The Resort is a rereleased thriller by author Sara Ochs, originally published as The Dive.

The titular resort is on the Thai island of Koh Sang and is staffed by a dramatic cast of young ex-pats who all seem to be running from their pasts. One of those staff members, a dive instructor named Cass, is one of our two main narrators. The other is Brooke, a travel influencer on an unnamed revenge mission. A string of resort-related deaths turns everyone into a suspect. Everyone is sketchy. Everyone has an ax to grind.

This story is…okay. I enjoyed the dual-perspective narrative, though it took me a while to remember which details pertain to which characters because everyone’s hiding something and projecting a false exterior. While I was interested in figuring out what the heck is going on on this island, I didn’t find the story to be PROPULSIVE, which made it feel longer than it is. This could be because the characters feel pretty flat, and it seems like every chapter ends with a new, misguided revelation about someone’s guilt. Honestly, it kinda felt like reading a Fear Street Super Chiller, particularly Party Summer. While I have a special place in my heart for those R.L. Stine books, I didn’t think that’s what I’d signed up for here.

The audiobook is a whole other thing. While the readers do a great job of portraying the emotions of their first-person narrators, the accents are BIZARRE. The two main characters are American, but the audiobook narrators are British—doing American accents. Honestly, I didn’t really notice it until two things happened: (1) Brooke announced that she is from Kentucky, though she had worked hard to smooth out her accent to sound like she’s from the west coast. (2) The narrators, especially Brooke, used British pronunciations of words like “been,” “schedule,” and “privacy.” As a Kentuckian myself, I can tell you with 100% certainty that no amount of “smoothing” would cause THAT. It was really distracting! Another weird thing: When the narrators portray other characters speaking, they continue to use their American accents, even though these characters are from all over the world, including England, Scotland, Australia, Sweden, and Romania. This REALLY made it difficult to keep the cast of characters sorted out in my mind, in addition to the two main narrators sounding too similar to one another to distinguish easily. I believe these are not problems with the audiobook narrators’ performances as much as that of the director(s) and producer(s).

Huge ⚠️ trigger warnings ⚠️ for sexual assault, rape, grooming of minors, suicide, child abuse, gaslighting, mental health stigma, and probably some others I’ve missed.

Despite this, I would still be interested in picking up future work by this author and these audiobook narrators.

Review posted on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5888769387

Many thanks to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark, and Recorded Books Media for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of this thriller by Sara Ochs and perfectly narrated by the cast of Miranda Raison, Dakota Blue Richards, Joe Jameson, and Pema Monaghan - 4 stars!

Cass escapes from her troubles to a beautiful, remote island in Thailand. She joins a group of ex-pats, called the Permanents, is a dive instructor, and just got engaged. Life is perfect, right? Well...besides the fact that she finds a dead body on her dive. Soon, everyone's secrets are going to be spilled.

This was a wonderful, atmospheric novel, with a locked-room mystery feel., told from the POV of Cass and Brooke, a beautiful instagram travel influencer, on the island with secrets of her own. I had no clue where this one was going or who could be trusted. And that ending was a shocker! Perfect escape read during the winter. A debut writer that I'm looking forward to reading more from!

I was provided an audio version of this book in exchange for an honest review. In my honest opinion, I urge you to please get the paper or digital version if you plan to read this one.

Story: ★★★★
Narration: ★★

The book itself held a thrilling, if somewhat predictable, story and I flew through it. It would make a great movie, reminiscent of one of my favorites, Turistas, especially with the everything happening at once ending during a raging storm. With the right cast, it could be this summer's must-see.

That said, the audiobook for this one is dreadful. Whoever cast this narration team really messed up, if it's actually people.

Each of the characters on this lone Thai resort island was from a different place: New Zealand, England, Scotland, you name it. However, the majority of the story comes through the character Brooke's POV, read with this bland (and strange) American accent. There was zero attempt to differentiate voices, neither with accents nor timbre, which made the references to accents (that we couldn't hear) laughable.

Perhaps Brooke's character was being read by AI? That would explain the eerily flat tone and weird pronunciations, if the AI were built by someone who was not American but wanted to seem so. Just a few examples of what I'm talking about: Who says turquoise as "ter-kwahz"? Or the brand Nokia as "nocky-uh"? And where in the US do they pronounce anything/everything as "ennuh-thin"/"evruh-thin"? And how, with a straight face, do you make trachea rhyme with "tacky"? It was so distracting to hear this person saying normal words in such unusual ways, like she had never heard them spoken out loud. The narration kept yanking me abruptly out of any enjoyment.

Sara Och's smashing debut, THE RESORT, draws you in from the idyllic tropical front cover to the mysterious paradise setting in this riveting vacation suspense thriller on a remote island in Thailand with two women, murder, and a dangerous cat-and-mouse game.

Cass has lived on Sang, an island in Thailand, desperate to escape her dark past for the past few years. She is a scuba diver instructor. She fell in love with the island and Logan, her fiancé and bar owner.

