DNF at 34%

The premise of this book is definitely very interesting! I liked the plot. The idea of a murder mystery on a cruise ship is very interesting. However, the beginning felt slow to me, which kept me from feeling eager to continue reading. I also struggled to connect with the characters. As someone who prefers character-driven stories over plot-driven ones, this was a struggle for me.

I adored Lying in the Deep just like Urban's previous books this one is packed full of a mystery you're going to be eager to solve and a twist you will 100% NOT see coming. I highly recommend this!

This book was not what I expected, but it was still so thrilling to read.

I love that the main character, Jade, is not a perfect character. You definitely see her darker side, but then the plot really develops and the story moves ahead at a great clip.

I am not sure that Jade needed a boyfriend for this storyline to work and, honestly, I was pleasantly surprised.

She's dreamed of this cruise for years, but now, it's her living nightmare.
After being abandoned by her ex-bestie and ex-boyfriend, Jade is beyond ready for a new adventure and tons of distance between her and the people who broke her heart. She's been dreaming of this experience for years: a luxurious Campus on Board ship that travels to eleven countries in four months. Soon after boarding, Jade discovers the backstabbing couple has decided to tag along, and she quickly becomes increasingly obsessed. With a shocking murder and disappearing friends, Jade and her new love interest are determined to get to the bottom of it before anyone else winds up dead. Can they find the culprit before it's too late?
I really enjoyed this book. I was constantly wondering who was behind it all and double-guessing myself. It was a fun and unique story, which Diana Urban never fails to deliver. This book is listed as a YA and reads that way, however I feel like the content (lots of alcohol, hard drugs, etc.) makes it more suitable for NA. The narrator, Brittany Pressley, did a wonderful job bringing this story to life. If you're a thriller fan, check this one out!
I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and Edelweiss+. I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

This was a fun ya thriller - all the usual tropes you’re waiting for are included and I enjoyed this read a lot!

This was a wild and twisty ride! While for me it took about halfway to really pick up, once it did I couldn’t put it down and it was a very fun read!

I received the notification that I had been picked to read the ARC but about a week and a half later it was released and my physical copy arrived in the mail. BUT- omg it was so good.
Diana has a way of making you question every single character up until the very end and then she continues to shock you with twists you didn’t see coming. I was grateful to be at work alone reading it when I got to the part *redacted- read the book!!!!!!!* because I was gasping and bouncing in my chair! Blew. My. Mind.

Actual rating 2.5/5 stars.

Jade lost her boyfriend and best friend to each other and after an excruciating summer of watching them build their perfect life together on social media she is ready to escape and start working on her own. The Campus on Board shop allows her to study whilst visiting 11 countries in 4 months but when she arrives on her first day, however, the two figures she was least hopeful to see seem to have followed her there. It isn't just their presence that ruins her time on board though, it is the murders that soon start occurring.

This had a vast cast of intriguing characters and I thought the author did a great job of imbuing them all with an unique personality and back-story. I really liked how all were constructed and this element, despite the trajectory of the storyline not being suited to my literary tastes, would see me return to this author's work in the future.

Another element that drew me to this book was the at-sea setting and I really wished this had been given more page-time. I thought it such a unique creation and would have loved to see the mechanics of how it actually functioned, rather than just seeing the characters explore various landmarks across the globe. I did like these travel element but I had anticipated more of a darkly academic vibe to be present throughout.

The bones of the story, however, were too initially drama-filled and later crazily convoluted for me, personally. I like how the author centred this story around one of Agatha Christie's infamous murder mysteries but it ensured I guessed the final reveals far too soon and found no joy in being proven correct at the fast-paced conclusion.

A fantastic story set in a unique environment! I enjoyed the twists and the prose along with the romance for our MC. Diana Urban continues to get better and better with her stories. I look forward to reading what she publishes next.

What happens when you take jealousy and revenge aboard a cruise ship.. welp this book will tell you!

Jade is so ready to embark on an adventure, especially after the things that happened with her best friend and now ex-boyfriend. The cruise is set to visit 11 countries in just 4 months and she can’t get away fast enough, that is until the backstabbed are also boarding the same cruise, and all their friends start dropping dead.

