This was such a good, genre-busting story! I initially thought that it was going to be a sad tale of a woman who lost her fiancé to anaphylaxis and how she was healing in the location it happened. It then turned into a friendship story, all about the group of expats. Then it twisted into a mystery/thriller and was trying to figure out who killed the fiancé. It had overarching themes of ecology, feminism, and queerness. I couldn’t put this down, it had so much to offer!! What a great story and great twists!!

The Last Ferry Out by Andrea Bartz starts out interesting. Abby fiancé is killed on a remote island. She goes there to see if she can figure out what really happened.
I got lost – there were a lot of characters and with the different timelines I really had to make myself finish. I did want to find out what really happened. The story was slow, but the end was interesting.
I am sure this book is for someone who likes a lot of characters and a slow build up.

This was an exciting book. Abby searches for closure after her fiancé dies on a remote Mexican island. When she meets the people her fiancé befriended, she starts to suspect her dealt was more than an accident. The book alternates between the past and the present, and there are lots of twist and turns. The character development was excellent and this was a true page turner. I read the book in just a couple of sittings. I highly recommend this book to those who like suspenseful k, character-driven books.

𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ★ ★ ★ ★
𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: May 20, 2025
𝗔𝗥𝗖 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪:

I will read anything that Andrea writes!!!! This gave me the best summer murder mystery vibes ever. We have a death that may not be as it seems on an eerie AF island with no phone service etc..creeeeepppy. Abby is determined to get to the bottom of her fiancés death & those who could be helpful seem to have something they aren’t saying right 👀👀 and things aren’t as they seem.

Secrets and twists will keep you guessing in this one and the ending was as I hoped. Recommend this being on everybody’s TBR.

Huge thank you to our Author, NetGalley as well as Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books

𝗧𝗥𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗦: Mystery, Suspenseful, Multiple Timelines, Drama, Secrets, Fast Paced

2.5⭐️ rounded up.

Where to start? This book fell flat for me in so many ways. I found myself uninterested in all of the *many* characters introduced to the reader. I never connected to the plot itself, and found myself skimming pages just to get to the end. The epilogue served up an interesting twist—that was a bright spot in the end.

Thank you to Andi Bartz, NetGalley, and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of "The Last Ferry Out" by Andrea Bartz. I went in with high hopes given the premise of the novel, which involves a woman searching for answers in the midst of the tragic loss of her fiancé, who died on a remote island off the Mexican coast. None of the supporting cast of characters had any remotely redeeming qualities and I found myself rushing through the last 5% of the book just to finish. I appreciated the attempt(s) at twists and turns but something about this fell flat for me.

The characters and setting were very interesting. Lots of suspense at points. Interesting resolution that I didn't predict.

I'm weirdly proud of myself for finishing this one because it was slow!

I mean, very little happens until you're about 3/4 through the book.

The MC was a little dull, though she thought she was funny.

The expat crew was a bit insufferable.

I did like our dead girl.

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.

This author is a hit or miss for me, but I was super excited to read this one! The setting was perfect; a remote stormy island & a mysterious death. The island felt dangerous and ominous. I devoured it! My only complaint was that I really didn’t connect with the characters, and wanted more. I did appreciate the twists, and recommend this to anyone who is in the mood for a rainy day thriller! Thank you so much to NetGalley and publisher for this ARC!

Bartz is a must-read author of mine. I'm a huge fan of the way she tells a story. This latest title was no exception. It took me a bit to get into it, but once I did, I was all in! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I received a free eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed We Were Never Here (although I confess to not remembering it in great detail since I never wrote a review!), and I was just looking for something fast paced for a Sunday afternoon read. I picked this pretty much at random from my collection of ARCs and ended up blowing through the whole thing in basically one sitting. For all of its many content warnings, it actually ended up being reminiscent of a less scandalous version of The Resort. Here as there, all of the expats have something to hide (to be fair, if life is going great, you probably don’t pack up and leave home never to return…), but all of the secrets here are comparatively tame.

