Thank you to NetGalley, Andrea Bartz, and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine for the eARC.
This was a slow-burn thriller that had me hooked from the very beginning. Bartz masterfully builds tension, drawing you into the story with every page. As the plot unravels, the twists and turns are truly jaw-dropping—just when you think you know where it’s going, it surprises you all over again.
An engrossing and cleverly crafted read that’s perfect for fans of psychological suspense!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books for this arc in exchange or an honest review.

I was excited about this book from the blurb but unfortunately this one didn't keep my interest. We follow Abby who is trying to find out what happened to her fiancé but there was not thrill or shocking moments in this book. I do think others will like it so I recommend everyone to read it and form your own opinion.

1.5 rounded up

Looking for your next summer thriller? Give this one a try. The Last Ferry Out follows Abby on her quest to find out the truth about her fiancée and what happened on the island where she died. Abby discovers multiple secrets and begins to question if she even knew her fiancée at all. Overall the book was a little slow for me, with a build up that didn’t quite deliver, but was a decent read.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group/Ballentine Books and NetGalley for sharing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When Abby's fiance Eszter dies suddenly on the small Mexican island of Isla Colel Abby sets out in search of answers. Before she passed away Eszter sent Abby a grim text that no one wants to get...'we need to talk'. On her search for closure and answers Abby runs into a group of expats living on the island that she hopes can help her, however, she ends up unsure of who she can trust and what to believe.

Overall I thought this was a good read despite being a bit slow. Luckily the characters were well written and there was enough intrigue to keep me engaged. While there were no blow your mind moments this was still a solid read and is worth checking out.

I struggled to get into it because nothing really interesting happened for the first half of the book and it felt very slow moving. I saw the twists coming so it wasn’t that much of a shock.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first read from Bartz despite the fact that I have collected several of her titles that are currently neglected on my shelves.

I was searching for a thriller to take to the beach that would whisk me off to an interesting place filled with secrets and tension and that’s exactly what Bartz delivered with The Last Ferry Out. This is a story of deception and suspense set on a very small Mexican island where locals and expats reside.

From the start, I felt a connection to Abby and her journey to find out what really happened on Isla Colel and the truth of her fiance's death. Did she really die from a food allergy when she was ultra conscientious about what she ate or did someone conspire to murder her?

As the story unfolds, Bartz delivers twist after twist to readers that drive suspicions across the cast of secondary characters. Who can Abby and readers really trust?

Add to that an atmospheric quality that transports readers so vividly to this secluded island and you have a recipe for a story that you’re going to keep grabbing for until you finally reach the juicy ending!

Reading in Between the Wines book review #53/125 for 2025:
Rating: 2🍷🍷
Book: The Last Ferry Out
Author: Andrea Bartz
Available now!

Sipping thoughts: I really wanted to love this book. I loved The Spare Room by Bartz, but this one was just okay. There was a little mystery but not a thriller, in your opinion, and the mystery wasn't all that shocking. There were some twists, but nothing that shocked me. Overall, it kept me interested.

Cheers and thank you to @Netgalley and @RandomHousePublishingGroupBallantine for an advanced copy of @TheLastFerryOut.

#TheLastFerryOut #AndreaBartz #RandomHousePublishingGroupBallantine #NetGalley #ARC #advancedreader #Kindle #Booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #bookstagram #nicoles_bookcellar #bookworm #bookdragon #booknerd #booklover #bookstagrammer #bookaholic #bokreview #bookreviewer #IHaveNoShelfControl #ReadingBetweenTheWines #fiction #thriller #suspense #mystery #MysteryAndThrillers #GeneralFictionAdult

The Last Ferry Out is a slow-burn thriller set on a storm-lashed, tropical island where one ferry comes and goes each week.
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Abby travels there after her fiancée, Eszter, dies suddenly under mysterious circumstances—and of course, nothing is quite as it seems. The expats she meets are charming but clearly hiding something, and the deeper she digs into Eszter’s final days, the more tangled everything becomes.
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Andrea Bartz absolutely nails the atmospheric tension. I could feel the damp heat and the creeping dread of being stuck somewhere you’re not entirely welcome. The dual timelines and shifting POVs added emotional layers, especially as Abby’s grief and the fragility of her relationship with Eszter are slowly revealed.
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While I didn’t totally connect with the characters—and the pacing dragged a bit in places—the twists had me hooked, and I loved the way the ending left just enough uncertainty to linger.
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Despite this, it’s still a beautifully written, character-driven mystery with themes of love, loss, and trust that will resonate with many readers. If you enjoy locked-room vibes, remote settings, and moody tension, this one is worth checking out.
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Solid 3.5-4 stars from me—and I’m still always excited to see what Andrea Bartz does next.

This one held a lot of promise as I liked the author's last novel and the premise for this seemed interesting. It was an uneven story where Abby goes to an island where her fiancee has died looking for the why and some closure. A group of expats Ezsther, the fiancee was spending time with, takes Abby under their wing. The story unfolds in a haphazard way but had a surprise Epilogue. The chapters were sometimes previous, real time or the future and that was awkward. The different narrators also mixed things up. I'm not giving up on this author, I will lookout for her next book.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

I had the pleasure of meeting author Andrea Bartz at the Montreal Mystery Fest and learned that pre-Covid she was also a travel writer. This is not altogether too surprising given the lush, atmospheric tropical setting of her new psychological thriller, The Last Ferry Out.

In this book, we find Abby visiting Isle Colel, a made-up, hurricane ravaged island off of Mexico, several months after her fiance's sudden and mysterious death on the island. Abby is grief striken and trying to retrace the steps of her beloved, Eszter, who went to Isle Colel for an impromptu vacation, but sent a cryptic text before her death which said ”I need to tell you something”. On Isle Colel, Abby meets a bunch of expats Eszter befriended and quickly realizes that she's not being told the truth about how her fiance died.

