The Resort is a wild ride. I enjoyed the story and the characters. The pace was a bit choppy at times but kept my attention. I found myself suspecting many and knowing little. In the end I was surprised which added to my enjoyment. A solid read that would be great to enjoy on vacation. The narration was good but didn’t fully bring the story to life for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Welcome to Koh Sang Resort in Thailand! It is a beautiful place, but beware, all those who live here have secrets.

This was an amazing thriller taking twists and turns that left me guessing right up until the epilogue. I didn't see any of them coming either which kept the pace fast and engaging.

Recommended to all thriller lovers!

3.5/5 rounded up to 4 for the twist at the end!

Scuba diving instructor, Cass, lives in idyllic Thailand on a party island Koh Sang where all of the “permanents” (ex pats) are escaping something. Brooke, an influencer, fairly new to the island, has ulterior motives for being there. Everyone is hiding something.

When tourists bodies start piling up, dead, Brooke and Cass start digging into everyone’s past to figure out what’s going on.

The ending had me fooled. A great twist.

Thanks to netgalley for an ARC!

There was so much hype surrounding this book. I felt like it was there but it dragged too long for me. Not horrible but not great.

I got a early preview to read this book through NetGalley! The cover drew me in, as well as the pitch of a beachy mystery/thriller.

I enjoyed the dual point of view, but at times I felt exhausted by the women’s secrets.

I am giving this a 3.5 overall. Some of the foreshadowing and clues were too obvious feeling, but the plot twists didn’t feel thrilling, they felt a bit over the top. I think it could have been a 4, but the ending was upsetting to me.

i tried and gave up after 130-ish pages. i didn't care enough about the characters or the plot to keep going

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!
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Give me a book that is set on an island resort and I am set! This book was so fast paced and had me hooked till the very end! I was drawn to this book by the cover and I am so glad that I read it. I feel like it did start off a bit slow. There were a lot of characters introduced in the beginning and I feel like that took a little bit of time getting them all situated in my mind. However, once the book got going I was so engaged and didn’t want to put it down. I even requested it on audio so that I could get stuff done around my house and still continue on with the story! I cannot believe that this is a debut novel and I am so excited to see what Ochs has for us in the future!

This is truly a book about how you really don’t know anyone and they aren’t always who they say they are. This book sucked me in and didn’t let go until the very end. The twists were absolutely jaw dropping and I couldn’t get enough.

This drug on way too long for me liking & the two narrators were very similar. I found myself getting a little lost with the characters and how they were all connected. Some of the twists were good, but most were very outrageous. Unfortunately it felt a little all over the place and would not end. This is def an overhyped book. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As a certified SCUBA diver I found the dive talk and scenes fascinating and also eerie as parts are every diver's worst nightmare. The suspense in the story is paced gradually and I loved the slow build till the big twist. The characters are a bit confusing till later in the book, but that added to the aura of mystery for me. The audiobook is a great way to enjoy this thriller and the narrators are fantastic. A dream vacation in a beautiful location gone very very wrong.

4.5/5

The Resort by Sara Ochs is one of the few books that I can say actually stuck in my head for an extended period of time, and due to that, I raised my star rating! I was struggling to find the time to sit down and read it, so if anyone sees the dates on my Goodreads or StoryGraph and wonders WTF, this is why, and it has nothing to do with the pacing or the book itself. For a debut, this was pretty dang amazing, and I was very into the story as well as finding out what would happen next. The alternating viewpoints that would sometimes end on mini cliffhangers kept things even more interesting, and I love it when authors use this technique to keep the reader curious.

I think this is one of the many books that is best to go into blind, but honestly, if that incredible cover doesn't draw you in, I doubt anything I can say will. The Resort also had me Googling to see if a certain Thailand festival was a thing, and I love it when a genre like mystery or thriller takes me to the webs to see if something is real. The secrets are piling up in this storyline, and it seems that almost everyone has something to hide. I experienced quite a few jaw-dropping moments that both shocked and surprised me, and I loved the twists and turns. The audiobook was also top-notch as narrated by Miranda Raison, Dakota Blue Richards, Joe Jameson & Pema Monaghan. Full casts are my kryptonite, and they all did an incredible job making the audio a fantastic experience. Bottom line, if you love thrillers and debut novels, you just need to read (or listen) to this. 😉

This thriller is set on a beautiful island off Thailand and follows Cass and Brooke, who each have secrets. While it starts slow, the story quickly picks up, revealing mysteries and lies on the island. As they unravel, the two characters also face unexplained deaths at the resort. Themes of friendship and deceit run through the story, keeping readers engaged with its fast pace and surprising twists. The ending is satisfying, making it a gripping read for fans of mysteries and suspense.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the opportunity to read The Resort!

This was an exciting read for fans of White Lotus! There is a diverse cast of characters and non-stop action, you can read in one sitting. I also enjoyed the unreliable narrator!

I love novels set in resorts! And add a murder mystery, even better! The twist in the epilogue alone bumped it to four stars! I did not see that coming! I did feel like it came off YA.

such an interesting premise and I loved the Thai setting, but unfortunately this was a slog to get through and the 2 perspectives were too similar and repetitive. lots of easy thriller tropes in here, this would be better for a beginner to the genre

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark fiction for the ARC! it too awhile for the book to grab me. It was enjoyable enough characters a little flat.

"Welcome to paradise. We hope you survive your stay..."

The Resort had some positive attributes but overall I didn't enjoy it. I liked the beautiful yet secluded and ominous Thailand island setting. The big twist at the end did surprise me, but it was too little too late. I think the characters themselves were the problem for me. They felt two-dimensional, were unlikeable, and ultimately I didn't care about any of them or how their stories would end. Unfortunately I think this was a case of just not being for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me a digital reviewer copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all….but that doesn’t apply when you’re reviewing something. Unfortunately there just wasn’t much I liked about this one. The main issues were with two major elements of this book.

The characters—all the characters in this felt very one-dimensional. The character development for our two narrators was, like, a last second thing rather than an arc.

The plot—I cannot stress how easy it was for me to predict every ‘twist’ of this plot. In fairness, there’s only so much surprise to be had when you’ve read as many thrillers as I have, but this was painfully predictable as far as the true identities of the characters, the whodunit aspect, and even the epilogue reveal.

Speaking of the epilogue, I think I’ve discovered that I really dislike, borderline hate, when a character is revealed to be a ‘psychopath’ or whatever at the last second, with no prior hints or warning. It feels like a somewhat lazy plot device, and those reveals always just come off as very “muahaha” over-the-top villainy to me.

Lastly, the portrayal of mental health in this was questionable.

All in all, I’d recommend skipping this. There are plenty of other vacation thrillers to choose from that are executed more effectively.

Every once in a while decent reviews are enough to interest me in a book I would generally avoid. This is one of those times. Unfortunately, I did not find the plot or characters of this thriller interesting enough to force me through really mediocre, at times even awkward, writing.

Thank you @bookmarked for my complimentary copy. My thoughts are my own.

A remote island vacation, sunny beaches, fun parties, and scuba diving…what’s not to love? Except maybe there is a reason why so many of the staff have chosen to live far away from home! Then, one of the staff finds a dead body while on a dive, and what the other staff members put off as an accident, she knows is murder!

With two unreliable narrators, and a cast of characters full of secrets, this descriptive novel is a slow burn, but the conclusion is well worth the wait!

I recommend the print version over the audio version. I found the audiobook to be confusing as I had a difficult time keeping up with which character was speaking. The narrators for the two main characters sounded very similar.

Read this if you enjoy:
*unreliable narrators
*slow burn suspense
*tales of murder
*twisty stories