I was captivated by *The Quiet Tenant*, so when I got my hands on this new copy, I was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement! As you may know, I’m not one to peek at the blurb—I prefer to dive in headfirst and let the story unfold. And boy, was I in for a surprise this time! I had no idea what I was getting into; this book was a rollercoaster of suspense, packed with intriguing insights, and nearly impossible to put down. I devoured it during a long car ride home from vacation, and let me tell you, I was grateful for the extended journey—there was no way I was letting this book out of my hands!

Frida and Gabriel arrive at the luxurious Ara Hotel in the Utah desert for a fresh start after a devastating tragedy that has driven them apart. Their attempt to reconnect is interrupted when the body of a young woman, vacationing with her wealthy husband, is found. Suspicions quickly fall on Gabriel, forcing Frida to confront their shared past in a cult, their escape, and the ensuing scandal. As she grapples with the evidence against him, the story alternates between past and present, leading to a climax that questions the depth of their knowledge of each other.

The main characters, Frida and Gabriel, were a delightful twist! Their development throughout the dual timelines kept me on my toes. I’ve always been fascinated by cults and their peculiar dynamics, and this book offered a wealth of information, even within its fictional framework. It’s hard to fathom how some people can live in such circumstances, especially considering that Frida and Gabriel didn’t even know their parents. The mindset explored in this narrative is utterly mind-bending!

The vividly described environment felt so real and plausible that it elevated the entire reading experience. The pacing was brisk and seamless; I knew what had happened, but I was itching to uncover the how and why. Everything felt believable, which only added to the gripping plot. The buildup and tension kept me on the edge of my seat, and the ending—along with a few unexpected revelations—was both surprising and satisfying.

If you enjoy short chapters and a narrative that keeps you guessing whodunit, this is the perfect summer read! It’s the kind of book you can binge-read in one sitting, so clear your afternoon and buckle up for an exhilarating ride!

Thank you, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Knopf, for the digital ARC copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Quick summary: Though there were some very intriguing aspects to the story and I was fond of the atmosphere the author created, unfortunately this one didn’t quite do it for me.

I was drawn into the desire to read this book based on the MCs being part of a cult. That part of the story was definitely interesting, though I was left wanting more. My favorite part about the book was its eerie ethereal quality. I really enjoyed the atmosphere the author created through her writing, the setting, and the characters’ personalities.

I really wanted to love this book but, sadly, in the end, I was kind of let down. First, the pacing was quite slow, which didn’t really bother me until I got to the end and realized there didn’t seem to be much of a climax. I wanted so much more. Second, I saw the ending and resolution coming but when it got there, it kind of felt sudden and choppy. A strange combination between being able to guess where the story was going but then it abruptly arriving. Finally, I discovered I was not very invested in the MCs and didn’t much care what happened to them.

Despite my disappointment in the story, I do plan to read the author’s other work.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for an ARC of Our Last Resort in exchange for my honest review. I had only heard good things about Clemence Michallon so I was very excited to receive this one.

Our Last Resort tells the story of siblings Frida and Gabriel. Fifteen years ago they escaped a cult, and thought all their troubles were behind them. But when a fellow traveler is murdered at an upscale resort in the Utah desert, the two are thrown back into past traumas and emotions.

I had high expectations with this one after one of my reader buddies (looking at you, Amanda!) sang praises for Michallon's last book. While this one was just a solid thriller for me I can't deny that the author's writing and storytelling is superb. I will definitely be picking up The Quiet Tenant soon!

3 1/2 ⭐️

Publication Date: July 8th, 2025

So good! I was too scared to read The Last Tenant but so glad I tried this and am now a fan of the author!

I went in expecting a vacation thriller with a couple who gets wrapped up in a murder, but got something so much more interesting. When a couple staying at luxury Utah resort (I feel like this had to be modeled on the Amangiri.) learns that the person in the next villa over been murdered, it dredges up all kinds of horrors from their shared past. That was the fascinating part of the story to me. I am usually firmly against cult elements in books, but this added a unique backstory for these two trauma bonded characters. I was so invested in them!

I had an idea as to where this was going. I mean, this was almost a locked room scenario with very few characters. But I was at the edge of my seat! The way this author used backstory was fantastic.

Frida and her brother Gabriel knew nothing of the modern day world after being raised in a secretive cult. But they may know a thing or two about murder…

While on a luxe getaway in the Utah desert, Frida and Gabriel find themselves in the middle of a murder investigation when the young bride of publicity magnate William Brenner is found dead in the hotel. The pair soon find themselves embroiled in something that goes much deeper than what they thought as they relive their past run ins with criminal activity.

Clemence Michallon intricately weaves in multiples timelines to bring together the story of two survivors in a way that will keep you turning the pages to see what twists lie ahead.

Thanks to #NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this novel in exchange for my review.

3⭐️ Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for an advanced copy of Our Last Resort.

Frida and her brother Gabriel decide to take a trip together to try to reconnect. They have not seen one another in years and they are hoping this trip will be a reset. While there a murder takes place and somehow Gabriel finds himself in the middle of the investigation. This is not the first time he has been a suspect in a murder and Frida will stop at nothing to protect him. They made that pact when they were kids and became family while they were in a cult. They did what they had to do back then and they will do it again if necessary.

