I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. It's been a year since Denise's husband disappeared and is presumed dead. She goes to her favorite place to start sorting out his affairs, but all she finds are more mysteries. This book had a good storyline but poor writing, typos, and a lot of repetition took away from the story.

I enjoyed investigating this mystery with these characters but I must say I was suspect of everyone and felt everyone had some part in it. The storyline kept me engaged and turning pages. I hope we get more on the other characters in the book.

I'd been enjoying the book, enough that I was gonna start checking out more of the author's work. But I got to the line "Denise had never been physically assaulted herself, even all the years she'd spent growing up in what some would consider a not-so-nice area of Chicago, but she couldn't imagine the aftermath feeling any different than she did right then." after the MCs house had been ransacked while she was away and it just felt gross, tacky, and unnecessary. It really killed my momentum with this book. Maybe I'll eventually pick it back up, but for right now I've got a bad taste in my mouth.

Denise likes spending time on Kiawah island, but things have been harder since her husband Charles disappeared. With no body found Denise has been struggling to figure out what really happened, and cannot receive any insurance money until Charles is found and declared dead, An old college fling Trent shows up in town and seems to be all in Denise’s business. The more Denise digs in the more she finds Charles may have been involved in some unsavory business dealings and his disappearance may be tied to these dealings. The more time Denise spends with Trent the more her feelings are coming back, but can she trust him when he’s digging into Charles disappearance?

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC

A quick , enjoyable read. I loved learning about the island.
Many thanks to Clever Vixen Media and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion

The synopsis grabbed my attention, but the story could not hold it. I wanted this suspense novel to keep me up and pages turning, unfortunately that did not happen. The tempo of the book was off and some parts dragged and possible unnecessary. I appreciate the opportunity of the advance read.

Great book with mystery, intrigue, and interesting characters. Will gladly look for more books by this author. Thank you, NetGalley and Clever Vixen Media for this ARC.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

I was very disappointed with this novel. The initial premise grabbed me, but the follow-through left me unsatisfied. The writing was mediocre and the story went off on a tangent.

This was a very uneven novel. I was intrigued by the storyline but turned off by some of the characters, would become engrossed again then find myself saying"huh?" I finished the book but only because I skipped a section close to the end in order to find out "who done it?"I was somewhat surprised to find that this wasn't a first novel. All in all, it was a pretty basic series-style mystery that for me just didn't make it.

My thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for making this copy available to me.

I was so thrilled to pick up this book. I was drawn in by the cover, the title and the possibility that is may turn into a series. (Queens of Kiawah... yes, please!)

The story begins with Denise Martine returning to her vacation property on Kiawah Island a year after the disappearance / death of her husband. She is surrounded by her glamorous and supportive friends. As Denise begins to absorb that things with Charles' disappearance may not be what she originally thought she begins to question everything she once knew. Was her marriage and her life what she thought it was? Who do you turn to when you cannot trust the memory of your husband?

Fortunately, Denise has her wits about her, she has a good group of women and she has a relationship from the past that may just be what she needs to find the truth. The book has lots of twists and turns and read to me like a movie script. I would love to see it filmed some day!

I would like to thank NetGalley and Clever Vixen Media, LLC for providing me an opportunity to read an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. I would recommend this book and will be looking for more by Nina Foxx!

The synopsis of this book really had me curious. I mean, a mysterious death on an island and hidden secrets… I was all in. Denise’s husband went missing for a year and is presumed dead. But, she doesn’t believe her husband would just disappear so she begins to investigate on her own. For the majority of the book, there are so many unanswered questions. But, how the story pieced the answers together only left me with more questions. At the end of the book, it was revealed as to what happened to Denise’s husband but exactly how the characters arrived at that conclusion wasn’t totally revealed or flushed out… there were some breadcrumbs missing. The connections seemed to form, unsaid, in Denise’s and Trent’s mind but it wasn’t flushed out on the page. Also, the romantic connection between Denise and Trent was implied but never really materialized to me. Their connection was never really shown on the page so I didn’t “feel” much between them. At the end of the book, Denise and Trent confront everyone at the party and then the next chapter cuts to them talking to the investigator a week later. With Jamel being the culprit, there wasn’t enough laid out in the story that would have implicated him. I wanted to see how everyone was involved in this big scheme but that didn't happen. There were lots of elements in the story that could have worked but it feel flat for me.

