Tessa was the only survivor of a horrific event that took the lives of three of her friends. But five years later, she is barely surviving. Wrapped with guilt, and a fear of re-entering the world, a push from her sister forces her to take action
She is going back to Cassadaga Island, the place where she became the final girl. Hoping to conquer her fears, this place still has other ideas. Strange noises in her rental house, the house where all the horror happened. Is the house haunted or is Tessa losing the fragile grip she has on her sanity?
I’m not going to risk falling into spoiler filled waters, but the chapters were short, and the story moved at a brisk pace. While I felt sorry for Tessa, besides her being the final girl, she could also be called, she who makes some really bad choices. She annoyed me more than once, so I just had to keep reminding myself what she had lived through. I had a few different theories about what happened to her friends and what was happening to her now. None of them were correct. Two points to the authors, zero points to me.

I wound up reading this book in one day and it was so good. It's more a slow burn which usually isn't my thing but it was done really well. The tension and suspense had me gripping my kindle tightly. If you've ever been alone in a house and felt scared by every little sound you will understand. I was actually kind of annoyed when I had to put it down to bring one of my kids to soccer practice. That's how you know it's a good one.

Thank you Thriller Book Lovers Promotions, A.M. Strong, Sonya Sargent Strong and Thomas & Mercer for an advanced copy. Make sure to check out THE LAST GIRL LEFT when it comes out April 23, 2024

The main character here has been tossed through the wringer — having had survived a mass shmooting event which she is haunted by often, and haunted by the person who did it.

The characters have a great deal of depth and I really, really loved the shorter chapters for my own sanity, I tend to get a little lost in the longer chapters some books have. I love how Tessa did, in her own way, faced her demons. Forcing herself to stay in the home which the incident occurred.

The way the author used her friends to invoke those heavier feelings was well done. Even if the friends were very, very vague. The twist though, had me shook. I did not expect the events and the way they laid out.

Overall, a very entertaining thriller that kept my attention.


Thank you to Netgalley, A M Strong, Sonya Sargent, and Thomas and Mercer for the eARC!

THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND PUBLISHER FOR THIS ADVANCE REVIEW COPY IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.

Theresa and her friends went to a beach house, five years ago and only Theresa came back alive. It’s been five years but Theresa is unable to move on from the mass murder of her friends and her near-death experience of herself. The murderer is dead, but she still has PTSD and all of the therapists fail to help her. After some events, she decided to go back to the beach house to get closure and move on. She even signed a book deal with a publisher so she can’t back out. Something is wrong in the beach house but Theresa can’t say if it is her anxiety or something else.

I like the concept of the book and it has a lot of potential but for me, writers couldn’t execute it properly. All of the characters felt underdeveloped and it was hard to feel for any of them. Many events felt like filler in the story and many things didn’t make sense to me. Theresa’s character portrayal and actions were opposite to each other. I liked the ending though but everything else was so ordinary.

Five years ago, Tessa Montgomery was on vacation with three friends on a remote island when they were attacked. Tessa's three friends were murdered, and while she was left for dead, Tessa managed to survive. While the assailant was killed in a shootout afterward, Tessa is still living the nightmare, unable to leave her sister's house and taking a baseball bat everywhere with her. But after Tessa nearly attacks her sister's cat, she realizes she needs to do something drastic to get past this paralyzing fear. So she does the most drastic thing she can and rents the same vacation home where her friends were murdered and she was attacked, determined to stay for a full month. But Tessa hasn't been there long when odd things start happening, setting setting her even more on edge than she was before.

This wasn't the worst book I've read, but it was far from the best. I had trouble buying Tessa's decision to return to the scene of the crime (and alone and for a whole month), as well as the fact that she thought nobody in the town recognized her when she returned (seriously, there are about 5 residents and nothing else has happened in this town...and she has a giant scar on her face). Honestly, the main reason I didn't stop reading was because I was afraid that a particularly cliched twist was coming (thankfully, it didn't). Doesn't mean it was worth it though.

Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for the advanced readers copy of this novel.

I will admit that this book really had me a bit unsettled. The premise of the main character who is the survivor of a mass murder that returns to stay at the scene of the crime for 30 days really made me feel uneasy for her. As you can probably guess, it was unsettling for the character too.

The new terrors she faces had me reading long into the night to find out what happens.

This was definitely a great psychological thriller for those that love this genre.

Five years after the horrific mass murder of three friends, Tessa, the sole survivor, wants to move on with her life. She decides to face her fears head on by going back to where it all happened. There are things that she doesn't remember about that night, which could change everything.

