Synopsis:

Sophie Honeywell always wondered if Thomas Gordon was the one she let get away. He was the perfect boyfriend, but on the day he was to propose, she broke his heart. A year later he married his travel agent, while Sophie has been mortifyingly single ever since. Now Thomas is back in her life because Sophie has unexpectedly inherited his aunt Connie’s house on Scribbly Gum Island — home of the famously unsolved Munro Baby mystery.
Sophie moves onto the island and begins a new life as part of an unconventional family where it seems everyone has a secret. Grace, a beautiful young mother, is feverishly planning a shocking escape from her perfect life. Margie, a frumpy housewife, has made a pact with a stranger, while dreamy Aunt Rose wonders if maybe it’s about time she started making her own decisions.
As Sophie’s life becomes increasingly complicated, she discovers that sometimes you have to stop waiting around — and come up with your own fairy-tale ending.
As she so adroitly did in her smashing debut novel, Three Wishes, the incomparable Liane Moriarty once again combines sharp wit, lovable and eccentric characters, and a page-turning story for an unforgettable Last Anniversary.

This sounds like more of a typical chick-lit novel than I feel it actually is. There is certainly the element of romance but also an element of mystery too.
I really liked the characters in The Last Anniversary and I feel like character depth is one of Liane Moriarty’s strengths, in my opinion. At first I wasn’t sure about protagonist Sophie as she seemed a little selfish and vain, plus the other characters kept going on about how they loved her and Thomas being together and that she’s so ‘cute’ and ‘lovely’, which got on my nerves a bit and seemed like the author was beating the reader around the head with the fact that she’s obviously a likeable person! However I did warm to her as the novel went on. The other characters were also very interesting, especially the older ladies with their amusing comments and the relationship between Callum and Grace (though I found elements of that really quite sad!) and the characters added a lot to the story. Also, most of the characters tell the story partly from each of their own perspectives so it’s interesting to read it from other points of view.
Along with the characters, another element of the novel which I loved was the setting- Scribbly Grim Island – which I found very charming and quaint. I could picture exactly what it looks like in my mind!
I really liked the element of mystery throughout as it kept me interested and wondering what the true story of the Munro disappearance was, though I did guess the twist quite a bit before the end so was quite predictable, especially as I don’t usually guess correctly!
I wouldn’t say this is in any way Liane Moriarty’s best book (I really enjoyed all her books that I’ve read but The Husband’s Secret and What Alice Forgot were probably my absolute favourites, though I really loved Little Lies too!) but I really enjoyed reading it!
Rating: 3.5/5