Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine for the ARC of Sunburned!

Five stars! Locked room but a yacht?! The best setting for a summer thriller! I absolutely love thrillers set on vacation! Thriller page turner that jumps timelines, the pacing was perfect and I couldn’t put this one down!

Sunburned is the second book I've read by Katherine Wood, and once again, she did not disappoint. From the very beginning, I was drawn into the story — it didn't take long at all to get fully invested. The character development was strong throughout, making it easy to connect with the main characters and follow their emotional journeys.
One of the things I particularly enjoyed was the structure of the novel. While the story is set in the present day, it frequently flashes back to when Audrey, Tyson, and Cody were younger. These flashbacks were well-integrated and added important context to the present-day mystery, giving the narrative more depth.
Although I'm not usually a fan of classic whodunnit novels, Sunburned surprised me in the best way. The mystery was compelling and well-paced. Audrey, the protagonist, is hired to uncover who is blackmailing Tyson about something from their shared past. Despite not having seen Audrey in over a decade, Tyson immediately accuses her — setting the stage for a tense and unpredictable investigation.
The plot takes a darker turn when Tyson is murdered during a diving exhibition. Now, Audrey not only has to find the blackmailer but also the killer. What made the mystery so gripping was that every person on the trip had a motive — no one could be ruled out easily. I was genuinely surprised to discover that the blackmailer and the murderer were not the same person, a twist that added complexity to the story. While I picked up on the connection between Andie and Jennifer early on, the rest of the puzzle kept me guessing.
Overall, Sunburned is a well-written, fast-paced mystery that kept me engaged from start to finish. The tropical setting, layered characters, and unexpected twists made it a standout read. I’m glad I gave this genre another chance — and I’m definitely looking forward to reading more from Katherine Wood.

Sunburned is what happens when a tropical vacation ends with betrayal, backstabbing, and blacblackmail. What a fun read! I enjoyed the writing style and look forward to her next book!

Thank You Netgalley, Random House Publishing Group, and Katherine Wood for the ARC copy in exchange for my honest review. I did purchase the audio to tandem read narrated by Stephanie Nemeth-Parker, which I enjoyed. I did enjoy this book quite a bit and even though this is a mystery could easily put this in the re-read pile. This book has two timelines present and Eleven Years ago. Both timelines are crucial to the story as the events eleven years ago ties into present day. I don't want to give spoilers but loved the question of which brother can be trusted if any.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ballentine books for the advanced reader's copy of Sunburned.

Sunburned wasn’t quite the right fit for me. While the premise had promise, I found it difficult to connect with the characters and wasn’t fully invested in their journeys. That said, there were a few twists that genuinely caught me off guard, and I appreciated the author’s ability to keep the story unpredictable.

Even though it didn’t resonate with me personally, I can see how readers who enjoy character-driven stories with a few surprising turns might find this one worth picking up.

This one was such a good time!

I loved how atmospheric it was and the thriller part was so well done. It kept me guessing the whole time!

I have now read LadyKiller and Sunburned by Katherine Wood and LOVED both!!

Great summer thriller/vacation read. Fast-paced and super entertaining with some juicy twists. Will read more from Wood!

Read If You Like
🏝️ Glamourous Island Setting
🗝️ Locked Room Thrillers
⏳ Past & Present Timelines
🧐 Who Can You Trust?!
💔 Exes Reuniting with Secrets and Tension
💰 More Money, More Problems Vibes

Audrey Collet is now a skilled investigator and is now being pulled back into the orbit of her billionaire ex when a dead body is discovered in the Florida Everglades. Stakes get higher when Tyson wants Audrey to figure out who sent him a letter hinting that someone knows a secret that will ruin him, and by extension possibly Audrey too… especially since the body discovered is of someone that Tyson didn’t have an amicable relationship with back before their breakup because, well to put it simply, this isn’t Tyson’s first time being blackmailed!

So, Tyson Dale invites her to his luxurious compound in St. Barth’s, where he’s hosting a glittering party that hides simmering rivalries between all the players including his wife with him for the money, his wife’s girlfriend, his business partner, his hot assistant, and his brother.

As Audrey digs deeper among the secretive group, memories from eleven years ago resurface for Audrey, revealing just how tangled their history has become in the present day. When a celebratory ocean dive turns deadly, the stakes rise fast, especially as the fingers begin to point at who is responsible when everyone has their own motive… even Aubrey.

