From the author of Lucky, A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK! NAMED ONE OF 2019’S BEST BEACH READS BY Oprah Magazine • New York Post • PopSugar • The Globe and Mail FEATURED IN Us Weekly • Parade • Hollywood Reporter • Chatelaine “Marissa Stapley’s writing is a gift.”—Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author Miles Markell is missing, and everyone is a suspect. To the guests at The Harmony Resort, Doctors Miles and Grace Markell appear to be a perfect power couple. They run a couples’ therapy retreat in a luxurious resort in the Mayan Riviera where they help spouses deal with their marriage struggles. Johanna and Ben’s relationship looks great on the surface, but in reality, they don’t know each other at all. Shell and Colin fight constantly—Colin is a workaholic, and Shell always comes second—but what has really torn them apart is too devastating to talk about. When both couples begin Harmony’s intensive therapy program, it becomes clear that Harmony is not all that it seems—and neither are Miles and Grace. What are they hiding, and what price will these couples pay for finding out their secrets? As a deadly tropical storm descends on the coast, trapping the hosts and the guests on the resort, secrets are revealed, loyalties are tested and not one single person—or their marriage—will remain unchanged by what follows. A gripping exploration of relationships and trust, The Last Resort is a propulsive read about all the big truths we hide, even from ourselves.

Raised under the racial segregation that kept her family's southern country hotel afloat, Norma Watkins grows up listening at doors, trying to penetrate the secrets and silences of the black help and of her parents' marriage. Groomed to be an ornament to white patriarchy, she sees herself failing at the ideal of becoming a southern lady. The Last Resort, her compelling memoir, begins in childhood at Allison's Wells, a popular Mississippi spa for proper white people, run by her aunt. Life at the rambling hotel seems like paradise. Yet young Norma wonders at a caste system that has colored people cooking every meal while forbidding their sitting with whites to eat. Once integration is court-mandated, her beloved father becomes a stalwart captain in defense of Jim Crow as a counselor to fiery, segregationist Governor Ross Barnett. His daughter flounders, looking for escape. A fine house, wonderful children, and a successful husband do not compensate for the shock of Mississippi's brutal response to change, daily made manifest by the men in her home. A sexually bleak marriage only emphasizes a growing emotional emptiness. When a civil rights lawyer offers love and escape, does a good southern lady dare leave her home state and closed society behind? With humor and heartbreak, The Last Resort conveys at once the idyllic charm and the impossible compromises of a lost way of life.

While staying at the exclusive Reata spa in the Arizona desert, the Thurman family soon discovers that this seemingly tranquil paradise is riddled with evil when a dark force begins preying on the guests. Original.

A captivating exploration of beach resort culture—from its roots in fashionable society to its undervalued role in today’s world economy—as the travel industry approaches a climate reckoning With its promise of escape from the strains of everyday life, the beach has a hold on the popular imagination as the ultimate paradise. In The Last Resort, Sarah Stodola dives into the psyche of the beachgoer and gets to the heart of what drives humans to seek out the sand. At the same time, she grapples with the darker realities of resort culture: strangleholds on local economies, reckless construction, erosion of beaches, weighty carbon footprints, and the inevitable overdevelopment and decline that comes with a soaring demand for popular shorelines. The Last Resort weaves Stodola’s firsthand travel notes with her exacting journalism in an enthralling report on the past, present, and future of coastal travel. She takes us from Monte Carlo, where the pursuit of pleasure first became part of the beach resort experience, to a village in Fiji that was changed irrevocably by the opening of a single resort; from the overdevelopment that stripped Acapulco of its reputation for exclusivity to Miami Beach, where extreme measures are underway to prevent the barrier island from vanishing into the ocean. In the twenty-first century, beach travel has become central to our globalized world—its culture, economy, and interconnectedness. But with sea levels likely to rise at least 1.5 to 3 feet by the end of this century, beaches will become increasingly difficult to preserve, and many will disappear altogether. What will our last resort be when water begins to fill the lobbies?

