An intriguing premise and a seriously dysfunctional friend group, but “The Last Holiday” never quite delivered the tension I crave from a thriller.

I liked this book, but I never felt particularly invested. I’m looking for stories that make it impossible to stop reading, and this wasn’t one of them. Honestly, I could have put it down at almost any point and never looked back.

The friend group at the center of this story is anything but friendly. Between calling each other “cow” and suspecting practically everyone of sleeping with someone else’s spouse, there’s no shortage of drama. When a stranger turns up dead wearing Magda’s kaftan, the question becomes whether Magda was the intended target. And when another women dies (Magda’s best friend and the woman she suspects of sleeping with her husband) the mystery finally starts to take shape.

My biggest gripe? The word “kaftan” appears 44 TIMES. Yes, I actually checked. 😂

Still, it was a decent escape for a few hours, and I’d be willing to give Valerie Keogh another shot, although probably only on audio.

📖 The Last Holiday
✍️ Valerie Keogh
📅 11/10/26
⭐️⭐️⭐️