I really wanted to like this book, but I just didn’t. I felt that it dragged on and one and I just didn’t find myself really engaged or interested in the characters. I loved the premise, loved the setting, but i didn’t find it as thrilling or as exciting as I would have liked.

The Last Ferry Out sets an eerie and tense tone right from the start, with vivid descriptions of a crumbling town and a mounting sense of dread. The setting was one of the book’s strongest points—it felt moody, isolated, and perfect for a thriller. However, the pacing dragged in several places, and I found it hard to stay fully invested in the plot. The characters had potential, but some felt underdeveloped, and the twists didn’t quite pack the punch I was hoping for. Not a bad read overall, just not one that stuck with me long after I finished. Worth checking out if you like slow-burn suspense, but maybe not for readers seeking something more fast-paced or twisty.

When Abby’s fiancée, Eszter, suddenly passes away, she feels beyond lost. In order to try and obtain some closure, Abby travels to the remote island, where Ezster experienced her last moments, to try and see what she can figure out about her love’s untimely death … but what she doesn’t realize is that she’s in for a hell of a lot more than she bargained for.

It took me a bit to be able to get into this one, but I thought it was pretty decent! Definitely one to check out if thriller/mystery books are your thing.

One of Bartz’s best skills is building atmosphere, and she nailed it in this book set on the isolated Isla Cole (off the coast of Mexico). Since the main resort closed after a hurricane, this off-grid island is filled with a close-knit community of locals and ex-pats who all have something to hide. The MC, Abby, arrives to fill the gaps around the mysterious death of her fiancée, and finds herself confused by what she discovers. Rather than closure, her own paranoia pushes her to see threats, secrets, and danger at every turn. While the opening chapters had me hesitant with a slow opening, the back half of this one had my heart pumping! The claustrophobic feeling of the suspense was palpable, and I enjoyed the use of flashbacks to fill gaps, the exploration of grief, as well as the highlight of family drama and environmental tourism. Readers who enjoy destination thrillers, isolated locations, and slow burn suspense will find this book as a great summer read!

The Last Ferry Out by Andrea Barth was a great thriller! I loved the premise of this story & it did not disappoint. A solid 4 star read for me! Add this one to your TBR!
Thank you to NetGalley, the author, & the publisher for an ARC copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.

The Last Ferry Out by Andrea Bartz

Thank You NetGalley and Random House Publishers for a complimentary copy of this novel! All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
Abby is supposed to meet her fiancé Eszter on Isla Colel, a small island off Mexico’s coast. However, before she is to go, Eszter suddenly dies from anaphylactic shock. To help her deal with the loss and grief she is experiencing, Abby ends up later traveling to Isla Colel. She hopes to find closure. However, she ends up finding something else. As she gets to know other expats on the island, there is a weird vibe she begins to get from them – like Eszter’s death was not an accident, like they have something to hide. Eszter always had her EpiPen with her. Why wasn’t she able to use it? One of the expats, Brady, ends up texting Abby at 3AM that he wants to tell her the truth about what happened to Eszter. But when Abby goes to meet him the following morning at the appointed time, he is nowhere to be found. Brady is missing and now Abby is even more suspicious of the other expats.
The novel goes back and forth between the current time Abby is on the island and the progression of Abby and Eszter’s relationship since when they first met. Will Abby be able to find the truth amid all the secrets being kept by the expats? Everyone – including the local islanders – are lying about something. Will Abby be able to find closure, or will she become a casualty of the island herself, just like Eszter? I especially enjoyed the mystery part of this novel! It kept me guessing until the end, then another twist I didn’t see coming !!! AVAILABLE May 20, 2025

I loved the premise of this story - a fiance desperate to relive her love's last moments in another country.
Unfortunately the pacing was just a slog to get through with way too much side story for me.

Thank uou, Netgalley for the ARC!

Thank you Ballantine Books, PRH Audio and NetGalley for the free advanced copies of this book.

"We love secrets here. Everyone gets a fresh start, even you."