A woman was found dead weeks earlier, falling from a cliff path. Then, while teaching, she discovers a body: Lucy, one of her students in one of her classes.

A beautiful American influencer, Brooke, arrives in Koh Sang, escaping her past, and takes an interest in the death of Cass's student.

Then Cass begins receiving notes warning her about her secret past. She works with her new friend Brooke to try and unravel the mystery of who killed Lucy and the motive.

Has her past come calling? However, nothing is as it appears when all is unraveled.

THE RESORT is told through the perspective of two unreliable narrators, Cass and Brooke, both hiding dark secrets of the past. With a mysterious island and a locked-room vibe, you know something is lurking, but you are unsure how all the pieces fit together—with many twists and turns.

AUDIOBOOK: I enjoyed the audiobook narrated by Miranda Raison, Dakota Blue Richards, Joe Jameso, and Pema Monaghan, who made the characters come alive in this tropical, chilling, remote, lush setting. Highly recommend the audiobook.

An impressive debut! I enjoyed the backstories and the author's writing. I look forward to reading more!

Thanks to Recorded Books and NetGalley for a gifted, advanced listening review copy.

Blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: Feb 13, 2024
My Rating: 4.5 Stars (rounded to 5)
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The Resort is a well paced and atmospheric murder mystery. Everyone on the island has a secret. And when people start dying, Hannah and Cass try to unravel the mystery and work out who they can trust.

I loved the Thailand island setting, and trying to figure out whodunit (I didn’t). The slow burn at the beginning building to multiple twists in the second half worked really well. I’m not normally a fan of the last minute twist, but the I found the epilogue a really satisfying ending.

Initially I found it hard to discern the different characters on the audiobook, but I quickly adjusted. The narrators embodied the characters really well, and captured the tension without over dramatising. The narration was well articulated and paced.

Thank you RB Media and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed are my own.

📖: The Resort
✍️: Sara Ochs
🎙: Miranda Raison, Dakota Blue Richards, Joe Jameson, Pema Monaghan
⭐️: 4 of 5
🎧: 5 of 5

Troupes & Themes:
- Multiple POV
- Unreliable Narrator

Trigger/Content Warnings:
- Language
- Rape (brief mention, descriptive but not explicit)

My Thoughts:
This was a wild ride with some great twists. Right when I thought I had it figured out, I was wrong. It did drag a bit in places, but overall, this was a good physiological thriller. I would never have guessed this as a debut novel. I also thoroughly enjoyed the narration by all. This was an enjoyable and engaging listen. Thank you, NetGalley, RB Media, and Recorded Books, for the opportunity to listen and review this advanced copy.

Well, I will say this was an interesting read that started off really slow but when you're going to a resort isn't that what you want? A relaxing slow paced visit with no drama right? Nope, not at this resort! The drama is set in Southeast Asia, Thailand to be exact. There's so much going on, but it takes awhile for it all to come together. You read of the characters and you're wondering who can you trust? Who has an ounce of credibility. Well, they all do because you will never see this turn coming. Sure it just comes at you out of nowhere like Wham all in yo face. It was such a change in the story style that I had to make sure I was reading the same book. Well, of course I was the accents from the audiobook made it very clear which person was whom and those accents kind of irritated me a tad. But they fit the characters well. Overall, I give this book a 3.5 because the ending finally came through for me. It could have been a bit shorter in my opinion but if you have time and a good stormy rainy night for a read then you will get something out of this story for sure. Just hang in there. This review was posted to Good Reads as well @Toy Williams ISBN13: 9781728279558

Very good. Keeps you guessing until the very end. Then, with everything wrapping up, there is a major twist that actually makes sense. As out of left field it seemed, it was easily reconciled with the story..
After first needing to adjust to the accent of the narrator, it quickly became a non-issue. I will say she was more of a reader than an actor as there was no discernible difference in voices as she read each person’s narrative.

Wow, what a cast of characters! The Resort is told from the perspective of two women, Cass and Brooke, and the narration for each character was excellent. I loved the setting, a remote island in Thailand. The lawlessness of the environment increased the suspense in this murder mystery, and I could not stop listening. The twist at the end was spectacular, and I would love to see a sequel to this one!

**please note due to low rating I will not be leaving a public review for this book as I have not paid for it.**

Narrated by Miranda Raison, Dakota Blue Richards, Joe Jameson, Pema Monaghan

Novel by Sara Ochs

All the narrators were really good but this story fell painfully flat for me. I'm so sorry for the harsh feedback but I found thr characters and plot to be really dull.

While I didn't enjoy this book, this is my first time trying this author so I would definitely give another of her books a go.

Fancy a vacation resort whodunnit thriller with plenty of flawed characters, secrets and lies, and twists that'll make your head spin? 

Look no further than this fabulous debut novel from Sara Ochs. An initial slow burn, this book really takes off around the midway mark, and I listened to the audiobook over just a few days. The cast of narrators made this a great listening experience. And that ending!

