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The Last Place She'd Look
Can a woman find love and happiness after searching for it everywhere?
In this humorous novel, a self-help writer anxiously faces a milestone birthday by compulsively searching for a serious relationship. Meanwhile, concerned friends urge her to “Stop looking for love, just enjoy yourself.”
From day spas to dominatrix dungeons, wacky encounters with cheaters, narcissists, and a college fantasy via Facebook, she perseveres with unbridled optimism. Passionate interludes cloud her thinking.
Is Sara having a mid-life crisis? Will lots of sex be abundantly fulfilling -- or just create more laundry? As she fervently searches, her funny and sometimes dangerous amorous adventures take her high, low, and everywhere in between, yet ultimately lead to finding companionship and love in The Last Place She’d Look.
The sex lives of women ages 45-60 are laughably laid bare in this raucous romp. It’s a bit of Bossypants meets 50 Shades of Grey. Or think Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City babes, a decade older, with real life clothes, shoes and hair, set in Los Angeles.
In this humorous novel, a self-help writer anxiously faces a milestone birthday by compulsively searching for a serious relationship. Meanwhile, concerned friends urge her to “Stop looking for love, just enjoy yourself.”
From day spas to dominatrix dungeons, wacky encounters with cheaters, narcissists, and a college fantasy via Facebook, she perseveres with unbridled optimism. Passionate interludes cloud her thinking.
Is Sara having a mid-life crisis? Will lots of sex be abundantly fulfilling -- or just create more laundry? As she fervently searches, her funny and sometimes dangerous amorous adventures take her high, low, and everywhere in between, yet ultimately lead to finding companionship and love in The Last Place She’d Look.
The sex lives of women ages 45-60 are laughably laid bare in this raucous romp. It’s a bit of Bossypants meets 50 Shades of Grey. Or think Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City babes, a decade older, with real life clothes, shoes and hair, set in Los Angeles.
- GenresLGBT
318 pages, Paperback
First published February 18, 2013
9 people are currently reading
233 people want to read
About the author
Arlene Schindler
4 books23 followersArlene Schindler, born in Brooklyn, N.Y. is an author and speaker sharing humorous tales of women’s secrets and desires. She originated the comedy column for The New York Post, writing reviews and profiles of comedians appearing in New York City. It was the first of its kind in the country, helping spur comedy’s greatest growth period. Her writing has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Daily Variety, Purple Clover, Huffington Post and many other publications.
She’s also a contributor to the anthology Women Under Scrutiny. Her novel The Last Place She’d Look is a raucous romp through the hidden sex lives of today’s mature women.
Want more Arlene?
amazon.com/author/arleneschindler
https://www.facebook.com/ArleneSchindler
https://www.instagram.com/smunnyschin...
https://www.youtube.com/user/ArleneSc...
She’s also a contributor to the anthology Women Under Scrutiny. Her novel The Last Place She’d Look is a raucous romp through the hidden sex lives of today’s mature women.
Want more Arlene?
amazon.com/author/arleneschindler
https://www.facebook.com/ArleneSchindler
https://www.instagram.com/smunnyschin...
https://www.youtube.com/user/ArleneSc...
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 23, 2021
I loved this book, but while reading it, I felt I was committing some sort of voyeuristic indiscretion. That didn’t stop me.
Let me just get this off my chest first: it is simply NOT true that men don’t read Chick Lit. I’m a man and I love Chick Lit. If I’m at a yard sale and I find a book with an Oprah sticker on it, I’m all over it. I’ve never found an Oprah book that I didn’t like. They always make me cry. OK, enough on this subject. We can discuss it later, over coffee.
All that being said, The Last Place She’d Look is definitely NOT typical Chick Lit. It is a coming-of-age novel. The age that is coming just happens to be 50, but there is no reason why only teenagers get to come of age.
Half the time I felt I was on the wrong side of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, pondering the age old question that Freud framed so well: “What does a woman want?”. The other half of the time I felt that Sara, down deep, is just another member of Homo Sapiens trying to adjust to the angst inherent in daily life. Whether or not you have a vagina, you have angst, and you typically are looking for love in all the wrong places. Her angst resonated deeply with me. I identified with her ambivalence about nearly every aspect of her life: her bicuriosity, her love/hate relationship with her friends, her belief that men are pigs, but she wanted one anyway, and her profound confusion over how best to age gracefully. She couldn't grasp that the more you want something, the less likely you are to get it.
