Cass is a scuba diving instructer on a remote island in Thailand. Brooke is a travel influencer who just arrived on the island. All Brooke wants is to fit in with the group of resident expats who live and work on the island, The Permanents. But there's a lot more than meets the eye with the island. A woman recently fell to her death and when more people die under suspicious circumstances it's clear something a lot more sinister is going on.

This is told from the perspectives of both Cass and Brooke. I love a dual perspective and read this in a weekend. I couldn't put this book down and found myself transported to the beaches of the island, which was a great escape from the Canadian winter that's my reality. This novel was a great escape from the cold and had a lot of twists. It started out very innocently but within a few chapters there was a shocking event and this kept me hooked. The Resort is action packed and the main characters digging into both their pasts and present events were intertwined perfectly. I'll admit to not liking some of the twists and character motivations that are explained as the book progresses. There were some twists that completely shocked and the final chapter of this book made it a solid 4 star read for me. If you like beaches, murder and deception than this one is for you!

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This debut novel had everything you expect in a thriller: an unreliable narrator, a remote setting, the cover up of multiple murders, and numerous red herrings. That was the problem I had with it. It felt like a paint-by-numbers thriller with little character development and stereotyped bad guys. I can't really recommend this one.

This book was so good and suspenseful, it kept me guessing until the very end!! Sara Ochs is definitely an author that I will read from again!

I love this cover, and was intrigued by "two mysterious women" in "a searing vacation thriller."

Set on a remote island in Thailand, The Resort does have an isolated, small-cast feel, though its setting wasn't atmospheric enough to make me feel the heat while reading on a frigid night.

Overall I'd characterize this as a rocky read. It feels like it wants to be light and entertaining at times, but then others are dramatic and morbid (e.g., the opening scene is in the POV of a person dying). My interest in the characters and plot similarly ebbed and flowed.

And yet! The epilogue almost redeemed all of it. I don't think it quite did, but it did leave me wanting a sequel, despite not having a super positive opinion of the first 95% of the book.

DNF at 50%. I’m always drawn to thrillers and this one taking place at a resort in Thailand drew me right in. However it just didn’t work for me - it was very slow and I was bored. I listened to the audiobook and think it also wasn’t helped by one of the narrators giving a very one note delivery. I ended up deciding not to finish. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free ebook and audiobook to review.

3.5 Thai stars

Who doesn’t yearn to move to a small Thai island? Especially if you can escape your past.

Koh Sang is a small resort known for outstanding scuba diving. Cass has been there for a few years and is a scuba instructor. We know from the beginning that she’s hiding some secrets. She’s just gotten engaged to gorgeous Logan.

The other viewpoint in the book comes from Brooke. She’s an influencer who has built her presence and spends lots of time on social media. She starts socializing with Cass and the crew there, called the Permanents.

This one is a slow build, introducing the characters. However, the dead bodies started piling up, and I knew we were in for some more action! Was there one murderer or unrelated people committing the crimes? Could they have been accidental deaths? Are the murders connected?

This ending definitely took me by surprise. I realized that most of the clues were there for me along the way, but I was still surprised.

This is a debut writer that I’ll be watching! I enjoyed my escape to a sultry island when it’s cold and wintry for me. Published in the UK as “The Dive”

This one surprised me. Starting off a bit slow I plowed through hoping that the twists would make it worth my time and boy was I right! Sometimes the island paradise we all see before us hides a dark truth and that’s exactly the case in this story. When people go to escape there is usually a reason. The story picks up well about half way through and then it was an absolute page turner with so many turns, accusations and lies you won’t know who to believe.

The Resort brought me along on a gorgeous trip to Thailand, which quickly turned deadly and mysterious.

Told through a dual POV, The Resort is about multiple murders occurring on a small island. Brooke is a travel influencer who has been on the island for just a couple of weeks, slowly growing a bond with Cass and the other residents Brooke refers to as the Permanents, people who came for vacation and never left. Cass has dark secrets in her past, which are referred to but not fully revealed until we come close to the end.

