The Last First Time by Andrea Bramhall

The Last First Time by Andrea Bramhall

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Book received from Ylva Publishing for an honest review

The Last First Time is the third book in the Norfolk Coast Investigation series.

POV
Both Gina and Kate have point of views on this book, and there’s a third point of view in the prologue.

Characters
In a book like this characters both matter more and matter less than in a pure romance. There is a romance-plot-line here, but it’s subservient to the thriller/mystery plot-line.

On the Romance side of things, the main characters of importance are Gina Temple and Kate Brannon.

On the Mystery/Thriller side of things, the main characters are Kate Brannon, Stella, Clare, Jimmy, Tom, Timmons, Gareth and the rest of the police force. Plus the victims and near victims, like Gina & Stella, Pat O’Shea, and others, like the baby in the baby carriage, in the first explosion; police and innocent bystanders in the second explosion.

On the family side of things we include the growing closer to being a single whole family of Gina, Kate, and Sammy (Gina’s kid); plus Gina’s mum Alison.

Setting
King’s Lynn, Norfolk, England. 98 miles north of London, 36 miles north-east of Peterborough, 44 miles north north-east of Cambridge and 44 miles west of Norwich.

The story takes place around Christmas time.

Story
Gina and Stella are in a sex shop buying a present for Kate. Stella’s there to help Gina, though Stella isn’t really sure why. While in that shop, two teenagers wearing explosives explode.

The story proceeds from there, following several plot-lines:
Plot-line 1: Police investigate terrorists.
Plot-line 2: Gina and Kate’s relationship advances.
Plot-line 3: Gina meets a woman in that sex shop and makes a specific promise, to track down a lost love of that woman.
Plot-line 4: Two police officers from Kate’s past turn up – one an older mentor type, someone Kate thought of in a ‘sister’ type way; other ex-girlfriend of Kate’s. Both betrayed Kate.
Plot-Line 5: Someone is stalking Gina – sending her flowers, cards, letters, indicating that Gina is theirs and that Gina just doesn’t see them.

Review
Before I jump to ‘one specific problem’ (which is what I actually wrote first), I insert this part here: I realized, suddenly, what type of book I got myself into when I started to read from the beginning – the pre-beginning. When the author started to list all the terror attacks that had happened in the UK in the preceding year. Then turned to a prologue that show-cased two women getting ready to explode themselves. This is the third book in the series, I didn’t expect that this was what would pop-up, a terror plot-line. I don’t know what the book’s description says, as I said, this is the third in a series, of course I was going to read this book, no questions asked, no desire to look at the book description in that situation as it might reveal stuff I don’t want to have revealed. It’s like when you are about to watch a show, and three seconds before it starts there’s a preview . . . for that show. Pfft, no want to watch that preview (or read book description)!

I’ve one specific problem right at the start of the book, something immediately let me know that this was not going to be a five star book (or, at least, not a 5+ star book). And that’s the way the prologue and opening chapter merged – no no, not the prologue itself. It was neat that the prologue showed two young women outside a particular shop, showed them entering a shop . . . moved to chapter one, with Gina and Stella both noticing the young women right as the two older women enter the shop. That’s neat and thrilling. It’s the part where the reader knows that the two young women are wearing explosives, and that they are seconds away from detonating them. And that two people who have been in the series from the beginning are, seemingly, inches from them. And then . . . . paragraph after paragraph, word after word . . . way too much in between that, forgive me the use of this phrase, that ‘oh my god’ moment and . . . the actual explosion. I, even though I really really didn’t want to do so – found myself starting to skim. I knew an explosion was just about to happen, I couldn’t read all that crap right then and there. I needed to know what happened next! Yes yes, it builds things up to have these two women acting all human like but . . .. That happens more than I’d like in this book – not really padding, the ‘stuff’ had its use, but it wasn’t ‘stuff’ I really wanted to read right then and there. Elongated the book beyond what it could have been. But, bah. Choices and stuff.

Beyond that specific ‘problematic’ issue, the book was quite riveting, exciting, interesting to read. All aspects of the story. The horror of terrorism, of being in a blast; the bone-wearying investigations; the constant bumping up against ‘need to know’ issues that hamper investigations; the further joining together of two families; the further lives of three women (Kate, Gina, Sammy).

Rating: 4.68

December 13 2017



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