This is truly a book about how you really don’t know anyone and they aren’t always who they say they are. This book sucked me in and didn’t let go until the very end. The twists were absolutely jaw dropping and I couldn’t get enough.

This drug on way too long for me liking & the two narrators were very similar. I found myself getting a little lost with the characters and how they were all connected. Some of the twists were good, but most were very outrageous. Unfortunately it felt a little all over the place and would not end. This is def an overhyped book. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As a certified SCUBA diver I found the dive talk and scenes fascinating and also eerie as parts are every diver's worst nightmare. The suspense in the story is paced gradually and I loved the slow build till the big twist. The characters are a bit confusing till later in the book, but that added to the aura of mystery for me. The audiobook is a great way to enjoy this thriller and the narrators are fantastic. A dream vacation in a beautiful location gone very very wrong.

4.5/5

The Resort by Sara Ochs is one of the few books that I can say actually stuck in my head for an extended period of time, and due to that, I raised my star rating! I was struggling to find the time to sit down and read it, so if anyone sees the dates on my Goodreads or StoryGraph and wonders WTF, this is why, and it has nothing to do with the pacing or the book itself. For a debut, this was pretty dang amazing, and I was very into the story as well as finding out what would happen next. The alternating viewpoints that would sometimes end on mini cliffhangers kept things even more interesting, and I love it when authors use this technique to keep the reader curious.

I think this is one of the many books that is best to go into blind, but honestly, if that incredible cover doesn't draw you in, I doubt anything I can say will. The Resort also had me Googling to see if a certain Thailand festival was a thing, and I love it when a genre like mystery or thriller takes me to the webs to see if something is real. The secrets are piling up in this storyline, and it seems that almost everyone has something to hide. I experienced quite a few jaw-dropping moments that both shocked and surprised me, and I loved the twists and turns. The audiobook was also top-notch as narrated by Miranda Raison, Dakota Blue Richards, Joe Jameson & Pema Monaghan. Full casts are my kryptonite, and they all did an incredible job making the audio a fantastic experience. Bottom line, if you love thrillers and debut novels, you just need to read (or listen) to this. 😉

This thriller is set on a beautiful island off Thailand and follows Cass and Brooke, who each have secrets. While it starts slow, the story quickly picks up, revealing mysteries and lies on the island. As they unravel, the two characters also face unexplained deaths at the resort. Themes of friendship and deceit run through the story, keeping readers engaged with its fast pace and surprising twists. The ending is satisfying, making it a gripping read for fans of mysteries and suspense.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the opportunity to read The Resort!

This was an exciting read for fans of White Lotus! There is a diverse cast of characters and non-stop action, you can read in one sitting. I also enjoyed the unreliable narrator!

I love novels set in resorts! And add a murder mystery, even better! The twist in the epilogue alone bumped it to four stars! I did not see that coming! I did feel like it came off YA.

such an interesting premise and I loved the Thai setting, but unfortunately this was a slog to get through and the 2 perspectives were too similar and repetitive. lots of easy thriller tropes in here, this would be better for a beginner to the genre

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark fiction for the ARC! it too awhile for the book to grab me. It was enjoyable enough characters a little flat.

"Welcome to paradise. We hope you survive your stay..."

The Resort had some positive attributes but overall I didn't enjoy it. I liked the beautiful yet secluded and ominous Thailand island setting. The big twist at the end did surprise me, but it was too little too late. I think the characters themselves were the problem for me. They felt two-dimensional, were unlikeable, and ultimately I didn't care about any of them or how their stories would end. Unfortunately I think this was a case of just not being for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me a digital reviewer copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all….but that doesn’t apply when you’re reviewing something. Unfortunately there just wasn’t much I liked about this one. The main issues were with two major elements of this book.

The characters—all the characters in this felt very one-dimensional. The character development for our two narrators was, like, a last second thing rather than an arc.

The plot—I cannot stress how easy it was for me to predict every ‘twist’ of this plot. In fairness, there’s only so much surprise to be had when you’ve read as many thrillers as I have, but this was painfully predictable as far as the true identities of the characters, the whodunit aspect, and even the epilogue reveal.

Speaking of the epilogue, I think I’ve discovered that I really dislike, borderline hate, when a character is revealed to be a ‘psychopath’ or whatever at the last second, with no prior hints or warning. It feels like a somewhat lazy plot device, and those reveals always just come off as very “muahaha” over-the-top villainy to me.

Lastly, the portrayal of mental health in this was questionable.

All in all, I’d recommend skipping this. There are plenty of other vacation thrillers to choose from that are executed more effectively.

Every once in a while decent reviews are enough to interest me in a book I would generally avoid. This is one of those times. Unfortunately, I did not find the plot or characters of this thriller interesting enough to force me through really mediocre, at times even awkward, writing.