The atmosphere was incredible, with the secluded island turning from peaceful to terrifying overnight. I felt like I was there as the author spoke of lush jungles, cliff walks, and scuba diving off the shore. It felt like the perfect setting for a scary story or slasher movie. The plot is full of twists and turns, and the shocking finale had me captivated!

The two women each have something that they aren’t telling us, and their secrets kept me intrigued as I read and listened to this one. The two female characters are well developed and have interesting backstories that help to explain their actions in the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Mystery thriller set in Thailand fails to deliver.

A group of permanent residents on the island of Koh Sang, nestled in the Gulf of Thailand, have become like family over the years. Although they have all run from something in their pasts, they now work and live in this resort community and take care of each other. The recent death of a guest has upset the group dynamics, but the permanents have not seen the worst of it yet. A minor influencer, Brooke, arrives on the island ostensibly to promote tourism to this idyllic but relatively unknown SCUBA paradise, but soon it becomes obvious to all that she has an agenda.

This started out well but quickly deteriorated into lots of melodrama and took forever to get to the point. The motives behind the behaviors of all the characters seemed to ring false and the extent of their reactions was quite overdone. I didn't like any of the characters with all their secrets and lies. Their personal traumas and the reasons for each coming to Koh Sang were revealed much too late. It drug on and the detail I wanted to know was so slowly revealed that I was over it all by the time I got the answers. A last-ditch attempt at a final, crazy twist pushed the conclusion into the incredible.

I both read the e-book ARC and listened to the audio recording of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. I am not recommending.

This is a debut book by Sara Ochs. It’s written very well, the characters are all well defined and mostly likable. The setting is perfectly described. I really enjoyed it, it probably helped reading in the winter. The book started off with a bang and the ending was nail biting, I stayed up half the night to finish it.

Koh Sang is a party island off of Thailand, where people come to get away from it all. Even the people living on the island, they all have something they are getting away from. There is a great cast of local characters that live on the island, they are quirky and fun. When bodies of tourists start piling up, everyone’s secrets start to come out. Some people are willing to do more to keep theirs hidden. This is a fun quick read that I highly recommend!

This told via two perspectives, Cass who has made a permanent home on the island and Brooke, a travel influencer on vacation. Right away you realize that not only do Brooke and Cass both have some sort of secrets in their pasts, half of the residents on the island do as well. Cass has a group of friends turned family who all seemed to flee to the island to escape something in their pasts as well. So there’s plenty of secrets and skeletons in closets and I was so confident I knew how things would play out and I was wrong. I loved the setting of this beautiful island hiding deadly secrets that gave everything an unsettling feeling. It was a constant guessing game for me and the final twist was a really good shock. I’m definitely impressed this was a debut, if you like a slow burn that actually pays off in the end try this!

Overall rating: 4/5

A cast of Expats from all over the world end up as found family on a remote party island in Thailand. All have a reason for leaving their roots and will do everything in their power to protect the family they have created. Some are even living under assumed names. Remember, you cannot hide from Social Media.
The author slowly peels back the mask of each person as the body count climbs which lends itself more to a mystery than a thriller. However, THAT ENDING. That's what I'm talking about. I had to go back to reread it as I was a bit lulled by the pacing.
3.5 stars rounded to 4 stars as the ending came in hot.

Thank you to Sourcebooks and Netgalley for an early copy. All opinions are my own.

This one was a DNF for me, but I am so thankful to the publisher, author, and Netgalley for granting me advanced digital access to this one before it hits shelves on February 13, 2024.

For a debut novel, I thought this was great! It was not the best book I have ever read nor was it the worst. Although slightly on the unbelievable side, it kept my interest. There are multiple trigger warnings so please make sure that you are aware of them. I would be willing to read her next work.

This was an entertaining thriller. The start off was a little jerky (own personal thing about starting with a lot of dialogue), but overall I would recommend to anyone looking for a satisfying mystery and suspense.

