My first exposure to Andrea Bartz was "We Were Never Here". This book exceeded my expectations, and I was so immersed in this story I forgot that I was reading and felt like I could deeply relate to what the characters in the book felt.

3.5?

I enjoyed the setting here, and and mostly had a good time reading this one! The timeline gets a bit confusing as we get to the end, with the reverse love story, then months after the climax, then back to a few weeks after the climax. Also that final twist was a liiiiittle silly hehe.

All that said, a fun thriller, happy Pride, would recommend to fans of the genre.

Thanks to NetGalley et al., for the ARC!

I’m a huge fan of the author, I was so excited to get my hands on her latest book she’s a must read!!
Read this if you love
mystery/suspense
multiple points of view
various timelines
murder?!
eerie isolated island
family drama
secrets

Abby’s fiancée Eszter dies on the tropical island of Isla Colel, and Abby’s completely lost. Needing closure she decides to go to island and trace Eszter’s last steps. When Abby arrives the island isn’t what she expected, a hurricane a few years earlier left it a shell of its former self, with only a few locals and expats remaining. Even the once-daily ferry to the mainland now only runs every week or so. Abby befriends group of expats, but she becomes uneasy when one of them says he knows the truth about Eszter's last days. Before she can meet up with him he disappears and it soon becomes days without any sign of him. As her quest for the truth unearths dark secrets, shady pasts, and a web of lies, Abby grows more determined than ever to find out what happened to the love of her life. And the deeper she gets in the close-knit expat community, the more she suspects one of them is Eszter's killer—and will do anything to keep the truth buried. But will she discover who it is before she becomes the island’s next victim? I couldn’t put the book down! The author does an incredible job of writing characters with layers and emotions. This was a slow burn but I loved it!

Moody thriller set in a tropical oasis. This is a good summer read about Abby, who travels to a remote tropical island to investigate the death of her fiancee. From the prologue, I was invested in the story and curious to find out what happens next. It was a bit of a slower read than I expected, but I enjoyed it overall.

📖 The Last Ferry Out
👩‍💻 Author: Andrea Bartz
📅 Pub Date: 5/20/25 – Out Now!
📚 Pages: 320
🗂️ Genre: Thriller
🏝️ Publisher: Ballantine Books
🙏 Huge thanks to @ballantinebooks & Andrea Bartz for the gifted copy! 💕 #partner

💥 A tropical island, a tragic death, and a killer who may still be lurking...

Abby travels to Isla Colel to make peace with the death of her fiancée, Eszter—but what she finds is anything but closure. The island, once a vacation hotspot, is now eerie and abandoned after a devastating hurricane. The once-daily ferry barely runs, and the few remaining residents seem to be hiding something...

🌴 She falls in with an intriguing group of expats, but when one of them hints he knows what really happened to Eszter—and then mysteriously disappears—Abby’s search for answers turns into a dangerous game of cat and mouse.

✨ The twists kept me guessing, and I loved the queer representation 🏳️‍🌈. The moody, isolated island setting was haunting and atmospheric. That said, this wasn’t the fast-paced thriller I expected—it felt more melancholic than scary. The pacing dragged a bit, and there were a lot of characters to keep track of.

Still, if you enjoy slow-burn island thrillers with emotional depth, layered secrets, and LGBTQ+ themes, this one’s for you.

📚 Would recommend to fans of character-driven suspense and tropical noir.

#TheLastFerryOut #AndreaBartz #ThrillerReads #IslandThriller #QueerBooks #BookReview #Bookstagram #SummerReads #BallantineBooks #BeachReadWithATwist #LGBTQBooks #MysteryLovers #BookRecs #ReeseBookClubAuthor #BookishThoughts

In Andrea Bartz’s newest novel, The Last Ferry Out, Abby travels to a remote paradise to investigate and find closure about the death of her fiancée, Eszter. While on the island, Abby makes several discoveries that change her view of Eszter and her death.

This was a fast paced read with several unexpected twists. Perfect summer beach read!

Andrea Bartz most recent release, The Last Ferry Out, is a gripping, atmospheric, and mind provoking thriller that keeps you turning pages from start to finish. 

We follow Abby to the Island of Isla Colel, located off the cost of Mexico, to get closure regarding her late fiance's death. Only once she is there, the story she knows doesn't seem to match up with what people are sharing. And on an island where everyone loves secrets Abby isn't sure who to trust, especially when one islander mysteriously goes missing shortly after texting her that she deserves to know the truth! 

