Synopsis:
A luxury holiday. Twenty-five years of friendship. One deadly secret.
Magda and Lucas are looking forward to a dream getaway with their oldest friends at a stunning beachside resort in Spain. Four couples, with twenty-five years of friendship, memories, and good times between them – they deserve a celebration.
But beneath the champagne, designer glamour, and picture-perfect smiles, cracks quickly begin to show.
When anonymous messages expose shocking betrayals, Magda becomes convinced her beautiful best friend, Eva, is in love with her husband. Yet – when a body is found floating in the hotel pool, wearing Magda’s clothes – jealousy is soon overshadowed by something far more sinister.
As fear closes in, Magda realizes someone in their close-knit circle is hiding a devastating secret. Her husband isn’t telling her the truth. Neither are her friends. And someone will do whatever it takes to keep the past buried….
This addictive psychological thriller proves that the people you trust most can be the most dangerous of all!
Shop The Book: The Last Holiday
Shop The Author: Valerie Keogh
Shop My Stack: 2026 Books Read
The Last Holiday is the kind of messy that’s impossible to look away from.
If you got an anonymous message on vacation claiming your best friend was in love with your partner, would you confront them right away or quietly watch for proof?
The Story
Magda and her husband, Lucas, are heading to a luxury beachside resort in Spain with their oldest friends: four couples with twenty-five years of friendship behind them. But beneath the champagne and picture-perfect smiles, the cracks are already showing. Anonymous messages start exposing betrayals, and Magda becomes convinced her best friend, Eva, is in love with her husband. Then a body is found floating in the hotel pool, wearing Magda’s clothes, and she realizes someone in their circle is hiding a devastating secret. Her husband isn’t telling the truth. Neither are her friends.
Reading Experience
It was pretty obvious to me early on what was really happening, but honestly, that’s part of the fun. Watching Magda get it so wrong, so many times, made for an entertaining read. And once the whole thing starts falling apart, with one secret and betrayal after another coming to light, it was absolutely intoxicating to watch all that destruction unfold.
Characters
Magda is frustratingly naive. She suspects people on a whim, constantly misunderstands what she sees and hears, never quite manages to put the right pieces together, and makes everything worse every single time she meddles. Knowing more than she did made her look incredibly dense at times.
She isn’t the only one with deep flaws, though. Her entire friend group, husband included, is a huge, steaming puddle of hot mess. They like each other… I think? But the gossip, judgment, and backstabbing run deep. And the lies! These people run on lies, all built to make them look far more put together than any of them actually are.
ARC provided via Boldwood Books and NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.
Valerie Keogh is the best-selling author of The Nurse and The Wives. She has sold over a million copies of her books and has been translated into several languages. She lives in Wiltshire with her husband and a huge black cat, Fatty Arbuckle. She grew up reading Agatha Christie and initially wrote crime novels – she now writes psychological thrillers.
The Little Lies was shortlisted for the Crime Fiction Lovers Award 2021
Valerie has a BA in English and an MA in American Literature.
She is currently published with Boldwood Books.
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