While this one ticked all the boxes for the things I love, it did unfortunately have one thing that drives me a bit nuts in books- too many characters and not enough to distinguish them to the point that it gets a bit mystifying who is who at times. Other than that- it was a perfect popcorn thriller and a bingeable read!

Thanks so so much to the publisher for my gifted ARC and Audiobook copies!

Many thanks to Netgalley for the e-arc!

So I initially had a hard time getting into this book. I kept putting it down and picking it back up. But around 100 pages in, I read the rest in one sitting, it really took off. I think because in the beginning there is a lot of background and I was just being impatient and wanted action lol. Regardless, the rest of the book flew by for me, I was really invested in Audrey and making sure she got out of the situation alive. Would definitely recommend Wood's work. I loved Ladykiller and The Lion's Den.

Yes, yes, yes this is a must summer read! You definitely will enjoy this one with a cocktail on the beach! Filled with adventure and fun!

Sunburned by @thekatwritesbooks is a fun paradise gone wrong thriller that is perfect to read on vacation.

The main character, Audrey, is a finder and is contacted by a long ago ex to find out who is blackmailing him. In order to keep him quiet about their past, she heads to his home in St. Barth. Once there, suspects are galore and a murder throws a kink into the investigation.

I recommend this one if you love suspenseful thrillers that have a tough female protagonist, a sprinkle of romance in the plot, locked room murder mysteries, & a look at the dark side of the ultra rich.

"Sunburned" by Katherine Wood is an interesting, suspenseful, sexy novel. Great twists in the plot, excellent characters, setting and lots of personal baggage and complex intertwined past events! Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

SUNBURNED
BY: KATHERINE WOOD

This was my first time reading Author, KATHERINE WOOD'S writing, and it is evident that she clearly can write an excellent Mystery & Thriller novel. This one is very impressively plot driven, as most of this genre tend to be, but this author stands out to me, as it's very apparent that she has extra talent in her recently published STRIKING novel called. "SUNBURNED." Let me describe my reasons that I was so captivated, and had such an entertaining reading experience that hooked me from the very beginning throughout the entire novel. She is capable of crafting an intelligent mystery that showcases that her novel to be not only fast paced, filled with suspense that I didn't want to stop reading since her fertile imagination is evident that she has also broken the barrier that a lot of other Author's who write Mystery & Thrillers fail to sketch out Amazing character development, with both her Main Female Audrey, and her ex boyfriend Tyson, the Main Male Character. These two shimmer with distinctive common similarities in how they're both shrewd, and also totally opposites in likability. They last saw each other over a decade ago where there is dual timeline with their dynamics being recognizable in both past and present timelines where I was totally absorbed in both since there's layers of intrigue that kept me rapt in this gripping premise that brings them back into each other's orbit in the present.