This was surprisingly way better than I thought going into it. First, I loved this being set on the island of Thailand. All the descriptions of the island made me feel like I was right there with the characters. I enjoyed our two main characters Cass and Brooke, especially Cass because she turned out to be an unreliable narrator which I enjoyed because I could never figure out what was really happening in her POV. I loved the twists that were slowly revealed at the end because most of them I did not predict and that epilogue was amazing. If I’m going to get an epilogue in a story, this is what I want. My only critique of this story is that I had a hard time believing in one of the characters backstory, their story/secret was hard to picture and I just couldn’t believe something like that would happen. Overall, really enjoyed the story and would highly recommend.

“I know who you are and soon everyone else will too”…

Cass is a scuba diving instructor on the beautiful island of Koh Sang, Thailand. She leads her students in their first diving expeditions and on one such expedition, finds that Lucy, one of her students is dead. Shocked by coming face-to-face with death, it’s unfortunately not the first death on this island, as a young woman recently fell from a cliff. Cass is no stranger to death either, and hides a dark secret about her past. Koh Sang has been her refuge and place to start over. But it seems someone knows her secret and will stop at nothing until she reveals it to the whole world.

I absolutely loved the setting of this book! I had never heard of Koh Sang, but the author described the island in Thailand beautifully! The atmosphere - the water, the beach - played a pretty big role too. I love “locked room” type thrillers and an island makes for a pretty prefect creepy setting - especially if there are storms rolling in and a killer on the lose! The added role of scuba diving also added another layer of that whole “locked room” - underwater, what if something goes wrong etc. Without giving any spoilers, I felt like each of the characters was well developed and had their own secrets to hide. It was creative how the author tied them all together and wrapped up their stories. It definitely had a Young Adult vibe to it as well, at least for me. I’m not sure what it was exactly but I just didn’t love the story as a whole. Sara Ochs has a great writing style though and I will definitely be reading her next book!

Thank you to Sara Ochs, Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC and RB Media for the ALC! This review will be shared to my instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly :)

Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark & Sara Ochs for a digital arc of The Resort in exchange for an honest review.

I've had this on my highly anticipated list for a LONG time, so I was thrilled to receive the early digital copy.

Sadly, this book fell a bit flat for me. The cover is absolutely STUNNING & I know it will turns heads in the stores immediately.

In a nutshell - Cass has created a new life for herself on a resort island in Thailand after escaping from a childhood tragedy. She has a great life as a diving instructor and just got engaged to the love of her life. Everything is fabulous...........until bodies start turning up.

There were honestly too many characters to try and keep up with. A name would be thrown out and I thought "who the heck is that?" It was just too many. I would say that Cass and Britt are probably the main characters. Britt is on the island under the guise of a social influencer and becomes besties with Cass, however Britt blames Cass for something that happened to her in the past and has come for revenge.

Unbeknownst to them both, there is a bigger enemy to fear who is equally dangerous to them both.

This just wasn't an edge-of-your-seat thriller. It was entertaining enough to keep listening, but at the end, I just said "Meh." The reasoning behind the killings and the whodunit were a bit far-fetched. And the little twist at the VERY end - I saw it coming from a mile away.

I think this book could have been better if it had eliminated some of the characters that weren't really necessary.

Thank you Sourcebooks for this review copy! I enjoyed this story overall, it was fun and escapist, but it was a bit slow for me at the start, getting into the characters and plot was a bit hard for me but the story picked up and I enjoyed it.
What worked:
The setting and the building sense of tension, the plot moved forward for me about 1/2 through and the development of the story worked well. I also love an island/resort setting!
I love plots that deal with secrets and hidden pasts so I enjoyed those themes too!

What didn't work as well
As noted I felt the pacing was a little hard to get into, this is often why I don't love dual POV stories as at times I feel the story doesn't progress as quickly because we go back and forth with perspectives. I am not sure this story quite needing this approach to achieve the storytelling goals.

Thank you to Netgalley, Sourcebooks Landmark, and Sara Ochs for as advance copy of The Resort in exchange for an honest review. What is it about destination thrillers that just always work for me? The Resort is told in multiple point of views from Brooke and Cass. Most people head to this island to escape their pasts and hide their secrets. As the story progresses, secrets are threatened to be discovered and people end up dying. I enjoyed the last 25% of the book the most as there were many twists and turns that I was not anticipating. This one is out on February 13th and deserves a spot on your TBR!