Part mystery, part thriller, part romance and full finding yourself after love and loss. I was invested from the start, seeking to find which characters were reliable and what would be unveiled. A page turning read with more complexity than meets the eye.

Another destination thriller from Andrea Bartz! This time, we travel to a tropical and faraway island of Mexico, where we are thrown into a suspenseful thriller involving a passionate LGBTQ couple, a mysterious group of expats, and friendly locals. A tropical destination escape for readers who love twisty suspense. You won’t want to put this novel down!

I have mixed feelings about this book. Part of it kept me up late at night going from chapter to chapter but other parts were deeply unsatisfying. Abby started off as a compelling character but that quickly dissolved for me. I did think the epilogue was thought provoking. 3.5 stars but rounded up the 4 for this review.

"The Last Ferry Out" was an enjoyable thriller with plenty of surprises. I was certainly not expecting Eszter's death to occur in the manner it did, or the people involved in the cover-up and the reasons for the cover-up.

This was an excellent little mystery read. My first experience with this author and I will definitely be back for more. The author was able to build up the suspense of the plot without being overly graphic or too dark. The build up of secondary characters was thorough without feeling exhausting. Would definitely recommend.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books via NetGalley.

A secluded island, a vanished man, and the lingering mystery of a fiancée’s death—this book had all the right ingredients for a gripping thriller. Unfortunately, instead of an edge-of-your-seat mystery, it delivers a meandering, overstuffed narrative that struggles to stay afloat.

The story follows Abby, who travels to Isla Colel in search of answers about Eszter’s death. The island, once lively, is now a ghost of its former self, inhabited by a strange mix of expats who all seem to know more than they let on. The premise is solid, but the execution? Not so much. The first chunk of the book is bogged down by excessive descriptions and backstories that add little to the tension. Multiple POVs—Abby’s present-day investigation, Eszter’s final days, and even chapters from other island inhabitants—only make things more confusing rather than intriguing. And while the setting is atmospheric, the pacing is painfully slow, making it hard to stay invested.

Then there’s Abby herself. She should be compelling as a woman on a mission, but her immaturity and lack of direction make it difficult to root for her. She’s supposedly out to uncover the truth, but half the time, it’s unclear what she’s even trying to accomplish. The book’s twists are predictable, the dream sequences feel like cheap misdirections, and by the time the story finally picks up, it’s already too late.

This book had great writing and I was interested from the beginning. However it was just so slow. There were times where it was engaging, but it took a really long time to get to anything happening. I was having a hard time finding any of the side characters likable. Overall the story was unique. So I have to give points for that, but I felt the book was just too long for the plot.

Thank you @netgalley and @randomhouse for this arc opportunity!

I'm a fan of Andrea Bartz books and was very happy to get an early copy of this one. I enjoyed it but the pacing was a bit too slow for me. I thought it was solid, descriptive writing, but the story could have inched along a bit faster. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

My Thoughts

Abby and Eszter are 2 sides of a coin, both deeply passionate driven young women but while 1 is an exuberant extrovert the other is a thoughtful introvert.

Classic case of opposites attracted to one another.

What happens to Eszter is only a small part of what Abby slowly uncovers as the story goes backwards and forwards in time using each woman’s point of view.

Twist at the end was a different one than I had expected but at the same time it was also part of what I suspected early on.
[EArc from Netgalley]
On every book read as soon as it is done and written up for review it is posted on Goodreads and Netgalley, once released then posted on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles as well.

I really enjoyed this book and stayed up later than I should’ve to see what was going to happen! The story centers on Abby, whose fiancée Eszter dies while vacationing alone on a remote Mexican island. Abby shows up there a few months later and meets the group of ex-pats that Eszter had befriended to try ti get some closure. Once she starts talking to people, it seems there is more to the story and Abby isn’t sure who she can trust.

While the story is primarily told in the current timeline, there were flashbacks to previous times during Abby’s and Eszter’s relationship. I wasn’t sure those were necessary because the characters were well developed, but I ended up enjoying the brief glimpses in their relationship that highlighted how much Abby grew through the course of the book. I really enjoyed the red herrings and thought there were a lot of options as to what secrets the islanders were keeping. When the truth came out, I appreciated how it came together in a way that made total sense. The pacing of the book was a little funny at times, with major events happening quickly while often more time was spent on Abby’s inner dialogue. There was also a weird chapter where Abby is exploring the ruins of the old hotel and it is riddled with unnecessary metaphors- I am all about atmospheric abandoned places but that chapter was overdone. I liked the way the story ended and was surprised by the twist in the epilogue.

Overall, I thought this was an engaging and suspenseful read and I had trouble putting it down. Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Oophh what head twist this book was...in a good way! The characters were well hashed out, the location sounded divine and the thriller aspects were believable. I think vacation or destination thrillers are my favorite subgenre and this one was top of the game:)

I liked the premise of this book. It started off strong, however the ending was disappointing. I gave it 2 stars, but other people might really enjoy this book.

The last ferry out was a very atmospheric book, it’s set on an eerie island. We have our main character Abby who comes to this island to find out what happened to her fiancée Eszter and how did he pass away.
Here she meets few group of people and one them tells helper he knows what happened to her fiancé but when he goes missing too Abby decided to find out what happened.
It was very cold, eerie and twisted story and I really liked it.

A huge thank you to Ballantine Books, NetGalley, and Andrea Bartz for this advance copy.