I'll definitely be reading more books from this author in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and RB Media for an ALC of The Resort. Expected publication date is 13/2/24

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ALC! Unfortunately, this book fell flat for me. I feel like this premise has been done so often for thrillers, particularly in the past year and half. This one wasn’t bad by any means, but the multiple characters and the lack of anything particularly unique to differentiate it from other similar books made it blend into the background for me. I think people who are just getting into reading or haven’t read a thriller with this premise will enjoy it!

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
I enjoyed the beginning of this book a lot but felt a bit overwhelmed as it progressed. I felt like it started to rush almost with the reveals and "shocking" moments.

Thank you RB Media and NetGalley for ALC of the book.

Koh Sang Resort seems like a Paradise on Earth but everyone who lives there has escaped their past and is keeping a secret.

This was an amazing book. The plot was refreshing and well paced.

The narration was great, full of emotion and animated the characters for me.

What a thrilling ride!

The Resort takes us to a beautiful island where not everything is as it should be. Trust nothing and no one.

The resort on Koh Sang has a mix of characters from different backgrounds that all have something to hide... and a hidden agenda. A secret comes out and so many things start to snowball from there.

It's really best to go into this not knowing a lot, I promise, you won't be disappointed!

Thank you @Netgalley and @sourcebooks for gifting me the opportunity to read and listen to The Resort.

“Welcome to paradise. We hope you survive your stay…”

Cass wanted to start a new life and leave bad memories behind so she moved to Thailand. She took a job as a scuba instructor, made new friends and met the love of her life. Everything seemed to be perfect- until it wasn’t.

It took me a second to catch the rhythm as the characters’ POV changed as each chapter did. Once I was able to sort out the characters and the plot began to move along, I was very interested in how events were tied together. There are a few twists that were surprising and the ending was SO unexpected!

I loved this so much!! From the very beginning I was hooked, and just when you think you might have it figured out, there’s another twist! And the epilogue had me screaming! Cass is such a complicated character, I just felt so much for her with what she went through. Finding out the truth about what happened with Cass was so well done, and came at the perfect time in the story. I wish there was more or another book coming to continue to follow some of these characters! Every single character at some point had me thinking they might be the villain! Total nail biter, had me on the edge of my seat the entire time! I highly recommend this fast paced thriller!

Thank you to NetGalley, RB Media, and Recorded Books for the audio arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I picked this book up on Netgalley at the coolest time--just went I was about to head off on a trip to a Thai island! Unfortunately the Netgalley Shelf app doesn't work in Thailand, so I couldn't listen to it while I was there, but it was fun to reminisce as soon as I got back. The island we stayed on didn't have nearly as much murder as Koh Sang (well, that I knew about).

I always love a book that's set somewhere I know well or have been recently, so the location of the book was perfect. The Resort starts off with a lot of suspense, and I was eager to find out what was really happening with these dead girls.

The author lost me a bit in the middle. I like when characters have a strong backstory, but in this case the backstory detracted from the main plot. She took way too long to get to Cassie's history, and when she did it made no sense. Same for explaining Brooke's vendetta against Cassie.

At the end, I was lukewarm on the reveal--until the epilogue. I loved the premise of the epilogue!! It was somewhat out of place though--to my knowledge, there were no hints at the truth throughout the book.

Overall, this thriller was just okay, and I was mostly in it for the location. I won't count this author out, though. This is her debut, so I feel with a little honing she has a lot of potential.

I love a full-cast narration, but I feel like there was a huge missed opportunity to really make this book shine with all the different accents of this melting-pot island. Not even an attempt at Lucy or Alani's New Zealand accent, which is an easy one? I was disappointed that no accents were attempted, and thought it made the narration feel somewhat flat.

Lots of twists and turns. Brooke following Cass all the way to Thailand to out her then coming across something much worse.

Who is a friend and who is a foe is completely masked and you never know until it is too late.

Brooke stumbling upon mysterious breaths and trying to crack the case of who did it. But her judgment is so clouded that she is bent on all the people dying because of Cass. Brooke thinks it’s Cass because of how she killed her own sister then fled the country to hide.

The end of the book was wow. Was not expecting the friend of Brooke’s to be the biggest foe of it all.

The Resort is an excellent book that just fell short of me loving it. The first thing I want to talk about is the ending, without spoilers of course. I want to thank author Sara Ochs because she did something I want more authors to do. This probably makes no sense to anyone but me but thank you Sara Ochs, thank you.

This story is a dual POV between Cass and Brooke. Cass is a young woman who is running from her past and finds a new life on a tourist island off the coast of Thailand where she teaches scuba diving. A week after a young woman was found dead, during her scuba class Cass finds the body of one of her students underwater. This is the second death that’s ruled accidental in a short time.

Brooke is a travel influencer who may have other motives for being at the resort. She and Cass became friends and teamed up to try to find out what happened with both deaths on the island. I loved the mystery and the conclusion to this book was perfect, but it took way too long to get going; that was my only problem with the book.