Ultimately, all of her ambivalence is resolved, and I was happy for her.
This book is funny as hell. I was truly laughing out loud at times, which can be embarrassing when you are alone at Starbucks. The funniest line in the book is: “The main reason men get married is because they can only hold their farts in for so long.” This is SO true. Men ARE pigs. Really. I can prove it. Here, pull my finger. See?
It should be mandatory for men to read this book. I hope I can get a few more to do so.
Let me just get this off my chest first: it is simply NOT true that men don’t read Chick Lit. I’m a man and I love Chick Lit. If I’m at a yard sale and I find a book with an Oprah sticker on it, I’m all over it. I’ve never found an Oprah book that I didn’t like. They always make me cry. OK, enough on this subject. We can discuss it later, over coffee.
All that being said, The Last Place She’d Look is definitely NOT typical Chick Lit. It is a coming-of-age novel. The age that is coming just happens to be 50, but there is no reason why only teenagers get to come of age.
Half the time I felt I was on the wrong side of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, pondering the age old question that Freud framed so well: “What does a woman want?”. The other half of the time I felt that Sara, down deep, is just another member of Homo Sapiens trying to adjust to the angst inherent in daily life. Whether or not you have a vagina, you have angst, and you typically are looking for love in all the wrong places. Her angst resonated deeply with me. I identified with her ambivalence about nearly every aspect of her life: her bicuriosity, her love/hate relationship with her friends, her belief that men are pigs, but she wanted one anyway, and her profound confusion over how best to age gracefully. She couldn't grasp that the more you want something, the less likely you are to get it.
Ultimately, all of her ambivalence is resolved, and I was happy for her.
This book is funny as hell. I was truly laughing out loud at times, which can be embarrassing when you are alone at Starbucks. The funniest line in the book is: “The main reason men get married is because they can only hold their farts in for so long.” This is SO true. Men ARE pigs. Really. I can prove it. Here, pull my finger. See?
It should be mandatory for men to read this book. I hope I can get a few more to do so.
August 9, 2016
My decision to read this book was based on two fairly basic criteria:
1) It was a lesbian novel with a passable Goodreads rating and a couple of glowing reviews right at the top of the page (I should've kept scrolling down), and
2) It was cheap.
My expectations were mid-high and I was disappointed.
If you've only read the first 3-5 chapters, I can at least assure you that it gets better. Sadly, it doesn't get MUCH better. I enjoyed the narratorial frankness but shied from the poor writing and general paucity of originality and good taste.
The bordering-on-passable rating that I gave the novel myself probably stems from the fact that, after reading the first few chapters, my standards were so low that every laugh this novel managed to drag from me was a delightful surprise. I continued to the end hoping for an interesting twist, but it turns out that The Last Place [Sara]'d Look for love wasn't anywhere exciting or worth reading on for. The book concludes with much sentimentality, the unambiguous tying off of all loose ends, and a lot of girly mag garbage masquerading as 'the moral of the story'.
A lesbian 50 Shades of Grey (not a compliment), predictably structured like a B-rate romantic comedy. Would not read again.
1) It was a lesbian novel with a passable Goodreads rating and a couple of glowing reviews right at the top of the page (I should've kept scrolling down), and
2) It was cheap.
My expectations were mid-high and I was disappointed.
If you've only read the first 3-5 chapters, I can at least assure you that it gets better. Sadly, it doesn't get MUCH better. I enjoyed the narratorial frankness but shied from the poor writing and general paucity of originality and good taste.
The bordering-on-passable rating that I gave the novel myself probably stems from the fact that, after reading the first few chapters, my standards were so low that every laugh this novel managed to drag from me was a delightful surprise. I continued to the end hoping for an interesting twist, but it turns out that The Last Place [Sara]'d Look for love wasn't anywhere exciting or worth reading on for. The book concludes with much sentimentality, the unambiguous tying off of all loose ends, and a lot of girly mag garbage masquerading as 'the moral of the story'.
A lesbian 50 Shades of Grey (not a compliment), predictably structured like a B-rate romantic comedy. Would not read again.
November 1, 2017
I enjoyed The Last Place She'd Look. The title was particularly fun since I didn't figure out what it meant until I had finished the book.
