The Last List of Mabel Beaumont and The Last Marriage of Dot Brightmore (Mabel Beaumont #1 and #2) by Laura Pearson

Amy   

Lynnie

contemporary fiction

Mabel’s husband of 62 years dies in his sleep. They had no children and she finds herself completely alone with their dog (who adored her husband) in the town she’s lived in her entire life. However, she finds a note after he’s gone—a note he wrote that says “Find D”. And thus, Mabel makes it her goal to find her long-lost best friend, Dot, since Dot is the only “D” she can think of.

 

Amy's Review

What a sweet novel. Of course, those of us who have been married many years sometimes think about what life will be like if our partner dies first. But this book made me think more deeply about my own envisioned future. 

Mabel, sadly, didn’t have anyone else in her life with whom she was close after her husband was gone. Thankfully, once she broke through the disabling grief, she gradually came to know several women who became her new family. 

I had read many examples of this sort of novel before—where a loner ends up finding people with whom to connect and everyone is better off because of those connections. But The Last List of Mabel Beaumont is one of my favorites in this category. Laura Pearson’s treatment of a widowed octogenarian felt spot on and I thought she did a great job with all of the characters. While there were a few slow-paced sections, I really enjoyed Mabel’s story. 

The audiobook narrator, Penelope Freeman, was perfect for this novel. She had a lovely older British lady voice and had a really nice vocal repertoire as well as pitch-perfect acting. While she didn’t speak slowly, she sometimes took very long breaks between sentences, especially near the beginning, which made things feel a little slow at times. However, the lengthy breaks were appropriate given that she was contemplative at those times. So I tolerated these slower-seeming sections patiently. I give her an A! 

 

Lynnie's Review

 

The Last List of Mabel Beaumont was an absolute delight! It's rare to find a book these days where I like all the characters, but Laura Pearson has created a community full of interesting characters and I found myself cheering for all of them.

Arthur’s note, "Find D", gives Mabel a quest and a reason to venture out of her comfort zone and into the community she has lived in all her life, but kept at arm's distance. As Mabel tries to find her former best friend, Dot, she meets a group of women who, over time, become the family she has been looking for. Their supportive display of female friendship is the heart of the novel.

There are lots of books in this genre - lonely old person stumbles into friendship and love - and The Last List of Mabel Beaumont does this particularly well. Mabel isn't a grump and doesn't have strange quirks that make friendship difficult for her; she's just been stuck in a rut for 60 years, living quietly with Arthur. It was wonderful to see her come out of her shell, proving that it's never too late to start living your life.

This is a sweet book that will leave a smile on your face. I read the Kindle version and listened to the audiobook simultaneously. Narrator Penelope Freeman was fantastic - I enjoyed her variety of voices and particularly her interpretation of Mabel. 

 

Lynnie  

 

I adored Laura Pearson's The Last List of Mabel Beaumont last year, so I was very eager to learn that she was continuing Mabel and Dot's story in her newest book, The Last Marriage of Dot Brightmore.

Picking up shortly after the events of the first book, we rejoin Mabel, Dot, Erin, Julie and the gang as life continues forward and Dot gets welcomed into Mabel's found family and Mabel meets and gets welcomed into Dot's family. 

Yes, it is exactly as exciting and interesting as it sounds. Don't get me wrong, it is a very sweet book and there are some emotional moments, but most of the book is life as you would have expected it to move forward for Mabel and Dot if you had just imagined what had happened after the first book.

It was nice to spend time with all the characters again, but utterly unnecessary. If you enjoy books that are just a lovely slice of life, then by all means, spend the time because this IS a lovely slice of life with people who love each other and set a great example of how humans should behave toward one another. Truly, we could all use more of that in our lives.

The Last Marriage of Dot Brightmore will publish on May 8, 2026.

Thank you to Boldwood Books, NetGalley and Laura Pearson for the advance reader copy.