This book had me questioning everything. With each page, I wanted to read more. Definitely a page-turner.

You know I love books where someone has to go back to some place they escaped from. In this one the girl goes back to a beach house where all her friends were massacred. Could not be me!
So Tessa is going around swinging baseball bats at shadows and cats and it is really upsetting her sister, so her sister is like "stop this or move out." And Tessa is like "I don't know why this cat doesn't like me"
I relate to the sister because I too am a caregiver for an adult with mental issues. I am just wondering why how Tessa/her sister has the money to go rent a beach house for a month. Is social support that amazing in other countries? Because if I am sick for more than three days I get to be homeless.
Anyway, I really felt for Tessa when she heard about the ghost tour. We do little ghost tours but only stuff that's 100 years old. It is so disrespectful to talk about the recent stuff in that way.
In the last scary book that I read the victim returned to her home where all the bad stuff happened to embrace the happy memories. Tessa is doing the opposite. She is working through the bad ones.
I think both perspectives are legit.
I just all around loved this book. I felt for Tessa. I loved the atmosphere.

Five years ago, Tessa Chamberlain was the lone survivor of a beach house massacre that left three of her friends dead―and Tessa with an inescapable, unending dread. Now she’s going back to face her fears. Renting the same beach house where she almost died.

The first half was such a page-turner

I had such high hopes and was getting all the eerie house-type vibes. I was so intrigued, but then the second half shifted gears and the execution failed me!

Some intense moments propelled the story, some good Deja vu moments that had me guessing wildly, but the wrap-up was too convenient and didn't give me that fist bump moment I was anticipating.

This is a good creepy story that kept me guessing almost until the end. What could have been a dramatic, sinister novel became just another thriller. On the plus side, The Last Girl Left is an easy read that scored high for entertainment value.

Thank You NetGalley and Publisher for the eARC.

THE LAST GIRL LEFT by A. M. Strong and Sonya Sargent had me so close to the edge of my seat, I’m surprised I didn’t hit the floor!

Five years after Tessa Montgomery survives a mass murder in Sunset Cove in Maine, she has changed her name and hidden from the world at her sister’s home. When her sister confronts her about not making any forward progress in her life, Tessa Chamberlain returns to the house where the murders took place in the hopes of writing a book about her initial trauma and trying to find peace. Patrick Moyer, the Cassadaga island Ripper is now dead so Tessa does not feel any threat from him personally, but the house itself remains a trauma-filled reminder of that night. As the fog rolls in, Tessa befriends, a local waitress, Roxanne and her friend Kyla. Roxanne takes Tessa under her wing and tries to help her confront both the memories and the strange going on in and around the home. Reaching out to Chief White, the only police officer on the island, she gets little to no help, and he doesn’t seem to believe what she is telling him. Finally, giving up, she and Roxanne decide to investigate the goings on on their own.

With an editor breathing down her neck, a neighbor who seems to have disappeared, and a young grocery store clerk who seems to be following her, she decides that she will leave the island, pay back the advance for the book and return to her sheltered existence. After all, if she leaves the island, things should get better, right?

I COULD NOT put this book down. I heard the footsteps on the outside deck, heard the screams of a bobcat. and saw the faded blood stains in the floorboards as I read long into the night. The writing is clear and concise and will have you checking the locks on your doors and windows. This is my first book by this pair of authors, but it will definitely not be my last. For me, this is a writing team that I will keep at the top of my TBR.

Shout out to Thomas and Mercer and NetGalley for this ARC opportunity. All opinions are my own and given voluntarily.

2⭐️

Five years ago, Theresa Chamberlain and three of her best friends rented a beach house on Cassadaga Island for spring break. The trip ended with three girls being brutally massacred by a man they met at a bar and Theresa as the only survivor. The attack leaves Theresa with terrible PTSD that haunts her for years.

Current day, she now goes by Tessa. She's been living with her sister, unable to hold a job or live alone. After a close call when she thought someone broke into the house, Tessa decides that she's finally going to face her fears. She decides to rent the same beach house for a month to write about her experience. It doesn't take long before she starts hearing odd noises and fears that someone may be after her again.

This is the most anti-therapy book I've ever read. The first present day scene we see of Tessa is her at her therapists office essentially freezing her therapist out. She complains about the number of therapists she's gone through and that none of them could know what she went through. Yeah, because you won't talk to any of them. When her sister begs her to talk to her therapist about going back to the beach house, Tessa says no because they would tell her not to do it. Yeah, because it was a bad idea?

