After enjoying the last two books I read from this author, I had high hopes for her latest. I'm bummed to report that Reckless Girls fell well short of my expectations. I didn't like any of the characters, easily figured out the twists, and found the storytelling disjointed and messy. I'll check back in on further books from this author, but this one was a miss for me. 2.5 stars.

An interesting story that asks the question what would you do in order to survive. The scenes are set in the past and the present to show how the characters ended up in their present dilemma. Lux and her boyfriend Nico are hired to take two girls from Hawaii to a remote island in the Pacific. There they meet a couple and another guy. The story takes several twists and turns as the characters are each keeping dangerous secrets. It becomes a fight for survival when death comes calling one by one.

I received this ARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I am rounding my stars from 3.5 to 4. Rachel Hawkins spins a tension filled tale set on a deserted island. Lux has been seeing Nico for a very short time when the two of them decide to move to Maui together and then from there sail around the world. Before they can start off on their adventure Nico agrees to take Brittany and Amma to Meroe Island for two weeks. The four arrive to Meroe Island to find Eliza and Jake already there enjoying the solitude. The six become friends and things are great until another man shows up. Then things start to spin out of control.

I really enjoyed the slow build of tension Hawkins accomplished. I knew bad things were coming but was not sure what they would be. I did think some of the things that transpired at the end came out of nowhere and did not seem in line with the characters. I believe the reader is supposed to attribute this to the island causing people to lose their minds. I also wish some of the characters had been a little more fleshed out. Nico and Jake are supposed to be stereotypical spoiled rich guys, but I think a little more background on them would have been better. It would have helped have a better handle on Nico and Lux's relationship to know more about him.

This would be a great beach read if you are somewhere warm this January when it is scheduled to be published. And if you are not it transports you to somewhere tropical in your imagination at least.

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins follows Lux McAllister and her boyfriend, Nico, who are hired to sail two women to a remote island in the South Pacific. Stuck in a dead-end job in Hawaii, and longing to travel the world after a family tragedy, Lux is eager to climb on board The Susannah and set out on an adventure. She’s also quick to bond with their passengers, college best friends Brittany and Amma. The two women say they want to travel off the beaten path. But like Lux, they may have other reasons to be seeking an escape. Shimmering on the horizon after days at sea, Meroe Island is every bit the paradise the foursome expects, despite a mysterious history of shipwrecks, cannibalism, and even rumors of murder. But what they don’t expect is to discover another boat already anchored off Meroe’s sandy beaches. The owners of the Azure Sky, Jake and Eliza, are a true golden couple: gorgeous, laidback, and if their sleek catamaran and well-stocked bar are any indication, rich. Now a party of six, the new friends settle in to experience life on an exotic island, and the serenity of being completely off the grid. Lux hasn’t felt like she truly belonged anywhere in years, yet here on Meroe, with these fellow free spirits, she finally has a sense of peace. But with the arrival of a skeevy stranger sailing alone in pursuit of a darker kind of good time, the balance of the group is disrupted. Soon, cracks begin to emerge: it seems that Brittany and Amma haven’t been completely honest with Lux about their pasts––and perhaps not even with each other. And though Jake and Eliza seem like the perfect pair, the rocky history of their relationship begins to resurface, and their reasons for sailing to Meroe might not be as innocent as they first appeared.

I really enjoyed the atmosphere of this book and sped through it. While it did give me And Then There Were None vibes which is one of my favorite books, I found the characters in this book annoyingly stupid. There weren't any characters I was really rooting for and I wish that there were more twists spread out throughout the book rather than just at the end. This was an enjoyable but pretty forgettable read for me.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars
I liked this book but found myself skimming a bit through the middle. I think I'm always going to struggle with stories where the main character chooses to do something one should probably expect to end badly- like sail to a remote island with a terrible history when plenty of other non-murdery islands exist.
Ultimately while you can see one reveal coming, there are still two more interesting twists, though I find myself needing more time to digest them. This would be a great book club book given the great discussions that can from the interesting ethics at play.

This was a page-turner, it held my interest from page 1 to the end. I thought I knew where the story was heading but I was wrong. Quite a few red herrings.

Set against the sea and sky of a deserted Pacific island of Merore, Reckless Girls follows a rag-tag group of wanders looking for adventure. But when the group starts to discover ominous signs of something amiss, the island becomes more of a trap than an oasis.

Reckless Girls was a fun thriller that had me engaged from the first page. Lux was an interesting heroine, because she was so multi-dimensional. She was strong and brave, but also incredibly lonely. I enjoyed getting in her head as she grappled with the potential that she's outgrown her relationship with her current boyfriend, Nico. The book also dove into themes of grief, which connected many of the characters unknowingly.