Omg this book was so good, I inhaled it! It was an intense, multi-layered thriller that had me questioning who could be trusted. Every time I thought the book was ending, there was more and new secrets unlocked.

When Abby's fiancee Eszter dies while visiting a remote island in Mexico, Abby is heartbroken. She decides to travel to Isla Colel to see the last place Eszter was alive. She meets the locals and expats whom Eszter interacted with, and quickly realizes all is not what it seems. As she starts digging into Eszter's time on the island, she unearths deadly secrets and begins a race against time.

The Last Ferry Out is incredibly atmospheric, both relaxing you with it's small, quaint, beachy vibes and alternatively the dark secrets that lie underneath. Everyone is hiding something, and you can feel the tension. There were moments while listening to the book that I screamed "no, don't do it."

Written in multiple POV's and alternating timelines, The Last Ferry Out is an incredibly immersive tale and an excellent summer thriller.

The narrators were fantastic, particularly the narrator who voiced Abby. She did lots of accents for the various characters requiring accents, and I love how her narration really emphasized the haunting nature of this book.

The Last Ferry Out
By: Andrea Bartz

4 Stars

Abby finds herself wrapped in a mysteru while visiting the island where her fiancée died. She begins unraveling mysteries, lies, and betrayal from all around. Who was her fiancée really? Who can she trust on this small island?

This story was well written and twisty with curveballs thrown throughout. I was completely enveloped by the island fantasy and the mystery that followed Eszter. The characters are real and relatable. They add an edge to the story. I never could guess what was going to happen. I love being shocked, and man, by the end, I was in complete shock. I never saw it coming.


*I want to thank Netgalley and the author for this book in return for my honest review*

Stormi Ellis
Boundless Book Review

I loved that this book took place on a secluded island and the locked-in style thriller. The author did a great job enticing fear, which made me fly through this book at times. I also appreciated the multiple POVs and alternating timelines. The only thing that I didn’t like was that it seemed to drag at times. That is just my opinion and I’m sure a lot of other people wouldn’t feel that way.

I was super excited for this one based on the premise and enjoying the authors prior books. It started out strong and I was engaged. I felt a bit bored halfway through and wasn’t super thrilled with the ending. That is until I got to the epilogue! Love a last minute plot twist, which had me last minute bumping my rating from a 3 to 3.5

I loved this book. The creepy, cut-off island setting totally set the tone—just the right mix of tropical and terrifying. Andrea Bartz nailed it again with fast pacing, twisty suspense, and characters you’re never quite sure you can trust.

Abby goes to the island where her fiancée died, hoping to find answers, but of course nothing goes as planned. The locals are weirdly chill about people disappearing, and the whole place has this eerie vibe that something bad is just waiting to happen. I couldn’t stop reading—every chapter pulled me deeper into the mystery.

If you're into atmospheric thrillers with a slightly unhinged, what's-really-going-on-here energy, The Last Ferry Out is absolutely worth it.

I've enjoyed some of this author's previous books more than I expected, but I was excited to get a copy of this one and dive in. Unfortunately, this one fell flat for me. I found the story to be hard to follow at times, and it ended up feeling like a bit of a "run of the mill" thriller by the end. I finished it, but didn't love this one.

An intriguing psychological drama, almost like a psychological thriller but without any actual murder or killings. This was an interesting story with multiple different narrators following a woman as she tries to piece together the last days of her fiancé's life. Plenty of twists and turns and mystery to keep the audience coming back for more.

A young woman, Abby, travels to a tropical island where her fiancée died, suspecting foul play. As she uncovers dark secrets and lies among the expat community, she becomes determined to find the killer before becoming the next victim.

I was filled with anticipation as I delved into this book, only to find myself painfully disappointed by its slow pace and mysterious nature. It just didn't capture my attention this time around.

There were only a handful of characters to get to know. We followed the perspectives of Abby, Rita, Eszter, Marta, Brady, and Carlos. It may seem like a lot, but each character had their own unique personality that made them easy to distinguish. Some were likable, while others were a bit harder to warm up to, but overall, a solid cast.

