Rating: 
Summary: moving and funny
Review: Lee Smith makes her characters come fully to life, so that you find yourself caring deeply about them as the story unfolds. Her story contains all the comedy and sadness of life itself. Take a trip down the river with Lee Smith...You won't forget it.Also highly recommended: Alison's Automotive Repair Manual, a novel by Brad Barkley
Rating: 
Summary: A good read, but totally disjointed!!!
Review: I agree with the reviewer from Birmingham, I think! This book was very readible, but totally disjionted!!! I loved the concept of the women who were reuniting to say goodbye to their friend, but somehow, THEIR LIVES got in the way!! The author was dealing with so many people, and her style was very difficult to read!!! She jumps from one of these people (that we have come to care about) with NO warning, to another one of these people!! Half of the time, I wasn't sure just WHO she was referring to!! EX. At the end , Honeysuckle was in bed with someone!! Was it Anna, in her mind?? I think that I am pretty well read, and a former English teacher!! But I did NOT get some of her references!!Frankly, at the end, I'm really not sure WHAT happened to these people that I invested a whole book's worth in!!! It is definitely a great concept!! But the end was a little FLAT!!!
Rating: 
Summary: The Last Girls
Review: I was so excited by the reviews I had read about this book, I couldn't wait to sit down and read it after I had purchased the book. However, I was very disappointed! I must have missed something. Feel like the book was disjointed and highly over-rated! Didn't like the author's style and didn't feel like she developed or completed the characters. Re-read parts because I felt that surely, it must be better than I had at first read; but no, my first impression was the correct one. Not impressed.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I read this for a book club and thought it was a waste of my time. It was depressing and the characters were so frustrating. Annoying even.
Rating:
Summary: Overrated
Review: The characters didn't seem particularly close when they were in college, much less some 30 years later when they hadn't kept up with each other at all. I must have missed something. I can't imagine why Good Morning America recommended this read for a male book club. There are certainly better stories about women out there.
Rating:
Summary: From An "Almost Last" Girl
Review: Although I'm a little older than "the last girls," I lived in the world they came from--a women's college in Virginia--in the mid-1950s. I could identify with all of them in one way or another. Lee Smith has done a marvelous job of "writing about us," the women who came to maturity before the world changed so dramatically with the arrival of the civil rights movement, the women's movement, and the war in Vietnam. And for the reviewer who talked about "rights of passage," may I point out that the term is "rites of passage." Women of my age and a little younger went through a lot of those rites during our college years, and for most of us the rite of marriage was the one we sought most. We, like the girls in the book, had no idea what life and marriage would bring us in the years ahead. I've been a Lee Smith fan for years. I pre-ordered this book and when it arrived I saved it "as a treat" for several days. And a treat it was! Once I started reading it I could hardly bear to put it down. Then a woman friend of about my age borrowed it and we spent hours on the phone comparing notes about the passages that affected us most deeply--and there were several. Now I'm listening to Lee Smith read it on CD, and finding nuances I missed in reading it--the story becomes more aand more compelling as I hear it spoken.
Rating:
Summary: A schmaltzy "romatic novel" read
Review: What drivel! It is a rare event when "rights of passage" novels can be sensitive, humerous and inspiring. "The Last Girls" lacks all of these qualities. Smith's character profiles leave you questioning who played what role when. It was difficult to believe this is the author who wrote "Saving Grace".
Rating: 
Summary: Take a trip down the might Mississippi! Rating 3.5/5
Review: After reading this book, I am fully ready to take a cruise down the Mississippi. I never realized how expensive or luxourious they could be. Smith does just an exceptional job of describing the setting of this story. You feel like you are on the riverboat and at college with these girls.
We begin the story with a look at how the girls who made the trip down the river in the 60's are doing now. Harriet is an "old maid" schoolteacher, Courtney could be the poster woman for Southern living, Anna is a successful writer, and Heather is an artist. They have all 4 come together to spread the ashes of Baby, one of the original rafters. As we look at their lives now, we also see their lives as they once were. Not only in college, but growing up as well. We see where they came from and what they became. But not all of them have fond memories of the one they have come to bury. While Baby was an exciting person in their lives, she has also caused each girl some kind of heartache and bad memories.
The 4 women are now trying to take a break from their lives and reconnect with each other after having not been in touch for so many years. Their memories are funny, touching, sad, and heart wrenching. As a southern girl I really connected with the characteristics of most of the characters. I felt that I was right there with them on their cruise into "self-discovery" and into New Orleans.
The reason I gave this story a 3.5 out of 5 is because I just felt that it dragged a little too much. In the middle I got very restless and just felt that I was on a plateau. The beginning was great, the ending was okay, but the middle was just a little lacking. I would definitely read another by Lee Smith again and hope that I am transported into the story like I was in this one!
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but.....
Review: I always enjoy Lee Smith's novels and The Last Girls was no exception. Finished it in less than 24 hours. However I kept getting the feeling that the book was written in a hurry, or at least edited in a hurry. There was at least one mispelling that I noticed, inconsistant time references, and (as one other reviewer pointed out) several minor characters had the exact same traits or backgrounds. Though I enjoyed the story, I kept getting caught up in these details and had a hard time focusing on it. I hope that I had just purchased the early edition, with these errors being corrected in a second printing, but I did find this rather disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: A memorable story of change, growth, loss, and renewal
Review: The Last Girls by Les Smith is the superbly crafted and engaging story about the reunion of close female friends and former roommates 35 years after they left a picturesque Blue Ridge women's college. It was in 1965, that they decided to go rafting down the Mississippi river in tribute to the classic tale of Huckleberry Finn. In the present day, they return to the river to bury the ashes of their mutual friend. a profound and memorable story of change, growth, loss, and renewal, The Last Girls is a thoroughly entertaining and highly recommended novel.
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