After her fiancé Eszter dies on a remote island called Isla Colel, Abby who was four days shy of meeting her there, decides to visit the island as part of some sort of closure. Eszter died of anaphylactic shock, eating something she was allergic to and not getting to her EpiPen in time.
Still, Abby wants to visit the island and meet the expats that Eszter had befriended and learn what her last few days were like here.

To her surprise, she receives a cryptic message from one of them saying that she deserves to know the truth about what really happened to Eszter. Only he never shows up at their meeting place and goes missing all together.

Abby now starts to dig deeper among this group of expats and comes to discover of web of deceit and lies which causes her to wonder just who her fiancé really was. But will her pursuit of the truth, make her the island's next victim?

Andrea Bartz sets the tone and atmosphere like no other. You will literally be on the edge of your seat racing to an ending that you won't see coming.

Andrea Bartz is quickly becoming one of my "must-read" authors. I appreciate her writing style and felt like she gave a fresh twist on the "lonely island" thriller trope. The characters were well-developed and the plot line consistent. I did feel like the final twist was not as "twisty" as I would have expected but there was still an element of surprise. I will definitely recommend this one.

This was overall a good book, the story, the characters, all good. However, multiple parts seemed to drag and the ending was a let down.

3 stars
Thanks NetGalley

Thank you for the advanced copy

I really loved Andrea Bartz’s books and was extremely excited to get approved for this one. I love the isolated setting on an island. It pulled me in right away. It was drama, mystery, the suspense all the things I love in a book.

When Abby's fiancé, Eszter, dies of an allergy reaction, Abby senses something is off. Eszter was very conscientious about her allergies. Abby decides to retrace Eszter's last days, to see if anything was amiss. Abby travels to the Mexican island to meet the ex-pats her finance had been hanging out with during her time on the island. Abby starts to discover that Eszter had been less than honest with her in regards to her relationship to the island and what the next months of their relationship might look like. Told in alternating points of view and time periods, this was a steady paced book that was hard to put down. Would be a great beach read this summer!

I received an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley.

Andrea is a favorite author of mine. I enjoyed this story as I always do! The plot wasn’t something I’d normally pick, but it ended up being a good read. I also love the cover!

Reading this book is like walking through brambles. Once you start, you are "in it" and there is no way out but through it! But you won't want to put this book down until you see the end! The story starts on a soft note, where Abby just wants to reconcile with the loss of her partner by walking in her last steps. But you can see from the start that Eszter was hiding things from Abby. As Abby learns more about Eszter's last days, she questions so much about the life she thought they were living together and the circumstances surrounding Eszter's death. This is a dangerous discovery set against a backdrop of an island whose residents don't want their pasts unearthed, new relationships with questionable strangers, and isolation brought on by a hurricane. With twists that keep pulling you closer, this is a nail-biter right up to the end!

The Last Ferry Out is a typical slow-burn mystery, that flirts a little with the thriller genre, about a person going back to the place (in this case, a small island in Mexico) where their partner died a few months before. They seek answers and closure.
This is not an action-packed story. The stakes never seem to be too high or urgent. In a few words, it's the journey of a young woman in grief trying to find some closure about her partner's odd death.
There are no mind-blowing plot twists or far-fetched events leading to the mystery of the death.
Sure, there's a lot of mystery around the locals and other people who were, some way or another, close to the victim. Some of them seem to be hiding crucial information, some of them seem too naive to be taken seriously.

I read a book by this author before, around 3 years ago, and liked it very much. This one is definitely more slow-pacing than the one I've read before, and I enjoy Andrea Bartz's writing and characters. In my opinion, they are quite realistic characters thrown into difficult situations that can also be realistic - except for one specific scene in the final chapters that read much more like some 'fever dream'.
I enjoyed everything about this book. I was invested in the mystery and in the character's storylines, and it got me intrigued throughtout the whole book. I thought it was very atmospheric, too. And I also did enjoy the epilogue, but I'm not sure it will please everyone.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who has read a book by this author before and enjoyed, and to readers who usually enjoy slow-pacing mysteries set in tropical islands.

