Her Last Breath by Taylor Adams
on February 17, 2026
Genres: Fiction / Action & Adventure, Fiction / Crime, Fiction / Friendship, Fiction / Mystery & Detective / General, Fiction / Noir, Fiction / Psychological, Fiction / Thrillers / Crime, Fiction / Thrillers / Psychological, Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense, Fiction / Women
Pages: 336
Format: ARC
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
Her Last Breath by Taylor Adams absolutely delivered on everything I hoped for after loving No Exit—and then some.
From the moment Tess and Allie descend underground, this story tightens its grip and never lets go. Adams captures the terror of caving so vividly that I physically felt claustrophobic while reading. I went into this knowing very little about caving, and I came out 100% convinced it is something I never, ever want to try. The darkness, the tight spaces, the sheer helplessness—it’s all rendered with relentless intensity.
What surprised me most was how quickly this book veered away from what I expected. I assumed this would be a story about two friends navigating emotional distance and shared trauma. Instead, Adams does what he does best: he twists the premise on its head and drags the reader through a breathless, nerve-shredding ride. Just when you think you understand where the story is going, another revelation drops—and suddenly nothing feels safe, including the truth itself.
After years of excuses, Tess has finally agreed to go caving with her best friend Alma aka Allie. Their lives have diverged sharply since high school—Alma is a self-made travel influencer, while Tess is a shy (and claustrophobic) legal assistant struggling to pay for law school. Maybe she’s a little jealous of Alma’s globe-trotting life. Who wouldn’t be? As Tess and Alma descend into the depths, they realize they’re not alone. A stranger who claims to be a fellow caver harasses them. Confident, take-no-shit Alma insults the guy—and he retaliates. Soon, Tess is trapped inside a narrow crawl space hundreds of feet underground, fighting to stay alive. Twenty-four hours later, as a hospitalized Tess recounts her harrowing story of survival, the detective interviewing her shares new and shocking secrets about Alma’s true past. Together, they begin to suspect the brutal attack wasn’t so random after all.
The dual tension of survival underground and the unsettling revelations uncovered afterward kept my heart racing. The pacing is razor-sharp, the suspense is suffocating, and the ending? Wildly satisfying in the most unsettling way.
If you love high-stakes thrillers that make you feel trapped right alongside the characters, Her Last Breath is a must-read.
Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing an eARC of this heart-pounding thriller in exchange for my honest review.
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