The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain ~ Book Review

The summer before she goes off to college, Ellie Hockley has applied to volunteer helping register black voters, much to the great dismay of her parents.  Their plans for her are more along the lines of college and a good marriage to a certain local bank manager.  But that doesn't line up with Ellie's ideals.  It is 1965 and her heart is to fight for civil rights which puts her not only in danger, but has brought scandal to her family as working for the Scope project entails living with black families.  When she falls for a fellow volunteer, Ellie has no idea the wheels she has set in motion in her town.

In 2010, architects Kayla Carter and her husband have bought property in the town's new development and have started to build their dream home.  But when her husband dies in a freak fall at the construction site Kayla's world changes forever.  She now has a 3 year old daughter to raise by herself and a semi finished home on a property reputed to be haunted.  When she gets a strange visit from a woman at work warning her against moving in and vandals target the new home, Kayla doesn't know what her next steps should be.  And after meeting her strange neighbor, Ellie Hockley, Kayla doesn't know what to think.  Ellie is very distant and seems to be hiding secrets about the history of Kayla's property and what happened there.  

 Told in dual timelines, this story of a town's sordid and sad history brought out all the emotions.  The Scope Project is something I have never read about before so it was a learning experience for me to read about the brave college students and the trials they faced to get black voters registered.   The characters and what they went through broke my heart, made me mad and shocked me.  The author definitely takes on the horrible things that happened during that time of the civil rights movement without sugar coating it.  The involvement of kkk in spreading hate through a community and the uneasiness of pitting neighbor against neighbor never knowing who might be involved with such a vile group definitely brought tension.  The story definitely makes one think and reflect.  It was everything I love in a historical fiction.

I rated it a 10/10