Thank you to Penguin Teen for providing me with the eARC! I really enjoyed Diana's These Deadly Games so I was intrigued by her next book, even more so when I got to read an excerpt from it(thank you BookishFirst).
I have second degree hate for Laniey already omg. Usually it's the best friend dates my bf trope is a cliche but it works here in a very good way, I can already tell. Jade's interaction with Miguel is giving me strangers on a train vibes but ofc they're on a cruise. And the prologue with the opening scene...I love that Jade has no qualms about finding her ex bestie dead, she just like "welp, its what she deserves' it's cold but I love it because ofc she feels that way. I like her murderous imagination. Also the shirt thing with the twins(how are you gonna buy someone a shirt, give them it, and you expect them to pay it back?) When I read it I thought "ohhh, so they're like that. Ok". Also the way Lainey acts whenever Jade tries to talk to her and Silas as if she's a psycho ex makes me question if she told badmouth Jade around Silas, cause she's definitely mindfucking with everyone on the cruise. Made me wonder what she's setting the stage up for because it seemed manipulative to me. I kept on wondering how Jade had enough time to wander about a ship( whenever there's a teen sleuth you have to give them the benefit of the doubt and throwaway some logic), cause there was 18 hours until they docked at the next port and she never really got tired or seemed hungry, I understand she was on adrenaline probably but for the entirety of the 18 hours, never resting or eating at least a little bit? She shouldn't have been able to function imo. I did still enjoy reading the book, I liked her and Felix's banter and ofc with Diana Urban the love interest is not what they seem which seems to be a pattern in her books. I like the shock of that.

I'm such a sucker for adaptations, and this one exceeds all expectations!

Though the story is inspired by Death on the Nile (Agatha Christie), all the modern twists and turns in the plot take it to another level.

I can't wait to see what Diana writes next!

Thank you to NetGalley and Razorbill for providing me with an ARC for this book in exchange for an honest review!

The +s:
- I enjoyed reading this book! I liked the setting and enjoyed the descriptions. I also did find myself wanting to pick it back up whenever I had to set it down.
- The romance was cute and fun to follow!
- It was fast paced and action packed, especially in the second half. I tend to turn off my brain when reading mysteries so I did enjoy the twists, though some were predictable.
- I was definitely waiting throughout to find out what happened between Jade, Lainey, and Silas. I found that plotline intriguing and had no way of guessing what had happened.

The -s:
- It did feel a little juvenile at times and I found myself often forgetting that the characters were college students.
- I did not feel very attached to the characters nor did I find most of them very memorable.
- Though there was plenty of action going on, it was a little frustrating to follow as the characters kept making stupid decisions that ultimately led nowhere. The discoveries they made did not really help Jade solve the mystery. Rather, they came together to form a clear picture after the answer was revealed.

Overall, an enjoyable 3-star read in a unique setting with some fun twists. Pick it up you're looking for something light and fast paced!

This was ok but I didn’t love it. The second part of the novel is more action filled and enjoyable, however the first half just sounds like teenage drama for the most part

Ahh what a blast this book was.

It’s fast-paced, high-stakes, and I LIVED for the Death on the Nile references. Diana’s descriptions of the different cities and locations were fantastic and added such a fun flare. I was pleasantly surprised to find that while the book is categorized as YA, the characters are college juniors/seniors, which made it much more plausible. I didn’t see some of the twists coming, which is always a bonus, and I LOVED Felix and Jade’s relationship.

Super grateful to Netgalley and Razorbill for the arc! Highly recommend for readers of upper YA locked-room thrillers who love a dash of romance in their stories.

I love me a locked room mystery, and generally really enjoy YA mysteries, but this one just didn’t work well for me . The first half of the book is just “teenage” whining although these are college level students and should be a bit more mature … the second half is more fast paced and a lot more interesting .

Jade has signed up for a semester at sea on a cruise ship, not realising that she'll be stuck on the vessel with none other than her ex boyfriend... And her ex best friend whom he's now dating. This may not be the exciting adventure she had hoped.

Lying in the Deep is a brilliantly twisty mystery with a murder and a juicy ending. Not the answers I was expecting, I was gripped right from the start!

Thank you to the publisher for providing a review copy.