I was really intrigued by the plot of this book but I just felt like it missed the mark. I definitely would not classify this as a thriller because I felt like not much really happened for most of the book. I just felt like the story did not really line up. I am sad to say I was pretty bored for most of the book.

Frida and Gabriel are siblings looking forward to a quiet vacation at the Ara Hotel in Escalante, Utah. The siblings have become distant over the years after a traumatic childhood and horrible tragedy involving the death of Gabriel's wife, Annie. They are hoping to reconnect while on vacation, but tragedy seems to follow them. Sabrina Brenner is the much younger and third wife of the well known millionaire, William Brenner. Sabrina and William are vacationing at the Ara Hotel along with Gabriel and Frida when Sabrina is found dead. Gabriel was a suspect of his wife's unsolved murder and now that focus is back on him as police investigate the suspicious death of Sabrina. The siblings escaped their childhood being raised in a cult, but can they escape the focus being back on them again?

Review:
This one started off a little slow for me and I wasn't totally convinced that I was going to like it. But, that quickly changed as the pace picked up. I loved the alternating POVs between the past and present. I especially was drawn to the childhood chapters that spoke about their cult upbringing. I will say that there wasn't anything that surprised me in this book. It wasn't very twisty, in my opinion. I predicted everything from the beginning, but I still really enjoyed the setting and the overall story line.
Our Last Resort publishes on 7/8!
Thank you to NetGalley, Clemence Michallon, and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor publishing for this ARC of Our Last Resort in exchange for an honest review!

Read this if: you enjoy slow burn mysteries with a lot of back story.

Skip this if: you are in the mood for a propulsive thriller.

Frida and her brother, Gabriel, are reconnecting at a luxury resort in Utah when another guest is murdered following a fight with her husband. What seems to be an open-and-shut case gets complicated by Gabriel's history (he was suspected of murdering his wife nine years ago). The novel moves back and forth between the present and the past, when Gabriel and Frida were growing up in a cult. As secrets from the past surface, Frida must work to prove Gabriel’s innocence.

I liked this book but didn’t love it. It was easy to read, there were some twists towards the end, and books about cults are always interesting to me. I can’t even quite pinpoint what kept it from being really enjoyable, but it could be that the characters just weren’t quite developed enough to make their choices ring completely true. And there was just a bit too much going on in such a short novel to get deeply enough into the murder mystery OR into the cult background. But it was a quick read and had enough potential that I’m going to go back and read The Quiet Tenant soon.

Frida and Gabriel arrive at the remote, luxurious Ara Hotel in Escalante, Utah, hoping to heal their fractured bond after a devastating tragedy, but their plans for renewal are shattered when a young woman is found dead at the resort. As suspicion falls on Gabriel, Frida is forced to confront haunting memories of their childhood in a cult, their desperate escape, and the scandal that changed everything—while grappling with the possibility that Gabriel may not be the man she thought he was.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for this digital e-arc.*

Loved "The quiet tenant", Story kept me on the edge of my seat, not knowing how it would end!
This one I'm on the fence; i did like the suspense around the story, as it kept me guessing as to what was the red herring in the story.
So a pair of teenagers escape a compound; a cult and navigate their way in the new world. It seems though that suspicious deaths keep happening around the brother and then the straw finally breaks the camel's back, we see the TRUTH of everything's that's happened from the beginning and who the real victim and perpetrators really are!

Solid 3.5 Stars !!!!

Thanks to NetGalley & Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for this ARC! Grateful 🙏🏾

OUR LAST RESORT out July 8th 2025

4.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Thank you @aaknopf & @prhaudio for the gifted digital and audio copies!

Our Last Resort
Clémence Michallon @clemencemichallon
Publishing Date: July 8, 2025

🎧 Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld @saskiaaudio 🎧


This is my second novel by Clémence Michallon and I liked it even better than the first!!

Here we get dual timeline as we follow Frida and Gabriel. They are found family “siblings” who survived and escaped the cult that they were raised in together. And the traumas didn’t end there for these two. Now they are on vacation trying to escape life for a bit and reconnect. But of course tragedy strikes again and they find themselves in the middle of a murder investigation.

This is a slower paced literary suspense/mystery novel. We go back and forth between the past and present day, learning more about where this duo comes from, what they’ve been through, and then figuring out what is going on in present day with the murder. The two timelines almost could have been elaborated on and made into their own own novels, but the intertwining of them together gives the story much more depth. The author does a really nice job of portraying cult life, the after effects of surviving and escaping that life, and then the long term effects of trauma as well.

I really enjoyed the authors writing style and prose here. I was definitely hooked in and flew through this one pretty quickly on audio.

🎧 Saskia Maarleveld is one of my favorite narrators and she certainly didn’t disappoint here. I will forever recommend listening to books she narrates.

I don’t have too much to say about this one. It’s a murder mystery whodunnit with two main characters who grew up in a cult.