The love triangle, who-done-it never gets old. I love a good revenge-ish story. The pacing and characters were unique and enjoyable.

The book definitely was the perfect start to summer season.

Lying in the Deep is a delicious and lush mystery filled with intrigue surrounding Jade on her Semester at Sea trip to 11 countries in 4 months. What she doesn't expect is to be joined by her recent ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend who have begun dating after breaking her heart. When Jade can't seem to avoid the pair, her former friend accuses her of stalking them and then a shocking murder interrupts the trip. As friends and classmates being to be murdered, it's up to Jade and her friends to put together the pieces and unmask a murderer, lest they be next. This book was shocking and thrilling full of backstabbing, jealousy, and suspicion. It held my attention until it's jaw-dropping conclusion and I loved the story. The characters were well flushed out and intricately written with good motives and drives. There were many twists and turns that leave you guessing right up until the end!

Loved every book by Diana Urban and this one is no different. 100% recommend everyone who loves a good YA thriller to read this and all her other books!

This story is told in first person by Jade who is embarking on a semester on an academic cruise with new classmates and new classes in a unique setting that I thought was fun for a thriller. It did come across as closer to YA than New Adult in themes to me, including the catty cliques and the typical social media angst and snubs. Add in the ex-boyfriend and ex-BFF to the mix and the confusion over what went down between them and it had the makings of an entertaining teen summer read.

I enjoyed the characters, from the catty to the mysterious and downright mean girls. Jade is kept busy running around the ship and various ports along the way trying to figure out what’s going on, who the killer is and how to keep herself from being suspect number 1. There were a few moments when I screamed at her for going off by herself or trusting a suspicious character, but overall, I quite enjoyed the ride even if I did guess one of the major twists before the end.

I did have some moments of confusion with her cabin-mates, not because they weren’t distinctive characters, but because they were sisters and I couldn’t keep their names (Divya and Navya) straight. That’s probably on me.

Recommended for a fast-paced, light summer thrill.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Young Readers/Razorbill for a copy provided for an honest review.

I did not expect the twists in this book!

It had semester-at-sea vibes and kept me guessing until the end!

I couldn't put it down!

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for this review copy

It was a really entertaining book! While I was reading I couldn’t help it but think of Suite life on deck, which made me enjoy it very much. The idea of a murder committed on a boat excited me and I loved those little references to Death on the Nile.
However, the characters were older than I expected, they were very immature and usually acted like teens. I didn’t completely hate the teenage drama though, but some of their behaviors were so childish that it became a little annoying at one point.

Most of the plot twists weren’t that surprising for me since I was half expecting them, but there were certain things that I didn’t see coming.

In general I think this is an entertaining book, perfect to read in one sitting. It was very fast pace and the amount of characters, despite being many, wasn’t overwhelming.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Penguin Group for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Ugh, I wanted to like this so badly. I love a no-exit situation and the prospect of that on a ship sounded epic. I almost DNF'ed this about halfway through because it was taking an absolute age to get through. The chapters are on the shorter side and I felt like the chapters were never-ending. It just wasn't holding my attention at all. I also felt like there were way too many characters and not enough meat to any of them. I would have been perfectly fine with the main two characters going about their business, everything else felt so excessive. It also felt like there was no 'mystery' solving really happening and Jade was just spinning around in circles. Two stars for the last 10% of the book because I actually really enjoyed that - I wish that pace was the way the entire book went.

I normally really enjoy Diana Urban, but this one just didn't work for me. I know this is YA, I like YA - except these college age kids had the maturity level and depth of middle school students who shouldn't be allowed to play with the big kids. I put this down at 22% because it just wasn't working for me.

thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an e arc in exchange for an honest review

With this book, I have read all of Diana Urban’s current work. I really liked All Your Twisted Secrets. I really disliked These Deadly Games. Lying in the Deep falls somewhere in the middle.

The premise was really interesting (Suite Life on Deck with murder!!) and overall it was a really fun read.

This book synopsis was really interesting and that's what got me interested in this book. However, the characters weren't my favorite. The characters in this book got me stressing and the characters are immature and that annoyed me. The overall plot is unrealistic and I am okay with unrealistic plot line and the pacing overall was alright. Not too fast and not too slow. This book is a book that can be read in one sitting and that's what I did hahaha. The writing style was great but the plot twist were mostly predictable.