My absolute favorite pats of the book were the setting and the way the book was written. The atoll island setting was so intriguing and felt like it was another character in the book. I loved the history connection to World War II and all the mysterious things the group found during their stay. I absolutely loved the two different timelines, jumping back "before" to slowly reveal the back stories of the different characters. This had me wanting to keep reading to find out not only the connection between the characters, but also their grave motivations for what their end game was.

I am not normally a thriller reader, but this one was enjoyable and fun. It's a quick read and held my attention throughout. I will say that I did guess the twist fairly early on in the book, but continued to read, because I had to know if my theories were correct.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy!

Set on a deserted island, this exciting story makes you question how well you really know the people surrounding you, regardless of how long you've known them. One thing I know for sure after reading this book is that I never want to go to a deserted island!

A book set on a tropical island sounded like just what I needed in the middle of winter! I loved The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins and had high hopes for her newest release. I was a bit disappointed and found this to be a meh thriller.

Lux and Nico are living in Hawaii where Lux cleans hotel rooms and Nico takes tourists out sailing. When Nico is offered $50,000 by two beautiful college students to take them out to Meroe Island they can't turn down the opportunity. Meroe Island is a tiny atoll in the Pacific ocean with no inhabitants and a spooky past. During WW2 the island was used by the military and the soldiers stationed on the island went mad. As soon as the four of them get to the island there's bad vibes that Lux can't quite put her finger on but she's determined to enjoy the beautiful island with it's crystal clear water and white sand beaches. Unexpectedly, there is another boat at Meroe when they arrive and they make friends with a couple who are visiting the island. Things get darker as the book progresses and nothing is as it seems.

I liked the start of this and loved the beach setting. The characters were interesting and the descriptions of the scenery were very vivid and the backstory of the island was fascinating. The story is told with some chapters being in the present, others being flashbacks for the various characters and some tidbits about the island. But I felt like it was very slow for most of the book. I think this was to build tension and provide more backstory on the characters but I didn't enjoy how the plot just seemed to drag along. I also didn't like the introduction of yet another boat showing up at the island and felt like this part of the book could've been done differently or even skipped all together. The plot felt very choppy and meandering at points like the author was just trying to fill pages until the big reveal at the end. The end "twist" wasn't overly shocking to me and it was like everything was happening very quickly after not much happening for three quarters of the book. The pacing was off in my opinion. For me thrillers always need to be well paced and have a great twist at some point that really shocks me. Overall, this was ok but I feel that it could be skipped and I doubt this will be a memorable read for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me an eARC in exchange for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own. Reckless Girls will be released on January 4, 2022.

4ish stars

I liked this one but didn’t love it. It was a good story, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did The Wife Upstairs, even though I’m trying not to compare them. I liked the protagonist; I did want to yell at her a few times, though. I was looking forward to another story that’s set in a deserted location, and there was a lot of potential to this basic idea. Some of the plot twists felt a bit predictable, although I did appreciate the very ending. Ultimately, it was a good story, even if I didn’t think it was as amazing as her last book, and I am looking forward to her next.

The last couple of months of my life have been pretty stressful and I hit a reading slump in November that has trickled into December. Today was the first day in a while that I really had the chance to sit down with a book and I decided to read Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins. I finished the entire thing in one day and it felt so good to be in a different world today.

This book ends up being a "locked room" style except on a deserted island. I honestly didn't remember the synopsis of the book before I started it or I may have chosen something else as these type books tend to let me down. This one does not. The characters are complicated. I like the back and forth of the before and now timelines. The setting is spectacular. I think normally what doesn't work for me in these types of books is that the setting tends to prevent the story from having much of an arch and the character and their back stories aren't developed enough. Hawkins does such a great job with both that you kind of forget that it's a locked room mystery.

My only issue is that the foul language often seems unnecessary. It's really too much some times. Overall, the book is a fun read and was the perfect book to get me out of the slump.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for my ARC of Reckless Girls. I found myself unable to put down Rachel Hawkins’ latest book. The pages basically turned themselves.

A classic locked room mystery, only this time on a deserted, and reportedly cursed, island. With a tight cast of 7 characters, it was fun trying to to sort of how much I really knew about each person and how much they were all really capable of. There are some good twists, one which I guessed and another that slapped me in the face with “oh my gosh how did I not see this coming” ferocity.

I definitely recommend Reckless Girls for fellow murder mystery fans.

Imagine losing your job in the morning and being offered the trip of a lifetime that evening. Luxe lost her mom to cancer, then followed her happy-go-lucky boyfriend on his boat to Hawaii, where they awaited repairs to continue on the journey that seemed more out-of-reach by the day. Then come along Brittney and Amma--two recent college grads with seemingly endless funds and just as many secrets.

