Four months after Abby’s fiancé tragically passed away, she decides to take a trip to the island where it happened to get a sense of her final days and finally find some closure. When she finds the group of expats who befriended Eszter she doesn’t find the closure she is searching for. One of the expats tells her he has something he needs to tell her and then goes missing. As she searches for him all of the secrets and lies begin to unfold. I really enjoyed this book. It starts off as a slow burn but then lies and secrets start to unfold one right after the other and it becomes hard to put down.

Abby visits the island where her fiancée passed away recently for some sort of closure. But when her fiancée's friend goes missing during her visit, Abby starts to question everything.

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I want to start this review by saying that I read The Spare Room and really enjoyed it. While Bartz's plotting is always a little slow, it still generally has a sense of mystery that draws the reader in. Unfortunately, nothing about this book mattered to me or felt mysterious or thrilling. The characters were all boring and mostly unlikable. The story was uncomfortable slow from beginning, middle, to end.

And the ending was so perfunctory and "well legally there's nothing we can do here" just didn't sit right with me. The last chapter was SO unnecessary and thrown in so that the reader would be "thrilled"? It felt lazy to me.

Abby, girl, you're better off. Glad you moved on in the end. Readers, skip this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC in exchange for this honest review.

I quite enjoyed this book and appreciated the isolated setting with its eerie environment. FMC, Abby heads to an island where her fiancé passed in the search of answers as to the cause. This isolated tropical island is only visited once a week by a ferry, and so once on the island, people cannot get off. As another person goes missing, the story continues, but I found was a slow paced thriller at times. The characters were not super likable, but that’s OK for me in a thriller as it added to the twists within the plot line. At times, the timeline changed from the present with Abby, into the past with, her and her fiancé - but the small dual timeline was easily to follow.

Overall, I think it was a decent thriller, but lacked excitement for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced reader copy of this book and exchange for my honest opinion and review.

3.5⭐️

I'm not entirely sure this one was for me. By the time the protagonist arrives on the island, she's trying to reconstruct what happened to her fiancé, who died there. Before I could get to the friendly local (person with information) disappearing, I didn't feel invested enough in either the protagonist or her relationship, since I'm not sure the author did enough to build up their bond via flashbacks or other tools at her disposal. The fiancé is already dead, so there's nothing to be done about that. However, I didn't feel myself engaged enough with the present action to keep rooting for Abby to figure out exactly what happened based on the current plot.

This is a decent locked door style mystery…..Abby has gone to this island to find out how her fiancé died and what her big secret was. Of course the island is tiny , and there are the typical expats hiding out there who take Abby in like they did Eszter. You get a very slow burn mystery. Super super slow. All of the action pretty much comes at the last third of the book.
Not my favorite book by this author but a solid read.
I old say 3.5/5 on a star scale.
I received an ARC all opinions are my own:

This was a solid read for me. I enjoyed the mystery surrounding Eszter's death, however some of the ways that Abbey chose to deal with it didn't make sense to me. Also the inclusion of the past of Abbey and Eszter's lives didn't add any relevant details to the current plot so these chapters seemed excessive and not needed. I did enjoy the twist at the end relating to Eszter's death, but looking back it seemed like it was obvious.

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love a locked room (or in this case locked island) mystery. This was just a bit lacking. The plot was subpar and fell flat. The twist was a bit out of left field and didn’t really work.

📕People start to look for hidden meanings in everything when they lose someone they care so much about and doubt anyone and their intentions. Anything they do or say becomes another part of the puzzle they need to solve. But maybe first explanation is the correct one and as evil as it is, it makes sense
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📗”It's weird to me how some people don't need alone time. Much as I love Abby, I miss having space to think, to dream. Space to work on my project. Not that I have any idea how to express any of this.” - tell me more about the need to be alone for a second to feel normal
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📘”She smiles kindly. "You're impressed by what I built." I nod and she sighs deeply. "I'm going to tell you something that I wish I'd known sooner: If you try to impress people into loving you, you're telling yourself you aren't lovable without those impressive things." She shrugs. "But you are! And so am I. You're enough."
I look away, blinking hard. She's hit on something so deep that it compresses in my stomach, carbon turning to diamond. I think of Eszter, too, us cheering each other on in the Sisyphean struggle to be the Best. Maybe we gravitated toward each other because we recognized that drive-two overachievers, with different fuel in our tanks, both striving toward greatness. God, even that first night on the beach with Rita, I couldn't shut up about Eszter's accomplish-ments, could I? Top student and brilliant thinker and accomplished pianist and blah blah blah blah blah.” - can you imagine how tiring this is?!

I was so intrigued by the cover of this book and then after I read the plot I was even more excited to dig into Andrea Bartz's newest thriller. I really enjoyed the atmospheric writing with Abby on the island and meeting many expats and wondering if everyone is truly who they seem. I did find parts of it a bit slow though. I did enjoy the twists and thought it was pretty well done! If you love a thriller that takes place on an island then I'd recommend this one! It was a solid book. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for this eARC!

Abby arrives at Isla Colel with one mission - find out about her fiancée's last days on the island before her death. The island is small and full of secrets. She quickly learns that all of the expats there have brought secrets from their lives before the island, including her fiancée Eszter. Abby thought she knew everything about Eszter, but her time on the island shows her there's a lot more to the story than she understood. Abby doesn't know who she can trust and when strangers are warning her to leave, it's time for her to decide how much she is willing to risk to find out the truth.

