Thank you to Berkley for giving me a chance to read this book, as well as for my finished copy of How to Kill Your Best Friend! Lexie Elliott is an author that has been on my "to read" list for quite some time; I have copies of both The French Girl and The Missing Years. When I saw that she had a new book out, I went ahead and downloaded it. I thought the premise sounded interesting enough. About 33% into the book, I have decided not to keep going. I feel like I have read a lot of thrillers that have to do with a woman who goes missing in water, or dies of an "accidental" drowning. Also, I've read quite a few this year where there is a group of friends that gather on a remote island or in some exotic location, and they all end up being suspicious of each other. I will still give Elliott's other books a try, but I am going to have to put this one aside for now.

So, I love it when an author (without cheating) manages to play with my head - and the author managed that here!

I really didn't know which best friend was maybe (or maybe not) trying to kill which other best friend. I didn't know who (or who wasn't) doing a very wrong thing with someone else. And I didn't have blasted clue about the truth of everything.

I just know I kept reading and munching my popcorn.

I loved this book. I loved that it was twisty without cheating and that the characters were just so much fun!

More, please!

Georgie, Lissa and Bronwyn were very close friends during their college years. They were known for being on the swim team back then. Lissa had been the best swimmer. So, it’s a shock when they learn she died by drowning at her husband’s island resort.

Georgie and Bronwyn are quite suspicious of the circumstances behind Lissa’s death, but they go to the resort to honor their friend’s passing. They are faced with bad weather and a sinister feeling during their stay on the island. They start to dig around for answers, but all they keep getting are more questions and secrets that are better off staying buried.

For some reason the title and cover made me think this was more chick lit and a light mystery, but that’s not the case. It’s a tense drama that kept me wondering until the end. There were a few slow spots in the middle, but overall it was an engrossing read for me. I didn’t always like the characters but I couldn’t help wondering what was happening. I had no idea who to trust.

The book is told in alternating POVs between Bronwyn and Georgie. I always enjoy alternating POVs as it gives the reader more of an idea of the character's motivation. I think it's a great and interesting technique.

It’s the first book I’ve read by this author. I’ll be checking out her backlist. I do enjoy books that keep you guessing until the end.






FTC Disclosure: I voluntarily reviewed a free Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I was into this one until it got weird, definitely not the type of mystery/thriller I was expecting and it’s just not for me.

If you suspected your best friend, the person you were closest to in the whole world, was a murderer, what would you do?

Georgie, Lissa, and Bronwyn have been inseparable since dominating their college swim team; swimming has always been an escape from their own problems. How can it be true that Lissa, the strongest swimmer they know, drowned? Georgie is suspicious.

All of Lissa's closest friends—Georgie and Bron, plus college mates Duncan and Adam--gather at the fabulous island resort that Lissa owned with her husband, Jem, to honor her life. However, danger lurks beneath the surface of the crystal-clear water, and even their luxurious private villas can't help them feel safe. As the weather turns ominous, trapping the funeral guests together on the island, nobody knows who they can trust.

I found this to be a fast-paced, better-than-average thriller. The book alternates chapters between Georgie and Bronwyn. It becomes clear that they are both keeping secrets … but what are they, and how do they factor into the current events? The chapters are interspersed by short musings titled “How to Kill Your Best Friend” from an unknown narrator. As the book continues, the atmosphere on the island becomes progressively creepier and more ominous. Will their friendship survive Lissa’s death? Heck, will THEY survive??

This is the perfect thriller to end your summer with! Thank you @berkleypub and @netgalley for the #eARC! #BerkleyWritesStrongWomen #BerkleyBuddyReads

I’m pretty sure this title will make anyone stop and take a second look. HOW TO KILL YOUR BEST FRIEND is my third book by Lexie Elliott and I will say that I love her writing and the way she weaves together a good suspense read. Despite this one not being my favorite of Elliott’s so far, I think this was still a solid read that I’d recommend!

My favorite parts of this book were the little sections from a mysterious narrator that gave us different methods of how to murder someone and how effective they are. I would have loved a lot more of that throughout the book. They were fun and the tone of the narrator was great. The rest of the book was good but much slower moving and fairly predictable for those who frequent the thriller genre.

It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t my favorite in terms of suspense/thrillers. There were parts that I feel could have been removed entirely and the plot would have continued without issue, but that’s just me. I think that this will be one of those books you either love or it just doesn’t work for you. So if the synopsis catches your eye, then I still recommend giving this one a chance!

This book follows a group of friends flying into a remote island to attend the funeral of their friend lost to the sea. While there they discover that a few of them have some secrets that would benefit from the sudden loss. After cryptic messages are received by several of them and a local legend of a water serpent that lives in the choppy waters of the nearby cove they must act quickly before becoming victims themselves and figure out who was behind the disappearance and subsequent death of their friend.