Once they reach Meroe Island, it seems idyllic despite its dark history. But there are others here--and if the secrets of the four on Luxe's boat weren't enough, their new companions seem just as shady. Forced companionship doesn't necessarily garner trust, and life on the island quickly slides into danger territory--especially after one of the temporary islanders sabotages the boats.

Luxe is discovering a lot about herself, but she's also uncovering uncomfortable truths about her island-mates. Could anyone actually be dangerous? Or is everyone?

When a group of 6 travelers paths cross on the beautiful isolated island of Meroe, it’s all paradise at first, even though the island has a somewhat creepy vibe. The longer the vacation goes, the more things start to unravel. So many dark secrets, so many ulterior motives for being there. When one goes missing and another turns up dead, all of a sudden reality sets in. Who are these people and will any of them survive Meroe Island? While this book had that creep factor throughout, it was filled with unnecessary language and the twists really didn’t deliver. Perhaps Hawkins was overly ambitious with this one, leaving the reader disappointed in the end.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Rachel Hawkins and Netgalley for letting me read this one early. You’ll find this one on shelves January 4.

I inhaled this book. I really enjoyed reading it, it didn’t change my life but I very much loved the escape. The atmosphere, the back and forth timeline and the characters really sucked me in. Most people will call this one predictable and maybe it is a little bit, but I find comfort in that sometimes. I very much recommend this one, its sure to bring you out of a reading slump or ignite your passion for books.

Meroe island is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It has a mysterious history full of terrifying things. It’s a perfect place for the most adventurous traveler to escape everything. As six twenty-somethings embark on a blissful, free spirited journey, one filled with sundrenched days and intoxicating nights, they start to uncover the truth about the island and each other.

• Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing this Advance Reading Copy. Expected publication date is January 4, 2022.

I really don’t know why they call this a “Gothic“ suspense book. It definitely was suspenseful and about an island with a dark history but it is not what I would call Gothic. It tells the story of six people who, seeking a once in a lifetime adventure, visit Meroe Island, a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Soon this vacation in paradise becomes threatening when the group realize just how cut off they are from civilization. With one person missing and another dead, this thriller is very much worth the read.

Lux McAllister accompanies her boyfriend, Nico, when two young women hire Nico to take them to a remote island in the South Pacific in his sailboat. It seems like paradise at first and becomes even more fun when a wealthy couple join them on the island. After a while, the isolation can start getting to people especially when it seems almost everyone has a secret agenda. Soon, danger is in the air, but Lux is determined to do whatever it takes to survive.

This is a tense and suspenseful book that has a sense of foreboding from the very beginning. It’s soon clear that few of the characters can be trusted and everyone is hiding something. I really like Lux’s sense of humor which helps lighten some of the darker moments in the story. I enjoyed the book and was intrigued by what would happen next. I was able to anticipate some of the plot twists, but then the ending was both shocking and over-the-top. Some potential plot points seemed to fizzle out, but overall it’s an entertaining and unique book that is different from the usual thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ebook. An advance copy was provided to me at no cost, but my review is voluntary and unbiased.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I couldn't put this book down! I was a little wary at first because I didn't enjoy the author's last book as much as most people seemed to, but this did not disappoint.

Lux met Nico when she was working as a waitress, and she followed him to Hawaii. He promised they would see the world sailing, but they've had money problems. Enter Amma and Brittany who offer Nico serious cash if he'll sail them to a deserted island that has a haunted past. The book flips from present to past and back again to fill in the gaps about the characters. Around the halfway point, I felt like the book was dragging a little, but then it picked up and I honestly didn't see exactly how the ending was going to go until we were there.

Rachel Hawkins’ Reckless Girls was a fabulous read! Although it took me a couple chapters to get immersed in the book, once I did, I found it difficult to put down. The setting begins in Hawaii and moves to an uninhabited island off the coast of Hawaii, complete with poisonous fish, sharks, and dead bodies. What is not to love?

Hawkins does a fabulous job developing the relationships between the six main characters and keeps her readers guessing who will make it off the island alive until the very end. It has been a while since I read a book I enjoyed as much as Reckless Girls!

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed above are my own.

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins 3.5 Stars
Lux was feeling aim less after dropping out of school to take care of her sick mom. When she meets Nico, he is promises of adventure on his ship The Susanna.

While in Hawaii she and Nico meet Brittany and Amma who want to go to small isolated island for vacation that no one else does. Invited along the way Lux joins them!

This was a fun and quick locked room mystery. Kept you intrigued by the relationships forming quickly on a remote island. so many strange things happen that make you question what you really know. So many interesting things happen that make island so eerie. The end took me by surprise I loved it!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for my copy for review!