A year later, Denise feels her husband is not dead, after mysteriously disappearing. She travels back to Kiawah Island determined to discover the truth. Troy, an old college flame is back in her life, but not for the reasons she thinks. The two end up joining forces in order to solve the mystery.

This book took me on an emotional roller coaster and I won't soon forget the characters. I was also shocked at the surprises woven into the story. The story was so vivid, and this Island was brought to life. I hope one day I'll be able to visit. I do hope more stories in the future will be set in this area.

I received a copy of the book via Net Galley and the Author, and am voluntarily leaving an honest review of my own thoughts and opinions.

A frustrating read.
I thought we were headed toward Charles not being dead. 🤷🏽‍♀️
The story was stretched over unnecessary chapters with hints of romantic entanglements but no follow through, then a story dump at the end that was so abrupt that I had to re-read the last chapter because I didn’t understand how the story fell off such a steep cliff.

Island Secrets: A Queens of Kiawah Story is the story of Denis who is grieving her husbands disappearance and probable death. It's been almost a year and still so many questions remain. Denise visits their vacation home on Kiawah Island only to be confronted with the mystery he left behind. A surprise meeting with an old flame from college, Trent, begins to poke around in what Denise considers a private matter, one she is not ready to discuss.

Strange things start to happen when Denise returns, hearing footsteps upstairs one time and finding her home ransacked with her personal belongings destroyed another time. Trent tries to be supportive but he has ulterior motives, having accepted a job to investigate Denise and Charles, her missing husband.

I had a few issues with the writing style, some conversations went astray from the original original topic only to never return. Some chapters ended abruptly and the next to pick up somewhere else. The momentum sometimes was lost when this happened. There are some other things that made me not want to finish the book. don't get me wrong the book is good and interesting, but not enough to make me a fan.

This book was okay. I did find it interesting, but I felt it read more like a soap opera than a good mystery. The characters were mostly annoying, but at least the main character was okay. I’m not running out to read more by this author. Sorry…

I picked up this book as I have a good friend who has a house in Kiawah, and I love to visit, so know the area pretty well. This was interesting mystery with lots of elements of Kiawah, and a bit of a romance although that was not the main genre. The ebbs and flow of the mystery and what happened to Denise’s husband who went out on his boat one day and never returned kept my interest. In actuality, I pretty much read this book In one setting. Lots of twists and turns and interesting secondary characters. All in all a enjoyable mystery set in one of my favorite places in the world!

I have read several of Nina Foxx’s book and I must this was an awesome read. The cover is so intriguing and the synopsis drew me and kept me enthralled until the very last page. I do enjoy reading a good mystery that is not gory and way out there. This book was just right for me filled with mystery, conspiracy, secrets, betrayal, friends, romance with an awesome plot. Denise is at her vacation home in Kiawah Island sorting out the mystery and taking caring of husbands affairs surrounding his husband death. The more I read, I kept wondering where is Denise’s husband, did he fake his death, was he really dead and if not why did he fake his death, was someone after Charles and if so were they coming after Denise.

Not sure if this is Nina’s first time writing a romance mystery or not but she did an awesome job and I hope there are more romance mysteries to come.

I received an ARC via NetGalley and Clever Vixen Media, LLC and I am leaving my review voluntarily.

This book pulled me in from the very beginning. I love a story that combines mystery, secrets, appealing characters and a touch of menace. Denise Martine has questions, mainly what was going on with her husband before his disappearance. A year has passed and the mystery only deepens. This book had so many layers, with elements of friendship, maintaining facades, finding inner strength and possibility.

This is a fast-paced mystery, with background about Kiawah Island thrown in. Easy to read and lots of twist and turns, makes this a good summer afternoon read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book!

I was not as enamored of this book as some of the other reviewers. Kiawah is an island with a slower pace of living, most of the time. The secrets of Kiawah were worth reading the book, the characters were real and the ending was a natural ending of a mystery. I was not fond of many different words that were used that would be common to the southern ladies of color. They were often times thrown in without any hint of what it meant in the context of the story.