Release Date: 27th April 2021
Publisher: Avon Books
Pages: 400
Find it on: Goodreads. BookDepository. Waterstones.
Source: I received an E-ARC via Netgalley
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Synopsis

You come to the retreat to be healed. You don’t expect to die.

Two years ago, Fran’s sister Jenna disappeared on a wellness retreat in Gozo that went terribly wrong.

Tom Wade, the now infamous man behind Soul Shrink Retreats, has just been released from prison after serving his sentence for the deaths of two people. But he has never let on what happened to the third victim: Jenna.

Determined to find out the truth, Fran books herself onto his upcoming retreat – the first since his release – and finds herself face to face with the man who might hold the key to her sister’s disappearance. The only question is, will she escape the retreat alive? Or does someone out there want Jenna’s secrets to stay hidden?

Review

C. L. Taylor is one of my favourite thriller writers so I always go into her books with the highest of expectations. Once again I was completely sucked into this fast-paced tale full to the brim with suspense. The story is set around a Soul Shrink retreat in Gozo that went horribly wrong: two people died and another committed suicide. We follow Tom Wade, the man behind Soul Shrink, who has just been released from prison, his wife Kate as they attempt to put the past behind them and Fran the sister of the girl who committed suicide. Fran is trying to uncover the truth behind her sister’s death, so when Tom and Kate announce a new Soul Shrink retreat, Fran signs up. But what she uncovers might be far more than she bargained for.

This was such a compelling read. I made the mistake of starting this quite late at night and then ended up glued to the book for several hours. Taylor has a brilliant writing style and a way of sucking you in right from the very first page. The story was full of twists and turns and like all C. L. Taylor books had an ending that I absolutely did not see coming. The plot is pretty fast-paced and that definitely had me turning pages faster and faster.

C. L. Taylor always writes such fascinating characters and Her Last Holiday is no exception. The different perspectives were so intriguing as we follow Kate, Tom and Fran in the present and Kate and Jenna in the past. The characters were all complex and well creating, dealing with a variety of things: Fran with the loss of her sister and all the things she did not get to say, Kate with the breakdown of her marriage and everything she has worked for and Tom with the death of his clients and his time in prison. The characters are brilliantly created and because of them, the story was so engrossing.

Her Last Holiday is a fantastic new page-turner from C. L. Taylor. If you’re looking for a story to get completely lost in, this is definitely a must-read.