The Guilt Trip
3/5 ⭐️

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for an e-ARC of this one!

Thanks to actual wedding season (3 in 4 weeks) I am almost a good two months late reading and getting my review up 😬 it was a hectic month with vacation time and family visits sprinkled in too but what a great one after not socializing like that in a longggg time.

I absolutely loved the Other Woman by Sandie Jones so as soon as I seen this was coming I couldn’t wait!! And with all the festivities I attended what better read than a book about a destination wedding gone wrong.

I think had I not read the Other Woman I may have rated this one higher but I couldn’t give it a 4⭐️ like I did OW because it didn’t have as big of a shock factor.

The story was excellent. 3 couples with more secrets than the Vatican? Yes please. You knew it could only end in a dumpster fire event. And it most certainly did. I just felt like there was something missing for me that wasn’t keeping me as drawn in as I hoped. Maybe I just had too high of hopes!?

I want to travel again ASAP after hearing location details about Portugal 🥺

#theGuiltTrip #SandieJones #theOtherWoman #netgalley #StMartinsPress #arc #thriller #mystery #HalloweenReads #books #bibliophile #goodreads #nsbookstagrammer #canadianbookstagrammer

This one was really interesting and had me at the edge of my seat. I enjoyed the character development and the plot twist.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This story had so many twists and at times you wonder who is the one who doesn’t belong. I enjoyed this book and will read more by Sandie Jones.

Synopsis:
Three couples, a wedding in Portugal and lots of secrets are all part of Sandie Jones’ new thriller. The bride-to-be, Ali, rubs the group the wrong way with her attention-seeking antics from the start. Tension looms as the wedding gets closer and the trip seems more nightmarish than celebratory as the couples are fueled by jealousy, suspension and alcohol. Will the they all even make it to the wedding?

My Thoughts:
Quick read blended with drama and suspense. The characters are very unstable, and you are not sure
who is really lying. Overall, an enjoyable book for me!!

Twisty, fun, and full of non-stop drama. The Guilt Trip is a great follow-up to The Other Woman and brings something totally different to the table. There’s a lot of build-up but the ending will blow your socks off.

What a ride! More twists then I think i have ever read but it kept me up and guessing till the end. I loved this! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley!! Quite a ride!

Loved it! A fun, twisty mystery that is timely and filled with surprises! I liked all the characters, they were complex and memorable! This would make a great movie!

You know that feeling that someone might not be who they seem....yeah, that's this book. Love the way Sandie Jones does thrillers - you're never completely sure of someone's personality until she reveals it.

I love Sandie Jones but I think this story was a difficult audiobook because of the many characters. I did like the plot and the huge surprise at the end!

The audiobook narrator Clare Corbett did a good job keeping me invested in the storyline. Rachel is the main point of view and it was difficult at times to keep all the characters separate. Was Rachel just being paranoid about Ali, or was Ali really as much of a threat as Rachel assumer her to be?

I was expecting more of a murder mystery or suspense but this book is really more focused on the relationships and drama between the main characters. The "fatal misunderstanding" referred to in the book synopsis does not occur until very late in the book. It was still a very quick and engaging story, and all the secrets and lies did keep me listening to the very end.

I loved the seaside setting of the book and could easily imagine the wild cliffs and the huge waves surrounding the villa. There are many twists in this book and the shocking conclusion was worth the wait. If you love family drama and a contemporary setting, you will enjoy this one. I absolutely loved the author's earlier book 'The Other Woman' and look forward to reading more from Sandie Jones.

(Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced listening copy in exchange for an honest review.)

I really did not enjoy this one at all sadly. I think this is a bad case of mismarketing; based on the synopsis I was expecting a thriller. But oh boy...this was NOT a thriller at all, We spend the first 80% of the book dwelling on the secrets and affairs of the couples, most of which are based on miscommunication, and it felt very repetitive and I kept wondering when the action was gonna pick up. We don’t get to the murder part of the book until the last few chapters and then everything is wrapped up pretty quickly.

I was given an advanced copy of this text by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This was a great read! I always enjoy Jones' books, but this one was extra exciting to me for some reason. All lovers of thrillers should definitely check this one out.

I picked this up because I was a big fan of Sandie Jones’s first book, The Other Woman. If you are looking for a twisty thriller that will keep you guessing, go for this one!