I was sent a copy of this book in return for an honest review, thank you to those who sent it to me!
I loved this YA retelling of Death on the Nile! It was fast paced and the ‘whodunnit’ aspect piqued my interest from the get go.
I won’t lie, I wasn’t huge on the main characters at first, and the love triangle did make me roll my eyes quite a bit, but by the second half I was completely invested in the main characters and all the love interests that they had.
There were lots and lots of twists and turns but in the last quarter or so things were being resolved and plot holes were being filled with reasonable explanations.
Overall, this book was a fast paced and intriguing read!

I read a lot of thrillers but never before have I gone from "this is so obvious" to "OMG WHAT". While the plot twist is almost impossible to predict, it works for the book. More than just a "whodunnit", Lying in the Deep is partially a character exploration of it's protagonist, Jade. While Jade comes off as juvenile at times, it works for the book. She is, in many ways, a child playing adult games, which is precisely how many actual college students feel. Aside from the murder mystery, this book does an exquisite job of portraying the aftermath of a breakup in which you must confront the fact that the person you thought you loved never actually existed. It is an important narrative and one that will resonate with many readers. As a mystery, Lying in the Deep succeeds in weaving a complex tale of deceit and betrayal, although some parts did feel slightly rushed.

A faced paced book that's literally filled with twists and turns, you never know what's going to happen next and who's the real culprit. I was kept guessing to the end and couldn't put this down. I also loved this studying at sea theme which is really unique similar to a "locked room mystery" and I've never heard of it before so I also felt like I learned a lot. The characters are dynamic and have personalities that draw you right into the story. Overall this is a really strong mystery thriller and I really recommend.

I was hooked on this story until the last 10%. Once the reveal happened, there were so many twists that I could not keep up. I ended up more confused than amused and was just glad to be done.

I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

I LOVED this book. I always wanted to do a Semester At Sea so this being based on that was what initially caught my eye. The twists that I didn’t see coming kept me hooked. I thought I had guessed who did it but then it wasn’t them. I gasped so many times. Due to recent events in my life, what happened to a character hit close to home and I cried. I didn’t see the ending coming AT ALL. When I say my jaw didn’t come up from the floor until about 5 minutes after I finished the books. It got crazier and crazier until the last page. I also want to know what happens to Felix and Jade. I loved them and I hope they’re happy.

This is the modern feminist retelling of Agatha Christie’s Death On The Nile that I never even knew I needed till after I read every terrific page!

Let’s be honest: Death On The Nile is one of Dame Christie’s most famous books, but is one of my least favorite of her canon. It’s smart, sure, but without going into spoilers, I can safely say that I really disliked the central relationships. Diana Urban’s refreshing take on the characters updates the plot for the 21st century, paying excellent homage to the original while providing her own incredibly clever twists to make this story her own.

Our narrator Jade Miller figures that the best way to nurse her broken heart is to go full steam ahead with her plans to spend a college semester at sea, far away from where she’s enrolled at Stanford University. Having grown up poor, she’s pinched her pennies for this experience, and is looking forward to putting a lot of distance between herself and the people who betrayed her. So imagine her shock when she sees both of them getting ready to board along with her.

One of these people is her former roommate Lainey Silverton, the beautiful daughter of a pharmaceutical tycoon:

QUOTE
[She was] a magnet for attention and an easy flirt, the way she’d flash her radiant smile and make you feel like the sun was shining at night. She was stunning, because of course she was, with her silky platinum hair, eyes blue as the winter sky, rosy high cheekbones, and rosier full lips. Forget the money–Lainey could steal your heart just by breathing, charm you with a glance, convince you of anything. She could get whatever the hell she wanted, even if she didn’t already have it all.

Apparently, that included the love of my life.
END QUOTE

Silas is Jade’s ex, and is arm in arm with Lainey as they board the Sea Voyager. A baseball star until a skiing accident put his entire Stanford career in jeopardy, he’d feared having to drop out of school and go back to a life of small town anonymity. Jade had begged Lainey to ask her powerful father to get Silas a summer internship so he could gain some industry contacts and rebuild his shaken confidence. She hadn’t expected for Lainey and Silas to get close in the process, culminating in Silas breaking up with her long distance via text before immediately blocking her number.

Seeing them together in the flesh makes Jade’s thoughts turn unerringly to murder, but when a stone nearly lands on Lainey’s head at one of their first stops on the cruise, Jade begins to reevaluate her own thirst for vengeance. Lainey, of course, does her best to avoid her former friend, but Jade can’t let go. It isn’t just that she’s hurt by what they’ve done. She genuinely doesn’t understand how or why it happened. As she explains to a new friend she makes on the ship:

QUOTE
“Hey, you said you like figuring out what makes people tick, right? So help me figure out what happened.”