When three women win a holiday in a Facebook competition, they think it’s by chance. It’s not. When one woman accompanies her husband on business, she thinks she’ll return with him. She won’t. Welcome to the resort where nothing is as it seems. On the outside, it’s heaven on earth. A dreamy romantic getaway, with pristine sandy beaches, glorious sunshine, and glamorous accommodation. The perfect lover’s hideaway with uninterrupted views over a freshwater lagoon. Nothing to do but enjoy the ultimate pamper experience on a ridiculously dreamy holiday of a lifetime. Perfect. That’s what they think. Past actions have consequences and Karmas about to strike. Who will survive the week and who won’t leave at all?

The unique Tagimaucia flower only grows on Taveuni Island in Fiji. The rare and beautiful red and white flower wilts and dies once it's taken away from its natural habitat. It will not survive anywhere else. The vine of life in which Lara Nightingale lives is torn from her as she is thrown in a cold dungeon by terrorists in the Antarctic. Her singing, her resort, life style, everything, gone, except a hope that appeared to her in her dungeon. A cornered Nightingale, tortured and terrified, but determined. One night to go and the world looks on as she goes to the chopping block. Miss Nightingale helped run The Resort in Fiji and was the world's favorite singer. The best resort in the world had barely opened when the terrorists struck and she became caught up in the deadliest terrorist machine ever: W.C.O.U.O.W. Big scenes on the sea, world wars, and the end of oil forever. Their objective was to destroy the world from below. A big price is on her head as she designed a way to bring world heads to negotiate and end the war. Love is her hope, but it always seems to elude her, but when she finally meets someone, the W.C.O.U.O.W. menace, having been squashed, rears its evil head once more. Their deadly periscope is watching Lara Nightingale. they won't leave her alone.

Cliffhaven--Magnificent new resort near Big Sur. Surrounded by redwoods. Guarded by Oceanside cliffs. Protected from prying eyes. By reservation only. Cliffhaven--Founded by a man with very special interests, catering to a very special clientele. Margaret and Henry Brown, vacationing New Yorkers innocently driving down the sea-washed coast of California, are just the right sort of people. Cliffhaven--It has a spectacular entrance, a three-star restaurant, lavish accommodations--and no exit! "This novel should do for California vacation retreats what jaws did for swimming in the Atlantic."--Los Angeles Times Book Review "A thrilling nightmare...A Dante's Inferno...more than fulfills the remark "I read it all in one nail-biting session."--Eli Wallach "Not only a thriller...a parable and a warning to all who say 'It can't happen here.'"--Jewish Post and Opinion

The evolution of an arid desert area into the verdant oasis that is the Wigwam Resort was ultimately brought about by an unlikely crop needed by an important American corporation in the early 20th century. The crop was long-staple cotton and the corporation was the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. When the U.S. Department of Agriculture discovered that Arizona's Salt River Valley was an ideal location to domestically grow long-staple cotton, Goodyear purchased 16,000 acres in the desert west of Phoenix to cultivate the crop for their newly developed pneumatic tire. The company built a three-room lodge, originally called the "Organization House," for the executives that came to oversee the farming operations. The location became a popular winter retreat within the company, and in 1929, Goodyear expanded the facilities and opened "The Wigwam" as a hotel. As the years progressed, amenities such as golf and fine dining were added, and the Wigwam Resort became one of the premier luxury destinations in the Southwest.

This reference book analyzes more than a thousand wars waged from 1816 to 2007. It lists and categorizes all violent conflicts with 1,000 or more battle deaths and provides an insightful narrative for each struggle. It describes each encounter and highlights major patterns across eras and regions, identifying which categories of war are becoming more or less prevalent over time, and revealing the connections between the different types of war.

Cape May, at the tip of the Jersey Shore, goes from boom to bust and back again in this compelling almanac of lavishly illustrated and meticulous researched regional history. Beginning with an advertisement in a Philadelphia newspaper in 1801, city dwellers soon descended upon Cape May, introducing the concept of the American seaside vacation. Throughout the Civil War, both World Wars, and up to the modern day, the visiting population of America's evergreen travel resort has always been mixed across all social spectrums, from presidents and everyday people to renowned plantation owners and famous industrialists, all of whom are commemorated in this complete retrospective.