I really dislike rating a book this low. Two stars is supposed to mean "it was ok" and I guess that's really, truly the best thing I can say about this one. The premise is really difficult to describe, but if I had to, I would say it's about an under-occupied homemaker who, over a weekend wedding, decides that every little thing that everyone else in her friend and family group is doing is in some way related to her, or is "all my fault" and as a result, she runs around making poor decisions, starting drama and ill-advised conversations that ultimately help precipitate a tragedy.

Here's the set up: Rachel is in her late thirties and not pursuing the career of her dreams. Having dedicated her younger years to raising her now-university-aged son, she struggles with feelings of inadequacy, envy and mild dislike directed at her brother-in-law's bride-to-be, Ali. Ali is a career woman, and very beautiful but can come across as somewhat vacuous. And also there's this weird undercurrent between Ali, and Rachel's husband, Jack, who used to be Ali's boss. All those factors culminate to somehow persuade Rachel that the perfectly pleasant Ali is her archenemy who is for unknown reasons (and despite all evidence to the contrary) "out to destroy" her life. It doesn't help matters that Rachel's friend Paige is there to stoke the suspicion that the weird thing that might be going on between Ali and Jack is an affair.

Most of the book is driven by Rachel's suspicions and fevered imagination, as well as a twenty-years-in-the-making and completely unnecessary plot-twist of a drama between Paige's husband, Noah and Rachel. You see, among her other imaginings, Rachel imagines herself in love with Noah who was her college best friend, even while she tells herself that her world will be obliterated if it turns out her husband, Jack is indeed unfaithful with Ali. This double-standard is often remarked upon in Rachel's mind, almost as though it is plot and character inconsistency that the author felt duty-bound to point out, in lieu of having to actually explain.

I kid you not when I say that fully 90% of this book is Rachel concocting farfetched scenarios in her head involving some confluence of her and Noah's drama, and Jack and Ali's drama; and the rest of it is Rachel demonizing Ali simply because she's younger and sexier and holds men in her thrall. It's fine for a character to be unlikeable (and trust me, most of them were) but it's almost unforgivable for them to be ... irrational. And trust me, most of them were.

All in all, I was somewhat let down by this rea

As a travel blogger, I love trips of all kinds. Well, I thought I did. 

Three couples travel to Portugal for a dream destination wedding. Rachel, Jack, Paige, Noah, and Will have been friends for years. Ali, Will's fiancée is new to the group. 

But this dreamy destination turns into a nightmare as secrets are revealed that threaten friendships and marriages. One thing's for sure-- history isn't everything and first impressions are not always as they seem!

What a bummer.

I have loved 2 books by this author, and really liked another, but this one fell short for me. It’s over the top drama, just too much. It isn’t a long story but the conclusion doesn’t come until the absolute end. Because of this the middle seemed to go on forever (plus it was repetitive). I am not one for so many central characters. It’s confusing until you get some character development.

The writing style was still solid. This didn’t hit the mark for me but if you like a crazy, over the top, story then it probably will for you. I will still always look for he next from this author (and encourage you to check out her previous stuff too). Thanks to NetGalley, the author and St. Martin’s Press for a copy in exchange for a review.

Sandie Jones is quickly becoming a must read author for me. I enjoy her writing style so much! The Guilt Trip had so much drama and it held my attention so well. I couldn’t stop reading this one!! This was such a grippy 5 star read! I HIGHLY recommend this one!!

So many twists, lies, he said/she said scenarios that will keep you guessing who’s telling the truth until the very last page. Looking forward to more from this author. A good book club selection.

2.5
I didn't enjoy this novel. I found the characters annoying and therefore the character-driven plot was also irritating. I almost stopped reading at the halfway point. I think the pacing of the story picked up and the story was more interesting for the second part, but it was just not a unique or compelling plot. The characters are all self-focused and there is a lot of wondering and musings about the behavior of each other. I was unsure until the end, of the direction of this novel. I think some readers would find it entertaining and enjoyable, but I am not one of them. The execution and writing is fine, but if I'm honest this was just "okay" to me. It's hard to love a book without a character that feels sympathetic or relatable.

A fun thriller that takes place when two couples set off for a wedding trip. I thought that some of the mystery in this one was a little predictable, and I really didn't like any of the characters. While I feel like unlikeable characters is fairly common in thrillers, this one left me wanting a little bit more. There was so much drama packed into the story, and right off the bat you know it's going to be an unreliable narrator story.

I thought the book was a great length though, and a good thriller to pick up when you want something that is more dramatic and less of a scary thriller.

I adore Sandie Jones as an author - I have devoured her previous books, but this one..... it doesn't seem like her voice. The story is paced rather slow and the characters are uninteresting.