This is an interesting story about Fran who wants to discover what happened to her sister a few years ago.

Usually, I don't like a book written from multiple POVs, and even more so, I don't like flashbacks or entire chapters set in the past. But here it didn't bother me at all. Jenna's chapters were as interesting to me as the other ones. I guess that's because there is a good balance between the Jenna’s and Fran’s chapters. I found both plotlines equally interesting. Of course, there are also Kate’s chapters, but they didn't bother me either. I think it is because of the great writing style of the author that something that usually bothers me, here worked so well for me.

So we have two main characters here, the sisters Jenna and Fran. A few years ago, Jenna took a wellness retreat on the Maltese island of Gozo and committed suicide under mysterious circumstances. Her mother cannot understand what happened to her ideal daughter and forces her much older sister, the rebellious Fran, to attend another retreat and find answers to the questions that haunt her.

Although Jenna and Fran are sisters, they are pretty different from each other. In my opinion, they are perfect for guiding us through this story. They are both are lost, both suppress their emotions, and both try to find a place in their lives. Fran is a woman with a strong personality who has been suppressing her emotions and distancing herself from other people for years. Jenna is a lost young woman trying to find her true self and understand who she is. The picture is completed by Kate, the wife of the man behind the retreat, who we suspect from the very beginning of evil intentions. But is it true?

The author effectively created an atmosphere of unease and suspicion. Like Kate and Fran, we wonder who the participants of the camp really are and what their intentions are. There are some interesting twists and turns, not only at the end of the book. The ending surprised me only to some extent, but it's more a matter of having read so many stories in this genre than anything else. I wasn't surprised by what happened to Jenna, but I didn't predict which people were involved and what their motives were. It was an interesting experience.

This is my first book by this author, but I will certainly read her other books. I recommend this story, especially to those who like discovering family secrets from years ago and complicated family relations.

This is a great read.
It’s a bit of a slow burner compared to other books by CL Taylor but once it gets going it’s a gripping read.
Fran and her mum and dad have never been able to accept that Jenna is dead following her attendance at a retreat in Gozo.
Their mum is desperate to know what happened so persuaded Fran to attend a new retreat and do some digging with the organisers.
We have chapters from Jenna in the past and then chapters from Fran in the present day. It’s a bit confusing at first as there’s lots of people at the two retreats in the past and present.
Fran is very suspicious of the organisers Tom and Kate, but struggles to get any information out of them.
I loved the last part of the book as there are a few twists that really made the story.
Another great read from CL Taylor.
Thanks to Avon Books UK and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Her Last Holiday by C L Taylor Pub Date 29 April 21
You come to Soul Shrink to be healed. You don't expect to die.
Two years ago, Fran's sister Jenna disappeared on a wellness retreat in Gozo that went terribly wrong.
Tom Wade, the now infamous man behind Soul Shrink Retreats, has just been released from prison after serving his sentence for the deaths of 2 people. But he has never let on what happened to the third suspected victim: Jenna.
Kate, Tom's wife, has organised the first retreat since the disastrous one of three years ago. Tom is not keen, but Kate is adamant they need the money. This time the retreat will be held in Wales.
Jenna's mother is certain that Tom is the key to discovering what happened to her. She wants Fran, Jenna's older sister, to attend the retreat; under relentless pressure, Fran grudgingly accepts taking part under a false name. She chooses to use her mother's maiden name, Geraldine Rotherham.
The reader soon learns that everyone at the retreat is harbouring a secret.
When an accident occurs, and Fran nearly gets killed, she recognises she's getting closer to the truth.
I want to thank NetGalley, Avon Books UK and C L Taylor for a pre-publication copy to review.

Well, what a read!

I don´t know what I was expecting when I started reading this book but I certainly wasn´t disappointed. The storyline is so clever and very original. The characters are very cleverly interwoven, making it virtually impossible to guess the outcome, but when you do, you realise how clever the author has been, and all because of a simple DNA test.......