Sara has fought the good fight. She has gone on 340 first dates, some second dates, and a few third dates. None have resulted in sex, much less companionship and she is feeling discouraged. Her 341st date is so soul destroying that she questions herself and her need to find the right person. As many people my age do, we worry about our motivations, our changing bodies, and how our life choices brought us to where we are now. With the encouragement of her friends, Sara decides to make some drastic changes to her dating strategy and lifestyle. It is impressive that she is willing to jump in with both feet. I admired that about her.
This is a good book and I highly recommend it. I have my own horrific computer dating stories and I identified with Sara's experience.
Sara has fought the good fight. She has gone on 340 first dates, some second dates, and a few third dates. None have resulted in sex, much less companionship and she is feeling discouraged. Her 341st date is so soul destroying that she questions herself and her need to find the right person. As many people my age do, we worry about our motivations, our changing bodies, and how our life choices brought us to where we are now. With the encouragement of her friends, Sara decides to make some drastic changes to her dating strategy and lifestyle. It is impressive that she is willing to jump in with both feet. I admired that about her.
This is a good book and I highly recommend it. I have my own horrific computer dating stories and I identified with Sara's experience.
June 16, 2013
I enjoyed this much more than I expected and I am immediately recommending it to one of my friends.
February 12, 2014
I gave up at 30% because I had no interest at all in continuing to read it. It starts out reading like it is going to be a bad self-help book instead of fiction then turns into an almost porn-like tale of the sexual adventures of a fifty year old woman and her sex-fixated friends. Certainly not my style and NOT what I expected from the blurb I saw when I was offered free.
June 7, 2013
Could not put down this hilarious, heartfelt tale of a turning-fifty self-help writer searching for love in right and wrong places. Sara’s madcap adventures kept me guessing, laughing, and sometimes wrestling a lump in my throat. Original, thought provoking, and best of all, delicious fun.
October 24, 2025
Absolutely loved this this fresh, sexy, rom com with a twist! I would love to see it as a movie, because it’s exactly what my girlfriends and I would love to see and discuss! The visuals and pacing make it a natural.
Sara is newly 50, and tired of the dating game. (Can anyone relate?) If ever someone had given it her all, it’s Sara. As a feature writer for women’s magazines, Sara is constantly researching essays on “How to keep your Man” or “Spice up your Love Life with Sex in the Kitchen” type articles. She’s had hundreds of first dates, but very few second dates, and even fewer love matches. She’s determined to learn why she hasn’t found “the one”. When friends insist her approach is too serious, she opens herself up to play in a way that leads to many unexpected amorous adventures.
The writing is descriptive, detailed, and sensuous. The characters are relatable, and the story is entertaining and moves at a great pace. I think there’s something for everyone in this book, and really recommend it for book clubs. There’s plenty to discuss about the relationships, her journey, mid-life makeovers, feminism, and of course, the sex. Highly recommend, five stars.
Sara is newly 50, and tired of the dating game. (Can anyone relate?) If ever someone had given it her all, it’s Sara. As a feature writer for women’s magazines, Sara is constantly researching essays on “How to keep your Man” or “Spice up your Love Life with Sex in the Kitchen” type articles. She’s had hundreds of first dates, but very few second dates, and even fewer love matches. She’s determined to learn why she hasn’t found “the one”. When friends insist her approach is too serious, she opens herself up to play in a way that leads to many unexpected amorous adventures.
The writing is descriptive, detailed, and sensuous. The characters are relatable, and the story is entertaining and moves at a great pace. I think there’s something for everyone in this book, and really recommend it for book clubs. There’s plenty to discuss about the relationships, her journey, mid-life makeovers, feminism, and of course, the sex. Highly recommend, five stars.
July 26, 2025
Insightful
I’m heterosexual but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A very good read and I enjoyed it was based off of a true story
I’m heterosexual but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A very good read and I enjoyed it was based off of a true story
March 23, 2013
This review was written by Mary McGrath appeared in the blog StudioCityPatch - Local Voices 28 February 2013:
Finding love is no easy task, but for those of us over fifty, it's even harder. I'm not in that camp, but I so enjoyed this recent read by humorist, author, performance artist, Arlene Schindler.
Can A Woman Find True Love After 50?