He laughed. “Why are you so desperate for a reason?”

“Because the alternative is that the two people I loved most betrayed me for absolutely no reason.” I could no longer mask the tremor in my voice. “Because the alternative is that I have to hate them.”

That, and I didn’t want to daydream about murder anymore.
END QUOTE

When people start dying, Jade finds herself in the uncomfortable position of being prime suspect in a murder she once fantasized about committing herself. Refusing to passively accept this role, she begins investigating, not only to figure out whodunnit but also in hopes of figuring out how two people she loved and trusted so much could hurt her so badly. As she sleuths her way to the shocking truth, she’ll discover that not all secrets should see the light of day, and that some are best left relegated to the depths of the ocean.

When I first heard that Ms Urban was reimagining this story, I did not expect to fall wholeheartedly in love with her characters, or to be as impressed as I am by how she refashioned this tale to satisfy the hearts of readers tired of female rivalry tropes. To go into specifics would be to risk spoiling a masterful update of the classic that hits the original’s most important beats while also fashioning a truly absorbing Young Adult mystery. I loved it, and hope you will, too.

I was so thrilled about reading this book and now that I’ve finished it, I can confirm that it was worth my time.

When going into a novel like this one, a reader must be aware of the genre it pertains to. Written for a young adult audience, Lying in the Deep is a mix of teen romance, a day long game of Clue and betrayal that doesn’t fail to keep entertained.

As for the characters, I liked our protagonist because she could truly be a regular student, making her more believable than, say, a young Sherlock Holmes in a skirt.

Personally, I am not a big fan of romantic developments in books and Jade and Felix here are no exception. Other than my personal taste, though, I also think their relationship was far too quick and cheesy to be believable.

Overall, this was a fun, quick read that I’d recommend to anyone who’s looking for a soft mystery in an original setting. Even is some twists could be fairly predictable and you get an idea of the direction things are going, you’re pulled to stick around to check whether you got it right and you end up liking the ride to the end.

Big thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Young Readers Group, Razorbill for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book took took ahvile to get to the mystery part, and when we finely got there it was over will quik... i would have love af little more mystery and more thrill

I absolutely loved this book. Finding your worst enemies on a 6 month long cruise would be hard in and of itself, but when you don't know why they hate you, it would be pure misery. Such a great book with great fleshed out characters that you get to know, based on a Semester at sea type program, with multiple stops around Europe. So inventive and well done. And the twists? Amazing. When I finished this book I immediately had to find the author's other novels, and finished All Your Twisted Secrets within days.;

That was one heck of a ride. The way it ended was crazy! Holy moly. Murder, mayhem and blackmail!!!?!!!? I loved it.

I love that Diana Urban took on a death on the nile retelling especially with a YA twist. This seemed young and fresh and what is needed in YA. I loved how fast paced this book was and the pacing was great. I really felt the build up and kept wanting to know what happened next. I wasn't a huge fan of the love triangle but overall great read!

I twittered between giving this book two or three stars but ultimately landed on three because while this book was far from perfect I was entertained for most of it.

I will say if you're looking for a main lead who is very smart and intuitive, and who conducts a logical investigation, then look elsewhere because our MC, Jade, is a hot mess. She is very emotionally led.

Now I will also say that if there is one thing I've learned from watching soap operas growing up, it's that if there isn't a body then chances are nothing is as it seems. That was most certainly the case here.

In the romance department, I just found it so...cheesy? Unbelievable? Probably a mix of both. It all happened so quickly and felt so unnecessary. And while I know some people are fast burners I never really felt anything much for Jade and Felix. They're just two conventionally attractive teens that the author was trying to convince me were in love with each other. But meh...

With all my criticisms, one might wonder why I even enjoyed this book. Well, I enjoyed it the same way I enjoy cheesy Disney Channel-esque YA Netflix movies. They are all predictable. Deep down you know how things are going to end, but you stick around to see the little flourishes added in. You stick around to see if your theories prove to be correct. And I will admit there were a few twists I did not see coming, so that was fun.

This was kind of like playing a game of Clue. It's not the best board game out there. But it is a fun and easy enough way to pass the time.

Lying in the Deep is an exciting mystery set on a “campus on board” cruise ship. This was a very quick and entertaining read. The twists kept me turning the page to see what would happen next. I also enjoyed the quick pace of the plot.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Young Readers Group, Razorbill for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication: May 2, 2023