Our protagonist is Abby, and she’s made a short trip to Isla Colel, a small island off the coast of Mexico (that somehow has great WiFi, which is a weird point EVERYONE harps on constantly. Like…they’re cut off from the rest of the world and there aren’t many tourists and they like it that way…but also the WiFi is excellent! …what?). A few months earlier, her fiancee Eszter died there, and Abby is hoping to find, if not answers, at least closure. Eszter went to the Isla to ostensibly finish up her master’s capstone project. She stayed the first couple of weeks by herself, and Abby was set to join her for the last week. But a few days before Abby was supposed to leave, Eszter suffered an allergic reaction and died in her rental house. Seeing as she’s both “just” the fiancee (not the actual spouse) and that Eszter’s parents didn’t exactly approve of their daughter being engaged to a woman in the first place, Abby never really got the closure she wanted about Eszter’s death. And once she gets to the island, it feels like Eszter may have been hiding something big from her.

As is usually the case on islands like this, we have a merry band of expats from various countries who have formed their own sort of found family. There’s Rita, a recent arrival from Germany (she actually arrived after Eszter died, but Abby latches onto her motherly energy quickly). There’s Brady, an Australian who claims to be on the run from his overbearing father; Pedro, a strict environmentalist; and Amari, a beautiful artist. They take Abby under their collective wing, and agree to help her sort out what happened to Eszter (Brady, Pedro, and Amari were all there when it happened). But of course, things aren’t what they seem on the island, and once another of the expats disappears, Abby suspects Eszter’s death wasn’t an accident after all.

It’s a fast-paced story - I don’t know that I necessarily needed all of the flashbacks? They’re meant to establish Eszter and Abby’s relationship, and they do give a little more depth to her character. I just didn’t find them all that interesting in the grand scheme of things. Overall this is fairly predictable, but it’s still entertaining.

I'm a big fan of Andrea Bartz's [book:We Were Never Here|56084054], so I was hoping for a similar experience with The Last Ferry Out. I did like this story, but the pacing dragged big time for me. The themes of trust in a relationship and how well you can really ever know people were very intriguing and certainly added to the eery setting of such a remote island, but neither could make up for what ultimately felt like a book that was coming in waves with high highs and then plot to get from A to B. Overall, just a like for me on this one.

I'm a fan of this author and this was another great twisty thriller, suspenseful and had me up reading way past my bedtime!

3.5 stars. If there’s one thing I’m always going to read, it’s a thriller that takes place on an island. This one turned out decent but not great. The writing quality is great. Character development is really good for a thriller. However, it was an uneven reading experience. Every time I felt some momentum or intensity, the author slowed the pace to a crawl. Despite the pace, I was engaged and interested in how the mystery played out.

Dry and boring. Story moved slow and the MC was extremely immature for being 27 and engaged to be married. This book dragged so much and the conclusion left me wanting more. Epilogue was the best part sadly.

Another Stunning Thriller from Andrea Bartz. An absolutely incredible jaw dropping, twisty, queer story in an incredible setting with many, interesting, complex & unreliable characters that kept me reading until 3 AM and not stopping until the shocking end. Wow! I think its Bartz' best yet and I'm a huge fan of all her books. This one had my rapt attention. I didn't want it to end. I'd love to see this on the big screen!

Love everything by this author. Always suspenseful, fast paced and sorry to fet to the final page. GReat story great intrigue and great entertainment.

Thank you Random house Publishing for this Advance Readers Copy ebook in exchange for my honest review.

I didn’t like anything about this book. The characters lacked depth and the MC Abby was immature and naive. The plot was drawn out and unbelievable. I felt that the story was also repetitive. I was bored early on and had to push myself to finish once I got to the 20% mark. The random POV of other characters felt pointless, making the story feel choppy and hard to follow with the multiple time lines.

The ending! I’m annoyed and the “twist” was so unbelievable that I didn’t even care.

The Last Ferry Out is full of tension, but at times fell flat. The book moves at a fast pace. The characters are easy to relate to and become invested in. However, at times, the pacing felt uneven. Some sections drag while others were rushed. The ending, felt a bit abrupt.

Thank you Net Galley for this copy!

Thanks to Andrea Bartz, Penguin Random House, and NetGalley for access to the Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In this story, Abby is trying to pick up the pieces after her fiancée has died in a remote Mexican village. She travels to the village to gain resolution of her fiancée’s death and encounters people who, though friendly, may not be quite what they seem.

I appreciate the buildup of the story and the tropical setting. The ending also resonated well with me – excellent resolution in a realistic and believable way that closed out all the details from the story. Recommended.