diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 2729a45d..9336d77e 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 # readxl (development version)
 
+# readxl 1.5.0
+
+* Sheet number in `read_excel()`, `read_xls()`, and `read_xlsx()` can now be negative or infinite to select the sheet counting from the last one (#742, @DanChaltiel).
+
 # readxl 1.4.3
 
 This release contains no user-facing changes.
diff --git a/R/read_excel.R b/R/read_excel.R
index cf512248..76ccd1f5 100644
--- a/R/read_excel.R
+++ b/R/read_excel.R
@@ -237,9 +237,12 @@ standardise_sheet <- function(sheet, range, sheet_names) {
 
   if (is.numeric(sheet)) {
     if (sheet < 1) {
-      stop("`sheet` must be positive", call. = FALSE)
+      if(is.infinite(sheet)) sheet <- -length(sheet_names)
+      length(sheet_names) + sheet
+    } else {
+      if(is.infinite(sheet)) sheet <- length(sheet_names)
+      floor(sheet) - 1L
     }
-    floor(sheet) - 1L
   } else if (is.character(sheet)) {
     if (!(sheet %in% sheet_names)) {
       stop("Sheet '", sheet, "' not found", call. = FALSE)