In form with her other novels Andrea Bartz has us guessing at what happened to Eszter from the first page to the last, and everyone seems to have their own version of events. This novel took me on a ride and I very much enjoyed guessing and getting some things right and some things very wrong.  

If you love thrillers where you can trust no one, I would highly recommend it. It's a great summer read with intriguing characters and all the twists and turns you could want! Thank you to the publisher for providing an advanced readers copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Last Ferry Out is a moody, atmospheric thriller that explores the aftermath of loss, the instability of memory, and the secrets that can thrive in isolation. Andrea Bartz transports readers to the remote Caribbean island of Isla Colel, where Abby arrives in search of answers following the sudden death of her fiancée, Eszter. What was supposed to be a peaceful solo retreat ended in tragedy—an apparent anaphylactic shock—and Abby can’t shake the feeling that something doesn’t add up. As she digs deeper into the events surrounding Eszter’s final days, Abby becomes entangled with the island’s strange and insular community of expats, each one potentially hiding pieces of the truth.

Bartz, known for her smart and suspenseful psychological thrillers, builds tension slowly but deliberately. The island setting is vividly rendered, full of storm-battered cliffs, decaying resorts, and ghostly beauty that mirrors Abby’s growing unease. The book’s structure alternates between Abby’s present-day investigation and flashbacks to her complicated relationship with Eszter, offering a portrait of love haunted by secrecy, miscommunication, and internalized trauma. Themes of grief, identity, and trust are explored with nuance, particularly through the lens of queer relationships and the vulnerabilities they sometimes expose.

Critics and readers have praised the novel’s immersive atmosphere and emotional depth. Bartz’s writing is sharp, immersive, and layered with subtle clues and psychological tension. While not a fast-paced thriller in the traditional sense, the novel keeps readers engaged with its slowly tightening sense of dread and a series of well-executed twists that challenge both Abby’s—and the reader’s—assumptions.

That said, the pacing may not appeal to everyone. Some readers might find the introspective sections and nonlinear narrative occasionally disrupt the momentum of the mystery. A few have also noted that Abby and Eszter’s relationship, while central to the plot, can feel emotionally distant at times. However, for those willing to settle into the novel’s slow-burn style, the emotional payoff and final revelations are both rewarding and thought-provoking.

The Last Ferry Out is an intelligent and unsettling thriller that excels in atmosphere and emotional complexity. Ideal for fans of character-driven suspense and isolated mysteries with a literary edge, it’s a gripping exploration of how well we can ever truly know the people we love—and what they might be capable of hiding.

The new psychological thriller by Andrea Bartz, The Last Ferry Out, was a gripping change of pace. Set on a tropical isle near Cancun, the book follows a young woman who visits the island to see where her fiancee died. The main characters are lesbians and gay men, which was another cool change of pace for me. (Of course I have read many books with gay and lesbian characters, but not lately.) I loved the way Bartz described the setting so viscerally and actively—I could feel the warm humid air and smell the sea. I kept thinking this is what I mean when I tell clients to put us in a setting that feels real and give us just enough expository to keep us turning pages.

Having spent years living in Mexico (and in Florida, which is somewhat like another country!) I definitely recognized the expatriate characters in The Last Ferry Out—their day-to-day lives rang true. And the plot kept me guessing right up to the last pages, which is pretty hard to do. I highly recommend this book for readers who crave thrills and who aren’t afraid to see the modern world of young career women through a new and different lens.

Andrea Bartz knows how to put together a thriller! She's done it again with The Last Ferry Out. Highly recommend for fans of Alice Feeny, Ruth Ware and Gillian McAllister, Bartz will have you guessing right up until the end reveal. I enjoyed The Last Ferry Out even more than We Were Never Here, I thought that her writing has developed further and Abby was an easy character to get behind.

Andrea Bartz does it again! Could not put this thriller down! What an incredible book by a brilliant author.

SYNOPSIS
-Abby heads to Isla Colel, a nearly abandoned island off Mexico’s coast, to understand how her fiancée Eszter died.
-Eszter supposedly died of an allergic reaction, but Abby knows she always carried an epipen.
-On the island, Abby falls in with a suspicious little group of expats, which all happen to be people who knew Eszter.
-One guy claims he knows what really happened. Then he disappears.
-Abby starts digging, and the deeper she gets, the more she thinks someone in this group killed Eszter.
———
MY THOUGHTS
-The setting was super atmospheric—quiet, remote, almost eerie. You could feel the isolation.
-But it’s a very slow burn. Like, glacial. The tension is more about mood than action.
-Not much actually happens plot-wise. Abby keeps asking the same questions over and over.
-The multiple POVs and timelines helped add some texture, but didn’t fully land for me.
-I didn’t really connect with any of the characters, including Abby. They all felt kind of flat.
-The ending didn’t feel earned. It wrapped up quickly and without much impact. I wanted more payoff.
———
TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️Moody, atmospheric island vibes and a promising setup, but the pacing dragged and the ending fizzled. Didn’t fully click for me.
———
THANKS: Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books and Netgalley for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book is out now.

