Review: 'The Last Page' by Katie Holt
Pub. Date: 12/05/2026
Publisher: Alcove Press
Ella has grown up at The Last Page, a charming local bookstore in New York City where she now works. Her first kiss was in the women’s health section. A boyfriend dumped her in comedy. The owner is like a second father to her and has begun training her to take over the store. So when he unexpectedly dies and his estranged grandson is left everything in the will, Ella is devastated.
Henry doesn’t know the first thing about running a bookstore. With his aging mom back in Tennessee, he plans to stay in New York just long enough to ensure things are running smoothly and then head back home. What he never could have counted on was the beautiful, funny bookseller who loves The Last Page more than any place in the world—and who sees him as the villain who’s come to ruin her life.
But when it becomes evident that the store is in deep financial trouble and Henry and Ella are both at risk of losing everything, they have no choice but to put their differences aside and team up—despite the inconvenient chemistry blossoming between them.
I am somewhat of a newbie reader of Romance. I think the last vestiges of my internalised "I'm not like other girls"-misogyny are to blame, but perhaps that's letting myself off easy. It wasn't until a friend lent me an Ali Hazelwood book that I really understood the fun of the genre. I have since become a devoted Hazelwood-reader and have been working on branching out beyond her, in part because I'm curious to know whether I just like her writing or whether I like Romance in general. In the process I have come to realise just how complex and difficult a genre Romance is. In other genres, if something doesn't quite work or if characters do something or act in a way you don't fully like, that's not always a problem. In the case of thrillers, for example, characters being dumb (affectionate) is actually key. But in Romance there is less space for that. We need characters to be dumb (affectionate) of course, so that miscommunication and yearning and all that good stuff can take place, but there is a real danger of the dreaded Ick. If I dislike a thriller, I can usually still enjoy it because I still get to puzzle out the clues, even if I find them silly. But if something happens in a Romance that is counter to what I like, find romantic or endearing, etc. then I truly struggle to continue reading. It's almost as if that entirely ruins the reading experience for me because the feelings and immersion I was looking for are now cancelled out. This experience is never really the "fault" of the author, though. The human experience is broad, individual, and varied and something I find uncomfortable might be exactly the kind of thing someone else is looking for. No Romance author can cater to everyone's tastes. It does mean, however, that reading Romance is much more hit and miss for me than any other genre. (I have discovered that I enjoy Catherine Walsh almost as much as Ali Hazelwood!)
The Last Page is about the namesake indie bookstore in new York. Its beloved owner has recently died and now Ella, his trusted confidante and seeming heir, is on tenterhooks, waiting to hear from the lawyers. While waiting for their email, she runs into a handsome Southern man on the metro. The next day, the same man rocks up and reveals himself to not just be the previous owner's grandson but also the new owner of the bookstore. With his background in finance, Henry seems to have exactly zero appreciation for how an institution like 'The Last Page' should be run. Ella and Henry are therefore on opposing sides, setting up a solid enemies-to-lovers scenario, except that the fact that the bookstore is on the brink of foreclosure somewhat nips the enemies part in the bud straight away. I did like much of the first two-thirds of The Last Page. Ella is often delightful (even if she sometimes suffers from Quirky Girl-disease) and I liked how Katie Holt showed how her bubbly personality is in part a cover for how deeply she feels. Henry is mostly fun/somewhat beige, a real soft boy barely hiding behind a Finance Guy-front. The setting of the bookstore is fun and I really liked how every chapter started with a "Staff Recommendation". Speaking of, the staff of the bookstore is somewhat made up of what feels to me, as someone who has never been to New York and only knows it through "Friends" and "The Nanny", like New York cliches. They were funny, though, and did what they were there to do. I also really liked the surrounding family for both Ella and Henry, it fleshed the whole thing out a little more.
As said above, Romance is difficult and I'm still a sensitive enough Romance-reader that small things kick me out of the fun. For much of The Last Page, Katie Holt had me. The back and forth between Ella and Henry is cute and their first couple of intimate moments were fun as well. Because the book is split into a dual POV between them, the reader can fully see what's going on with each of them while they keep dancing around it. However, I was left somewhat cold by the happy ending of it all, in part because some things happened that I would personally not love. None of it is bad, mind, it's not like Henry suddenly reveals himself to be a psycho or Ella goes off the deep end, it was just those tiny Ick-moments that are personal to me and took me out of it a little. In a way, reading Romance is giving me, a chronically single person, an insight into what I might like in a relationship, but it does suck to not get to fully enjoy the ending and the emotional pay-off associated with it. However, for those who like some yearning, a book store-setting, and supportive and loving families, The Last Page might be exactly the thing.
I give this novel...
3 Universes!
While The Last Page wasn't really for me, it definitely has many things others will love.
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