TITLE: The Last Resort
AUTHOR: Marissa Stapley
PUBLISHER: Grayden House
PUB. YEAR: 2019
SETTING: Mexico - Mayan Rivera
FORMAT: ARC
FORMAT: ARC
RATING - 3.5/5
A tropical island, a hurricane and a few marriages on the rocks made for a surprising, suspenseful and atmospheric novel.
Drs. Grace and Miles Markell are well known couples therapists who run Harmony Resort; he's 52 and she's just 35. If your marriage is in trouble and money is no object, this resort and the intensive therapy sessions it offers may be just what is needed to save a marriage.
Johanna and Ben are pretty much newlyweds but, already their marriage is in trouble. She is a social worker and has a good deal of emotional baggage affecting the marriage. Shell and Colin, on the other hand, have been married 20+ years, but he's a workaholic and together they have also had to deal with a traumatic experience. Miles, Grace and assistant Ruth are not at all what I was expecting. Miles is a power hungry, ego maniac and Grace a victim of his emotional abuse. As the couples begin intensive 2-week sessions, deep, dark secrets begin to get revealed all around.
This book took me a bit longer to finish than expected-- it started off slow and then picks up. I thought some of the issues that came out seemed more realistic than others and I was surprised that this was a darker story than I had expected as well. Some of the therapy seemed questionable and while the cover seemed somewhat serene, the story was not. I felt a feeling of dread as I was approaching the last quarter of the book and the ending was somewhat explosive as well. Honestly, I was on the fence about how to rate this one and finally decided on 3.5/5 stars.
