A Stranger on the Beach by Michele Campbell was SO AMAZING. I loved it from the beginning and didn’t want to put it down until the very last page. This is her best book yet, in my opinion.

This is what I said on Goodreads:

I was riveted by the book from page one! I loved it and didn’t expect the twists and turns. A Stranger on the Beach will keep you glued to the pages until the very end. 2019 is starting out to be a very good year for books. If you enjoy fast-paced thrillers, you will want to scoot this up to the top of your MUST READ list.

Here is the synopsis:

There is a stranger outside Caroline’s house. Her spectacular new beach house, built for hosting expensive parties and vacationing with the family she thought she’d have. But her husband is lying to her and everything in her life is upside down, so when the stranger, Aiden, shows up as a bartender at the same party where Caroline and her husband have a very public fight, it doesn’t seem like anything out of the ordinary.

As her marriage collapses around her and the lavish lifestyle she’s built for herself starts to crumble, Caroline turns to Aiden for comfort…and revenge. After a brief and desperate fling that means nothing to Caroline and everything to him, Aiden’s obsession with Caroline, her family, and her house grows more and more disturbing. And when Caroline’s husband goes missing, her life descends into a nightmare that leaves her accused of her own husband’s murder.

First of all, I cannot let any details about this book slip because I don’t want to ruin it for you. Second, its a story that will have you reading well into the night so plan accordingly. And lastly, prepare yourself for twists and turns.

Due out in July.

The lead in to the story is an interesting start that sets up what is to come. The characters are well written..There is a lot to keep track of in this book. I actually re-read a significant amount of the book because I thought I had missed some information that would help me understand the story arcs better. The reveal explained all my lingering doubts but it seemed it was a long time coming.

I received an Advanced Readers Copy from St Martin's Press through NetGalley
#AStrangerOnTheBeach #NetGalley

Review of advance reader eBook

In the middle of a party thrown by wealthy socialite Caroline Stark, her husband, Jason, arrives at their posh beach house with another woman. Although he denies being involved in an affair with the woman, he leaves with her following a verbal altercation with his wife.

Hurt and angry over the apparent collapse of her twenty-year marriage and convinced that two can play at the marriage-cheating game, Caroline picks up a local bartender for a one night stand. But unbelievably obsessive Aidan Callahan seems to have no sense of reality and begins stalking Caroline who, hoping to reconcile with her husband, seeks to end the affair. As Caroline desperately tries to avoid further entanglements with Aidan, an unplanned encounter between the three leads to unforeseen tragedy.

Plot twists and unexpected reveals help build the tension in this disturbing tale rife with secrets and lies. The story spins out in alternating viewpoints between Caroline and Aidan; this often-used device here creates an unnecessarily-convoluted tale that tends to leave the reader confused as to what is actually happening in the unfolding story.

The unlikable main characters consistently fall victim to “too-dumb-to-live” decisions, giving the narrative a growing sense of ludicrousness. Unfortunately, the unexpected twist that heralds the denouement in the telling of this tale comes from so far out of left field it is likely to leave readers feeling dumbfounded. By definition, unreliable narrators habitually subvert the truth; here the purposeful strategy of misrepresentation hides an essential truth; it may preserve the startling final revelations, but it also intentionally deceives readers who are likely to feel cheated by the deliberate omission.

I received a free copy of this digital galley from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley
#AStrangerOnTheBeach #NetGalley

Edge of your seat story!! I couldn’t put it down because I had to know who did what!!! Great book! Thank you net galley!!

This book should have been a fast paced page turner but it dragged! It was twisty and very unreliable to the reader but maybe it went too far and just seem long.

I received a copy for my honest opinion from Netgalley.

My original judgements of Aiden and Caroline were that Aiden was delusional and creepy while Caroline was making the most frustrating mistakes but wow! There was so much more to it than first impressions! A Stranger on the Beach gave me total “You” vibes from the start and I couldn’t put it down. A cat and mouse thriller that will have you wondering who to believe throughout the entire story with such contradicting narrators... who is telling the truth?

Thank you for the opportunity to preview A Stranger on the Beach by Michele Campbell.
A rich woman has everything she wants and she just got a brand new beach house. Caroline Stark is a socialite with a businessman husband, Jason, and a college student, Hannah. Caroline is in charge of setting up her new beach house and is going to have a big gala, which will also be a party for her husband's birthday. Things start to fall apart, and when her husband shows up at the party with a Russian woman, Caroline is beyond out of control. Her husband leaves her, takes the money out of the bank accounts, and she is truly alone in the world. She decides to go to the local bar where she meets a young bartender, Aiden. She is 10 years older than him, but decides to embark on a fiesty affair with him. Aiden falls in love, but he has his own issues - he's a felon with a murder charge, he has no money, and he has fallen in love with Caroline. Caroline realizes that Aiden is smitten and she's feeling something toward him as well - but what about Jason - would Aiden kill him to get him out of the picture? Has Caroline gone crazy and fallen for this young man?
It's a roller coaster ride when a storm hits and someone is shot - and Aiden gets busted because he's got the murder weapon, the motive and all that blood all over him.. But where are the bodies?
A crime thriller that will engage you all the way thru. Good read. 3.5 stars.

Sorry to say I will not be finishing this book. I am almost at the halfway point and the whole storyline is just ridiculous. Definitely not for me.