The story itself was fine. It wasn't the most original but was creepy enough to keep me invested. I wasn't a fan of most of the characters; the dialogue and most of their actions just didn't feel natural at all. Especially Tessa; for someone who is supposed to be so traumatized, she makes the most reckless decisions that no woman would make.

But my biggest issue was towards the end of the book during the main climax of the story. We get several lines about how Tessa struggles to hide in a tight spot because her breasts were too big to fit in the space. We made it almost the whole book with little to no physical description of Tessa, and the first time we get one it's about her boobs. Really?

Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing this ARC to me!

EASY 5⭐️ This book has left me speechless. I could NOT put this down. I read it in 2 sittings, within a 24-hour period. This book pulled me out of a month-long reading slump. I was hooked from the very beginning and I absolutely ATE this up.

This book may have had 82 chapters but each and every one was short, action -packed, and fast-paced. Almost every chapter ended with a suspenseful cliffhanger, too, making you say “Just one more chapter” over and over again Lol! By the time I knew it, the book was over.

This book did get a bit repetitive in the sense that the author restated certain facts/feelings/thoughts one (or three or five) too many times. As a book that naturally makes its readers cling to every word, I don’t think it needs such repetition.

With that being said, this story provided a plethora of jaw-dropping, unexpected twists. And then it added secondary twists on-top of those initial twists. I loved it and had to constantly adjust my theories throughout the book.

While I was able to predict that Noah was the Chief’s son and had an active part in the murders, I did NOT expect that Noah was the mastermind of the beach house massacre 5 years ago. I’m not surprised that there was actually two killers there that night (because initially I was wondering myself if Patrick had help), but I definitely thought Patrick was the killing ringleader and Noah was there as an accessory to aid and abet. I also was not surprised that Noah killed his own mother; I had suspected so. But when he said “You always remember your first”, in an emotionless, non-chalant voice, my body was overcome with chills.

I think what I love most about this book is that the author made ME feel like I was the main character in the story; like I was Theresa/Tessa and this my MY nightmare. When humans read, our brains are not able to distinguish the difference between us having actually experienced something in our real lives or us just having read about that experience in a book, as our nervous systems and endogenous hormones react the same to both. Think about it, when we have a nightmare, our conscious brain may know we are dreaming and tell us to wake up (or not), but our unconscious brain does not know if the nightmare is reality or fiction, which is why nightmares are scary in the first place. The author had a way of making you feel every OUNCE of anxiety, fear, paranoia, tension, unease, and resentment that Tessa (and the other characters) felt. I trusted no one. Literally no one. My heart raced through the entirety of this book and I found myself completely lost in the terrifying, unsettling, and suspenseful setting of Cassadaga Island.

I am not one to re-read books but this is one I absolutely would.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer (publisher) for the ARC edition of this book. I am obsessed and plan to recommend to everyone I know that reads.

A bit of a genre switch for this author but the same stellar story telling. Quite the thriller that leaves chills running down your spine. I can see that we can expect more in this vein as well as the John Decker books we know and love.
I received a free reader's copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Unfortunately, this book was very disappointing for me. The pacing was very off. The first half of so was extremely repetitive and slow moving. There were far too many incidences of Tessa being “spooked” and nothing actually ended up happening. A lot of things were unrealistic as well. I may not be a professional, but I know enough to know publishing doesn’t work as quickly as it is portrayed in this book. The characters are one dimensional. The twists were predictable and the reveals were cheesy. Overall, I don’t recommend this book. I appreciate Netgalley and Thomas and Mercer for the opportunity to read this Advance Copy.

Tessa’s life has been paralyzed by fear since the summer five years ago when she survived “the Cassadaga Island Ripper,” who killed three of her friends before attacking her and leaving her for dead. Even though he was killed shortly after by police, Tessa has remained a hermit, unable to move past that night. In a desperate effort to move on, she decides to go back to Cassadaga, a tiny island off the coast of Maine, to stay in the exact house she and her friends did to confront her fears. But then, strange things begin to happen. And she wonders if she will wind up becoming a victim of the island after all.

This was a quick, atmospheric read that has the atmosphere of a ghost story, but is based in “the real world.” It has a really great premise, with the final girl voluntarily going back to the scene of the crime and things immediately going south….and things slowly ramping up until the final climax. There’s also some “is it all in her head?” elements to it, and with her most likely having PTSD from the attack 5 years ago, there’s a question of whether or not IT IS in her head or not. (She is very, very sensitive, I mean who wouldn’t be?!) It adds a layer to the plot.