Check Out The New Novel, “The Last Place She’d Look”
Los Angeles CA—Every woman seeks hope and joy, but where can they find it? The Last Place She’d Look, by Arlene Schindler, is an uproarious new novel exploring relationship possibilities for single women at mid-life, with a madcap, defiantly spirited outlook towards love, humiliations and triumphs.
The Last Place She’d Look focuses on Sara a self-help writer who anxiously faces a milestone birthday by compulsively searching for a serious relationship. Meanwhile, friends urge her to “Stop looking for love, just enjoy yourself.” But Sara won’t give up.
From day spas to dominatrix dungeons, wacky encounters with cheaters, narcissists, and a college fantasy via Facebook, she perseveres with unbridled optimism. Passionate interludes cloud her thinking. Is Sara having a mid-life crisis? Will lots of sex be abundantly fulfilling -- or just create more laundry? It’s a bit of Bossypants meets 50 Shades of Grey. As she fervently searches, her funny and sometimes dangerous, amorous adventures take her high, low, and everywhere in between, yet ultimately lead to finding companionship and love in The Last Place She’d Look.
The sex lives of women ages 45-60 are laughably laid bare as former stand-up comedian and magazine writer Arlene Schindler takes a humorous look at boomer babes in the prime of their lives. Her writing explores what’s left unsaid along the edges of conversation, and experience, “Women of a certain age become invisible in our culture. But in reality this is the time of life when they become bolder, braver and more adventurous. They’re peaking, and no one is looking. Exploring why they should be noticed, I expose their desires, passions and relationships.”
Arlene Schindler was a Relationship Expert/Guest Guru for America On-Line’s Love-on-Line, and a writer/editor for WOMAN Magazine and Playgirl. She originated the comedy review column for The New York Post, writing reviews and profiles of comedians appearing in New York City. She’s written for The Los Angeles Times, Daily Variety and Creative Screenwriting. Arlene is a regular on the spoken word circuit in Los Angeles, telling tales of women's secrets and desires; a raucous romp through the hidden lives of today’s "mature" woman.
Finding love is no easy task, but for those of us over fifty, it's even harder. I'm not in that camp, but I so enjoyed this recent read by humorist, author, performance artist, Arlene Schindler.
Can A Woman Find True Love After 50?
Check Out The New Novel, “The Last Place She’d Look”
Los Angeles CA—Every woman seeks hope and joy, but where can they find it? The Last Place She’d Look, by Arlene Schindler, is an uproarious new novel exploring relationship possibilities for single women at mid-life, with a madcap, defiantly spirited outlook towards love, humiliations and triumphs.
The Last Place She’d Look focuses on Sara a self-help writer who anxiously faces a milestone birthday by compulsively searching for a serious relationship. Meanwhile, friends urge her to “Stop looking for love, just enjoy yourself.” But Sara won’t give up.
From day spas to dominatrix dungeons, wacky encounters with cheaters, narcissists, and a college fantasy via Facebook, she perseveres with unbridled optimism. Passionate interludes cloud her thinking. Is Sara having a mid-life crisis? Will lots of sex be abundantly fulfilling -- or just create more laundry? It’s a bit of Bossypants meets 50 Shades of Grey. As she fervently searches, her funny and sometimes dangerous, amorous adventures take her high, low, and everywhere in between, yet ultimately lead to finding companionship and love in The Last Place She’d Look.
The sex lives of women ages 45-60 are laughably laid bare as former stand-up comedian and magazine writer Arlene Schindler takes a humorous look at boomer babes in the prime of their lives. Her writing explores what’s left unsaid along the edges of conversation, and experience, “Women of a certain age become invisible in our culture. But in reality this is the time of life when they become bolder, braver and more adventurous. They’re peaking, and no one is looking. Exploring why they should be noticed, I expose their desires, passions and relationships.”
Arlene Schindler was a Relationship Expert/Guest Guru for America On-Line’s Love-on-Line, and a writer/editor for WOMAN Magazine and Playgirl. She originated the comedy review column for The New York Post, writing reviews and profiles of comedians appearing in New York City. She’s written for The Los Angeles Times, Daily Variety and Creative Screenwriting. Arlene is a regular on the spoken word circuit in Los Angeles, telling tales of women's secrets and desires; a raucous romp through the hidden lives of today’s "mature" woman.