Audrey is thriving in the present with using her computer hacking skills that is an element that in the past she was motivated to use her brilliance with the digital acumen out of necessity for emotionally driven reasons. It's super understanding, and reasonable to me why she would risk her freedom for the fascinating program she creates with the help of Tyson's older brother Cody. Whose vocation in a financial position helps her with the missing link to Audrey's ingenious method of accessing funds by her intelligent invention of skimming money from multiple businesses as to make this theft low risk. With her computer hacking she takes small enough sums that add up to exorbitant totals of cash when combined from different lucrative companies with low enough increments to go unnoticed by each rich source who she's stealing from. This is done in the past timeline where she's only taking enough money to pay for an experimental cancer treatment to save her dying mother. She is the only family member she has that she's close to. So her mother has no idea, or wouldn't accept the money if she knew how it was raised, she would rather die than use stolen funds. Audrey's criminal actions make her sympathetic, and since she doesn't steal out of greed, but it's her last resort since these treatments have worked to extend her mother's life I saw both her, and her mother as two likable characters, since I felt emotionally attached to both of them. Even though I know how appalling stealing is, and I have never done it, I rooted for them since I felt the sadness, and desperation through the writing to empathize with the unfairness of our medical realities that exist. I have lost enough loved ones that I know grief is debilitating to process, that I think the loss of a loved one is relatable enough to want to avoid it if I could. I also think nobody would welcome grief that is associated with loss of family, and the fact that pharmaceutical companies profit is billions versus how low it costs them to create life saving medicine, is tragic that as a society nothing is done to regulate them so that money isn't prioritized over life saving drugs. I don't think it's going to be addressed anytime soon, so I am surprised to find myself so upset since it's fiction, and the author's premise isn't about the fact that I myself have to applaud her for her ability to affect me emotionally about defending a character's criminal activity. She is a really good, and caring person who juxtaposed against the manipulative Main Male Character of Tyson, who is just as brilliant, but our Female protagonist is lightness, and her actions eleven years ago in the past timeline made her in other positive attributes are what won me over. Tyson's younger brother Cody who he won me over in the past time line, eleven years earlier, by his risking prison time himself for aiding her in that he was selfless by helping her save her mother made him a sympathetic character. It's his willingness to help her that makes him the more sympathetic, and likable selfless desire to help her devise a clever way of her desperation to save her mother's life. I thought he was so much kinder back then than her boyfriend, and his younger brother Tyson. Tyson is the darker brother in the past timeline in his words and behavior. In the past there was a mystery of a discovery of a foot inside trendy athletic shoe which, Ian who is living in a trailer on Tyson's and Cody's wealthy parents property who discovers the money scheme, and blackmails them for a percentage of the stolen funds. He is really treated poorly by Tyson, and described as a drug dealer who is poor, but also is greedy, and has a grungy looking appearance that has a caustic odor that supplies Tyson with drugs. Tyson is blackmailing Audrey whose best friend Rosa, and Audrey own a business in the present that when out of the blue, he contacts Audrey to fly to his lavish home in St. Barth's where there are more characters introduced who are a part of his inner circle. She is picked up by the butler named Laurent who Tyson trusts equally as much as Audrey, who she and Laurent have chemistry as Audrey depends upon driving her around the Island of St. Barth's. The Author Katherine Wood, excels in making the setting's atmosphere come alive visually for the reader by her description of the sea, the Turquoise water, with it's jagged cliffs of rock. The views that she describes with many Vibrant colors of the different hues of Blue that she describes the Sea, and green mountainous hillside farther North from Tyson's home which with the Turquoise water make this an atmospheric novel. The Author doesn't stop with the beautifully written natural landscape, she vividly brings you inside her narrative with her command of language such as White sandy beaches, Tyson's oasis of his home which has gardens, and walls of glass to take in these sensuous sights are peppered all throughout the novel.

Audrey is there because of her experience of her co-owned business of working for attorney's gathering evidence which she's been known to gather it whenever she can't get it legally, she uses her technological digital hacking, occasionally. Tyson has threatened Audrey with exposing the Skeletons in her closet if she didn't come to St Barth's. Once there he tasks her with finding out who out of the seven people that are living at his luxury home which are his inner circle who is blackmailing him. She knows that he is secretly monitoring his home with hidden cameras, and listening to devices that Audrey is given access to. Rosa and her keep in contact, and use their code word "SUNBURNED," to warn each other that it isn't secure to communicate that she, and Rosa share between only the two of them. That makes for a perfect title of this novel, as well.

Cody is there with his girlfriend Jennifer. Out of all the women staying there Jennifer is the most warmth, and is also friendlier than the other women towards Audrey. She knows that Tyson's wife, Samira has been romantically involved with her best friend, Gisele who both women are always together like Siamese twins. One night Audrey goes to a Masquerade or Halloween themed party with Laurent, and everybody's identity is hidden because they change into Costumes and Masks. She is at this nightclub, to gather information about Tyson's business partner named Allison. Allison is at this nightclub to meet two men on the City Council whose decision of a nearby tract of land Tyson wants to build another facility that removes the salt from the sea, as for supplying fresh water to the Island. He has a competitor of Developers who want to use the land to build more homes. Allison didn't see Audrey there that night, since she wore a disguise. The next morning Audrey is in the kitchen with Laurent after she reports to Tyson that she spotted Allison, with two members of the City Council that she tells Tyson. He tells her that he has been contacted by the City Council team that has the final say over who gets that land that he needs to hire a new consultant. Allison might have leaked the negative information about his business the night before, Audrey thinks. When they are all in the Kitchen the next morning Audrey is relieved that Allison didn't see her since she shows no emotion when she enters the kitchen.