Thank you Netgalley, Penguin YA, and Diana for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Jade’s next semester in college should be her best yet. Four months studying on a cruise, sailing all over Europe. It should have been the best time of her life. That is until her best friend gets with her boyfriend and they both drop her. Now the semester away is looking like more of an escape than anything else. But when Lainey and Silas board the cruise with her, it seems the next four months may end up being worse than she thought. Their distaste of one another is instantly noticeable and at first it’s fine, but then Lainey ends up dead, and everyone thinks Jade did it.

Lol. I’m sorry. Just lol. Not even a fun lol. More of a disappointed but not surprised lol.

I read Urban’s debut, All Your Twisted Secrets, and found it painfully mediocre, with the plot twist at the end annoying me more than shocking me. But to be fair to Urban, I do heavily dislike books that tells the story in a dual timeline and that is exactly what that book did, so I can’t blame my dislike for that book entirely on her.
I hate myself for not loving this. I really do. I’m in the street team on Discord and so I feel even more crud that I disliked this. It feels like I’m personally betraying the author when she’s been nothing but nice to me.

But this just… didn’t hit the mark. I can’t tell if it’s because I’ve read too many mystery books—especially recently, I’ve been rereading my favourite mystery books lately—that I’m just no longer shocked by most plot twists because I can guess them and almost always get it correct, or if it just really didn’t work because of how utterly predictable everything was.

I’m going to talk about the things I liked. I liked the prose, it was nice and easy, engaging when it needed to be and entertaining. I liked Jade’s budding relationships with the side characters, especially Divya and Navya. I liked how Jade, as a character, felt full and well rounded, and that her personality was obvious right from the beginning.

Now, onto the negatives.

I’m going to try not to spoil, so what I’ll say is last night when I was reading, I wrote down some notes in a private Discord server I use whenever I want to comment on a book but don’t want to do so publicly on Twitter, and I practically hit the nail on the head with my predictions.

The biggest plot twist was obvious from the very beginning. I’m the type of person who doesn’t mind when I get something right when I’m reading a mystery—to be honest, it makes me feel smart—but this time, it just felt like I was too right too early. Sure, it was honestly just a hunch I threw out there because of something I remembered about another book, but when it actually happened, I was a little bit gobsmacked. It was more of a ‘you seriously went that route’ than ‘yay, I figured it out’. And then I guessed something else about one of the important characters and I was honestly just annoyed at this point. And then I guessed another detail, this time more of a minor one that I don’t think I’d have guessed had I not watched Pretty Little Liars, and I was done. Guessing stuff is fine, I like it, but it kind of annoyed me that I literally guessed all of the major parts of this book.

And then what came after all of this, regarding another character just felt kind of… stupid? I mean, I don’t know about you but if someone accused me of murder I wouldn’t freak out and then… murder that person. That just feels kind of hypocritical, you know?

It just all felt so off to me. So anti-climactic and yet engaging enough that I wanted to know what happened.
Also, another gripe I’ve just remembered. This book was slow to begin with. So slow I was constantly checking the page count waiting for the moment Lainey dies. It’s a murder mystery and yet the murder literally does not occur until halfway through. I get the backstory was necessary, where people would start to point their fingers at Jade, but some parts felt unnecessarily long and then the mystery part wrapped up so quickly I was questioning what the point of it all was.

(Do not get me started on that ending. I don’t want to talk about it.)

I’m beginning to think Urban’s books aren’t for me. Maybe I’m just too used to this kind of mystery and therefore it fell flat, or maybe this really was just so goddamn predictable. I don’t know. It is a good mystery, regardless of my feelings on it, so I feel like others could definitely read it and not find it so utterly baffling like I did. Take my opinions with a grain of salt.

One more thing before I go, though, this is supposed to be a Young Adult book and yet they’re more than halfway through college? Wouldn’t that make them almost twenty-one? Jade definitely didn’t feel like a twenty-year-old to me, but I’m not twenty yet (six months to go, people) so maybe that’s just why.

Thank you, NetGalley, for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.