If you like the vibes of Pretty Little Liars, but wish it took place on a SHIP....you're in for a treat.
Lying in the Deep (out *today*!) follows college student Jade as she embarks on her "Campus on Board" journey, a semester at sea. Jade wants to see this as a fresh start after a break up with her boyfriend Silas, a falling out with her BFF, Lainey, & oh yeah, then Lainey & Silas getting together, so they're a couple now. & when Jade shows up for Campus on Board, guess who else is about to be on board with her? Da00
Jade is determined to make the best of it, & is doing a pretty good job, making new friends, maybe even stirring up a little romance. Maybe things will be okay....orrr maybe not, because then Lainey goes missing, her entire room is covered in blood, & the most likely suspect in her demise happens to be a certain someone whose boyfriend she "stole" & had a major falling out with.
Jade's movements right before the disappearance certainly don't make her look innocent, & suddenly she & her broody new crush are in a race against time trying to find out who did this, so they can prove it was NOT Jade.
This was a lot of fun. It had major Pretty Little Liars vibes where the characters try to solve everything on their own, & almost get into so much trouble while doing so.
Everyone is suspicious, & it's a "trust no one" scenario for the MC. & I really loved that the setting was a ship, not because I'm particularly nautically inclined, but because I like how isolated it is. It ups the ante that they are all trapped in this situation, together in a somewhat confined space, in the middle of the OCEAN, where there is truly no escape.
Plus, there's some cool twists & I really liked the ending.
If you want a fun thriller full of backstabbing, secrets, & a little romance, Lying in the Deep is for you. It has major summer mystery vibes

This was entertaining but maybe YA isn’t for me.. or mystery/thriller YA books? Who knows. Overall it was just okay and I was ready for it to be over.

Imagine going on a luxury cruise that involves education and discovering that your exes are there. Your ex best friend and your ex boy friend - and they're there together. Besides for all the complicated feelings that arise from this, imagine that this boat becomes a murder cruise and you're the prime suspect.

This was s terrifying read and I really enjoyed it. I was on the edge of my seat. If I have a negative to say it's that I wish it was a little shorter

Lying in the Deep is a YA thriller that expertly (and unexpectedly) combines dark academia with the legal ambiguity of being on international waters. It follows a college student named Jade, who embarks on a Semester at Sea program as she is dealing with the aftermath of being screwed over by her ex-best friend Lainey and ex-boyfriend Silas. I was intrigued from the outset because, as anyone who has had a friend breakup knows, they can be brutal and lead you to think about think that you normally wouldn't fathom. I also thought that the Semester at Sea aspect was fun because my college experience was impacted by the pandemic so I never got to do those "fun" things, and a cruise ship also turned out to be a great setting for a thriller.
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This book is definitely a slow burn, with the first half focusing on Jade dealing with her emotions related to her breakup as suspicious things begin happening and a white-collar crime unfolds. This all pays off, though, in the second half of the book when people start turning up dead and it becomes clear that there is a spree killer on the ship. Urban lays out various characters and their vices and grievances, so it was easy to develop theories, but I still wasn't prepared to learn who the killer actually was. Honestly, the way that this mystery comes together is altogether excellent, with a plot twist that was so shocking.
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Lying in the Deep was everything that I could have wanted in a YA thriller.

This to me was a great YA thriller. This is the perfect book to read on the beach or by the pool. I loved jades character even though at times she really got on my nerves. Her & Felix were fun & made the whodunit aspect of the book so easy to follow. This was fast paced & well executed.

This book was a wild ride, from when the main character Jade discovers that her trip of a lifetime comes with a side of ex-best friend and cheating ex-boyfriend to the twist at the end.

Jade was a bit annoying but in saying that, it fit perfectly within the story being told. I was hooked, trying to figure out who the murderer was and what had happened, and having the action happening on a boat helped to add to the tension.

If you’re in the mood for a locked door mystery, give this one a try!

Thank you Netgalley & Penguin Group for an eARC of Lying in the Deep by Diana Urban!

I liked this one, but didn’t love. A quick bingeable read if you’re looking for a YA novel set upon the sea - This is a twisted tale of love, jealousy and the lengths that people will go to betray others. Everyone is suspicious and really nobody is likeable, which makes this one easy to be a page-turner.

Jade is ready to embark on this adventure on the sea across 11 countries in 4 months, but her ex boyfriend and best friend and his new beau, her old best friend, are on board. Things get messy with a murder.

I finally finished this long overdue ARC and I am actually surprised by how much I enjoyed this one. I feel like I say that about almost all of my reviews that are an ARC but for this one, I really am.

The story started off a little boring. I found myself not really grabbing it in my spare time and instead reading other things. But once the Tower of London scene happened, I was really hooked. This one honestly kept me guessing about who was the culprit behind all of the murders happening and while I am almost never accurate in who it is, I liked that this one had you constantly being like “oh its this one.” I also like the setting of this one. It was not your usual study abroad setting of one location but an adventure of a lifetime for these students. Who apparently got more than they were expecting when they embarked. I did like how Big Pharma was the true villain in this whole thing so I can definitely appreciate that aspect of this one.

The problem I had with this one was how naive the author made Jade. This girl was entirely too trusting of just about every single person she came in contact with and I am sorry but her “best friend” doing what she did to her was extremely shady. Both of these things made me roll my eyes hard and want to scream but it also didn’t detract from me finishing.

