Last Chance Match
~Gabriella St. Luke

Last Chance Match by Gabriella St. Luke drops you into a world where finding your perfect match is left up to the government, not the heart. Think Love Island built on a gallows, where contestants aren’t competing for fame or fortune, but for their lives. Those chosen are getting their “last chance” at finding a match before the clock runs out. This isn’t just a flirt with darkness. This is the full proposal, ring in hand and blood on the floor.

Calasca has one rule that matters: be matched with your soulmate by the age of thirty, or be exterminated.

Cera, a broke waitress and recovering addict, is soulmateless and has just received her extermination date. But the thing she hates most about the government’s control over her life isn’t what will happen to her. It’s the thought of leaving her sister, Kensi, behind. Kensi was lucky enough, if you want to call it that, to be matched with Jourdyn, even though their match percentile is one of the lowest rankings. At least Kensi won’t have to face extermination.

Then the government makes a sudden announcement: for the first time ever, soulmateless citizens will have a chance to participate in the Last Chance Match, a televised competition where randomly selected participants will compete for the opportunity to find their perfect match.

Cera dreams about what it would be like to be chosen and actually win. To have the chance to live out her life, build a family of her own, and still be around to watch over Kensi. But dreams and government statistics don’t exactly make comfortable bedfellows, and Cera knows her chances are slim.

Then there’s Ryde Cassidy, grandson of the late President Cassidy, soulmateless and also scheduled for extermination. He’s been coming into Kona’s Diner, owned by Jourdyn, Kensi’s match, for a while now, doing little more than what Cera has decided is his personal mission to annoy her on a daily basis. He’s cocky, entitled, and seemingly far too interested in getting under her skin.

So when the bots show up to notify Cera that she’s been selected for Last Chance Match, Ryde tells her to run. He’ll figure out a way out for her.

Which leaves Cera understandably confused. Why would she run? And why on earth does Ryde care what happens to her?

After being swept away by a bot, taking a ride in a hoverjet, and enduring hours of waiting, Cera finally discovers what Last Chance Match is all about. Once inside the contestants’ home, she meets the other female participants before they’re introduced to their assigned matches.

And then Cera sees who has been chosen as hers.

From there, secrets begin surfacing, survival instincts kick in, and plans are made. The game may have been designed to find soulmates, but it quickly becomes a question of who will make it out alive.

St. Luke has created a large, remarkably well-coordinated cast of characters who manage to carry a detailed story within a relatively short amount of time. Cera is the driving force behind it all. She’s prickly, guarded, traumatized, and shaped by a history that continues to leave scars. She’s also deeply relatable, making her incredibly easy to root for, although her constant habit of downgrading herself can become a little tiresome. We get it, Cera. She thinks everything that goes wrong is somehow her fault.

Ryde starts the story as a cocky, entitled jerk in Cera’s eyes, and honestly, I can’t blame her. But as the story progresses, he earns his way into book-boyfriend territory as Cera gets glimpses of the man hiding beneath the attitude, including sides of him he never allowed her to see at the diner.

The chemistry between these two works particularly well. Whether they’re snapping at each other, sharing tenderness during vulnerable moments, or standing shoulder to shoulder when things turn into a fight-or-flight situation, their relationship feels like it has some genuine teeth. St. Luke writes emotional wounds convincingly. These characters don’t simply occupy the page. They live, breathe, hurt, and bleed their way through it.

Most of the supporting characters carry their own weight, although a few feel as though they were dropped into the story primarily to pad the body count.

Where Last Chance Match really flexes its muscles is atmosphere. The setting gleams like a beautifully decorated trap waiting to spring. The glamourbots assisting the contestants add an especially unsettling piece of stagecraft, creating that perfect contrast between polished entertainment and something much darker lurking underneath.

The pacing is more modest during the first half. It doesn’t quite have the feel of a slow burn, but it isn’t racing down the track either. Then, somewhere past the halfway point, the tension ratchets upward, the challenges within the game turn lethal, and suddenly the pages start flying.

St. Luke delivers a bloody, dystopian romance with plenty of danger, secrets, survival instincts, and enough unanswered questions to leave readers staring at the final page wondering when they can get their hands on the next book. And yes, that ending is a cliffhanger.

Fair warning, though: this book doesn’t shy away from its darker content. Violence, abuse, blood and gore, and death are all front and center.

Be sure to pre-order Last Chance Match, book one in what is planned to be a four-book series, releasing October 20, 2026.

I would like to thank Gabriella St. Luke for the chance to preview Last Chance Match before its October release. As always, all opinions and reviews are my own volition. Karen Brooks, aka The Tx Lit Chic. I have not been promised any compensation, current or future, by the author or publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review of Last Chance Match.

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