Bartz paints an eerily beautiful scene in Isla Colel, and it felt like the setting really carried a lot of this book. The book is both a mystery/thriller and a bit of romance in the form of flashbacks. Abby, grieving the loss of her fiance Eszter, comes to the remote Mexican island where her fiance died to feel closer to her and hopefully find closure. As she's there, life as she knew it begins to unravel as she tries to figure out what really happened to Eszter and why was she there. Overall, I thought this was a solid thriller--I didn't want to put it down after I reached the halfway point. But a number of the characters felt flat - I wish we were able to dive a bit deeper into each one, as a number of them felt surface level but then had a ton of baggage and background history that was kind of thrown in your face.

Still grieving the sudden loss of her fiancée, one woman decides to retrace her final days on the island where she died, which reveals far more than she anticipated in The Last Ferry Out by Andrea Bartz.
Traveling to Isla Colel, a beautiful tropical island, Abby, hoping to make sense of the loss that has utterly unmoored her, is retracing the last days and steps that her fiancée, Eszter, took before she suddenly and surprisingly died of an allergic reaction shortly before the couple were meant to meet up on the island where Eszter had something tell Abby. Quickly after arrival, Abby is befriended by the group of expats on the island who were also close with Eszter and she uses the opportunity to try to gather more information about her last days. When one of the expats texts Abby saying that she deserves to know the truth, her mind goes into overdrive, but when he doesn’t show up for their meeting and the other expats are overly casual about his sudden disappearance and lack of response, Abby can’t help but draw sinister conclusions from the circumstantial evidence, or lack thereof. As she tries to dig deeper around the island and its inhabitants to uncover the truth, Abby suspects that at least one of the expats might be Eszter’s killer and is willing to do whatever they need to in order to maintain that secret, which places her in a direct path of danger but her determination to know with certainty what befell Eszter to assuage the tempest swirling in her mind drives her forward to reveal the truth in its entirety regardless of the cost to herself.
Depicting a remote setting that is picturesque yet fragile, a unique ecosystem, both the environment and the people, which is rife with secrets and protective residents, takes shape with those who elect to reside on the island as expats seizing the opportunity to shed their pasts, obscuring things they’d rather forget, and make themselves anew. In the interactions between Abby and the expats, there is a charged atmosphere that easily lends itself to the building of suspicion as Abby sees snippets of their behavior and exchanges with one another, leaving a tension of the unknown to fester in her mind to extrapolate from as the secrets she uncovers are revealed from her persistent digging and pointed questions, lacking a fuller context or explanation that might alleviate her overactive mind. The narrative's pacing feels odd as there is a rapid succession of events over an incredibly brief window of time for everything that’s explored yet the plot and development of the related tension progresses slowly, drawing the story out minute details that seem unnecessary for the level of detail provided for the situation at hand and depth to the characters presented. A majority of the story is presented from Abby’s perspective, both in the present and as she remembers and relives her relationship with Eszter, but there are also chapters from Eszter “then” and members of the expat group that provide glimpses into their current perspectives, perhaps to more fully flesh out the dynamics of the group and explain what occurred, but it serves more to diffuse momentum and some of the tension rather than building it up further.
Overall, I’d give it a 3 out of 5 stars.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great mystery and suspense! Very well written and on of the first books in a long time I could not guess the ending or who did it. Every time I thought I had the answer it twisted and turned, right until the last page!

I really enjoyed this one! I loved her last book so much so I was hoping this one would be just as good, if not better. Andi always does such a great job with her books. I was fully invested from start to finish. But THAT EPILOGUE!!!! that ending left my head spinning. I loved Abby’s character & how she persevered through so much to get answers. I also loved that Andi had us hating certain characters because we thought they were the bad guy…we were wrong!!! I love that. Great job! Bravo!

⭐️⭐️
“I need to tell you something” are the last words Abby’s fiancé Eszter says to her before she dies from anaphylactics. Eszter takes a spontaneous trip to Isla Colel an island in the Mexican Caribbean. Isla Colel is known for amazing sunsets and wildlife until a hurricane destroyed their tourism. Abby goes to the island to investigate Eszter’s final days but the more she digs the more questions she has.
I was intrigued by the premise of this book, I love a secluded island thriller. But unfortunately this book wasn’t it for me. The story unfolds while Abby befriends some locals that knew Eszter, there are a lot of characters introduced and it is hard to keep them all straight or feel any connection to them. The first 20% of the book is filled with unnecessary descriptions of the island or backstories that aren’t all that interesting.
The book is told through multiple POVs: Abby with present day and flashback chapters, Eszter with flashback chapters following the days before her death, as well as several other POVs of the islands inhabitants. Overall the story and layout of the book are confusing and not that interesting. There is dream sequence thrown in to mislead you and the “twist” I found to be predictable.
Thanks to NetGalley for this digital ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.
The Last Ferry Out releases May 20th 2025

Thanks NetGalley and Random House for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I have some mixed feelings on this book. Usually, I love this author’s work, and the book started off strong. It was really interested in what was happening and who was involved. The ending though disappointed me. I was hoping for more of a twist, and even the final one, was not as exciting as I hoped. I found the last few chapters dragged on. Still a book worth checking out, but not my favourite from this author. This book will be hitting shelves in May 2025. A ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 read for me. #avivaandfriendsrecos

The book was beautifully written. Overall, the book was well written and I did really enjoy it. Thank you for this advance reading copy!