Alice's Island by Daniel Sanchez Arevalo was an interesting premise and the cover was what grabbed me to begin with!

Alice gets a horrible phone call in the middle of the night about her husband Chris who died in a car accident. Alice finds out that he was killed far from where he should have been. Alice begins to search for the answers about what truly happened to Chris. Alice's search leads her to an island off of Cape Cod. Alice is pregnant with their second daughter and moves to the island.

Alice starts stalking everyone on the island trying to find out what in the world Chris was doing there. I struggled with the first 50-60 percent of this book. It was very dry, slow, and lacked action in my opinion. I had trouble following the storyline and wasn't sure where the author was going here?

In my opinion, the story was lacking in suspense and I easily put the book down multiple times struggling to pick it back up. Although, the story finally picked up around 60 percent and was enjoying the suspense to the end to see what happened behind Chris on the island.

I found the ending to be symbolic to the title and felt that the message the author was trying to portray is do we truly only discover ourselves through losing another loved one?

Overall, I still enjoyed this book.

3.5 stars

Huge thank you to Atria for the advanced arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Publication date: 4/16/19
Published to Goodreads: 1/25/19

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read "Alice's Island,"by Daniel Sanchez Arevalo. Alice, who is pregnant and also the mother of a young girl, is awakened at night by a phone call with the worst news a spouse can receive = her husband has died in a car wreck. When Alice finds out that he was miles away from where he was supposed to be, Her efforts lead her to small island with a tight-knit community. She has the life insurance money and the time to investigate her husband's last months. What is amazing about this book is that Daniel Sanchez Arevalo is able to very accurately write from the perspective of a female character. The feelings, the doubts, the anger, the grief of a woman who has two children by a man she feels as if she may have never known. The story is engrossing, as Alice finds her way on the island as a single mother and investigates the people of the community and her husband's actions. This is a perfect blend of "slice of life" writing mixed with a story of suspense, with characters that are extremely realistic.

Stories about dead spouses with secret lives are a dime a dozen. Can't name one off the top of my head because that's how common they are, how they all seem to run together. So it was with a bit of hesitation that I picked this one up. And I'm glad I did. Because it's both familiar and different at the same time.
Alice has a good life. Great job, loving husband, beautiful daughter with another child on the way. And then it all changes in an instant. When her husband, Chris, dies in a car accident she's shattered. Imagining life as a young widow is tragic. But even worse is the realization that Chris died far from where he was supposed to be.
So Alice begins digging. And she digs some more. Eventually her curiosity leads her to an island she's never even heard of. Soon she finds herself living a new life as she continues her quest to discover who her husband truly was and what secrets he was keeping from her. But at what cost to both Alice and her children?
I enjoyed this story a lot. While the main plot is one that I've heard before, the author takes a unique twist with it. The characters are intriguing, and there's an underlying vein of humor throughout the story. It's a bit long and wordy at times but all in all a great story.

Compelling and cinematic novel, sure to be an "it" book in Spring of 2019. Do we only discover our true selves through the loss of someone close to us?

While coming home Alice’s husband dies in a car accident But he’s nowhere near where he’s supposed to be. Grief stricken and very pregnant with their second child, Alice decides to track his movements, which lead to an island off the cape. Taking her daughters Alice moves there and starts spying on everyone to see if they knew her husband, and what he was doing there. I stopped reading here, and only skimmed the rest of the novel because I found it too depressing and boring. The story picked up and was good at the end when Alice finds out why Chris came to the island? I’m sorry I can’t recommend this book as it seems utterly pointless, and none of the characters seem likable.

Yes, there has been a rash of books about women finding out their husbands have secret lives, but none as clever and compulsively readable as this.

Alice gets a call that her husband has died in an accident, far from where he should have been. So begins Alice’s search for the truth about his life. She is able to figure out that a small island off Cape Cod is the epicenter of his secret life. She moves there and begins to stalk everyone on the island with electronic surveillance until she uncovers the story.

This novel is not predictable and so much of what Alice does is really creepy, but so fascinating that it is hard to put the book down until the reader unfurls the mystery surrounding Alice’s husband Chris.

Thank you NETGALLEY for allowing me to read this and be involved in a very gripping search. I recommend it to readers who enjoy a really engaging mystery.