Gabriel and Frida grew up on a commune in a cult with Émile, the abusive cult leader. The story is told in alternating timelines; them growing up in the cult and the years that follow, and now present day at a resort to which they’ve traveled together.

It was fine, a solid mystery novel. Nothing amazing to me, and I was able to guess what happened.

I did like her first novel much more, but this was a solid sophomore book, and I’ll continue to read her books.

Thank you Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, Anchor and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Our Last Resort by Clemence Michallon combines cult fiction and mystery into a fast paced novel that follows Frida and her brother Gabriel. They escaped from a cult fifteen years prior to the present day story timeline. Now they are vacationing at a resort in Utah in order to catch back up after a terrible tragedy made them drift apart. Unfortunately, the stunning paradise of the resort is shattered with the discovery of a dead body. And both Frida and Gabriel end up as suspects.

This was my first Clemence Michallon thriller and I definitely enjoyed it and will be watching for any future books to add to my TBR list. This was a fast paced thriller that will make a perfect summer read.

This was a thriller where halfway through I definitely guessed what the outcome was going to be. It was entertaining and I didn’t want to put it down because I needed to know if I was right. I enjoyed The Quiet Tenant and was so happy to have gotten to read this one early as well.

In Our Last Resort, Frida and Gabriel head to the remote Ara Hotel in Escalante, Utah, hoping to heal after a terrible tragedy tore them apart. The luxury resort feels like a perfect escape until the body of a young woman vacationing with her older, powerful husband is found dead. As suspicion falls on Gabriel, Frida is forced to confront their complicated past, including their childhood in a cult and the dark secrets they have tried to leave behind. I enjoyed this book; it was my first by this author, and I really liked her writing style and how she wove the story together. The alternating timelines kept me hooked, and I was curious to see how everything would unravel. Overall, it was a solid, suspenseful read!

Thank you to @Netgalley and @aaknopf for the chance to review this ARC. Thanks to @prhaudio for the review copy of this audiobook!

Frida and Gabriel are siblings, survivors of a cult they were born into and escaped. They’ve always supported each other. But after Gabriel’s wife’s death, they’ve drifted apart. Now Friday is determined to rebuild their relationship. So she books them a week at a luxury resort in the deserts of Utah. She envisions relaxing by the pool and hiking through canyons. What she gets is her brother arrested for a murder she’s certain he didn’t commit. She’s determined to rescue him. Just like they rescued each other as children.

This mystery is a slow burn with lots of flashbacks as their childhood trauma is laid bare. (Definitely check trigger warnings on this one.) Frida and Gabriel are at times unlikeable main characters but I was still rooting for them to solve the mystery.

Having the story told from a single POV was a perfect choice. We only had Frida’s understanding of what was happening. As always, the great Saskia Maarleveld, a woman with 100 voices, lent her talent to bringing all the characters to life. I always forget there’s only one narrator when she’s doing the voice acting!

I thought this was a fun mystery with some good twists I didn’t see coming!

I really struggled to get into this book. I loved her previous but this one just wasn’t for me as I don’t think I’m the right target audience for this story.

After her debut novel The Quiet Tenant, it was a no-brainer to request this advanced copy of Our Last Resort. I’m delighted to report I devoured this one too. Her books have now cemented
the status of “auto-buy”.

Clémence’s dual-timeline narrative style flows with such seamless grace that readers will eagerly surrender to its pull.
Here, the story is delves into the past of Frida and Gabriel’s life of growing up in a cult and their journey outside the compound into adulthood. Desperate to be free from the psychological and physical abuse, orphans Frida and Gabriel make a plan to escape the cult. And they’re going out in a blaze of glory. The two are as close to family as one could be, like brother and sister. An inseparable force, consistently fighting for one another, even when confronted with the gravest of circumstances - including murder.

Clémence has infused main characters Frida and Gabriel’s lives with a chilling undertone. The vividness setting of the desert is incredible. Throughout the story, I could effortlessly visualize the unfolding events, as if watching them firsthand.

I recommend as an absolute must read, Our Last Resort, to those enjoy crime novels with psychological twists.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor for the opportunity to read and review.

Our Last Resort by Clémence Michallon ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

After reading and enjoying The Quiet Tenant, I was excited to receive an ARC of Michallon’s newest book. While this one didn’t grip me as much as the first, I still enjoyed it.

It took me a bit to get pulled into this one, but once I did, I couldn’t turn the pages quick enough. I enjoyed the two timelines and thought the cult tie-in was well executed. I found this to have psychological depth that added to my overall positive experience. I did find that a suspension of disbelief was necessary for the ending bits.

All in all, fans of cult-related stories, questionable characters, and family bonds will enjoy this one.

I have to keep this simple because I do not want to give anything away, but Cult survivors and a current murder that happens where they are vacationing???!!! WHERE DO I SIGN!!!!!!!!!!! Because Frida and Gabriel????? There is more going on here, and the murder mystery is triggering another murder that happened 10 years and also 25 years ago. This book is typical Clemence Michallon, I loved it.
PS... I love everything Cults, & murder mystery, so this is up my alley.

Thank you NetGalley and the Publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.