And there’s some nice twists in there that keep things interesting along the way. There’s some red herrings, and plenty of scenarios that could play out, so I was interested the whole way to the end to see how things turned out. And I quite enjoyed the ending.

Like I said this was a quick read, and I really liked it. It had good mystery and thriller elements. I’d recommend picking this one up.

Thank ypu Netgalley & Thomas &Mercer Publishing for an eARC ♥️

Guys,get ready for a serious case of the heebie-jeebies with this haunting page-turner! Tessa's decision to revisit the scene of the horrific mass murder that changed her life forever sets the stage for a chilling descent into madness. As she settles into the same beach house where her friends met their gruesome ends, the isolation and creepy vibes start to mess with your head. Every step creaking on the porch, every whisper in the wind, and every flicker of the lights will have you wondering if Tessa's being stalked by a flesh-and-blood monster or something more sinister. The author masterfully cranks up the tension, blurring the lines between reality and Tessa's fevered imagination. I devoured this book in one sitting, my heart racing like a jackrabbit the whole time. Just be prepared to sleep with one eye open – and don't say I didn't warn you!

The Last Girl Left was a solid thriller/suspense about Tessa returning back to the house where her friends were murdered 5 years before. I also love a final girls story so I immediately wanted to read this one when I saw it. While I liked the main character I did find myself questioning a good amount of her decisions and there was some suspension of belief at the end. Giving this one 3 stars I enjoyed and would recommend it but not sure it's one that will stay with me for very long. I want to thank NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

Five years after surviving the horrific crime in which all her friends were killed, Tessa returns to the lonely beach house where it occurred in the hopes of overcoming her trauma and writing a book. But as things become increasing sinister, she fears that the danger may not be fully past.

I've been in the mood for a thriller recently, and thought this book should scratch that itch. The summary promised plenty of suspense and chills, and I am a sucker for the 'last girl' horror trope. Unfortunately, the read failed to deliver for me.

In an effort to jolt herself out of her trauma-induced stupor and earn some money, Tessa forces herself to stay for a month in the same house where she was assaulted and her friends murdered and write a book about it. It's an audacious premise but I thought the author did a decent job of setting it up logically. The writing was facile and breezy, the setting well-sketched out and menacing.

However, the novel never really got off the ground for me, let alone conducted itself well. The plot was thin, with no action really occurring until about the 80% mark - until then, we must rely on eerie noises and flickering lights for the fright factor. None of the characters were fleshed out, and I found myself feeling indifferent to the fate of Tessa, her friends, and everyone else in the book. And when the villains of the piece were finally revealed, they too felt cliched, leaving me unable to take them seriously.

I was really disappointed. The premise had seemed promising, but in the end the execution just was not there. Do not recommend.

This was the first book our book club read ever! How neat is that! We all read it pretty quickly so I can say it is a fast read.

This book kept me on my toes the entire time. I had butterflies in my stomach and I was anxious for Tessa throughout the entire book!! Tessa was a strong and determined woman. She decided the best way for her to conquer her fears was not only to go back to the island where the nightmare began but to stay IN the house for a MONTH! Not me, no way. I'd have been too scared. I would have gone back to the island but not in the same house. But, Tessa decided she would stay and show herself that nothing bad would happen. However, that isn't quite what happened.
I don't want to spill too many details. It could ruin the book. Just know this: I really liked this book and if you're a thriller lover I think you will as well! If you're not a thriller lover keep this one in mind as a gift for a friend/family member. This one will be on KU when it is published on April 23, 2024

This book read like watching a scary movie! Those are the types of books I love!
The story centers around one woman, Tessa, who is the sole survivor of a massacre of her friends that happened at a beach house. Tessa has tried counselor after counselor with no luck. She has been living with her sister since then. One night, she thinks she sees someone in her room and grabs her baseball bat. When she is close, she swings. She almost killed her sister's cat. When Tessa tells her this, her sister tells her she has to find another place to live.
She knows she needs money to find another place and remembers years ago that someone from a publisher contacted her wanting her to write a book about what happened. She contacts them and they tell her that years ago they were interested and now it's old news. Tessa gets the idea of going back to the beach house and writing about her trying to work through all that happened. She pitches this idea to the publisher and they are very interested. She books the beach house for a month and is certain she can write the book in that time.
However, when she starts to hear footsteps and things happening in the house she can't explain, she wonders if it is a good idea to be truly alone.
I would recommend to anyone who likes a slow burn with a wallop of a finale!
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.