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Forgiveness and Love
The Last One to Know follows a man from first love to first heartbreak and a second chance, as faith, divorce, and hard-earned wisdom teach him that love isn’t proven by how tightly you hold on, but by knowing when to let go. Was Ziggy inspired by personal experience, observation, or pure imagination?
Ziggy was largely the result of a combination of personal experience and imagination. His reaction to adultery was based on the observation of a wonderful Christian man who has always been an inspiration to me because of his capacity to show grace and forgiveness.
Ziggy’s voice is plainspoken and detailed, almost diary-like—what drew you to that style?
I often fail to understand what women think and feel, and I have to have it explained to me. Having the main character trapped in that male perspective allowed me to show his confusion and his inability to understand some of the things happening in his life. Most romances are written from a feminine perspective or an omniscient narrator. Ziggy’s struggles to grasp what is happening and why are an important part of his struggle. Female friends explain things to him, and he wrestles with God to find the right path.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Domestic violence, adultery, and divorce were my primary concerns. I wanted to show how these issues can damage and change multiple lives with devastating consequences. On a lesser level, I touched on abortion, racism, and standing for the right without regard to the consequences. These are real-life problems that touch every life to some extent. I tried to address them with compassion and a light touch of humor.
What do you hope Christian readers take away from the way faith is portrayed here?
The importance of forgiveness and love, even when you are hurting, as shown by Siegfried. Lisa’s graciousness in acting contrary to her own self-interest, even when it causes her great pain, is an important part of faith. She is an example to all.
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In The Last One to Know, Siegfried Abel (who hates his name) struggles as he navigates physical attraction, passion, friendship, humor, and all the other aspects that draw two people together.
Siegfried has a strong sense of right and wrong. At times, it seems as though he is tilting at windmills. Will he be successful? Or will those who are more powerful take him down again, and again?
Will he find love, and how will he know it’s the woman of his dreams when he meets her?
Join Siegfried and a host of complex characters as he grows from adolescence to maturity, finding love where he least expected.
In this Clean Christian Romance, you will agonize with Siegfried as he deals with issues of life’s unfairness, disappointments, and betrayal. It is an arduous journey marked by heartache, happiness, and ultimately love.
The Last One to Know: A Wholesome Christian Romance
The Last One to Know follows Siegfried “Ziggy” Abel from college into adulthood as he stumbles through love, faith, and responsibility in small-town Illinois and nearby St. Louis. What starts as a rekindled romance with his high school girlfriend, Dana, slowly unfolds into a marriage filled with deep hurt, mental health struggles, and hard choices that end in divorce. Out of that wreckage, Ziggy grows into a man who has to decide if he will really live by his Christian convictions at work and at home, even when it might cost him his job and his reputation. Alongside that heavy journey runs a gentler thread, the steady presence of Lisa, his friend’s shy kid sister, whose quiet loyalty and courage slowly shift into a second chance at love that feels earned rather than neat. By the time the story reaches its epilogue, the book has walked through abuse, control, depression, and betrayal, and still lands on a hopeful picture of grace, healing, and a new life built on honesty and faith.
I connected with the writing most in the everyday moments. The voice feels casual and relatable. There is a lot of internal chatter in Ziggy’s head, and sometimes he overthinks, yet that fits who he is, a guy who wants to do the right thing and is afraid of messing it up. The small town scenes feel warm and specific, with things like cruising parking lots, White Castle slider bets, and awkward family teasing around the table. I liked that sense of texture. I also appreciated how the spiritual side is woven in. Church, prayer, and conscience sit inside the story like normal life, not like a sermon dropped on top. When Ziggy faces the hospital scandal and the question of calling out a dangerous doctor, his faith is part of the weight and part of the strength, and that moved me.
The book takes its time. There are stretches where conversations and inner doubts are revisited in slightly different ways. That slow burn makes the emotional turns hit harder when they finally arrive, especially the long unraveling of Ziggy and Dana’s marriage and Dana’s fragile recovery after the divorce. The handling of mental illness and suicidal thoughts felt tender and respectful, and that touched me. I liked that Dana is not turned into a villain. She is hurting, she makes painful choices, yet she is also the one who releases Ziggy and blesses his future with Lisa. Her final letter gave me a lump in my throat. Lisa herself worked as a character for me. She starts out as a shy teen who gets teased by her family, and by the end she has become this strong, steady woman who encourages Ziggy to live bravely instead of shrinking back. That arc felt really satisfying.
I came away feeling like I had read about real people through a long, messy decade of life and somehow ended in a place of quiet joy. The writing is straightforward and emotional, with enough humor to keep the darkness from sinking the story. I would recommend The Last One to Know to readers who enjoy clean Christian romance, slow and character-driven plots, and small-town settings with a lot of heart. It will especially resonate with people who have lived through divorce, complicated first loves, or seasons of deep doubt and still want to believe that God can bring something good out of the worst chapters.
Pages: 378 | ASIN : B0G78CWFZ8
The Last One to Know: A Wholecome Christian Romance
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