The mystery woven throughout the narrative was emotional, intricate, and ultimately ended in tragedy. The unexpected outcome left me reeling, driving home the message to never jump to conclusions without all the facts. It felt like a waste of such well-developed characters.

If you appreciate complex relationships, vivid descriptions of scenery, and the thrill of solving a mystery, this book may pique your interest. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it - let me know what you think!

Thank you, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books, for the digital ARC copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I enjoyed one of Andrea‘s previous books more than I expected, so I was excited to see her name on the NetGalley page and requested it with high hopes. I liked the sound of the setting, I have not read many books set on any Mexican islands or really in all of Mexico except for Sylvia Moreno garcia’s books so I was hoping that this would be a positive deviation from the norm.

Now that being said, I did not like this as much as I was hoping that I would, but even so I still think that for a run of the male thriller this one was half decent. The story was engaging enough to keep me turning the pages and nothing felt too ridiculous and unbelievable which for me is often the thing that makes me dislike thrillers. I did think that the ending was a bit predictable and I could see where things were going but overall it was a decent beach Reid just not much more than that. The writing itself was I’d say above average for a thriller but nothing spectacular and the twist wasn’t so much of a twist for me but still I thought the book came together well at the end. This didn’t feel like she has a specific authorial voice, so if that is what you’re looking for I don’t think that’s to be found with Andrea Bartz, but I feel that turning out another decent thriller has at least made her consistent enough that I would be interested to see what else she will come up with in the future.

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

Review: I honestly don't have as much to report about this one as I expected too. I thought it was either going to be outlandish and awful or absolutely amazing. Life should teach me not to think in all or none's. However, this ended up being a DNF at 60 percent. It was missing something things I thought I would get from it. It does take place on an island however, up until 60 percent at least, the island doesn't really feel like it's relevant. The mystery of finding out exactly what happened to her fiancee is somewhat interesting, I just could not bring myself to care about these characters and that's usually when I call it quite. I just unfortunately felt bored and uninterested. This book is not bad by any means, it's not immature or outlandish, even to the point I may have enjoyed it more if it had some of that. My rule is if I no longer care about what happens to the characters in the end, I need to quit and here we are.

Andrea Bartz is quickly becoming a must-read author for me. In her latest book, The Last Ferry Out, bereaved protagonist Abby travels to a remote Mexican island intent on retracing her fiancée’s last days. She meets locals with whom she can’t communicate and a group of English-speaking expats who she believes know more about her fiancée’s death than they are letting on. 4.5/5 stars.

This was my first book by Andrea Bartz. I was so intrigued by the description of the book and it lived up to that for me.

The Book:
Abby's fiance died in a medical accident while working on a capstone project on a remote island in Mexico, Isla Colel. Four months following her fiance, Eszter's death, Abby travels to the island to see the place where she had been living and where she died - looking for places Eszter visited & the people Eszter was friends with.
As she gets to know people on the island, Abby starts to suspect that Eszter's death was more suspicious than simply a medical accident and starts to unravel secrets and lies - of people on the island and of Eszter herself.

My Thoughts:
I really loved this setting and the descriptions were rich enough that I could easily picture and feel this island.
I enjoyed the characters and their messy lives. I was curious throughout the book to find out what really happened to Eszter. There are some really great, tense scenes throughout the book!
This book is told through multi-timeline & POV, which I really enjoyed.

I will be sharing this review on Instagram Thurs May 1 and will add the link below after I have posted it.

Isla Colel, a small island where people go to escape, full of expats, is the site of the disappearance of Eszter. Abby's Eszter's fiancee arrives on the island with the intention of trying to uncover what Eszter's last days were like. When she meets fellow expats who all knew Eszter, Abby begins to feel like she is a part of those last days of Eszter's life. But some of the expats are cagey and avoid answering questions. When Abby receives a text from one of the expats telling her he needs to talk to her about Eszter, Abby feels like she will be able to connect the missing pieces. But when he goes missing, Abby is convinced something more sinister is at play. The web of lies Abby wades through will either give Abby the answer's she's searching for or put her in danger also.