Overall, I think this was a good one. But the slowness and the MC being just completely dumb lands it at a 3 star for me.

This book just didn’t do it for me …
I didn’t like Jade from the very beginning and I’m not a fan of the jealous ex trope in books at all. Jade was an absolute nut job from the very beginning and she just got more wild as the story went on.
The ending of the book made up for it all a bit but at that point the damage was already done for me. The great twist of an ending didn’t change the fact that for the first half of the book I was considering putting it down and forgetting about it because Jade was annoying me sooooo much. This was another one that had the potential to be so good but the execution just wasn’t great.
I just wish authors would try to make their main characters out to be a little more sane when leading up to a really big twist because it would make the stories so much better

I really enjoyed this book a lot. I did find some of the story to be a little predictable in spots but that ending was everything! Did not see that one coming.

Unable to give reviews due to personal difficulties at the time, but I heard a lot of good things about the book that I plan to buy one myself.

A murder mastery? Set on a cruise ship? During semester at sea? YES PLEASE! This book has the makings of everything I love in a story. And this book absolutely will take you on a wild ride. I've seen some comparisons of this book to Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile, which I've been wanting to read. Might need to move that up the TBR list.

Anyone book that opens with "I didn't realize there would be this much blood," is bound to be a good one!

One of the things I loved most about this story was the descriptions of the locations they stopped. I love to travel through my stories and oftentimes, there will be little to no description about the locations the book is set. In Lying in the Deep, it was very easy to feel like you were really there, traveling the world with the characters.

Because there was so many characters involved, it made it difficult to narrow down who really was the guilty party. There were so many reasons to be suspicious of so many people. And I really like that I wasn't able to figure it out in the end.

I will say that this book was very heavy on the drama, and it was not all so amazing. I could have done with a little less drama than was included, but it is a murder mystery, so I guess it's to be expected to some degree!

This was a fast-paced action packed thriller that I would highly recommend!

I liked the story, and I liked twist at the end. It wasn't really deep, and I wish there had been a little bit more believable suspense, but the twist at the end did get me.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc.
Lying in the Deep was such a fun and atmospheric book. It kept me guessing all the way through. Just when I thought I had it figured out I quickly learned I was wrong. In my book, that is the sign of a great mystery/thriller. I really enjoy Diana Urbans writing. If you're looking for a thrilling goid time that will leave you guessing, then pick this up!

A YA thriller with a whodunnit plot that was very entertaining. Sometimes it dragged a bit but the twists were fun, and sometimes predictable. The ending actually was not predictable at all. I would like to read more from Diana Urban because she clearly knows how to write a good story.

Thank you Netgalley and Razorbill for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of Lying in the Deep in exchange for an honest review!

What a fun read! This book grew on me. I have to admit, I struggled towards the first half of this book, but once I hit the halfway mark, I flew through it. I’ve always enjoyed whodunnit mysteries and while there was lot going on in this one, I enjoyed it.

I suspected Felix from the beginning, things just didn’t feel right with him. What I didn’t expect what that he helped Lainey fake her own death. I definitely thought he was the one who killed Tate. I was never a fan of Silas throughout the book, so I was happy everything got pinned on him. Although I definitely wasn’t expecting him to die! Jade was an okay character. She was annoying at times and all over the place, but she stuck to her guns and followed through on investigating and clearing her own name.

I did enjoy the fact that this story was set on a cruise ship though. I thought that was a fun way to keep everyone together while a murderer was on the loose.

Overall, I think this was a fun read. It definitely had a slow start but picked up halfway, which redeemed the story for me.

This book was very odd but interesting? It was a very cohesive but messy story at the same time which baffled me. The main character pissed me off so much but I also loved the ending.

Okay holy crap that ending was a twist! I had figured out a few pieces of the mystery, and did call one of the big twists, but that last page had me sitting in shock with my mouth wide open for a good minute or two.
I really enjoyed this one, and I thought it was paced really well. The author does a great job of creating interesting characters and then weaving together a plot that includes them all in some way. It was twisty, exciting, and dramatic, and I was hooked to the story.
I really liked that the characters were a bit older. They were all college students, and there were scenes of drinking and many mentions of drug use and abuse. This was definitely upper YA/NA and I liked it.

CWs: drug use, mentions of overdosing, death of a parent, death, murder, suicide, alcohol abuse, neglectful parent

I voluntarily read and reviewed an eARC via NetGalley sent to me by the publisher. A thanks to Penguin Teen Canada for providing me with this e-copy to read. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Lying in the Deep is an interesting YA thriller set aboard a cruise ship. The story follows Jade as she embarks on 4 month cruise going to 11 different countries for a Campus on Board learning program. All she wants is to get away for a while and forget about her backstabbing ex-best friend, Lainey, who stole her boyfriend. Then the worst imaginable scenario happens when the deceitful couple decide to board the ship.
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Seeing Lainey with her ex, Silas, brings back feelings for Jade. She becomes obsessed with trying to find out why Silas broke up with her. Lainey also starts making enemies with her fellow passengers, which leads to her death. Soon other murders start happening. That’s when Jade realizes they are trapped on board with a murderer.
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Jade has to use all of her wits and the help of her new friends to try and find the murderer and clear her name in the process.
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I enjoyed this book for the most part. It was a quick read and the setting was pretty cool. What I didn’t like, was that it felt like it took forever for the murders to happen. The twist at the end also kind of took me out of the thriller aspect of the book. Overall I’d say it’s worth a read.