'Learn how to heal your trauma, free yourself from anxiety and fact the future with optimism rather than fear’

Packed with mystery, wonderfully twisted characters and told in two timelines Her Last Holiday by C.L. Taylor is set in a wellness retreat in Snowdonia, Wales and another in Malta. The face for the SoulShrink Retreat is Tom Wade a motivational speaker and anxiety survivor and he’s just been released from jail!

Fran Fitzgerald is a teacher with attitude and Tom Wade from SoulShrink was the last person to see her much younger sister Jenna alive! Jenna went missing at a SoulShrink retreat that took place in Gozo, Malta.

On his release from jail Tom had decided he wasn’t going to run another retreat but his mind has been changed, it’s back to business and one will be held.

Seeing online that Tom has been released and within three days he's begun tweeting again, Fran’s mother Geraldine is bloody angry! Geraldine decides Fran should try and find out what happened to her daughter Jenna as she doesn’t believe it could of been a suicide. So Fran books herself on the next retreat to confront Tom and look for answers. Will Fran get her answers and will she get out alive?

There are many characters in this story (keep a notebook!) as the story is told from both Jenna’s and Fran’s point of view at each different retreat.

And we have our third narrator, Kate. Kate is the organiser, business partner and the drive behind the retreats. She has held everything together and pushed on after the murder accusations ruined them financially.

The story begins with a great dynamic and later in the story the tone and pace changes with many red herrings and secrets. I think to enjoy this story one hundred per cent you have to realise it's fiction so it doesn’t have to be believable!!!

The story is tantalisingly character driven. An entertaining psychological thriller!
Release date is 29 April 2021!

I have read all the books this author has written and this book did not disappoint. Great storyline and relatable characters. Highly recommended.

A twisty thriller that had some clever plot devices to keep you reading on. I did enjoy the book but felt it fell a little short in some of the more in-depth character descriptions and consequently some of the behaviours of the main protagonists, in particular Kate and Fran, felt a bit exaggerated.

Fran’s sister Jenna visited Gozo on a self-help retreat with a group of people. A tragic accident happens resulting in two people from the group dying and Jenna going missing. Her disappearance is later ruled as a suicide. Tom the leader of the self-help group is sent to prison. Fran and her family are left struggling to come to terms with Jenna committing suicide.
Almost three years later when Tom is released from prison and begins to get his life back on track, Jenna’s family are shocked to see Tom has organised another self-help retreat. Fran is booked onto the retreat under a pseudonym to investigate her sisters death. Will Fran get the answers she desperately craves?

For me, this book was full of excitement, so many twists and turns that I didn’t see coming, half the time I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I loved the mysterious backgrounds to all the characters and I really became invested in the hunt to find out what happened to Jenna. I was absolutely gripped from start to finish.

If you have read Taylor's previous books and liked them you will definitely like this. Everything about this book was great, I mean everything. Highly Recommend

Two tears ago something happened in Gozo. We know two people died. And we know Jenna, Fran's sister hasnt been seen since.

Tom Wade has spent two years in jail for his 'crime'

Kate, his wife has been planning Tom's comeback. Now that hes out will SoulShrink rise from the ground again?

Fran has decided (well been pushed by her mother Geraldine) to go on the first SoulShrink retreat since Tom the leader has been released from prison. Will Fran find the answers she's looking for? Or is she putting herself in the line of danger?

C L Taylor has done it again, I love her writing style. She doesn't divulge too much information too soon. We barely know the background of what happened in the SoulShrink retreat in Gozo, but we know enough to want to find out more.

The reinvented retreat is being held in Snowdonia. Now being a North Walian girl 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 the locations mentioned in the book aren't very far from me. I kind of squealed when the A497 got a mention even 🙈

Her Last Holiday is full of mystery and intrigue. Prepare to play detective as you try to unravel the secrets, plus keep your wits about you on who's who?



Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for my gifted digital copy.

Good suspenseful book. A new author for me. I will definitely read more from this author. Love the story. Couldn’t put the book down.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.

Her Last Holiday by C.L. Taylor offers an intriguing premise that, for me, fell a little flat in its execution. I suspect that I may be the outlier here, but I felt myself becoming frustrated at my inability to really connect or empathize with any of the characters, which was unexpected as there is a cast of many. That being said, perhaps my expectations were set too high by the tantalizing promise of a sun-drenched holiday in Malta.

Fran, a woman whose sister disappeared two years earlier at a wellness retreat in Gozo, has decided to go looking for answers to the unsolved mystery. Booking herself into the Soul Shrink retreat, Fran hopes that by infiltrating the group from the inside, she will discover what really happened to her sister Jenna once and for all. Upon her arrival, Fran meets Tom Wade, the founder of Soul Shrink, and perhaps the only man who can provide answers to her many queries. But having recently been released after serving time in prison for his involvement in the deaths of two people, can Tom be trusted to explain what really happened to Jenna? And is Fran herself safe at the Gozo retreat, where those with secrets will stop at nothing to keep them hidden?

