The Last Assignment

From bestselling author Erika Robuck comes the perilous and awe-inspiring true story of award-winning photojournalist Dickey Chapelle as she risks everything to show the American people the price of war through the lens of her camera.

Manhattan, 1954.

Since her arrest for disobeying orders and going ashore at Iwo Jima almost a decade earlier, combat correspondent Georgette “Dickey” Chapelle has been unmoored. Her military accreditation revoked, her marriage failing, and her savings dwindling, Dickey jumps at the next opportunity. In the aftermath of a an assignment gone wrong, a flame is lit deep inside Dickey—to survive in order to be the world’s witness to war from the front lines.

Never content to report on battles unless her own boots are on the ground, Dickey and her camera journey with American and international soldiers from frozen wastelands to raging seas to luscious jungles, revealing one woman’s extraordinary courage and tenacity in the face of discrimination and danger. And it’s along the way, in Dickey’s desire to save the world, she realizes she might also be saving herself.

At a time when a woman’s heroic spirit often gave way to homeland reality, Dickey blazed a trail for the revolutionary hearts inside us all.

• The Last Assignment by Erika Robuck
• Published: Sourcebooks Landmark on August 19, 2025
• Genre: Historical fiction, Biography
• Pages: 448
• Dates/times Read: 12.10.25 – 1.2.26 (7 hours & 56 minutes)
• Format: Paperback
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• ⭐⭐

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I was surprised to discover in 2025 how much I enjoy historical fiction books, so I was pretty excited to dive into this book. This was the Once Upon a Book Club September subscription box. Yes, I’m well aware that I’ve fallen behind! Don’t judge me! But ugh, what a disappointment!!! What I have learned about myself now is that, while I do enjoy historical fiction, I prefer it when it is more fiction than fact, and loosely based on historical events, rather than being a biography. Which is what this book was. It was more of a biography on the great woman, Georgette “Dickey” Chapelle.

I had never heard of Dickey, and perhaps that skewed my perception of the book. I wanted more personal insight into Dickey and her life, but the book was written more as just a timeline of the places she visited. And it really just skimmed the surface over the controversies that she faced and dealt with. The most in-depth look we get on Dickey and the things she had to deal with was during the period that she was held as a prisoner in Hungary for 2 months. I ended up feeling like I could have just Googled Dickey and found out the same information in a few posts that pop up as I did from this book. She was an extraordinary woman, no doubt. But I wanted to know more about what made her tick. Because the book didn’t do this, I didn’t learn much about history or Dickey. I ended the book thinking Dickey was an amazing, strong, stubborn woman, who was also a bit reckless, self-centered, and even arrogant.

It wasn’t a horrible book; I just felt that the author missed the mark. Dickey, while famous and well known in the circles of journalism, is less known outside, and the author could have told a story that made people admire her for all that she did, while also teaching them a little bit about history. I’ve never read any books by Robuck, so perhaps that just isn’t her style of historical fiction storytelling. Who knows! Either way, this book was a real slog for me to get through. It was only able to hold my attention for about 20 minutes at a time, because it was so heavy on the historical regurgitation of times, dates, people, and places that it had me feeling like I was reading a textbook for school. Sorry, not sorry! 😦

Since this was an OUABC box, it also included gifts! Included was a pair of pearl earrings, as Dickey was famous for always wearing her pearl earrings. A very nice journal with a pencil, and a cozy pair of gloves that I absolutely love wearing!! They are so soft, keep my hands warm (not that I need it all that much here in central Texas haha), and they’re even touchscreen compatible.