@andibartz’s newest novel is a paradise gone wrong thriller 💙 Main character, Abby, decides to travel to the tropical island where her fiancée died in a tragic accident. The island is nothing like she expected and the longer she is there, the more she realizes that her fiancée’s death may not have been an accident and everyone seems like they have something to hide.

★★★☆☆
I really wanted to love Last Ferry Out, but I struggled to connect with the story or the characters. The premise had promise, and Andrea Bartz is a talented writer, but something about this one just didn’t click for me. The atmosphere felt distant, and I found myself waiting for that emotional hook or plot moment that would fully draw me in—but it never quite came. While the book had its moments, overall it left me feeling a bit disconnected and underwhelmed.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A thriller/mystery set on a tropical island with a bunch of expats, a suspicious death and SO MANY SECRETS - I'm sold. You don't need to tell me one more word.

I'm going to start by saying that I'm a HUGE fan of the Bartz sisters. We Were Never Here was one of my recent favorites and I LOVED The Writing Retreat last year.

That being said, I was a little disappointed by this one. The Last Ferry Out had all the right parts, but I could not get around my hatred for Abby and what an idiot she was. If I can't connect with or at least enjoy the main character, I've got a steep uphill battle ahead. That said, I really enjoyed the setting, the time jumps, and the supporting cast of characters. I eagerly await what Andrea Bartz comes up with next.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The Last Ferry Out sounded like a great mysterious read and I was excited to be given the opportunity to read it. Abby embarks on a journey to an island to find out what happened to her fiancé Estzer, who died mysteriously while on vacation there. Abby becomes friends with Estzer's friends and begins to find out that things aren't what they seem. This was a great story that kept me guessing all the way to the end.

This is probably my least favorite book by this author. I liked the setting and thought it was a good, quick mystery. I just didn’t find it to be too memorable or have anything unique about it. I do think for a summer mystery it fits the vibe!

This book was good! The mystery was decent, and so was the storytelling, but I really liked how it was laid out. It wasn't infodump - twist - infodump - twist; it was very much like getting a feral cat into your house or a carrier - it was tiny bits of bait lined up and evenly paced, and I really enjoyed that! Overall, would recommend this one. 4 stars!

This story brings us to a small island in Mexico where Abby travels to uncover the details surrounding her fiancé' Eszter's death. Eszter suddenly passed away from anaphylactic shock while staying at an Air B&B on the island. There are multiple POVs and several mysteries to solve along with a language barrier and suspicious people. The longer Abby spends on the island, the less she feels like she knows Eszter and it all comes together at the end!

This book hit close to home with the Madison and Mexico references. I had fun trying to solve each mystery and getting to know both Abby and Eszter. The isolated island setting was fun & I always enjoy Andi's thrillers!!

Thank you NetGalley, Ballantine Books, and the author for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

When her fiancée Ezster dies days before she is set to join her on an isolated Mexican Caribbean island, Abby decides to head to Isla Colel herself to trace Ezster’s final two weeks. What she finds is an island shrouded in secrets and that her fiancée may not have been keeping some pretty big things from Abby herself. And what she finds may mean Ezster’s death wasn’t just an unfortunate accident after all.

The book is told mainly from Abby’s perspective in the present day, but there are chapters that include flashbacks from various character’s POV’s, including Ezster’s, leading up to her death on the island.

I absolutely loved this story, top to bottom. It isn’t a high-paced action, in-your-face thriller, but it has a type of slow-burn magic that just kept me keep reading, chapter after chapter. The author dropped enough hints (and then huge bombshells) that I was just enthralled, and it created this tense atmosphere that pervaded the entire novel.

The expat community that Ezster, then later, Abby, befriends is also a fascinating secondary cast, creating a whole bunch of supporting characters that are both likable enough, but that you don’t know if you can truly trust. It adds such great drama and depth to the novel. I wasn’t sure where things were going with them at times. It was such a mind-screw.

The ending was amazing, and I was happy with how it all turned out in the end.

Apparently, I’ve been missing out on this author, and I intend to stop that. So BRB, while I go check out Andrea Bartz’s entire catalog.