🙌🏻 What worked for me:
• Mia was such a fun FMC. She was really likeable and seemed like someone I'd want to hang out with.
• The main mystery of who killed Diana...I honestly wasn't sure who did it until close to the end of the book.
• Brie! I loved her character and her friendship with Mia.
• The overall vibe of the book...the setting, the characters, the whodunit mystery...it was just a fun read

🚫 What didn't work for me:
• The non-murder mystery related twist...it was super obvious to me so it felt a little blah.
• I thought the story would be more book centric. I mean, there's "the book" that everything centers on, but that's kind of it. The title of this one made me think there would be a lot more books. 🤷🏻‍♀️

🤜🏻 Would I recommend: Yes. This is a perfect summer read!

Read if you enjoy:
✔️ Tropical settings
✔️ Whodunit mysteries
✔️ Blackmail Schemes
✔️ Vacation Romances

💭

⭐️ 3.75
Fans of White Lotus may enjoy this read! A mystery + a bit of romance = a fun, contemporary read. This book had me hooked from the beginning and kept me interested.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Workaholic Mia is gifted an all-expenses-paid getaway to an island resort by her accounting firm bosses, who intend to promote her to partner when she returns. But she is about to turn thirty, feeling the loss of a social life/love life, and she harbors a secret desire to throw caution to the wind and open her own business that doesn't involve clients' financial plans. When she arrives at the resort, she discovers a guest has gone missing and begins to contemplate foul play, a la her favorite mystery authors. All the potential bad actors are still on the island--as is Jason Mallory, a handsome daredevil bartender who seems genuinely interested in Mia. Who can she trust? Is she kidding herself that she can solve this mystery on her own? And surely Jason says these nice things to all the guests?

The book starts in media res with a prologue that introduces you to Diana, the missing woman, and is intentionally confusing. I found it worthwhile to go back and reread the prologue after getting about halfway through the book as more pieces began to fall into place. The mystery is not earth-shattering (I suspected the outcome) but it takes some twists and turns to get there, and the romance between Jason and Mia is thoroughly enjoyable. Plus, the descriptions of the tropical destinations are fantastic! Really felt like I was on the island, too. This is a great summer read--fast, engrossing, charming.

Thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

This read a suspense romance book to me more than a mystery.

I really loved the twist and the mystery elements of this book! I didn't totally love the FMC. I related to her as a big reader, but other than that I found her annoying and hard to relate to.

This is still a great fast paced perfect summer beach read!

I had a hard time getting into this book. Mostly because the main character, Mia, got on my nerves! Her immaturity level was grating and hard to get past.
I guess my feeling is….I did enjoy the mystery aspect of the story. But, I did not like the romance aspect. Throw in the how many times things were said over and over…
With that said, do read this book. It would make for a nice summer’/beach read. It just didn’t catch my interest as much as I hoped it would.
Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Great story that encourages writing in books! You never know what might become of it! It was the perfect beach read and a fun mystery.

Mia reads a lot of books. She also works way too hard, so when she’s mandated a vacation on St. Claire, she decides to read on the beach and maybe have a vacation fling. She forgets to pack her books though, so she picks one up at the resort. There’s notes in the margins that lead Mia into a mystery. She tries to unfold what the notes mean amongst a murder on the island, making friends with other vacationers, and falling for a hot reckless bartender. Brennan attempts to leave her typical genre of police procedurals and enter into a cozy amateur sleuth novel instead. While this novel has its moments, Brennan is better at the former. Some of the plot lines were too convenient, and Brennan explains away the fact that Mia knows what she’s doing because she reads books. It’s not the best Brennan novel, but it was fun even if convoluted and unbelievable.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this title from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Allison Brennan is a must-read author for me. She is an author that I go to for a thriller mystery that will keep me turning pages and wanting the book to never end. Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds has a different feel than her other books. It is more of a romance book than her other books but the mystery part is still there. I enjoyed every page of this book.

I love the setting of an island resort. Mia visits as a single guest on an island filled with couples. She immediately finds herself wrapped up in solving a murder of a single woman. The clues she finds take her on quite the adventure and have her meeting many unique guests. I love that each guest has their own story and could be the murderer or the reason the woman was murdered.

Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds is a fun beach book. The perfect summer read.

Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds is such a delightful treat. It's like White Lotus and a romcom had a baby and I'm all for it. As a bookworm myself, I so relate to Mia and her want to reinvent herself for her vacation before she has to go back to work for the rest of her life. The cast of island goers is also just marvelous because they are who you'd expect to go to an exclusive tropical island and I love the resort employees as well, especially their Stepford ways in front of the guests.

Overall the book is super fun, fresh, and lovely.

What an amazing book! I really had no idea what was going to happen at the end of the book. The story line kept me hooked the whole way through! I loved how the drama and the thrills never ended until the book did. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a thriller and drama and romance!