Thank you @bookmarked for my complimentary copy. My thoughts are my own.

A remote island vacation, sunny beaches, fun parties, and scuba diving…what’s not to love? Except maybe there is a reason why so many of the staff have chosen to live far away from home! Then, one of the staff finds a dead body while on a dive, and what the other staff members put off as an accident, she knows is murder!

With two unreliable narrators, and a cast of characters full of secrets, this descriptive novel is a slow burn, but the conclusion is well worth the wait!

I recommend the print version over the audio version. I found the audiobook to be confusing as I had a difficult time keeping up with which character was speaking. The narrators for the two main characters sounded very similar.

Read this if you enjoy:
*unreliable narrators
*slow burn suspense
*tales of murder
*twisty stories

I had high hopes for this book based off of the blurb, but in the end i felt disappointed. It was slow going in the first half of the book and I had a hard time keeping myself engrossed in the story. It honestly just felt like a giant cluster of greed, jealousy and revenge. And I’m still not sure how I feel about the ending.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks and author Sara Ochs for this gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

I simply wasn't expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did. Cass and Brooke were both so interesting. This book delivers twist after twist. I wasn't obsessed with the length but the multi-layered characters and story entertained me and kept me guessing until the very end. It was such a well crafted and well written book. Can't wait to read more by this author.

Thank you, NetGalley for the ARC. Scuba diving, resort life, and a group of friends keeping secrets from one another. What could go wrong?

This was a dual POV thriller that jumped into the mystery quickly, but also as quickly became a little far fetched and difficult to believe. I tend not to enjoy books with unreliable narrators (made unreliable by drug use—in this case, Xanax and drinking), and this was no exception. There wasn’t much compelling about the characters as it got rolling.

Ultimately this fell flat for me and I wanted more depth, more believable motive and complexity. Onto the next book!

This was such a good book! I loved the characters, and their story. The dialogue was realistic and enjoyable. I was very surprised by the ending!

The book was ok/good in some parts. The epilogue and prologue were the best parts for me. I felt there were a lot of people to keep track of and things got a little confusing, and some parts were mundane. But it was definitely an interesting concept. I would read more by this author.

Solid Tropical Murder Mystery Will Be Problematic For Some. Straight up, this book features an "on-screen" rape and an "off screen" predatory "relationship" between a teacher and a student. And yes, that last bit is a bit spoilery - but it is also something a lot of readers are going to want to know about before they get to that point in the tale. If either of those issues are absolute no-gos for you, you're going to want to avoid this book.

But if you're still here... beyond those two issues, this book was a *great* cat and mouse thriller that has twists almost literally through the last page of the text, and you're going to need to be clairvoyant to catch the last one in particular because it comes that far out of left field, but in a Now You See Me type manner where well, you were just looking too closely.

It also uses its tropical setting absolutely stunningly, in all its beauty... and perils. This book is going to make you want to go to Thailand and find one of these remote island resorts... but just be careful about it. :D And if you read J.M. LeDuc's Eastern Drift, based in Miami but featuring a trip to Thailand itself, near in time to reading this book - as I did - you're *really* going to be tempted to look up pricing for flights out to Bangkok. (Looks like around $3K for a late April 2024 round trip flight, staying a week. Just saving you some time on a casual check. :D)

But seriously, the scenery is both beautiful and visceral in this tale - you're going to feel like you're there as much as you want to be there. Indeed, the scenery is used so well in the tale that at times it actively overshadows the overall plot... but that is actually a great thing in the early stages of a tale such as this, because I in particular almost *want* that to happen in a book such as this. Ground me in the lush tropical setting. Give me some hints of some trouble, but have it overall be about just how amazing this place is. *Then* hit me with the "well... paradise for some may be hell for others" bit. Which Ochs does spectacularly, then proceeds to ratchet up the tension and ultimately action sublimely.

Again, if you can withstand the onscreen rape and offscreen predatory "relationship"... this truly is an excellent book that I sincerely hope the author can replicate in future works. Very much recommended.

Having been on many dive trips to tropical islands I found the dive resort aspect of this book to give me all the good feels. I could feel the warm sunshine, along with the high humidity, see the palm trees, and taste the salty water while waiting for divers to load up the dive boat with their gear to head out to the reef. I liked the island vibe and the group of permanents as they felt like a good family. But don't let all of this fool you as there are sinister things happening on this island, and plenty of drama (but not too much as to drag the plot down). The story is told in two alternating POVs from Cass and Brooke. This keeps the reader guessing who the killer could be, and I admit I changed my mind a few times before figuring it out. Still, that ending surprised the heck out of me. Well done, Sara Ochs! Congratulations on your debut novel.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.