The Last One to Know is a wholesome Christian romance that follows Siegfried “Ziggy” Abel from small-town Illinois into college, marriage, heartbreak, and finally a quieter, steadier kind of love. We watch him fall hard for Dana Stewart in high school, navigate her controlling parents and their secret meetings in the woods, marry her, and then slowly realize that love alone cannot fix deep wounds, mental illness, or repeated betrayal. Years later, after a painful divorce that he cannot in good conscience stop, Ziggy finds himself drawn toward Lisa Kohler, the shy girl who used to blush over hot chocolate in his parents’ kitchen, and the story moves toward a second-chance romance that feels gentler and more rooted. The setting is the 1970s and 80s Midwest, and the book wears its label as a clean Christian romance openly, with faith and church life shaping nearly every big decision Ziggy makes.

Ziggy tells everything in first person, in plain language, and there are stretches where we linger in the everyday details of school, work, and family jokes, like the legendary White Castle slider contest or Clint’s quest to get a “four-dollar drunk” after giving blood. Those moments of humor matter because the book also walks into some very dark rooms: Dana’s brutal beatings at the hands of her father, her suicide attempts, the slow disintegration of the marriage, and the shock of Ziggy learning he is “the last one to know” about her infidelity and her determination to leave. The writing can feel unusually detailed at times, almost like a diary that refuses to skip any of the hard or awkward bits, but that density also makes the big emotional turns feel earned. When Ziggy finally sits in a lawyer’s office, reading a divorce agreement that asks for almost nothing and quietly admits multiple affairs, the scene stings because we have trudged through all the little compromises that led there.

I liked how honestly the book handles faith and failure. This is a Christian romance, but it is not a neat sermon with a bow on top. Ziggy believes in God, values marriage, and hates the idea of divorce, yet his pastor and friends gently push him to see that clinging to Dana will likely cost her life and his sanity. The story lets that tension sit for a while, instead of rushing to a tidy answer. I also appreciated the way Lisa is woven in from early on, not as a shiny replacement, but as a girl with her own hurts, stuck in a family that teases her relentlessly and does not always listen. Ziggy’s steady kindness to her years before romance is even on the table makes their later relationship feel like the slow clearing of fog rather than a sudden thunderbolt, and by the time he realizes they have quietly been dating for months, it feels completely natural that he sees her as the person he has been looking for all along.

I feel like the book is less about sparks and more about choosing what is right when everything hurts, learning to forgive without excusing harm, and trusting that God can shepherd someone through both divorce and new love without wasting the pain. If you like character-driven stories, small-town settings, and Christian fiction that is honest about abuse, mental illness, and messy marriages while still staying clean and hopeful, The Last One to Know is worth reading.

Pages: 378 | ASIN : B0G78CWFZ8