This book was a stretch for my imagination.

Thea, a social worker, meets a new patient, a catatonic, she feels an instant connection to. The woman actually looks like Thea but there's another association niggling in her brain. Thea realizes the past association, she has positive results in their sessions but then the patient disappears with strangers posing as her parents.

Now Thea has decided she needs to save this woman because she had such an influence on her in her youth so she becomes a sleuth and discovers her final destination. It's in the middle of a dessert and it's a cult hiding under the guise of a retreat run by two podcasters who promise enlightening results for those who attend.

Thea hides her real identity, still determined to save this important person from her early life, and becomes caught up in all the drugs, personal revelations. She discovers the schemes by the owners who have their own personal god issues and becomes intrenched in the group and it's mystic behavior.

Sacrificial bonfires, calling of the spirits, dream inducing drugs, disappearing people and uncovering the truth about the real identities of the leaders and participants make for a complicated and twisted story.

Readers of the dessert lore and its spiritual connections will enjoy all the phenomenons that are included in the storyline.

Thank you netgalley for this. 2.5/5 stars.
The story follows a social worker in a psychiatric unit called Thea. At her work, Thea comes across a woman with a traumatic past, so she decides to uncover her story, which leads her to a remote wellness center/cult. The plot itself was really intriguing, but this kinda just floundered around a bit? I felt myself getting pulled away from the story as things too illogical and a bit too suspended belief kept happening.
The twists and craziness in her first story just worked. In this one I really didn't love them.

Thank you Net galley for the early read of this!

Psychological suspense with trauma has my name written all over it. I will eat it up any day, just like I did with The Last Session! The cults! Oh em gee!! I'm not usually a fan of cult books. They can be too far fetched for me. But I really enjoyed Julia Bartz writing. I have never read anything from her but I have now added her to my list of must reads!

⭐️⭐️💫

Literally what did I just read. Unhinged but couldn’t look away. Not for me, but if your into cults and reincarnation, maybe it’s for you…

Thank you NetGalley and Atria for the eARC.

Now I loved The Writing Retreat, so I was very excited for the author’s sophomore novel. However, this just didn’t hit how I wanted it to. I can appreciate a cult story but I felt like this had way too much going on at once and was just trying to tackle one too many storylines. I felt like the ending got way too bonkers for my liking and was borderline ridiculous.

I will try from this author once more considering I did enjoy her first book!

I liked the first part of this book and thought the mystery was interesting, but then it took a bit of a strange turn. I didn't mind the cult aspect, but I started to feel like I was reading a sci-fi novel, and I had to suspend belief a little too much. I liked Thea, but I definitely questioned her choices!

Unfortunately, this was a miss. I had faith that the author would do a nice job with the mental health component, as she's trained as a social worker, but I had a hard time buying that the main character would breach ethics like that. I also didn't care for the woo woo elements. Bonus points for creativity, though.

Well, this was not good. Too much going on with Thea's current situation when it has nothing to do with the plot. Why waste pages on Amani's engagement? Dom's relationship? Even the epilogue was unnecessary. Should've just went even more all in on the cult. This was disappointing.

This was kind of all over the place and I can't say I was really a fan to be honest. Just an okay read that is actually pretty skippable in my humble opinion. It was okay on audio but the story itself did nothing to grab my attention or keep me interested. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

Thea is a social worker on a psychiatric unit. A new patient arrives with a link to Thea's past. Before she can figure it out, the patient is gone and Thea tracks her down to a relationship retreat in remote New Mexico. Thea needs to figure out what's going on and try to save the patient, and hopefully herself.

This wasn't one of my favorites by Julia Bartz. The writing is excellent but the story was too hard to follow and too unrealistic. I couldn't relate to Thea's character which made it hard to understand why she made the decisions she did. I could see how this book would be better for someone who could relate more to Thea's story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC of The Last Session.

Definitely a mysterious, edge-of-your-seat type thriller!
The cultish/paranormal type elements weren't really my thing, but I do always enjoy Julia Bartz's writing & the development of her characters.

I just want to give a heartfelt thank you to Atria as well as NetGalley for this e-arc. I have read Julia’s previous book "The Writing Retreat" and I loved it! So when I got approved for this one, I was pretty excited, especially bc the synopsis really got me intrigued. However, the story lost its spark and the ending dragged. It felt very drawn out and I couldn’t wait for it to finish. Even though I am rating it rather low for my liking, I still would read other work by the author in the future.

I was so excited to see this author had a new book coming out after loving her debut, but this did not live up to my expectations.

The premise of the book and the blurb had caught my eye instantly and I was intrigued by how a therapist would find herself immersed in a cult. But the execution of the story felt overly wordy, and at times read more like a psychology text book than a thriller cult novel. I have a background in psychology, but when sharing parts of the book with my husband, I could easily see how if I didn’t have that background I’d miss huge parts of the story.

