Book Review: The Last of August by Brittany Cavallaro (spoiler filled review)

Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! Today I am going to be doing another book review, this one a spoiler review of The Last of August by Brittany Cavallaro, the second book in the Charlotte Holmes series. 

This is a book I read pretty recently, so let's discuss out. There will be spoilers for both A Study in Charlotte and The Last of August, so if you haven't read either of those books and wish to, I'd recommend not reading this review.

With that aside, let's get into the review!

The Last of August was a very interesting book. This book follows Charlotte Holmes and her partner, Jamie Watson, as they try to locate Charlotte's uncle, Leander, who has gone missing. This book doesn't take place that much after the events in A Study in Charlotte.

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There were a few things I found predictable in this story. Particularly involving the title. August Moriarty is revealed to be alive at the end of the previous installment. I read the title and two possibilities came to me: either August dies or he disappears off the face of the earth. Midway through the novel, it is hinted that the title came from The Last of August, a seemingly made up painting for this book to potentially 'explain' the title. If so, I wasn't completely fooled. 

August is shot down by Milo, Charlotte's older brother, on the very last page of the novel. I predicted this from a mile away. However, his 'death' was so sudden that it didn't felt genuine and felt very rushed. I feel like Milo would've been more upset than he was about shooting August. After all, Charlotte cares about August and Milo, to some level, cares about Charlotte. So why he acted so heartless and nonchalant about it doesn't make sense? Jamie's reaction felt genuine. Charlotte's felt mostly genuinely. But again, his death was so sudden that it didn't make sense. 

Because it felt so sudden and ingenuine, I don't believe August is dead. I think he and Milo faked his death again. I don't know what makes me believe this, but it makes sense as to why Milo would seem as if he didn't care. He also left Charlotte alone to deal with everything, which seems very heartless, even for Milo. I know that Jamie wrote that there was a 'dark halo' around August's head, which I assume is supposed to be blood, however, everyone knows that you should check someone's pulse and breaths before concluding anything. 

Another thing that doesn't make sense to me was how August pointed out that Charlotte and her family were trying to frame Phillipa and Hadrian Moriarty, August's older siblings, for Leander's disappearance as well as the poisoning of Mrs. Holmes. This doesn't make sense to me. 

I mean, maybe I missed something in the plot, but from I could gather, Hadrian and Phillipa helped to kidnap Jamie and Charlotte. They also forged paintings and sold them, which is illegal. August was in contact with his siblings to some degree, and none of them bothered to tell him that they didn't have Leander? None of that makes sense. Maybe Hadrian and Phillipa didn't kidnap Leander, maybe they didn't poison Charlotte's mother, but they were still criminals. Selling art forgeries is illegal as is kidnapping. Unless I missed a key part of the plot, what is August missing here? 

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As for the characters, Jamie annoyed me a little. His impatience with Charlotte got on my nerves. However, Charlotte sometimes didn't help the situation. Most of it is on Jamie, but Charlotte shares about 2% of the blame. 

Charlotte, on the other hand, didn't feel much different from the first book. She still acted the same way. There was nothing about her that got better or worse. My only question is, how much of Mrs. Holmes's poisoning did she know about and did she actually know where Leander was the entire time? Was the entire case just a ruse? It is implied, but it's never actually said, so I was very confused about that.

I found August very fascinating and wanted to read more about him. He was given more of a personality in this book since this was his first, official introduction. I'm glad we actually got to get to know him.

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Overall, I give The Last of August 4.5 stars out of 5. I liked the first book more. This one was enjoyable, but Jamie annoyed me a little more. Thankfully, August made up for it a bit. I'm excited to read the rest of the series, and I am excited to see what The Case For Jamie has in store.

That's it for this review! I hope you enjoyed it! 

See you Thursday, 

Lexi K🖌