August 6, 2013
A notorious study conducted in the mid 1980′s determined that a woman over the age of 40 has a better chance of being killed by a terrorist than getting married. Though that study was later found to be flawed, the thought lingers on in some even to this day. And even more so for women approaching 50, such as Sara, the protagonist of Arlene Schindler’s sexy, heartfelt comedic novel, The Last Place She’d Look. (http://amzn.to/10JiLXp)
Sara is experiencing a dearth of romantic fulfillment, but it’s not for lack of trying. We follow her awkward, painful, outrageous, hilarious search for love, happiness and a serious relationship from day spas to dominatrix dungeons, cheaters to narcissists. It’s a romantic, thought-provoking middle-aged stew of 50 Shades of Grey, Bossypants, and “Sex and the City”—Los Angeles version.
Sensual and desirous, Sara is frequently disappointed by and invisible to men deemed conventionally appropriate. She says, “My dating pool is getting so small, soon it will be the size of a shot glass.”
Although the novel is perfect for women 40 and over in the dating pool, The Last Place She’d Look is filled with humor, insight, pain, defeat and sex that will be familiar and appealing to anyone who is in, has ever been in, or would like to be in the world of dating, including men. The novel deals, after all, to some extent, with a woman’s insightful perception of men’s perceptions of her:
“What did men see when they looked at me? Many times when our eyes met for the first time, I sensed they were saying, “Light me up, right now. Show me the magic of your hot, sexy love.” Who can live up to that one-minute do-or-die first impression? Comedian Bill Maher said, “There comes a time when women should just forget about men. It’s called menopause.” Was this happening to me? Having spent most of my life as a celibate heterosexual, this was a tough concept to embrace. Then I thought, “Was I an unsuccessful heterosexual?” I’d been climbing the penis tree for so long, the results were seldom worth the hike. If I was as wonderful, funny, and interesting as most friends said I was, then why was finding a relationship so difficult?”
The Last Place She’d Look is a delicious and fun read that will resonate with anyone who’s spent time in today’s dating jungle, whosever doubted themselves and their romantic appeal, whosever gone a little wild in experimenting in order to make a romantic connection. Some may refer to this as “Chic Lit,” but I couldn’t put it down.
Sara is experiencing a dearth of romantic fulfillment, but it’s not for lack of trying. We follow her awkward, painful, outrageous, hilarious search for love, happiness and a serious relationship from day spas to dominatrix dungeons, cheaters to narcissists. It’s a romantic, thought-provoking middle-aged stew of 50 Shades of Grey, Bossypants, and “Sex and the City”—Los Angeles version.
Sensual and desirous, Sara is frequently disappointed by and invisible to men deemed conventionally appropriate. She says, “My dating pool is getting so small, soon it will be the size of a shot glass.”
Although the novel is perfect for women 40 and over in the dating pool, The Last Place She’d Look is filled with humor, insight, pain, defeat and sex that will be familiar and appealing to anyone who is in, has ever been in, or would like to be in the world of dating, including men. The novel deals, after all, to some extent, with a woman’s insightful perception of men’s perceptions of her:
“What did men see when they looked at me? Many times when our eyes met for the first time, I sensed they were saying, “Light me up, right now. Show me the magic of your hot, sexy love.” Who can live up to that one-minute do-or-die first impression? Comedian Bill Maher said, “There comes a time when women should just forget about men. It’s called menopause.” Was this happening to me? Having spent most of my life as a celibate heterosexual, this was a tough concept to embrace. Then I thought, “Was I an unsuccessful heterosexual?” I’d been climbing the penis tree for so long, the results were seldom worth the hike. If I was as wonderful, funny, and interesting as most friends said I was, then why was finding a relationship so difficult?”
The Last Place She’d Look is a delicious and fun read that will resonate with anyone who’s spent time in today’s dating jungle, whosever doubted themselves and their romantic appeal, whosever gone a little wild in experimenting in order to make a romantic connection. Some may refer to this as “Chic Lit,” but I couldn’t put it down.
July 27, 2013
While not badly written I should have read the fine print `Book includes opposite sex scenes as well as same sex scenes.` With a ratio of 3:1 for same sex scenes this was not the type of book that I was looking forward to reading.
September 5, 2013
This is supposed to be a romance and the first chapter made me nauseous. I couldn't read further.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews