Was not invested enough in the characters or their love story, especially given the deception involved and did not think the ending was believable.

That being said, I loved what the author did with the setting! Very escapist.

This is not my typical kind of book but I am giving it 4 stars for the ending. As other have noted, this book is bit slow until it isn't. Slow read with a great ending and I would absolutely read more from Andrea Bartz.

The Last Ferry Out by Andrea Bartz, is about a young woman named Abby, who travels to Isla Colel to uncover the truth about her fiancée Eszter’s mysterious death. The secluded island, a tight-knit expat community, and a missing key witness all help to create suspense however this fell a little short for me.

The story begins with Abby arriving on the island, seeking answers that might help her make sense of her fiancée’s tragic death. Isla Colel, once a thriving tourist destination, is now a hauntingly quiet place, decimated by a hurricane and almost entirely cut off from the mainland. Abby quickly becomes involved with a group of expats, but things take a sinister turn when she learns that one of them knows more about Eszter’s last days. However, when the man vanishes before she can confront him, Abby’s search for the truth becomes even more dangerous and complicated.

There were moments I enjoyed but this book was slow. I just didn't make the connections I wanted with the characters. As Abby uncovers more secrets and I found out more information I still was not as hooked as I should have been. Eszter's death just seemed horribly tragic. This story just needed a little more action or romance. It just lacked that spark to make it a truly great book. There was some interesting action at the end but it was a little too late. Overall, this was not a bad book but I just did not enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for this ARC.

I will tell you that the reason I kept reading it was because I was actually very curious about what the big secret was and, while it wouldn't be anything earth shaking to me, it was unexpected and satisfying. I also was pleased that the author was able to keep me guessing about the who and the why of everything.

Not my favorite, and you do have to devote some time, but overall not bad in the end.

I received an ARC of this book from Random House via NetGalley in exchange for my honest feedback. This was a pretty solid read, and even though it was not super fast-paced, I was invested and wanted to find out what happened.

Ms. Bartz did a great job with the setting! I wonder if she escaped to a remote, insular island to research the book, as it was really well done and vivid. I enjoyed the cast of characters, even just the fact that the same background people kept popping up to demonstrate how small the island was. She also did a good job making everyone a suspect.

I would say the big secret was not tremendously exciting, and the end (not the epilogue but the main end) was wrapped up a bit too neatly. The epilogue itself was jaw-dropping and provided the answers to some lingering questions; I hate books with lingering questions, so this was quite satisfying for me.

The main character was just OK - she didn't truly resonate with me, and many of her choices were questionable bordering on dumb. However, it was really refreshing to see a story about a gay relationship in a totally mainstream book rather than any sort of "special interest" category.

SYNOPSIS: Abby's fiance passed away, under what she feels are mysterious circumstances, while vacationing on a remote island. She's sure there is more to the story than that Eszter was irresponsible with her allergies and misplaced her Epi-pen. She sets off to the island to see what she can find out. But once she arrives she learns that everyone on the island is either running from or hiding something.

This story was very slow to start for me and I didn't think it really got going until about 2/3 of the way in. I didn't particularly like any of the characters so it was hard to get invested in the story, however once the story picked up I did enjoy the twists that came one after the other. And I love a surprise epilogue as well! I also appreciated that all loose ends/mysteries/questions were wrapped up.

I was so thrilled to receive an early copy of this book! Andrea Bartz is one of my favorite thriller authors: she consistently writes interesting, complex female leads and throws them into psychologically stressful situations. She does exactly that in THE LAST FERRY OUT (our protagonist Abby is mourning the loss of her fiancée Eszter and has traveled to the place where she died only to discover Eszter may have been keeping things from her) — all while giving us a lush setting in Isla Colel and a suspicious cast of side characters.

When Abby decides to visit the tropical island paradise where her fiancée, Eszter, died from an allergic reaction, she didn’t expect to meet so many others who knew Eszter. She truly wanted to feel closer to Eszter and what better way to do that than sit and talk with others who knew her.

As Abby learns more and more about the island and Eszter’s plans, things start to get muddled. What was Eszter up to? And, more importantly, why does it seem like things are being hidden from her?

Though a bit slow, this book did hold my interest as I was invested in what happened to Eszter. The descriptions of island life were lovely. Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the eARC.

Nothing is quite as it seems in this thriller when Abby travels to the Mexican island where her fiancée Eszter took her last breaths. Told in dual timelines, The Last Ferry Out tells the story of Abby’s investigation into Eszter’s death and the mysterious last message that she received from her that indicated there were secrets in their relationships. The other timeline moves backwards in time and explores Eszter’s time on the island, her relationship with Abby, her relationship with her strict immigrant family, and more.

The cast of side characters is quite entertaining as well and will add to the veil of uncertainty readers feel as they try to determine the exact circumstances behind Eszter’s death and whether Abby is safe on the island.

This is my first book by Andrea Bartz. I think this is a well written book, and I think the author has a great literary style. I enjoyed the main characters, and the development of those characters, including their secrets and interests.

The storyline starts off with a woman., Abby, whose fiancée, Ezsther, dies of a medical emergency on a remote island in Mexico. Abby tries to follow Ezsther's footsteps in order to get some closure, but she finds more than she bargains for. From expats with secrets to local islanders who don't want to mingle. Abby doesn't know who to trust.

The ending had an interesting twist, but wasn't the level I was hoping for. (My jaw didn't drop). The book has a lot of pieces to it that I would classify as soul searching, restarting your life, etc. I would definitely recommend to readers who like these kind of stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.

An enjoyable thriller, but I did find it hard to get into.

Thank you to #netgalley for granting me an ARC for an honest review.
While I did enjoy the story, there were parts that dragged on, it became better the closer it came to the conclusion.
I stuck it out because I really like this author. It could be that my head wasn't in the right mindset for reading the story, I hope that others really enjoy the novel.

The main character, Abby travels to a remote island to search for answers about her fiancé's last few days. The beginning unfolds with the dynamics of the relationship and foreshadowing what is to come!

The Last Ferry Out was an interesting read for me. It was not the most thrilling thriller, and it definitely took me a while to get into it, but overall it was a solid read.

I loved the setting of this book. I could vividly imagine this, eerie, almost desolate, remote island in my mind. However, I found the characters lacking. I wish there was a little more background and focus on the supporting characters. It even felt like the background of Abby and Eszter's relationship could have been explored a little bit more.

I did enjoy this book, but it took me a lot longer to get through than other thrillers.

Does anyone really know their significant other as they hope they do? While diving into what her fiancé was doing on a small island, strange things happen and secrets threaten to come to light to ruin all the hopes and dreams of the life she held close…. While trying to outrun the secrets others want to hold close will she die as her fiancé did and not understand the truth of how her life came crashing down around her wile looking for closure?

I really wanted to love this one! The multiple pov, the back and forth from past and present, the whiplash in the story...it was all just a lot for me personally but would definitely recommend giving it a read! It had SO MUCH potential and simply missed the mark imo but I still enjoyed it.

Novel Concept: 5/5
Novel Execution: 4/5

Title: 3/5
Characterization: 4/5
Voice: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Atmosphere: 4/5
Theme: 2/5
Prose: 2/5

Does this pass the Bechdel Test: Yes

Title
Last Ferry Out as a title functions well enough but I suppose I'm disappointed that it didn't do much more. It specifically refers to when Abby is on the Island Colel that the storm is preventing the last ferry out from heading to the mainland. I just feel that there are so many other important things that we could have drawn the title from than the ferry because the ferry isn't really all that integral to the plot. Like yes Abby will have to stay on the island, but it never felt like Abby was racing to get off. She always seemed so pressed to find answers, that it was hard to feel the stakes of the last ferry postponing itself. My hot take is that the book might have been called "She Who Dares, Wins," because the phrase comes up a lot in the novel and is better connected to the characters and theme.

Characterization
I think my biggest struggle with Abby is that she did not feel very rural Wisconsin, and this is coming from a girl who grew up rural Wisconsin. I think I would have believed her more if she'd been from Milwaukee because it felt like she had a much more urban attitude. At the same time, she is supposed to have lived in Madison for a good long while so she might have adapted into a more urban lifestyle because of it. It was just weird because we kept referencing back to her rural Wisconsin upbringing when I felt like she seemed raised in one of the cities.

Aside from this note, I think all of the characters had really interesting narratives that blended well together. The general mystery of the expats was cool. Eszter always having a notebook of points to cover as something both endearing and infuriating was interesting to see (as someone who has to write a script to make a phone call).

When I think of the expats as a unit, Abby makes an observation that I really liked where they acted like they were natives to the island, and not tourists themselves. That they had some kind of ownership or possession of the island and it's giving big colonizer energy and I'm really glad that Abby highlighted the absolute absurdity of it. Especially when we find out that the only people who were fighting against what Eszter's dad was doing were expat tourists/non-natives. The only perspective from someone indigenous to the island we get is Carlos and he is very pro this project.

Voice
So the voice in this novel--I think it's good. The language is very direct at times and so it felt often a little spoonfed. I think the best example is that when Abby hallucinates Eszter, after she realizes it was a hallucination Abby makes a comment wondering about how bad she must have been messed up to hallucinate Eszter, and the observation just felt unnecessary. I think I would have preferred less direct observations made by the characters.

Plot
Okay so the plot is unfortunately a little all over the place when we start getting towards the end. At first, I bristled at the reveal being Brady of all people but actually when I sit down and think about it, I can jive with it. All the set up is there I just really thought we were learning hard into Amari. If I'm going to be honest, I really thought that the entire group of Expats were in on it and played a role in some way.

I really don't understand where Brady was staying and that part felt very contrived. It's also so absolutely wild that Abby has no idea Brady killed Eszter. That he found the Epi-Pen and knowingly refused to help her. It just felt like something that we'd get a reveal on. Like the bad guy gets away with it at the end, and I guess I don't know how I feel about it.

This novel feels like it didn't know how to end because it didn't want there to be a bad guy in the traditional sense. It was framed like an accident, with Brady and Gloria both getting away. As a result, it really feels like we're treading water in the last act because all that suffering Abby went through in the last act was for nothing. The stakes were imaginary. The thriller was an illusion.

It was cool that Abby hallucinated Eszter. I liked that part. In terms of fake-outs, it worked really well.

Atmosphere
So the world of the Isla Colel comes to life. We can feel the heat and the waves, the energy of the expats and the Mexican people who inhabit the island. Isla Colel is fictional but it felt real enough and I think that's what matters most.

In terms of emotional atmosphere I found the book lacking. Even when Abby is crying, I just really struggled to connect with the emotion. It often felt like I was being told how to feel rather than it comes to life on the page. This is probably a result of the direct language used throughout the novel.

I did feel Abby's danger though when she finds herself in peril. I was scared for her in the moments that counted. I was fully invested in the end trying to figure out who did it and why.

Prose
This book is multiple POV in an Asynchronous Timeline that isn't always clear as to when we are in time. This sounds like it would be a bit of an overwhelming disaster, and it kind of it. While I can compromise on having a POV from Eszter, we absolutely did not need any of the POVs from everyone else. I think what the author might have been trying to avoid is big lore dumps through dialogue but we instead have big lore dumps through exposition. While I think knowing some people's motivations is important, a lot of this felt entirely unnecessary. In this case I really do think that "less is more" should have been utilized more.

This book also effectively has 3 epilogues and I already don't like epilogues to begin with, so imagine my shock that we've got three. And I hate to say it, but I was skimming these epilogues because we were at the end, and a majority of it just didn't feel relevant. I didn't need to know exactly the moment Abby and Eszter met in real time, I could have lived with the "where are they now" style epilogue of the expats, but then we have the actual epilogue which is the grocery store clerk, who was revealed to be the actual killer who intentionally gave Brady the wrong food which resulted in Eszter's death.

This was dumb. I hate to be crass, but it was. There's nothing really setting up Gloria as an expat who successfully masquerades as someone native to the area. She's never doing anything that could cause suspect, and so it feels like something that was slapped on at the end for the sake of the drama. I think because we're supposed to like Brady and not see him as the bad guy, so we have to place that negative feeling on someone else. In this case, Gloria.

I'm sorry but I just didn't care.

I think part of the struggle in this novel is that it wanted to be general fiction of this rolling perspective of the inhabitants of Isla Colel and this death that occured but also a mystery on how this death happened but then also a thriller as the main character has to survive peril. But because we having these many POVs, we don't really have a mystery because it's not like Abby is really discovering much of this stuff. We're just getting it as the reader. And the thriller doesn't land because none of the threat was real and no one faced any consequences for Eszter's death. And because these two aspects are struggling to work, the general fiction of the different POV's of the island doesn't work because that's not what the book set to do.

I think I wanted less of these POVs and more focus on the mystery or have us go further into the thriller--give Gloria a bigger role.

Theme
Thematically I can't really say for sure what this book is about because nothing really comes up. Eszter's killers get away. No one faces any consequences for their actions. I fear that nothing in relation to Eszter feels like it changed meaningfully. As far as Abby is aware, it's still just an accident. She never learns that it wasn't. So with the status quo of the premise not really shifting, I ask what was the point?

I do think it's interesting that the people who are against the island being developed are the expats and people not from the area. That there's this selfish possession of their "authentic Mexican destination." A level of ownership over this exotic local remaining exotic. We never really get the opinion of the island beyond one guy. I think it says a lot that we don't really get to see the islander's perspective. It's always just the expats.

I was approved as an ARC for this book, it was a very interesting book. It started off slow but it started to pick up quick. I’ve character development and good story line. I enjoyed this book

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the opportunity to read this book
The premise for this book drew me in. A Caribbean Island where Abby’s fiancée had died has the feel of a locked room mystery. This well written book could have been great but I felt like it let me down

In the wake of her fiancée Eszter's sudden death, Abby decides to pay a visit to the island paradise, Isla Colel, Eszter had been visiting during her final days. As Abby begins to meet others on who knew Eszter, she soon begins to feel they are hiding something, and now has even more questions than answers. The Last Ferry Out is layered with mysteries and leaves you wondering who can be trusted in this twisted tale. Interwoven with themes of complicated family dynamics, loyalty, trust and grief, I would highly recommend this book for readers looking for a fast paced, twisted suspense that will leave you feeling transported to this remote island. Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the advanced copy, all opinions are my own.