I also felt like the third and fourth parts of the plot were almost too drawn out, too out there, and too anticlimactic. There came a point where I just didn’t care anymore about who went where or what happened or who did what because I was ready for the book to end. The final chapters offered no real closure, and honestly were a huge disappointment.

I will continue to keep my eye out for the next novel - hoping we’ll return to a five star read like the debut was!

Thank you to Atria books for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

This is my second book by this author and similar to the first it was a very engaging, fast paced read albeit this one is a little darker. Definitely check trigger warnings (the book details this upfront though). This was a wild ride about a therapist who feels connected to a patient so strongly she follows her down a rabbit hole and into a cult.

I did ultimately enjoy this book and would recommend for those that enjoy thrillers particularly about cults. Where the book lost some points with me was in the pacing. The ending felt a little drawn out throughout then abrupt at the end (if that makes sense). There were some chapters that were a little confusing, as well.

Thank you to Atria Books for my copy of THE LAST SESSION.

Julia Bartz is making her way to my auto read list. This newest book was so twisty and entertaining. I loved the characters, the atmosphere and the way that I didn't have any idea where it was going. I highly recommend this book!

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books | Atria/Emily Bestler Books for an early copy of this book. I really enjoyed this book and read it in one day. I couldn't put it down, except when family thought they needed to eat.. I loved the storyline and the characters. I would definitely recommend this book.

DNF'd at 40%

I tried really hard to get into this book. It was way too slow for my liking. I am sure it's up to speed for some so don't let this review discourage you from reading this book.

Thanks NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

The Last Session is an atmospheric unsettling thriller with cult elements. While some portions of the book are implausible, it was twisty and fast-paced, which kept me up reading to see how the story would end.

Some of the explicit scenes won’t work for everyone, but I found it to be an intriguing part of the book and adds depth to the characters’ pasts. Julia Bartz did a great job of including thought provoking aspects throughout the story with mental health, sexuality, and trauma to set it apart from a typical thriller.

Thank you to NetGallery and Arita Books for an ARC of this book!

THE LAST SESSION
Julia Bartz

" I fell asleep amid the flowers for a couple of hours"
Daydreamin'

THE LAST SESSION stars a social worker, currently working at a facility where a patient arrives comatose. She looks familiar to her at first and when she realizes who she is it’s a surprise to her as much as it is to us.

One thing leads to another and before you know it our main character has signed up for a weeklong retreat run by a cultish couple. Will she find what she is looking for or fall asleep amid the flowers?


The second half is all I can remember it's all that's in my head it completely demolished everything and had built in the first half I wish it never existed it felt like such a waste

The voice was there the sentiment, although a little skewed at times, is there but unfortunately whatever magic occurred in the first half didn't carry over into the second half.

Our main character is flawed and I was rooting for her from the beginning watching from behind covered eyes begging her to please stop meanwhile encouraging the bad behavior, the bad choices, and the horrible decisions.

Thanks to Netgalley, Atria Books, and Emily Bestler Books for the advanced copies!

THE LAST SESSION is available now!!

THE LAST SESSION…⭐⭐⭐

I enjoyed the author's previous book and expected to love this tale about a cult, but it proved to be an overall confusing story. Thea is a social worker who use art therapy to help her patients. She herself has significant childhood trauma and when she recognizes a new patient as a movie star from her teen years, she becomes determined to help the woman. Catherine was in a science-fiction movie called "Starfire" as a teen and she looks a lot like Thea. She came to Thea's hospital after being found wondering in a daze on the road. The first section of this book deal with the various patient and workers at the mental health hospital where Thea works. Once Catherine leaves, we leave this part of this story and the author could have just started with part two which is at the retreat in New Mexico, where Thea follows Catherine with the hopes of saving her.

Various people come to the health resort for a weekend course in healing relationship traumas. Thea unwisely brings her childhood diary which is promptly stolen making it easier for the cult operators Sol and Moon, to guess at her issues. She finds Catherine at the resort, but the woman tells her she shouldn't have come and that she doesn't want to leave. The rest of the book is a combination of dreams, manipulation, reincarnation theories and the cult leaders using drugs and sex to ensnare Thea and the other participants. The last part of the book is confusing with it never being clear if Thea is dreaming, hallucinating or if magical things are actually happening.

A few little details drove me crazy too: As a 13 year old, Thea was verbally assaulted by the pastor of their large church, a married man with children. The pastor was 23 or 24 years old. It seemed odd to make the man that young. Then in current times she checks his social media to find that now he is 43 but all his children are married with families of their own. The ages don't seem right unless all these people where marrying and reproducing in their middle teen years. The cult leaders seem to alternate between being in the business for money and fame with being hypnotized by a decades old science-fiction movie and believing the movie will play out in real life. Good beginning but the plot could have executed better. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for a review.