While I enjoyed the setting and the folklore of the setting this book lacked the pace this thriller needed, we spent too much time analyzing emotions and being told what the person was thinking and the plot unraveled rather quickly while we also spent a lot of time in the characters head. Overall the story was interesting enough that I wanted to finish it but it wasn't propelling forward quick enough for my taste.

Long-time friends Georgie, Bron and Duncan are gathered for their best friend Lissa’s memorial -along with friend Adam and Lissa’s widow Jem. Stars of the university swim team, they met years ago and the rest is history. Although, the setting is the sunny island paradise of Jem and Lissa’s luxury island resort, dark clouds are massing on the horizon. Trust disintegrates as the questions surrounding the circumstances of Lissa’s death push their friendship bonds to the limit.

Intense and sinister from the outset this book had me gripped from the first chapter. The small cast of characters gave the story a claustrophobic feel that didn’t let up until the very last pages. Each member of the cast had their own distinct voice and played their parts beautifully. The writing style was engaging and the plot moved along at just the right pace. The juxtaposition of the idyllic setting and unravelling of dark secrets and betrayals made for an unsettling stage for the reader. This book makes us ask ourselves - How much can you ever really trust someone? What would you do if you knew the darkest side of the people you love and the dangers they posed? How hard would you fight to survive? So waddaya waiting for……go get yourself a copy…..

I found the synopsis of this book intriguing that a friend would suspect their best friend of being a murderer who recently passed away under questionable circumstances in an exotic location.  I love locked room/ isolated location settings. This book was a slow burn for me focusing on character development and back story.  Now as a disclaimer, I have felt in a reading lull and recently went back to work in person.  I have not had the time I usually do to read, so it felt like it took me a long time to read this one.

The POV's are told through Georgie and Bronwyn.  In between their chapters are chapters from someone you don't know who exploring different ways to kill someone. The beginning of the book goes through the character development of the group of friends mostly from college who come to the memorial.  The friends met through the swim team and went on many swimming holidays together. There are multiple characters who are acting suspiciously.  As Georgie and Bron receive cryptic messages from an anonymous person the suspense and intrigue build. There is further mystery added by a local myth about a sea serpent that takes people who want to be taken.

The story was definitely captivating in building suspense making the reader invested in wanting to know who this unknown person is and who the cryptic messages are from.  After what I thought was the ending and conclusion to the story I was a little let down because it was not obvious while reading but I thought the ending was predictable until........  a huge plot twist was revealed that came out of nowhere.  I was completely taken aback.  If you like slow-burn mysteries in an isolated setting I think you would enjoy this one.  I definitely liked this one and enjoyed reading it, but would have rated it higher if it was a little more fast pace with an ending that blew me away.

Thank you to @BerkleyPub and @Netgalley  for a digital ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was interesting from the very start. I was instantly drawn in and interested in the story. I liked the alternating POVs of Bronwyn and Georgie and I enjoyed how they often seamlessly transitioned from one to the other. I had a lot of suspicions throughout the book and while some ended up being correct, some were entirely incorrect. The thrilling action toward the end of the story got my heart pumping and kept me up late at night turning pages! I'd definitely read more books by this author and I'd recommend this book to just about anyone who likes a good mystery.

Georgie, Lissa and Bronwyn have been best friends since their days together on their college swim team. In the years following school, their friendship group, which includes a few male swimmers, have remained close, frequently taking swimming holidays together.

Lissa and her new husband have recently purchased a beautiful island resort, somewhere in the South Pacific, and the group takes full advantage of the lovely waters there. On their most recent holiday at the resort, Georgie chose not to attend. She's now living in New York and it would have been an extremely long trip. That's the excuse she gave at least. She did have some other reasons for not wanting to go.

It's on this occasion that Lissa, taking an unimaginable solo night swim in the dangerous waters of Kanu Cove, drowns. Her body assumed swept out to sea, is never recovered. Fisherman in the area did spot the body at one point, but before they could recover her, she slid back under the dark surface.

In order to honor Lissa's life, her husband has planned a memorial service for her at the resort. The entire friend group will be in attendance, including Georgie. Georgie is out of sorts from the very start. She arrives late, she didn't get the memo on the dress code, and most importantly, she cannot believe that Lissa would have made that swim at night, alone, voluntarily.

Bronwyn is out of sorts as well, but for different reasons. She's receiving threatening messages, she's distracted, constantly looking over her shoulder, but why?