Looking forward to the author´s next book.

My thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for giving me the opportunity to read and review honestly, an advanced copy.

Wow another great book from this author . Very tense all the way through wondering If the sister was alive or dead and what had happened to her . I loved the ending too with the relationship with the parents . I highly recommend anything from this author she never fails to entertain and keep you guessing. 5 star read

C.L Taylor is a fantastic author, I have read many of her books and she never disappoints. Her Last Holiday is fantastic, it grabbed my attention immediately and I was on the edge of my seat throughout. The characters are brilliantly written, the way C.L Taylor writes them makes you want to learn more about them and I was really invested in the story. There were plenty of twists and turns throughout and the ending was fantastic.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for my ARC.

Fran decides to find out what happened to her younger sister, Jenna, two years ago. Jenna was at a retreat on Gozo when she disappeared and has never been heard from since, and two other people died. The man running the show, Tom Wade, served time in prison for his part in the fiasco, but he has now been released and is unbelievably holding another retreat, so Fran decides to attend and find out the truth once and for all.

I really enjoyed 'Strangers' , one of the author's early books but this one was a disappointment. I could tell most of what was going to happen fairly early on and the characters were mainly horrible. Tom was weak, Jenna easily led, Fran a caricature, and Kate unsympathetic. To say it was supposed to be a thriller, it wasn't very thrilling. It really wasn't an enjoyable read for me, but mine seems to be a minority viewpoint so don't let that put you off.

TW: brief mention of cruelty to animals, sexual scenes.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Avon Books UK, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

Thanks Netgalley for this ARC copy. C.L.Taylor never fails to disappoint.

Fran's sister, Jenna, goes on a wellness retreat with Soul Shrink to Gozo and never comes back. Two other people died on the retreat but Jenna's body was never found. When the Soul Shrink founder, Tom Wade, is released from prison and sets back up in business Fran is forced by her mum, Geraldine, into going and trying to find out the truth about what happened to Jenna.

This was a really great, twisty, turny read with some brilliant characters. My only complaint would be that I got a bit confused when Fran was using the name Geraldine then started speaking about Geraldine as her mum. I had to re read a few times but it doesn't spoil the book.

Definite recommended read.

I was over the moon to receive an AVC first shufty of this book from one of my favourite authors.

C L Taylor does not disappoint in my eyes. Always makes her novels interesting and breathtaking due to really writing a very good plot.

I liked Jenna and "Geraldine" (Fran) who were sisters that were generally not growing up together due to one sister going away to boarding school. Even so they are still feeling the need for each other's company as they grow older.

When Jenna goes missing at a retreat in Gozo, it has been confirmed as a suicide. Blood found on rocks but no sign of a body discovered from the sea below.

It is up to Geraldine/Fran to now go to a new retreat set up by Kate and Tom to try and find out who and why Jenna was killed as it couldn't possibly be suicide.

The novel goes from "now" to "then". Now - Fran and Kate, Then - Jenna. Some books don't make that clear, the aspect of happenings by different people but thankfully this novel does. It's easy to keep up with the plot.

Another excellent novel by C L Taylor and personally I really enjoy the behind the scenes of writing a book from Cally. How she sets up her plots to seeing the books being printed. Very informative.

For the past two years, Fran did not find any closure. Jenna, her sister, disappeared from a wellness retreat in Malta. Tom Wade, the face of Soul Shrink, was in prison for the last two years. It was not just the disappearance of Jenna; two people also got killed in the same retreat. But during the trial, nothing was ever mentioned about Jenna. Fran and her mother never got any answers.
Kate, Tom’s wife, arranges for a retreat nine months after his prison release.
Fran, though with much reluctance, decides to go to the retreat. She determined to find out what exactly happened to Jenna.

But a retreat where two people got killed and one disappeared will she get her answers or more questions?