I found this to be different than your typical twist-filled thriller, as it's told through the lens of grief, which makes Abby an unreliable narrator as it causes her to question things she thought she knew about her relationship with Eszter. This book really asks the question of how well do we really know the people we love. I also liked the commentary on why people leave their home countries and end up in places like Isle Colel.

A very solid and well placed-thriller read for the summer that will transport you!

Rating: 4.5 ⭐️
Pub Date: May 20, 2025
How I Read It: 📱

Synopsis
Abby gets on a plane to go to Isla Colel in Mexico. She needs to visit the place where her fiancée, Eszter, died. Nothing about her death makes sense, but she knows where to start looking for answers. While Eszter was on the island, she befriended a group of expats, so Abby sets out to find them.

Things take a turn when one of them says he knows the truth about Eszter’s death. He and Abby make a plan to meet, but he never shows. He just disappears. Abby starts looking for the missing expat and discovers that maybe she didn’t know her fiancé as well as she thought she did.

My Thoughts
This book was good!! The twists and turns kept coming, and I felt like I could never truly get a grasp on who to trust on the island. I liked all the characters and their mysterious pasts, which kept the book engaging and suspenseful. The setting of the book was perfect, a tropical paradise with a mysterious abandoned resort you were not supposed to venture into. There were a few times in this book when I was yelling at Abby, because why was she doing what she did? Was she trying to get herself killed? But that just added to the suspense of it all! Pick this one up if you’re looking for a thrilling summer page-turner.

Themes
🫣 Suspense
🌪️ Twists
🤫 Secrets
Multiple POVs

Ratings
Characters: 4.5 ⭐️
Pace: 4.5 ⭐️
Enjoyability: 4.5 ⭐️

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book!

3.5/5 ~ 4/5 ⭐️

The mystery was very engaging and kept me guessing. The characters played the perfect parts to keep it interesting. I would have liked it if there were more elements to the mystery towards the end

A fun, twisty thriller. Love the setting and the atmospheric vibes. Suspenseful, fun, and exciting. Wish it moved a little faster, but overall a fun, tropical summer read.

Abby. Abby. Abby. Good lord, she was a balancing act of relatability and likability. I am such a fan if Bartz and her style. The island was a refreshing change of scenery after reading a lot of city thrillers. I would definitely pick up another book in the future.

I will always read an island thriller. I bounced between reading and the audio and preferred the audio - it helps to know the proper pronunciations! Bartz does a good job giving background on characters without giving unnecessary information. Abby was a hard character for me. While I understand her quest for answers, she went about it in such a way that made me a little crazy - it was like she was trying to get hurt! She had hints of unreliability which kept it interesting though. However, I was waiting for a big splash at the end like Bartz' other novels but the tide just slowly went out instead. Oh, well….

This one is a slow burn. I struggled to get into it because nothing really interesting happened for the first 3/4 of the book, and the characters were kind of annoying. Overall, the twists were not very big reveals and I was able to guess where the story was going.

Thank you to Ballantine and Random House Publishing for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

"We love secrets here."

This was an interesting adventure of a story! Abby's fiancé has died on a far away island. The fiancé, Eszter, had some very extreme allergies and she died from having a reaction and not getting help in time. Abby struggles with not being there, with trying to understand her last moments and the people who knew her on the island.

But soon after Abby arrives, she starts getting a weird vibe from the small group expats her fiancé hung out with. They are getting Abby thinking, wondering, what really happened the night she died?

I loved Abby, our main character. I really appreciated the flashbacks, they really brought the story of the island and the inhabitants. I loved the secrets and the twists. Every new reveal kept me flipping the pages and I was right along with Abby with every shocking turn. I never guessed how this would all turn out. Good pacing, great plot, characters I loved. This one was really good!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book

This book was a little bit of a slow burn for me but once Abby made her way to the island to explore with Easter’s friends, I was hooked immediately. I’m not sure I can go on a boat anytime soon, either!

I was all set for an island thrill ride with Andrea Bartz’s latest, but The Last Ferry Out ended up feeling more like a leisurely scenic tour. The story itself is good – the tropical setting and premise hooked me – yet the pacing takes its sweet time. I found myself chuckling as I wondered if my Kindle had switched to slo-mo; the plot drifts along, occasionally testing my patience. And at times I almost missed the boat on some plot points, since a few twists and side stories left things a bit muddled. Still, Bartz delivers a moody atmosphere and some genuine suspense once the waves finally pick up.

As a fan of Bartz’s earlier thrillers (We Were Never Here and The Herd are still my favorites), I have to admit this one wasn’t my favorite voyage with her. Those books had me on the edge of my seat, whereas The Last Ferry Out is more of a slow-burn cruise. It lacks the breakneck pace and sharp focus I loved in her previous novels. That said, it’s not all stormy seas – the mystery is intriguing and the island vibes are vivid. If you don’t mind a slower pace and a few choppy waters in the plot, this ferry ride still offers an enjoyable escape. Not my top pick from Andrea Bartz, but a solid 3-star read for a lazy afternoon (preferably on a beach, drink in hand) – it might just float your boat!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group Ballantine Books for a chance to read this.

🏝️mystery/suspense
🏝️murder?!
🏝️eerie isolated island
🏝️family drama
🏝️secrets

While this book was indeed suspenseful and had the island vibes i didnt quite get some of the characters. Some of them just annoyed me and not loving the storyline with them. The book was indeed suspenseful and wanting to know who Abby can and cant trust. Discovering the secrets and the lies throughout and putting them together like a puzzle piece was satisfying but for me it was not a book for me i did enjoy parts of it. But now one i would pick up again.