She does witness through the monitoring devices the night before Samir, and Gisele has a romantic encounter, which she turns off. She mentions it to Laurent who tells Audrey, that Tyson, and everybody else in the house already knows about the love triangle. What she witnessed before was Samir telling Gisele that she has approximately a year and several months left before she plans on divorcing Tyson. Tyson had already told Audrey that Samir signed a prenuptial agreement that before she gets a penny, they have to be married for three years. What Audrey doesn't have a chance to tell Tyson is that Samir's first husband died in a hunting accident, which she knows that Samir wasn't charged with murder, since Gisele gave a false report that cleared Samir, by saying Samir was with Gisele at the time, which she heard while watching them in the Kitchen discuss. Audrey thinks that Samir might have murdered her husband.

The whole novel is a mystery that alternates the past 11 years ago, which you learn has a mystery, but the present day has a mystery about both timelines. In the present day someone gets murdered, and Audrey has to escape St. Barth's without getting murdered herself. Until now, St. Barth has a homicide rate of zero. Who gets murdered? Who is the murderer? Can Audrey escape with her life?
This Mystery & Thriller called, "SUNBURNED," that was masterfully written by Katherine Wood is full of suspense that is the type of novel that you won't be able to put down once you begin reading it since it's highly addictive. What sets this apart, from the others, that I don't encounter often when I read this genre is that the whole book is full of Mystery's which, the more you read, the more you learn. It's Multi Layered in terms of there are always new elements introduced to make this unpredictable, but with each chapter you are immersed with intrigue that makes this a real page turner with the reader gaining more fresh surprising content. I've been extremely lucky to have been on a lucky streak with Five Star reading experiences. This was more fun with the plot driven narrative with Audrey's character being the most well developed that is at the center who you route for with both some likable, and unlikable characters. It had less depth than I prefer, but it was like peeling an onion as you keep learning more about the questions that you are motivated to keep reading. I think that's what appealed to me the most. That desire to keep reading since I felt made this so dazzling.

Publication Date: July 1, 2025! AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE NOW! A STUNNING MYSTERY & THRILLER THAT IS ADDICTIVE, AND UNIQUE TAKING PLACE IN BEAUTIFULLY, ATMOSPHERIC ST. BARTH. IT'S SENSUOUS VIBRANT DESCRIPTIVE LOCALE IS VIVID & PERFECT FUN THAT'S MULTILAYERED!

Thank you to Net Galley, Katherine Wood, and Random House Publishing Group--Ballantine/Bantam for generously providing me with my wonderful ARC, in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own, as always.

#Sunburned #KatherineWood #RandomHousePublishingGroup #Ballantine #Bantam #NetGalley

4,5 stars - loved it!

Overall, just so fun! The setting, the pace, the rich people problems, the general lack of ickiness -- it’s everything I want from a thriller. Some of the twists I saw coming but not in the exact way they played out. I found the ending satisfying. Highly recommend!

Such a fun summer thriller!! It kept me on my toes until the last 20 pages. The closed door mystery and everyone stuck on a boat very much gave Agatha Christie vibes in a modern day setting. The flashbacks to build the story were a great addition to the book. The only thing that could have made it better is if I were reading it on a boat in St. Barths!

Sun Burned is definitely a twisty mystery perfect for the beach! It was a fairly quick read with unexpected twists. That being said - I love this author, but this is not one of my favorites... It did not feel as worked though as the other novels & was not as believable

Murder mystery and tropical sands are such an entertaining novel! The history of intrigue, and millions of dollars start with a murder in the islands. I think the novel has a suspenseful plot. The characters are stuck in a locked room mystery where there is a murderer aboard the yacht. And the rather Agatha Christie like questioning of the suspects gives a peaks at the past in series of flash backs. Audrey is called to investigate a case when she finds her exboyfriend worried about an unknown person blackmailing him. The mystery is suspenseful and keeps the reader guessing. I liked the romance and wished there was more. I felt drawn to Audrey and her quest to find the killer. This thriller would be best for mystery readers.

I love when there is a friend group with secrets. The dual timelines and unreliable narrators kept the tension high throughout this book. I kept trying to guess what was going to happen but was wrong several times. This mystery was really well done.

This had classic locked room mystery energy but with sun soaked tropical tension and deliciously messy characters. I loved the layers of secrets, the sharp dialogue, and the way Audrey’s past slowly unraveled. Also, I’m a sucker for stories where you’re not sure who to trust until the very end!
Twisty, bingeable, and such a fun mix of glamour and danger. Add this to your summer thriller list.

This one wasn’t for me. It was predictable. The setting of St Barth was nice. There are dual timelines and mystery.