The story follows Fran, a 51-year-old IT teacher. With no explanation or knowledge of what happened to Jenna, Geraldine, Fran’s mother, cannot move on in life. But Geraldine’s constant pestering, Fran agrees to go to the retreat with many objections. Fran is supposed to go to the retreat to ask questions to Tom Wade directly.

Fran is an interesting character. She has a no-nonsense attitude and speaks her mind. Fran is twelve years older than Jenna and, this age gap between them has always created distance between them. That is why her disappearance has put her in a state of guilt and grief.

Kate and Fran narrate the story in the present and Jenna in the past. The author presented narrators in contrast. All of them are unique women and, yet they come from similar backgrounds.

The book also has a big pool of characters and, the reader will find each one of them may know something. These red herrings keep the reader engaged until the last page. There is remarkable distinctiveness in each of the characters.

It’s a slow burn story, where it takes time to build the story. But the story does not lose its charm, even for a moment. The author also delved into the relationship of both the sisters and their relationship with their mother. That part portrays raw human emotions and gives a perspective of their relationship.

Her last holiday is a compelling thriller with red herrings and characters that will keep you hooked until the end.

My rating for the book is 3.5 stars.

This is a great read and a well detailed plot that kept me engaged from the very start.
I really liked the well thought out characters and found them to be believable. I cannot wait to read what the author brings out next.

I really enjoyed this mystery novel! The characters were all well-built and relatable, and they became even more relatable as we peeled back each layer during the story. As I got closer to the end, I had a much harder time putting this book down. Would definitely recommend!

This started off really well, told from the points of view of Fran and Kate, with chapters from Jenna which detailed what happened before. I was suspicious straight away and was looking forward to what was going to be revealed.

Unfortunately after halfway through I felt a little deflated, it seemed to plod along at quite a slow place and that initial intrigue I felt seemed to disappear. It all felt a little all over the place and I didn't quite understand one part near the end with a certain character....none of their actions made sense and seem to come from nowhere.

Whilst the twist near the end was ok it didn't wow me and then I found the following chapters which explained everything dragged. I'll admit I skim read those last few chapters just to see if anything shocking was going to be revealed but it didn't.

I think the theme running throughout was dealt with well by the author - each of the characters were battling something and it was nice to see, especially Fran, grow throughout and learn from her experiences.

I think this would appeal to those new to this genre, but for me personally it just wasn't for me. I needed something more shocking to happen, but that's just my preference.

Thanks to the publishers for letting me read an advanced copy.

The Last Holiday follows an incident at a wellness retreat that left two people dead and Jenna missing, presumably dead. It is told from 3 points of view; Jenna, her sister Fran and Kate, the wife of the leader of the retreat Tom.

It started well and got me intrigued as to what happened but as the book went on I couldn’t help wanting more than was given. The plot fell a little flat for me and the characters didn’t feel very developed, especially the secondary characters who get quite interchangeable.

I would recommend this as a holiday read to binge in a day but it isn’t going to have a lasting impact on me.

‘What really happened two years ago?’

At a wellness retreat on Gozo two years ago, two people died, and one person disappeared. Tom Wade, the man behind SoulShrink Retreats, has just been released from prison after serving a sentence for the two deaths. But what about the missing person? Fran’s sister Jenna is the one who disappeared. Tom’s wife Kate has been awaiting his release from prison and she is determined to get their lives back on track by relaunching SoulShrink. Another retreat is planned for Wales.

Fran and Jenna’s mother, Geraldine, sees this new retreat as an opportunity to find out what happened to Jenna. She books a place for Fran and bullies her into taking it.

What follows is complicated. Fran, under the cover of an alias, attends the retreat. A journalist, also under cover, is there as well. We follow the story through the viewpoints in the present of Kate and Fran, with Jenna’s view from the past. Moving between the original retreat in Gozo and the retreat in Wales involves many characters, some of whom were in both locations. What really happened to Jenna?