Wow. Fatal attraction. This was a gripping novel that had so many twists and turns, leading up to a volatile ending. Caroline has it all: career, husband, beach house...One night with a handsome bartender changes her world. Who do you believe? Who is manipulating whom? Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

30% into the book and this one's just not clicking for me. Going by the description I decided to give this one a try, but the characters, both Aiden & Caroline are so damn inscrutable with Caroline's behavior becoming more and more weird. This was not my cup of tea.
Thanks Netgalley, Michele Campbell and the publishers for an arc.

A Stranger on The Beach will literally have you questioning your own sanity. I had to go back and read sections because I though I had read them incorrectly or misunderstood what was going on. It is crazy and I LOVED IT! It’s so difficult to figure out what really happened and who is crazy in this situation.

I did figure out what was going on around the middle of the book. I wouldn’t say it was apparent at all, I’m just really good at figuring these things out.

This book has a great plot, unreliable characters, a great back story, shocking moments, and a whole lot of insanity. Highly recommend!

This book was .. not good. Many people I know are fans of "It's Always the Husband" and so I'm sure that they'll enjoy the writer's next book but this book didn't do it for me. For large chunks of the book, I wasn't sure what I was reading. From the muddled point-of-views, the unreliable narration, and just the overall cohesiveness of the book, I couldn't get into it.

"A Stranger on the Beach" is about Caroline and how quickly her life turns upside-down. Her marriage of 20 years is on the rocks, leading her to seek out the warmth and comfort of a mysterious stranger named Aidan. Her lavish lifestyle, including a beautiful, brand-new beach house, may go down the drain. A series of events and Aidan's growing obsession with her lead to her husband's disappearance and her being accused of his murder. Can she clear her name? Or is Caroline really responsible for the murder?

I was intrigued by the plot, willing to go along with what I thought would be a fun beach read in the middle of winter., but I became disappointed a few chapters in. Not to be prudish but all the references to "I want the sex" in the beginning turned me off. It seemed so cheaply written. Other things that didn't work for me: the unreliable narration, the characters, Aidan's outlandishness, the writing.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced reading copy. The book will be published on 07/23/2019.

Well written domestic thriller. Told by different characters point of view. Plenty of twists and turns that kept my curiosity piqued to the end.
This is the first novel by this author that I have read and I am looking forward to reading her present and future books.

This book was hard to get into. I found the characters annoying at times. I ended up not finishing the book because I was forcing myself to read it. I was interested in the husband’s story but could not get into the wife’s.

I could not put this down.. a couple Mornings needs more sleep from status so late reading!! This is a definitely must read!

This book is a complex proof of understanding evil, lying in the human psyche. Several parts I could not even fathom, some I was shocked to read. The ending is worth the second part of the book, which for me was equal to confusion.

As much as I'd love to give this book a 5 star, one thing holds me back. The mysterious holes throughout the book, holes of information that pointed to confusion rather than mystery. But oh my, the last chapters were unexpectedly revealing, with incredible information and brilliant outcome.

Aidan' s character is in itself a flaw, symbol of what could go wrong in society due to taking advantage of gullible people, unlucky and poor. Caroline' s character stands for lies and avarice. These two are opposites and of course they attract each other.

The fact that up to a point the book is written through different POVs, got me confused and intrigued at the same time. I wonder if this was the goal of the author. If not, she managed it pretty well. There were so many elements and pieces of information that did or did not fit together at all. This affected slightly the flow of the novel.

What I recommend is to really go and read this book and convince yourself. Fans of suspense and family dramas will love it for sure.

Many thanks to Netgalley and St Martins Press for the opportunity to read and review this arc.

WOW - this book is PACKED with suspense and kept me up late into the night! I’m so impressed!!! Told from 2 different perspectives: the rich woman with the million dollar beach mansion, wife, mother, socialite....and the younger man: bartender, screwup, trying to rebuild his life. A murder occurs and the whole time you’re getting 2 completely different versions of the same story and trying desperately to figure out who to trust!! Which one is lying? Can either of them really be trusted? Unreliable narration at it’s finest!! Keeps you guessing until the end!

5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the chance to read and review an ARC from one of my favorite authors!! Michele Campbell NEVER disappoints in keeping me glued to the page and knocking my imagination for a loop!!

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Michele Campbell Books
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#Thrills

Couldn't really decide about this book, did I like it or not? not sure.

Parts of it I really enjoyed and other parts I found a bit slow and it didn't really draw me into the story line nor could I get engaged with the characters.

Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin's Press for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Yet another fantastic read by Michele Campbell . I loved her first two and this was eagerly anticipated and lived up to my expectations . Caroline , believing her marriage is over has what she perceives as a one night stand with Jason a bartender .Unfortunately that is not how he sees it and he believes them to be in a relationship . As we read on the story splits and is told from both Carolines and Jasons perspective . It becomes a he said she said and I seriously did wonder who's version of events was the truth . It was a brilliant read and I thoroughly enjoyed it . Another 5 star from me

The book started out very interesting. Caroline finds out her husband is cheating on her. She meets a stranger outside her beach house. The way the book was organized, alternating chapters did not coalesce for me. I kept getting a little confused on what was going on.

I think this book will work for people who like back and forth and wondering what is going on.
This book was not for me, but the writing was good, it may be for you. This is my honest opinion, thank you net galley