Genre: Legal Thriller
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This is the fifth book in the Anna Curtis series that I have read and reviewed, and they just keep getting better. The topic of The Last Good Girl is a difficult one because it is highlighting the issues surrounding college rape and some universities' inability to handle it correctly. The National Crime Victimization Survey says that approximately 1 in 6 woman are victims of sexual assault (with the rate higher in college) but most rapists avoid punishment. A small percentage of those crimes are ever prosecuted and even fewer lead to convictions.
The story that Leotta tells is a common one, with a few twists to keep it interesting. Emily is a freshman who, who while attending her first fraternity party is drugged and raped by Dylan. She is the daughter of the college's President, a man who can't decide whether to protect his daughter or his university's reputation. Dylan is the son of a high powered, and very wealthy, politician who will manipulate anyone to get his way. When Emily disappears after being seen running from Dylan, he is suspected of foul play. Anna Curtis, a U.S. Federal prosecutor, and FBI Agent Samantha Randazzo team together to find Emily and arrest Dylan.
The story alternates between the search for Emily and a Video Blog that she posted on a school site detailing her rape. The details are upsetting, but Leotta handles them well as she tries to tell a story that needs to be told. The subplot involves the reader in the life of Anna, and the author has a way of making these characters as three dimensional as any I have read. Through the series we meet her boss, and ultimate fiancé, Jack, and learn to love him and his daughter as much as Anna does. When they break up during the third book in the series, the reader feels the loss. In book number four she goes back to her home town to defend her sister and runs into her old friend, Cooper. Their romance starts slowly, but in The Last Good Girl she is living with him and obviously loves him. Of course Jack re-enters the picture and tries to win her back. I loved both men, and could not decide who to root for as the book progressed.
The Last Good Girl will give you plenty to think about and make you realize how far we are from actually achieving the "women's rights and equality" that we hear about in the political arena.
- Beverly
Publisher - Simon and Schuster
Date of Publication - May 3, 2016
The story that Leotta tells is a common one, with a few twists to keep it interesting. Emily is a freshman who, who while attending her first fraternity party is drugged and raped by Dylan. She is the daughter of the college's President, a man who can't decide whether to protect his daughter or his university's reputation. Dylan is the son of a high powered, and very wealthy, politician who will manipulate anyone to get his way. When Emily disappears after being seen running from Dylan, he is suspected of foul play. Anna Curtis, a U.S. Federal prosecutor, and FBI Agent Samantha Randazzo team together to find Emily and arrest Dylan.
The story alternates between the search for Emily and a Video Blog that she posted on a school site detailing her rape. The details are upsetting, but Leotta handles them well as she tries to tell a story that needs to be told. The subplot involves the reader in the life of Anna, and the author has a way of making these characters as three dimensional as any I have read. Through the series we meet her boss, and ultimate fiancé, Jack, and learn to love him and his daughter as much as Anna does. When they break up during the third book in the series, the reader feels the loss. In book number four she goes back to her home town to defend her sister and runs into her old friend, Cooper. Their romance starts slowly, but in The Last Good Girl she is living with him and obviously loves him. Of course Jack re-enters the picture and tries to win her back. I loved both men, and could not decide who to root for as the book progressed.
The Last Good Girl will give you plenty to think about and make you realize how far we are from actually achieving the "women's rights and equality" that we hear about in the political arena.
- Beverly
Publisher - Simon and Schuster
Date of Publication - May 3, 2016