The group is set to stay at the floundering resort for a long weekend and a heck of a lot happens during that time. There's creatures surfacing from the depths, mysterious occurrences, flaired tempers, entirely too much booze and a storm of epic proportions. Will any of them get off the island alive?

How to Kill Your Best Friend is the second novel I have read from Lexie Elliott. I absolutely love her writing style.
While I did feel this was a bit of a slow burn, I didn't enjoy it any less because of that. I love the way Elliott builds her characters and the way she allows us to see inside their heads; learn about their pasts and motivations.

I generally enjoy competition tropes, or tropes where characters are members of a team or club. This definitely had that dynamic, even though the women are well past school age. There's still something about the interactions of people that compete, or train together, that I just find so relatable. It's like when you are in that kind of relationship with a group of people, it can feel like you are closer to them than anyone else in the world. There's an assumption that you know everything about each other, but everyone's keeping secrets, aren't they?

Additionally, I loved the setting. The close to abandoned resort. The fact that the characters were stuck there. No matter how uncomfortable they got, or how much they wanted to leave, that wasn't an option. Secluded locations allow for the tension to really build and Elliott captured that claustrophobic feeling so well here. Especially towards the end, as the weather picked up, so did the stakes.

Overall, I thought this was a really well executed story. It was dramatic and tense, I had a lot of fun with it! Thank you so much to the publisher, Berkley Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I am a huge Lexie Elliott fan and will continue to pick up anything else she writes.

This was fun in a popcorn thriller sorta way. If you go in expecting something brand new, prepare for disappointment, but sometimes the comforts of traditional thrillers are just what the doctored ordered.

“𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘢𝘺: 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮, 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘵. 𝘕𝘰, 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮 𝘵𝘰𝘰.”

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗹𝗼𝘁
-A group of 5 close friends from university gathers at a beautiful ocean-side resort to memorialize Lissa, who tragically drowned while out for a night swim.
-Lissa, Bronwyn (Bron), and Georgie were competitive swimmers at Uni, so Lissa’s death by drowning seems odd.
-Lissa was a co-owner of the resort along with her husband, Jem. Jem is now grappling with keeping the resort afloat after several cancellations once Lissa’s death got out.
-Bron and Georgie receive chilling messages that set them on edge and question who they can trust.
-Bad weather strands the group at the resort.

𝗜 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁
-Each chapter starts with an unknown narrator wryly discussing a different method to kill someone, including the pros and cons of each method.
-This semi-locked room, slow-burn mystery alternates between the POVs of Georgie and Bron and I was never quite sure who I could trust. The description of atmosphere the resort’s atmosphere and surrounding area made me feel like I was there.
-While I was able to guess one major twist, there were several I didn’t see coming.
-Final verdict: Great end of summer read!

How to Kill Your Best Friend is your next favorite twisty thriller about a toxic friendship that will keep you hooked until the very last page. Georgie, Lissa, and Bronwyn have remained best friends since killing it on their college swim team. It's suspicious when Lissa drowns, last seen at the resort she owns with her husband. Georgie doesn't understand how one of the strongest swimmers she knows drowned. Lissa's closest friends and family unite at the island resort for a memorial, but it quickly becomes clear something dangerous is afoot. A storm leaves them all trapped on the island. Someone is watching them. What really happened to Lissa? The story is full of tension as the layers to the friendship at the center of the story are slowly revealed. If you're looking for an unpredictable thriller, this is the one for you! Highly recommended!!

I read a fantastic page turner, How To Kill Your Best Friend. This is a book that you definitely do not want any spoilers. The super short synopsis is that a group of friends is at a beach resort for a friend’s memorial service but bizarre and creepy stuff happens, making all of the friends suspicious and wary. Oh, this book was fun. The different points of view kept me guessing the entire time and gave me such insight into the characters. I had no idea what was happening and I could not stop reading, coming up with a million theories. A perfect thriller that was somehow a slow burn and super stressful. There were so many twists and turns and it was so clever.

Not a how to book! But definitely a good read. A remote island mystery told in alternating perspectives. What more could you want?! This book grabbed my attention from page 1 and didn’t let go. Each section starts with a different ‘method’ and a few chapters to follow. I loved how this book played out. At first, it did seem like there were a lot of characters but once I got a few chapters in, I enjoyed seeing how each character brought something to the book.

I had to warn my BFF before I posted this that I read a book called How to Kill Your Best Friend. I didn’t want to scare her! 😆

This book explains all the ways you could possibly use to kill a person, but none are guaranteed to do it completely. The novel starts off at a memorial for Lissa, a woman who drowned off the coast of her island resort she owns with her 2nd husband. All her friends have gathered to celebrate her life, but they are in shock that she died while swimming, her favorite activity. The group of friends actually met at university on the swim team. The group is suspicious of the death and it only increases when clues and other dramatic events start happening. There’s also a rumor around the village that in the water where she drowns, there’s a huge water serpent in the water.

