because the book travels backward in time instead of forward, one gets a unique perspective on the two people involved. Is it intentional that the beginning section, where they meet at age 52, is slow and almost staid? I found Linda one-dimensional in this section, which may be a clue in itself. The middle section, which takes place in Kenya, is bright and beautiful, full of sumptuous descriptions of places, colors, foods, and people. The sensuous meeting of Thomas and Linda at this stage in their lives, their mid-twenties, is breathtaking, even when their separation is inevitable. But it is in the last section, where the lovers are 17, that the reader finally begins to know them in all their youth just ready to flower. I found the tone of each section distinctly different, and my reactions to the characters different as well. This made me even more unprepared for the ending. I don't know whether I am confused, or whether the book bewitched me, or both--but I will say that this is an extraordinary piece of writing, and will stay with me for a long, long, time.
Rating:
Summary: Saved by the undercurrent
Review: The underlying current of first and true loves saved this book for me. I was disturbed by the italics, the fractured way of moving back through time, and of course the jolting end to the story. However, Anita Shreve caresses the emotions of first love with words, making me warm with remembrance.
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Summary: Startling, very unexpected ending. Very intense book.
Review: What a thrill to read this book. The ending will leave you very startled and like another reviewer said, you will want to flip back and make sure you didn't miss something. You will think about the ending for days afterward.
This book is very well written. Lots of emotion with intense characters that you feel like you know personally. I loved this book and can't wait to read more of her work.
(I also want to say that I was extremely disappointed to read a review that a person had left that gives away the ending - WHAT A SHAME!!)
Rating:
Summary: The Last Time I was Entertained
Review: Anita Shreve's "The Last Time They Met" is a story about life and love with a startling ending that leaves the reader in shock, days after you are finished reading the novel. Shreve develops the characters of Linda and Tomas in an engaging way, allowing the reader to become emotionally attached to the characters and their love for one another.
As the story ended, I was hungry for more of the intense dialogue and themes that accent the story. Throughout the novel, I felt as though I was a part of Tomas and Linda's thirty year love affair. I am a huge fan of Shreve's writing and I was especially impressed with how the plot in "The Last Time They Met" unfolded. The intensity of Shreve's style amplifies the tragedies and events that take place throughout the novel.
If you enjoy Anita Shreve's writing style, I highly recommend reading this book as well as "The Weight of Water." I would actually read "The Weight of Water" first since it is basically an introduction into the tragic life of Tomas.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, but haunting!
Review: I thought this book was well written. It displayed wonderful emotion and scenery. I knew a shocking ending was in store, but was not prepared for what it turned out to be! It threw me off and I re-read the first section to try and make sense of it, but am still left somewhat confused. I can't say why without giving away the ending, but I will say to prepare to be jolted!
Rating:
Summary: Breathless and speechless!
Review: I finished this book just 10 minutes ago and am still in a state of mild shock at the ending.I simply hadn't realised that Anita Shreve was capable of writing such magnificent prose ! She lifts you up and floats you along on such an ethereal cloud-filmy but magically intense-so that you can literally forget where you are. I don't normally rabbit on about prose but this is very special. The story is simple and I don't want to give anything away as it would ruin the reading of the book. Girl meets boy in teenage years--they part and meet again in middle age to discover that the deep feelings they had for each other have never gone away. I suppose that most women have an old love about whom they wonder-"what if "? I gave it only 4 stars as the ending left me curiously stranded and ambivalent about the final outcome.
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