4 ⭐️


An unfulfilled CPA goes on vacation for one last hurrah before signing her life away as a partner at the firm, and instead finds herself as an amateur sleuth in a tropical island murder mystery.

I’m not a huge fan of murder mysteries in general, but I very much enjoyed this one. The quotes at the beginning of each chapter were well-chosen and cheeky. The cast of characters reminded me of The White Lotus where everyone is kind of awful, but that doesn’t mean you don’t root for your favorites. The riddles to be solved had solutions that weren’t super obvious but were simple enough that someone who really wanted to solve them could (which of course is the best kind in a mystery novel). I did find the “big twist” obvious, although the killer was less obvious to me. Additionally, I did find the internal monologue to be rather repetitive, sometimes even repeating the same sentence within a page or two.

You can tell this was written by someone who not only pens books, but by someone who enjoys reading them and I very much appreciated all of the Easter eggs from other popular books and authors.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins | Harlequin Trade Publishing for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Mia has spent her life making sure that she is responsible. She has a job as a financial advisor that she takes very seriously. She takes no risks in her job or personally. When her job sends her to a beautiful resort as a bonus, she has no choice but to try and enjoy herself.

She arrives on the beautiful tropical paradise with nothing to do but read a good book, but when she finds a book with writing in the margins, she realizes these may have something to do with a guest who disappeared shortly before Mia arrived on the island. When the missing guest turns up dead, Mia begins to investigate. She just has to hope that she does not get in the way of a murderer during her investigations

Why Jackie loves it

This was the perfect mystery to read on the beach. It is a quick and funny read with a quirky protagonist who needs a vacation more than anyone I have ever read!

What a great vacation cozy read! I thought this was a great mix of romance, mystery and lit fic! The only thing negative I would say was I started to get characters mixed up, as I felt like there was a lot going on sometimes in scenes, but that could be a me problem lol.

4.5 stars
This book really sucked me in and had me staying up late to find out more. A vacation turned into a hunt to find the truth about what happened to a guest while having a romantic fling.

Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds by Allison Brennan is a sun-soaked, twisty delight that blends cozy mystery charm with a dash of vacation escapism and a heroine you’ll want to be best friends with.

Mia Crawford is the ultimate bookish introvert—responsible, overworked, and more comfortable with fictional drama than real-life chaos. But when she’s forced to take a vacation on a luxe private island, her plans for quiet reading and maybe a harmless flirtation are upended by a real-life murder mystery. A missing guest, cryptic notes scribbled in a secondhand novel, and a cast of suspicious vacationers turn Mia’s beach break into a high-stakes whodunit.

Brennan delivers a clever, fast-paced plot with just the right amount of romance, suspense, and self-discovery. Mia’s dry wit and reluctant bravery make her a standout amateur sleuth, and the tropical setting adds a breezy contrast to the dark secrets lurking beneath the surface. Bonus points for the literary Easter eggs and chapter epigraphs that book lovers will adore.

Perfect for fans of Finlay Donovan, Only Murders in the Building, or anyone who’s ever dreamed of solving a mystery between chapters and cocktails.

This was a great combo of romance and mystery! I was hooked from the beginning. Cannot wait to tell my book club about this one!

I love a romance with mystery elements. This book had me hooked from the start. A great beach read !

A good vacation book - one you bring with you to read by the pool while spending a week in Hawaii or something. Nothing super special, I wasn’t itching to pick it up by any means once I started reading it, but a fun toss away read.

Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds offers exactly what the title suggests: a light, summery mystery set against the backdrop of an island resort. At the heart of the story is Mia Crawford, a straight-laced accountant with a no-risk lifestyle—until a guest at her resort mysteriously disappears. As Mia digs into the secrets hidden beneath the island’s sunny surface, she teams up with the lively and loyal Brie, forming a charming amateur sleuth duo.

The mystery itself is engaging, with enough twists and red herrings to keep the pages turning. Brennan strikes a good balance between suspense and humor, making this a breezy, enjoyable read. One of the novel’s strongest elements is the friendship between Mia and Brie, which provides both heart and levity throughout the investigation.

However, the romantic subplot between Mia and the resort’s handsome bartender, Jason, feels underdeveloped. Their relationship lacks the depth needed to be emotionally satisfying, and the late-stage conflict introduced near the end feels abrupt and ultimately glossed over in the final chapter. This not only detracted from the pacing but also undermined the resolution of both the romance and the mystery.

While Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds has some fun, escapist elements, it didn’t quite come together for me as a cohesive story.

Rating: 2.5/5

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review

I love Allison Brennans books. This one like all the others had me from the start. It was the perfect mix of romance and mystery. There were so many twists and layers to the story, but it all flowed together seamlessly Another thing I really enjoyed was that the pace sometimes fast and was sometimes slow and I really enjoyed that! I cannot wait for the next book from her. She quickly joined my auto by Author list. I always look forward to reading a book by her.