This book is very slow and I really had a hard time getting into it. I really liked the exotic location (I don’t think they ever say where exactly, just Southeast Asia). There are a ton of characters to keep track of and the clues were far apart and not enough to really hold my interest. I really wanted to like this one since I loved the author’s first book, the French Girl.

Thank you so much to @berkleypub and the author for my copy of this book. It’s out now so you should read this one and make you own opinion! I’d love to hear if anyone else read this and their thoughts!

This is the first book I’ve read by Lexi Elliott, and it will not be my last! It was full of twists and turns -- I just needed to see how it was going to end. It’s st if you go into this one blind because the less you know the better this book is.

Georgie, Lissa, and Bronwyn are college friends and have each other’s back no matter what. They are great swimmers all through college and into adulthood, but when Lissa drowns out at sea her friends gather for her memorial at a posh island resort. When Georgie and Bron start to have crazy and sinister things happen to them, they become suspicious of each other and the island resort doesn’t seem safe and secluded as it once did.

This book was definitely a lot different than what I was expecting it to be. It was a fun twisting thrill ride that everyone needs to read. I loved the fast-paced tone of the writing and the alternating POV helped with that. Each chapter gave just a hint more of information and it kept me reading to find out what was going to happen next. I enjoyed the characters and even though I didn’t trust any of them, I needed to find out who or what the culprit was. I enjoyed all of the swim scenes in this book because the author really captured what swimming in the open water is like. I felt like I was right there in the water experiencing the waves and sun beating down on me and I loved that. When the final twist came my mouth dropped open because it was not what I was expecting. I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read more from this author.

Thank you to the publisher and @netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book is out now and you should totally go out and purchase it.

Georgie, Bron, and Lissa met on their college swim team, and since then have remained friends, regularly traveling with a close group for swimming vacations. Georgie, however, who moved from the UK to New York City, missed the last trip—a stay at Lissa and her husband, Jem’s luxurious island resort—due to work pressures. No one expected the circle to meet again so soon, least of all for a memorial service for Lissa, drowned during a night swim in Kanu Cove.

The resort is sunny and full of guests, but as the mourners leave the island, the number of people shrink and the weather deteriorates until power is lost and the airport closes. Meanwhile, Bron receives threatening messages while Georgie uncovers inconsistent evidence. More violence makes everyone feel vulnerable and distrustful, wondering what really happened to Lissa and who was behind it.

The novel alternates between Georgie and Bron’s points of view with “How to Kill Your Best Friend” chapters—discussing the efficacy of various methods of murder— from an unnamed interspersed. The other characters described Georgie as rather prickly, but I found her sympathetic, though I didn’t completely understand the bond she shared with Lissa or why she felt so responsible for her. Bron, who prided herself on being “what you see is what you get” maintained a secretive inner monologue (party about how she imagined the others would criticize her—and I could have done without the body shaming which didn’t add to the story).

My favorite aspect of the book was how the resort transformed from a lush, private sanctuary to a terrifying isolated environment.

This is an entertaining quasi-locked-room thriller with an excellent claustrophobic atmosphere, but the real treat comes from reverberations of the toxic relationships of this close group.

Ummmm.......

With this title, how could you NOT be intrigued?! Y'all know your partners that see you reading all those thrillers and horror are a little bit afraid of you. 😉 Unfortunately, for me, the story didn't quite work.

Resort, GOOD. Reunion of friends, GOOD. Celebration of life. NICE. And then about a quarter through.... a... monster/serpent in the water? WHAT. I legitimately had no idea what was going on and at that point, couldn't figure out why or what this would mean. But color me intrigued and so I continue to turn the pages. To be quite honest, I didn't like where the serpent part of the story went. I don't think we would've lost anything if it wasn't included. And admittedly, I don't mind suspending reality and you certainly need to with this storyline but I found myself side eyeing a few things along the way. I also figured out the "who" within the early chapters (GO ME!✌) but really wished I had been wrong. Ah well, win some, lose some!

The author does keep you on your toes. Everyone is a suspect and, as always, secrets start to surface and strange things start happening around the resort. The story is fairly slow paced and I found myself wanting more of the snarky narrator who popped in occasionally talking about various ways to kill people.

I think reviews are going to be all over the place with this one, and personally these kinds of books, whether they end up working for me or not, are my favorite... I love seeing which side I'm gonna land on. So, if this book sounds intriguing, don't let this review deter you. Elliott can definitely write and I enjoy her writing style alot.