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, for providing me with a free eARC of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion.

There is everything in this book. A remote island, a delay of a finance, a group of expats with secrets of their own. As Abby goes on a quest to find answers about her finances death the story unfolds. I thought that it was a good book and loved the scenery and felt that I was actually there. Loved the backstory of this couple and how it all unraveled.

Having read most of Andrea's books, I thought I knew what to expect with this one, though my expectations weren't exactly met. (Which isn't a bad thing.) Her previous works have felt bigger in scale, while this one had a smaller cast, an isolated plot, and more straightforward twists and turns. (Though there was one bombshell at the end that definitely surprised me!) There was also a lot of on-page grief as the main character is dealing with her fiancee's death. And most of the narrators suffered from some pretty distracting insecurities that felt put upon, rather than natural. I think I prefer other Andrea Bartz books over this one, but this one is great if you're in the mood for a small town thriller that's set on an exotic island off the coast of Mexico and don't mind the mourning main character.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for the ARC!
I enjoyed this book's storyline and wanted to keep reading to find out what happened. I also really liked how the chapters from Abby's past are done in reverse order and the use of multiple POVs. Very good mystery with good twists!

I was very intrigued by this plot! I commend Andi for writing a POV in the progressive timeline, while the dual POV was written in reverse. It was done in a way that wasn’t confusing. Some parts of the book felt a little bit repetitive, but I was pleasantly surprised by the ending.

This started out with a lot of promise. Abby's finance passed away while visiting a remote island. It is ruled and accident but Abby believes otherwise. From there this got twisty, but also a little too far. It seemed too similar to other thrillers while also taking it in a strange direction. I managed to finish, but it by far my least favorite Bartz novel.

Abby travels to an island in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico to visit the place where her fiance, Eszter, died 4 months ago, Once there she begins to reconstruct Eszter’s final days and the mysteries start to pile up.

The island came to life with Bartz’s beautiful description.. There were so many possible suspects and a great twist st the end.

Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC copy for review.

This book had me turning the pages really wanting to know what happened to her fiancée. The truth was slightly less exciting and made the book kinda fall flat for me. I feel like the pay off wasn't worth it. Still not a bad book but could have been better

Although there were some things I did not enjoy about this book, the storyline itself was very good and I read in a day because I wanted to know what happened. There was a twist at the end too that was pretty good.

This book takes our protagonist, Abby, to a remote island in Mexico to investigate her fiance's potentially mysterious death. The novel vacillates between various perspectives, sometimes only having a chapter or two dedicated to the characters. I had a hard time connecting with any of the characters, including Abby, which made it tough to justify the motivation for everyone's actions. I did like the twist at the very end, but overall, this one ended up being just okay for me.

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

A sad story about loss that wraps up in a neat bow at the end. I look forward to reading more stories from Andrea Bartz.

Andrea Bartz's The Last Ferry Out presents an intriguing premise, following Abby as she seeks answers about her fiancée Eszter's mysterious death on a secluded island. The atmospheric setting of Isla Colel is vividly depicted, immersing readers in its eerie, desolate ambiance. However, I found the pacing uneven, with certain sections dragging, which affected my overall engagement. Additionally, while Abby's grief is palpable, some of her decisions felt inconsistent, making it challenging to fully connect with her character. Despite these drawbacks, the novel offers unexpected twists and a compelling exploration of love and loss, making it a solid three-star read.

Thank you for an advance copy of this book by an author I have enjoyed in the past. Abby is in Mexico to find out more details about the tragic death of her fiance in an AIRBNB in Mexico....how did this really happen? By retracing her steps and meeting the people she was with right before her death, she discovers more than she expected. This book took its time slowly revealing the secrets around her mystery...I enjoyed the setting, a beautiful Mexican town that gets scarier as more is revealed. A definite page turner!