Atmospheric, enjoyed the dual timelines, & loved the twists. Well written, complex, & dynamic, impressed there were different mysterious events but was still able to follow well.

Our last resort was a fun read. It follows Gabe and Frida who have started new lives outside of the cult they grew up in. Throughout the years from their escape they have grown apart. Friday books a stay at the lavish Ara hotel so they can reconnect. While at the hotel a women is found dead and Frida and Gabe are now suspects. Throughout the investigation Gabe and Frida revisit their past traumas to make sense of the current situation and how it is all related.

The overall book was a 3.5 for me. It was somewhat fast paced and I enjoyed the glimpses into the past to make sense of who and how Gabe and Frida have evolved since leaving the awful cult. I'd recommend this book for a quick fun murder mystery.

Frida and Gabriel reconnect at a resort for a fresh start that’s ruined when a guest is found dead. Suspension quickly falls on Gabriel and Frida is forced to review their past in a cult and their escape.

I loved Michallon’s debut novel so had high hopes for this one. It didn’t quite meet them for me. While the plot and mysteries were interesting, they just didn’t grab me enough to care. We didn’t get to know Sabrina at all and I found Gabriel and Frida’s deep friendship hard to believe, especially with the gap and distrust.

Our Last Resort comes out 7/8.

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬:
Two women, a luxury resort, a cult that they escaped from, a murder, and a past that comes back to haunt them both. This was a fun, twisty, and suspenseful read. Clemence’s writing took a hold of me from the start and did not let up as the layers are slowly peeled away and answers start to come to light, only to then raise more suspicion and questions. I loved the characters, the dual timelines of past and present, and the amount of suspense and mystery throughout. There was so many twists and so much tension that built up to an explosive conclusion that left me oh-so-satisfied! If you are a fan of twisty thrillers with cult-ish vibes mixed with a bit of domestic suspense then pick this one up!


𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗜𝗳 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗘𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆:
✦Cult-ish vibes
✦A book with plenty of suspense, twists, and a bit of domestic suspense.
✦Alternating timelines between past and present
✦A fun and satisfying ending

𝐌𝐲 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫4.5/5

OUR LAST RESORT is the newest release from the author of The Quiet Tenant. This literary thriller features excellent pacing, with two engaging timelines. It dives into the survival instincts that develop after childhood trauma, and it includes fantastic character development. It's an outstanding pick for summer reading!

Gabriel and Fiona are vacationing together after they had separated following the death of Gabriel’s wife. As children, they grew up together on the compound of a cult leader, and after they escaped together, their bond was unmatched. Now during their vacation, a woman has been murdered and Gabriel is again in the spotlight as a possible suspect. As they rekindle their relationship, they have to start to be honest with each other about the secrets they’ve been hiding from each other to save Gabriel from ending up in jail.

The story is great. I had a hard time with the cadence of the timeline switches for the first part of the book, but once I got ahold of that the book became an easy page turner.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf for this ARC!

Clémence Michallon’s sophomore novel, Our Last Resort, is a powerful psychological crime thriller, written using several timelines to tell the story of self-made siblings Frida and Gabriel. The pair grew up cloistered in a cult in upstate New York led by a charismatic and fanatical leader from birth to adulthood, when they made a daring escape from the compound.

Hitting shelves July 8, the book is set in the desert beauty of Escalante, Utah, at a luxury hotel where Frida and Gabriel agree to meet to repair the fracture in their bond that has developed over the last few years since Gabriel moved to the West Coast to get far away from the past. They enjoy swimming in the pool and taking desert trail hikes until a young woman who was also vacationing there turns up dead.

The situation quickly unravels as the police sort things out. When the first suspect, the dead woman’s husband, has his lawyer clear his name, suspicion falls upon Gabriel who has a well-publicized skeleton in his closet. Haunted by his past both during his cult years as well as during a troubled marriage, Gabriel is devastated at this latest turn of events.

United by the trauma of their upbringing, Frida refuses to believe Gabriel even knew the dead woman. As she doubles down to develop an alternate scenario regarding the murder, looking for evidence the police missed, how much will be enough to clear Gabriel of the crime?
As the back story develops alongside the present-day timeline, the climax explodes with a big reveal readers will not see coming.

Clémence Michallon burst into the writing world with The Quiet Tenant in 2023. Her background includes being a journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Time Magazine, The Independent, and more. Born and raised near Paris, she moved to the United States in 2014 where she lives in New York.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting June 21, 2025.

I would like to thank Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

In the past: a cult escape story
In the present: a body discovered dead at a resort

Together, a solid second book from Michallon. I LOVED The Quiet Tennant, and I was eager to read this release. Michallon has a knack for crafting well-written stories, and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Woven into the threads of suspense was a story of trauma-induced survival and unconditional love.

I was excited to read this one after reading the author’s previous book.