This is a novel that cunningly and admirably unravels its many secrets, and I was certainly intrigued enough to follow it through. I am anxious to read much more from this author but, unfortunately, this one didn't quite hit the spot for me. 3.5 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for an ARC of this title.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I have read a few books by this author and have enjoyed them all. This had great storyline and great characters and kept me hooked from the beginning to the end. Enjoyed it.

This was a pretty good book overall. I'd definitely recommend to anyone that's a fan of this genre.

I did have a bit of a hard time keeping up with names as there were a lot of characters with more than one name!

I quite like the ending and the overall pace was good. I read it in a few days so I was definitely invested!

I absolutely loved this. The story was so well written and each of the three characters had such distinct and individual voices, i was completely engaged by them. While not all of them were what you would call likeable, they were very good characters and i find unlikable characters to be (sometimes) far more interesting. I never imagined the ending or the twists, i thought i had it all figured out but once again Cally threw me for a loop with an epic game changer.

This was a fascinating story based around a self help group holiday. The descriptions in the story were excellent and I felt as though I was there. I managed well with the time changes in the story as they were clearly defined and the interactions between the participants was very good. I loved the conclusion..

It took me a while to get into this book but once I did I couldn't put it down. I just wanted to know what happened. While I found the book entertaining, I had a hard time keeping up with all of the different characters. I also found things to be a little too far-fetched. Overall, I'd say it was an entertaining book with some suspense. It's a quick, easy read which I find are needed every now and then.

I had really high hopes for this book and absolutely love thrillers usually but this one seemed to be lacking the spark. It was very lengthy with too much unnecessary chatting. I usually like C L Taylor’s books but this one did not impress me.

3 stars.

Though this was an interesting story, it was hard to feel any empathy for these characters, they came across as rather unlikeable.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review.

Two years ago, Jenna went to a retreat in Malta organized by Tom Wade, the man behind SoulShrink. But she didn’t come home. She disappeared and the local authorities judged that she had committed suicide jumping from a cliff.
Two other accidents took place on that retreat leaving Tom in prison for manslaughter. However, he will be released soon.
Jenna’s mother is set on blaming Tom for her daughter’s death. She sends her daughter, Fran, to the retreat that Tom organized (or rather his wife, Kate).
The book is told from 3 perspectives, Jenna in the past, Fran in the present, and Kate’s.

The book was easy to read and I finished it rather quickly. I found the first half more interesting, we were learning more about Fran’s family, Tom, and what happened two years ago.

However, I couldn’t understand how the mother would force her daughter to go to a retreat that she believes killed Jenna. Isn’t she worried about her daughter’s life? While sister’s dynamics usually interest me, having a sister myself, I simply couldn’t like it here. There was an astonishing lack of communication and Fran was very selfish not trying to connect with Jenna growing up. I also found the story difficult to believe especially with that plot twist at the end. The thrill of mystery for me is the possibility that these events might happen in real life. These simply, wouldn’t.

Another thing I didn’t like is that the second half kind of got repetitive, especially with Kate. I didn’t find her perspective very useful to the story. But it’s not like I particularly liked any of the characters either. I was mostly indifferent about them.

This is my first book by C.L. Taylor and while this book didn’t impress me, it won’t be my last.

This was my first introduction to books by C.L.Taylor and I shall certainly go back and read the others.
This story was told from the perspective of 3 people over 2 time periods.
The interesting plot kept me wanting to find out what happened
I really enjoyed it and if you like a who dunnit then this is the book for you.
Thanks to NetGalley & Avon Books UK for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Reading a C. L. Taylor novel has the same effect on me as watching Criminal or The Alienist 📺 it is absolute comfort zone time, at its best. “Her Last Holiday” was my third book by this author & I have read it over the period of 10 days, enjoying it in little bits every day.

Tom Wade, infamous guru and leader of self-help counselling group SoulShrink, has just been released from prison after being sentenced for his involvement in the mysterious deaths of two people. Tom’s wife Kate seizes this opportunity to arrange for a new SoulShrink 💬 retreat session on the country-side. What neither of them knows is that one of the participants has applied using a false name – Fran is not here for the counselling, she needs to solve a very important question.

Her Last Holiday
By C. L. Taylor
My Rating: 4 🌟
This book came with strong “Sleep” vibes (for fellow readers of C. L. Taylor novels) – I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a thriller that reads like a cosy mystery and is a real “who dun it”.

Thank you very much @avon_books for the kind NetGalley ARC; I have enjoyed this novel a lot.

A most enjoyable multiple character viewpoint mystery that kept me guessing for a long time. There are plenty of twists, turns, roundabouts, suspicious and never a dull moment from start to finish.