This is a good, fast paced thriller. The first third took me a while to get into the story but from there I couldn't put it down. The twists kept coming until the very last page. Definitely a good book to get you out of a reading slump.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing - Ballantine for the ARC of The Last Ferry Out.

Slow to start, but give it a little bit of time and you won’t be disappointed. A twisty murder on an island full of people hiding secrets and pasts. Will the secrets ever come to light?

Abby is deeply affected by the loss of her fiancé Eszter. Seeking closure, she travels to the remote island where the incident occurred. The circumstances surrounding Eszter's death remain unclear. Although the cause was reportedly anaphylactic shock, Eszter was known to always carry her EpiPen. The last message Eszter sent to Abby read, "I need to tell you something." Upon arrival, Abby reconnects with friends residing on the island. While the consensus is that the event was accidental, Abby harbors doubts, particularly when Brody sends a text claiming he knows what happened to Eszter. Brody's sudden disappearance further complicates matters. As Abby uncovers secrets and deceit, trust becomes elusive. The narrative develops as a slow-burning mystery, engaging initially but at times feeling prolonged. Despite seeking more excitement and drama, the book contains unexpected twists and an unpredictable conclusion. I would recommend it to anyone who likes a slow burn mystery.

Thank you to Net Galley and Random House Pub/Ballantine Books for this advanced readers copy.

Okay, this book had me side eyeing everyone. I did not trust a single soul on this creepy, storm-battered island. Not the overly charming expats, not the moody bartender, and definitely not that one guy who conveniently disappeared right after saying he knew the truth. Yeah, okay.

Abby’s grief felt raw and heavy, and I liked that she wasn’t just wandering around in a fog. She came to that island for answers, and she was not letting up. Eszter’s death lingered over everything, and as more secrets came to light, I became fully convinced this place was cursed. The setting was perfect too. Washed-up paradise, barely any connection to the outside world, and a bunch of people acting like murder is just mildly inconvenient.

Some of the twists I saw coming, but a few had me sitting there like… wait, WHAT. The pacing dragged a little in the middle, but I was still completely locked in. It gave me that trapped feeling where you want to scream at the character to run, but also need them to stay and figure it out.

This author knows exactly how to grab you and suck you in. I seriously feel like this is her best novel yet! It was such a treat to read and had be on the edge of my seat the entire time. There wasn't a chapter were I felt like it dragged. Her writing is so delicious!

In a word: fine. This one just didn’t quite grab me. While the premise had potential and the atmospheric setting was enjoyable, the story overall felt a bit “meh.” The pacing dragged in several places, and I found myself struggling to stay engaged.

Early on, the book introduced a large number of characters all at once, which made it tough to keep them straight or feel particularly invested in any of them. That lack of connection didn’t help with the already slow momentum.

That said, I didn’t see the ending coming, which was a pleasant surprise. It’s not a bad book by any means. It just didn’t leave much of a lasting impression for me.

I would like to thank the publisher, the author, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is my first Bartz book and it won't be my last, but it did have me longing for something more. I loved the setup - a beautiful island with a sense of looming danger, an island where people find solace when they're running away from something or someone.

Overall, I struggled with the pace of the book but found that it picked up for me maybe ~70% of the way through. I'm glad I pushed through because the ending surprised me.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

When Abby decided to come to Isla Colel, she wasn't sure what—if anything—she'd find. She only knew that she needed to see the place where her fiancée, Eszter, died, to try and make sense of everything that happened.

To me this book was too slow, the first half draaaaaged on and wasn't holding my attention. Abby was not the most likable FMC but that tends to happen in Mystery/Thrillers so I kept reading along.

My final thoughts: Good, enjoyable, 3 stars. Would I recommend? Only if you're a slow burn kinda reader.

Thank you to NetGalley, Andrea Bartz, and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine for the eARC.

Abby's fiance Eszter dies suddenly on the small Mexican island of Isla Colel, so the book opens with her in a harrowing position on a cliff, in search of answers. Eszter sent Abby a confusing text that no one in a relationship wants to get...'we need to talk'. On her exploration of Eszter's last steps, Abby runs into a group of overly friendly expats living on the island that happened to know her fiance. But she quickly discovers nothing is as it seems and Abby - growing ever suspicious - can't trust anyone and doesn't know what to believe.

This story had a great hook and first chapter. I felt invested enough that I almost wrote a blurb at the half-way point, out of excitement. But then, things stalled - the main reveal didn't feel as brutal as it could have been. There were some tense moments about 7/8 of the way in, but with flashbacks coming so quickly, I found myself disengaging. Also, I felt that the epilogue felt forced to give us a last, AH-HA! moment, that to me, didn't fit with the rest of the story.

I'm glad I read it, but this falls into the category of, it didn't live up to the hype.

I’m a fan of Bartz’s books and this one was no exception! I loved the atmospheric setting and the unique characters. A bit slow to start, then I speed-read the last 70%. I liked the satisfying twists and the dual timeline.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books for this arc in exchange or an honest review.

So I was pretty excited to get The Last Ferry Out as an ARC, both from the description as well as because I had really enjoyed Bartz’s previous novel The Spare Room. Unfortunately, The Last Ferry Out was a bit of a slow burn for me and I had a hard time keeping myself interested in the characters and the plot. We are trying to figure out what happened to Abby’s fiance during this book and while that may have been a tad mysterious, it wasn’t thrilling or a nail biter type of book.l (at least for me).

My rating: 2 stars