However, the story kind of fell flat for me and at some parts, it felt like the book wasn’t moving anywhere..

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy!

After trying to read the authors debut novel, I was hesitant to request this. I guess I should have listened to my instinct. I am grateful for the approval. I found myself having the same issue as I did last time, not being able to get into the author's writing style and for some reason just feeling annoyed with it. I think the synopsis was really good. I have read a lot of murder tropes recently. Maybe it was the combo of not meshing with the author and trying to read a repetitive theme, as I can only give this 3 stars.

This book was so good. I really enjoyed the alternating timelines. It kept things really interesting! I would recommend this book.

Clémence Michallon is an absolute genius. So much so, that when this book became available on NetGalley, I knew I needed to dive right in. The cult aspects were absolutely fascinating to me, and helped me to feel sympathy for our characters.

I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book but I didn't love it. The book felt slow to me but it kept my interest. I was a little more interested in the past timeline then the present timeline. Reading about the cult and their life afterwards was interesting to me and to see how Frida and Gabriel became the people they are.

I also was not expecting the twist towards the end even though I probably should have. It was a fun twist for me.

3.5 stars rounded up

Frida and Gabriel, siblings who escaped from the clutches of a cult as teenagers, reunite at an exclusive desert resort to reconnect prior to being interviewed for a documentary about their childhood. Their idyllic vacation is quickly upended when a woman is discovered murdered. Her husband is quickly ruled out as a suspect, and the police narrow in on Gabriel, whose own wife died under suspicious circumstances years before. The story is told in alternating timelines, one exploring the present murder investigation, and the other delving into their shared past.

The first 80% of this novel had me hooked. I loved flipping back and forth between present day and past and learning more about what shaped Frida and Gabriel into the people they are today. The chapters focusing on the cult and their eventual escape from it were my favorite. From early on, I wasn't sure who to trust or how much to trust them, and Michellon did an excellent job weaving this doubt into her readers' minds. Then, just as things were begining to wrap up, this novel floundered. The conclusion was both equally predictable and outlandish. Did this novel live up to Michellon's daring debut The Quiet Tenant? No, but it was still worth picking up for a quick, (mostly) fun read.

Two siblings who grew up in a cult but escaped many years ago are reuniting at an exclusive resort in the desert when another guest turns up dead and they get caught up in the murder investigation. Super standard mystery/thriller fare, which is so disappointing because the authors last book was amazing. This sadly didn’t feel like anything special, a quick and easy read though.

This was a fun murder mystery story with multiple layers. I liked that it switched back and forth in time so reveal more about the character's past, and thought the author had a unique writing style that was great at showing not telling. The cult aspect of the past storyline was interesting, and I was eager to find out how it would all come together.

Thank you to NetGalley, the Publishers, and Clémence Michallon for an ARC of Our Last Resort! I loved The Quiet Tenant so as soon as I saw she had a new book out I didn’t even read the description and knew it was an automatic buy/or ARC. I find cult books truly so interesting so this was right up my alley once I did read the description lol! This follows dual timelines from when Frida and her brother Gabriel are in the cult and their lives after it. Frida and Gabriel are on vacation in Utah in an exclusive luxury resort. They had recently grown apart after being so close to each other as they needed each other to survive the cult. One morning a dead body is found and Gabriel is a suspect as this is not his first time being involved in a murder. Frida will do anything to keep Gabriel safe - they have been through too much to let go now. The only thing is that the evidence is too powerful this time around that Frida has to question how well she really knows Gabriel. This is truly an intense book that will put love into a new perspective and how far you will go for your loved ones.

Sophomore effort from the author of the outstanding THE QUIET TENANT, the blockbuster serial killer novel from 2023. OUR LAST RESORT is more of a traditional murder mystery, involving a brother and sister who get caught up in a murder while on vacation. Their backstory of growing up in a cult, told in alternating past/present timelines, is compelling, but I didn't connect with adult Frida and Gabriel and I guessed the twist before it was revealed. This book felt shorter than 320 pages - I would have liked more of the story about Gabriel and his wife and present-day Frida and Gabriel, who were mostly one dimensional.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Frida and Gabriel grew up in and escaped from a cult and consider each other brother and sister. They are on vacation after having not seen each other in years trying to reconnect after tragedy in Gabriels life. While there the younger wife of a wealthy man is found murdered and they become wrapped up in the crime. This was an entertaining read took a little too long to be able to tell where it was going and what the main mystery would be, but the last third of the book picked up a lot and pretty much made up for that. I liked the dual timelines of time in the cult/and escape and the present day. I want to thank NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Clémence Michallon (favorite author) returns following her smashing debut, The Quiet Tenant (my #1 thriller of 2023), with her latest explosive sophomore thriller, OUR LAST RESORT.