Ms Taylor provides a caste of flawed characters challenging the reader to identify who can be trusted (and when). While I enjoyed the suspense, some aspects of the story did not work for me and I did not enjoy this novel quite as much as I have enjoyed other novels by Ms Taylor. But, if you are after a fast-moving suspenseful tale and improbability doesn’t worry you too much then you may well enjoy this more than I did.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

C L Taylor has done it again. This is a cracking psychological thriller told from the POV of 3 women. Jenna died under mysterious circumstances whilst attending a retreat run by Tom Wade, the SoulShrink, on the island of Gozo. Her sister, Fran, is trying to find out the truth and is attending the SoulShrink's latest retreat in Wales. Kate is Tom's wife.

I was hooked right from the first page, trying to work out what had happened to Jenna, and who was responsible. Just when I thought I knew where the book was going Ms Taylor threw in another twist to bend my mind! The three women are all brilliant, interesting characters, and there's a whole host of strange characters attending the retreat in Wales.

Jenna attends a SoulShrink seminar - and books a retreat. She attends- and never returns home.
Fran, her older sister by twelve years, is guilted by her mother to attend a retreat years later - desperate for answers.
This book is told by both Jenna and Fran - attraction, lies, and mysterious people.
Interesting story about family dynamics.

A psychological thriller involving Fran's sister Jenna who attended a wellness retreat in Gozo 2 years previously - but didn't return home. At the same time 2 people also died and was this connected to Jenna' s disappearance?

A celebrity wellness guru Tom Wade served a prison sentence for the 2 deaths and is now a free man. Under pressure from his wife, he agrees to host another retreat; this time in Wales. Many people want to talk to Tom about the whole incident, including the media and, using an assumed identity, Fran takes a chance to try and discover what happened to her sister.

A few twists and turns leading to a rather long ending but don't let you be put off by this as Ms Taylor's style of writing is gripping. However, the book does lurch from past to present, and character to character too often for me.

Thanks to Net Galley and Avon Books for the chance to read and review.

I was given a copy of Her Last Holiday by C L Taylor by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I have read several books by this author previously. When Fran's sister disappears while on a wellness retreat when Tom Wade is released from prison for the murder of 2 of the members of the retreat Fran wants to find out the truth. Another good book by this author.

I am a bit of a fan of this author having read all her previous books and, although this one did not reach the heady heights of some of its predecessors, it was a thoroughly decent read all told. OK, yes, I did have to swallow some niggles and suspend belief along the way but the story was compelling enough for me to accept these things and read on...
So, two years ago Fran's sister Jenna disappeared whilst on a retreat. Two other people died and the organiser, Tom, went to jail for his part in the events, declining to speak about what happened to Jenna. Back in the present and Tom has been released. Fran's mum wants answers and needles Fran to try and get her some. Then Tom, egged on by his wife, Kate, arranges another retreat. Fran's mum thinks this is an excellent chance to get the answers and so books herself - well Fran as her - onto the retreat... But will she get the answers she wants, and at what cost?
There are so many secrets and lies going on - all weaved mostly seamlessly throughout the narrative. So much so that my head was spinning so much as I was reading! And duplicitous behaviour aplenty.. oh my days. Told in the present we also have flashbacks to Jenna's time at the original retreat injected at just the right moments to add colour and background to the story as it is being told.
We also have a rather eclectic cast of characters, most of whom have hidden agendas and are harbouring their own secrets along the way. So many that I did get a bit confused at times especially as the sheer quantity got me a bit overwhelmed. I also rolled my eyes at some of them when their truths were discovered and they faded away from the overall truth of what happened to Jenna. In fact, I think about half way through I did kinda lose interest in what happened to Jenna. But, that said, I didn't lose interest in the book as a whole if that makes any sense at all!?
All in all, although not her strongest book, if you can read through some niggles, it's a decent read in itself and does eventually come to a mostly satisfying conclusion. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.