A riveting psychological journey of two siblings after a traumatic childhood growing up in a cult together, having escaped, and years later, they reunite at a resort hotel, and now engrossed in a murder investigation, bringing up old buried memories from the past.

About...

Frida (New York) and Gabriel (Seattle), siblings, arrive at the Ara Hotel Resort in the secluded desert of Escalante, Utah. Similar to a compound, they have created discrete bubbles for their guests and to protect their privacy. The resort is hidden from the highway and accessible via an unmarked dirt road with all the amenities one would expect at a luxury resort.

They were once close as children, but a past tragedy has since estranged them. Now, they are looking to reunite and start anew.

However, their luxury vacation reunion gets interrupted when the dead body of a beautiful young woman who was vacationing at the same place with her powerful, much older husband is discovered, placing them in lockdown.

Now, they are forced to revisit memories from the past in a cult in upstate New York led by a charismatic leader. They escaped his control fifteen years ago, but now shocking secrets rise to the surface.

Fifteen years ago, Frida and her brother escaped a cult. Now her brother is the prime suspect in a murder investigation—and it isn’t the first time.

How is Gabriel connected to the present murder, and what happened fifteen years ago when they escaped the cult? These questions form the crux of the plot, intertwining the past and present in a gripping narrative that unfolds.

“Innocence doesn’t bail you out; it just makes you easier to trap.

This quote encapsulates the central theme of the book: the blurred lines between innocence and guilt, and how they can be manipulated. It’s a chilling reminder that in the world of OUR LAST RESORT, innocence can be a liability.

My thoughts...

OUR LAST RESORT is a spectacular, gripping summer read for thriller fans. Clémence Michallon’s mastery of building suspense is evident in this intense, twisty, and taut sophomore suspense novel. Prepare to be captivated by a narrative where nothing is as it appears, leading to shocking twists that will keep you engrossed until the final page is turned.

The author cleverly takes readers back to the Hudson Valley twenty-five years earlier, when they were living in a cult with their mother. Their leader was named Émile. We learn about the fascinating and disturbing aspects of life through the lens of control, manipulation, and the pursuit of survival.

With alternating dual timelines of past (cult) and present (resort) with countdowns—and a murder investigation, bringing up the trauma from the past for the two siblings.

We learn about Gabriel (his wife, Annie), Émile, Frida, and their secret place, along with secondary characters at the cult.

In the present, there is Sabrina, dead hours after she was spied upon, and the powerful older husband, William. The murder investigation intensifies as they are caught up in a game of cat and mouse with the wealthy William. At the same time, Frida desperately seeks to find answers and prove Gabriel’s innocence.

The author’s brilliance shines through in building suspense, creating complex characters, and weaving twisty plots. The web of secrets and lies, along with the growing mistrust and suspicion, leads to an explosive and mind-blowing conclusion that will leave you shocked and satisfied.

The setting is atmospheric (both past and present), and in both timelines, there is a sense of claustrophobia and loss of control, with few options to escape. Frida also has secrets that are revealed towards the end.

With its intricate plot and richly developed characters, OUR LAST RESORT delves into the themes of family secrets and hidden agendas. Michallon’s masterful storytelling keeps the suspense high and delivers satisfying twists, ensuring readers are fully engaged from start to finish.

I adore this author’s evocative writing, and she delves deep into her character’s psyche, keeping you turning the pages into the wee hours of the morning. Proposing the question, can you ever escape your past?

As we learned from the author’s dazzling debut and in her latest, there are flawed characters with hidden pasts and simmering tensions that lead to a shocking revelation, creating a sense of unease that will keep you guessing until the end and never lets up.

Michallon’s exploration of highly charged topics, such as childhood trauma and its impact on adult relationships, as well as the blurred lines between victim and perpetrator, is both thought-provoking and enlightening.

OUR LAST RESORT delves into themes of family, lies, dark secrets, trust, suspicion, loyalty, morality, survival, control, love, forgiveness, and redemption, offering readers a deep and engaging reading experience.

Combining the spine-chilling cult story and intense present-day resort murder with a complex heroine who is driven and determined to protect, and the savvy writing, you have a profound, highly recommended must-read, ideal for book clubs.

Interview...

Stay tuned for my upcoming #AuthorElevatorSeries QA with Clémence, where we go behind the book and this super-talented author (pub day, July 8). Truly honored to feature her as one of my favorite authors since her debut.

Recs...

OUR LAST RESORT is for fans of the author and her debut, as well as those who enjoy well-written crime fiction with strong psychological vibes, and fans of authors Mary Kubica, Lisa Jewell, Stacy Willingham, Megan Miranda, Lisa Unger, and Lisa Gardner.

Blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 Stars +
Pub Date: July 8, 2025
July 2025 Must-Read Books
July #AuthorElevatorSeries QA