WOW!! I can honestly say that I was absolutely blown away! I was not expecting this at all. The perfect vacation read. I couldn’t put it down!

Caroline and her husband are building their dream home on the beach. It's really Caroline's dream as her husband isn't around much due to his work schedule. After her husband comes to their housewarming party with his new girlfriend, Caroline has an affair with Aiden. And that is when things get interesting! Aiden becomes OBSESSED with Caroline! The twists and turns are many and the twist at the end was crazy! I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.

I finished the book the Stranger on the Beach last night. I was completely enthralled with this book. Each chapter giving the point of view of first the rich beach home owner and then going to the hot local bartender. The chapters go back and forth between the two leaving you wondering which one you can trust. I enjoyed the writing and it kept me guessing until the very end. It was so good! So grateful for the chance to read it early! Thanks NetGalley! This is a good one!!

This book is a delicious he said, she said thriller that will keep you hooked until the very end. This thriller tells the story of a murder from two very different points of view. Caroline lives in a beautiful home on the beach and seems to have it all, including a cheating husband who chooses to humiliate her by bringing his mistress to her housewarming party. When Caroline has a one night stand with an an unhinged local bartender to ease her pain she gets way more than she bargained for. Excellent, twisted psychological thriller.

This is definitely a psychological thriller but unrealistic. Caroline comes across a loving wife that had been duped by her husband but is she really? Jason, her husband was missing for most of the book so he was more off a mystery character. Aiden was annoyingly juvenile in his behavior and was quite unbelievable. This story is basically about money, the root of all evil. Readers will enjoy the twists. Good summer read.

Summary:
Caroline was a wealthy woman who was happily married and putting the finishing touches on their new and expensive beach house. Caroline notices a stranger outside her house one night and on the very first page, we learn that she wishes she never saw this man because it made her whole life change.
Aiden, the stranger, ends up as the bartender at Caroline's party at the new beach house to celebrate her new home. At this same party, Caroline and her husband get into a fight in front of the entire party and nothing is the same after this night. Caroline realizes her husband is lying and caught him in his lies.
Caroline's life begins to fall apart and she spends a regretful night with Aiden.
Aiden becomes obsessed with Caroline...........or does he??
The narrators shift from Aiden to Caroline and the reader learns that perspective is the key.


My Thoughts:
If you've ever seen the HBO Series The Affair, you will know what to expect in this book. Aiden and Caroline have differing perspectives regarding the events following the party where the two of them meet. Who is telling the truth? Is Aiden really as obsessed with Caroline as she perceives? What is going on with Caroline's husband?
This book is an obsessive read that I read on a recent beach trip. I really couldn't put it down and couldn't figure out what was the truth was! Michele Campbell is definitely one of my "go-to" authors for a great thriller!


Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of The Stranger on the Beach that I received.
 


www.hockeysticksgripsandtrips.com

This was an awesome read. This story had me mesmerized. A page turner. I was doubting my own theories as to what truly happened between Aiden & Caroline. Thank you Netgalley, I think I found a new author to look for.

Have you ever read a book where you thought you had it figured out but the first five chapters and was completely wrong—but in a good way! This book has a twist that I didn’t see coming and for that alone I would say you have to read this one. The main character was iffy for me in that I liked her sometimes and then loathed her but I believe she was intentionally written that way. I would recommend!

Nicely Played.....

There are books marked as Psychological thrillers and then there are the ACTUAL Psychological thrillers!!!! Holy Cow!

This is a book that I think it is best to go in as blind as possible. When you seem to have it all and your whole world crumbles what do you do? Who do you turn to? Caroline appears to have it all - good looks, a handsome husband, a beach house, an apartment in the city, fancy clothes, a nice car but everything falls to pieces all in one night. Things get even worse when Caroline's husband goes missing.

This was a smart psychological thriller told through Caroline and Aiden's POV. This is the fun part as we see two different perspectives about the same events. Is one viewing the situations through rose-colored glasses? Is one unreliable? Is one manipulating the other? Is one dangerous? Who can be trusted? Who is to be believed?

This book had quite a few twists and turns which kept the action moving at just the right pace. I love when I think I have a book figured out and then it pulls the wool over my eyes. This one certainly did that. This was a fun page-turner full of are-you-freaking-kidding-me-moments and I savored every page. When nothing is as it seems, what is it then? Read and find out!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I love beach thrillers! The setting is so beautiful and peaceful and it's easy to get lost inside a book that has a beach setting. Its also the perfect place for murder and lies and everything horrific. All the creeps. All of them inside this book. I LOVED it. And if you are looking for a twist, A Stranger on the Beach has it, along with lies, sex, deceit, a very bad hurricane about to wreak havoc on a very glamorous house in the Hamptons, and more sex. The hurricane was symbolic as it wasn't just the weather about to come crashing in, so were the lives of the characters. The characters were so brought to life off of the pages and the scenery was well created. The book was written in two POVs and each POV as describing the same situation but totally different. I had chills most of this book. I read this book in one sitting. I cannot wait to read more by Michele Campbell. 5 stars for A Stranger on the Beach.

I spent a fair amount of reading saying WTF?! I didn’t know who was getting gaslit more - the characters or myself. This was a cleaver, manipulative, engrossing read that I surprisingly couldn’t put down.

I really really enjoyed this book. At first I didn't really like how different the contrast was between Caroline and Aidan, but from pretty early on I didn't believe Caroline's narrative and I think this is mostly because they were so contrastingly different.

I found some aspects of the book to be a bit predictable (it was pretty obvious the minute Caroline went missing that her husband was still alive), but overall I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to my friends. I started reading this on a beach in Hawaii and I thought it was a great vacation read!

I would give this book a 3.5 out 5 stars.

I had no idea this was one of those "Unreliable narrator" books. I literally thought one of these characters was delusional! This was a fun read that definitely did not turn out the way I thought it was going to. The hurricane scene literally had me biting my nails the entire time. The writing was great- descriptive, it really put you there and I felt like I knew what the places being described looked like perfectly. This book is a perfect summer read. 4/5 stars! Thank you St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.

I love my Psychological Thrillers to be crazy and this one sure is! This is a great story that will leave you wondering if anyone is sane?!? Really enjoyed this book from beginning to end! Highly recommend!

I had a tough time with this book. It was very slow and uninteresting.

I didn't like any of the characters; they were very under-developed, along with the plot itself. It just didn't make any sense.

The idea of telling the same story from two different point of views tends to work and make a book more intriguing. That didn't work with this one. It was too over the top. Too far out in left field. I just couldn't jump on board with either story or how things possibly played out.

Unfortunately, because of how all over the place this book is written, I probably won't be reading any future books from this author.

Unpopular opinion: This thriller just didn't thrill me.

The Good: It was a quick read with two unreliable narrators. I did enjoy not knowing what was real and not real, who was lying and who was telling the truth. Or was it like that saying that the truth lies somewhere in between? I thought the storytelling was amazing.

But: I hated the characters. I couldn't get invested in either Aidan or Caroline and it just didn't gel together for me. And I guessed the ending. I don't mind unlikeable characters in general, but usually I need someone to be invested in and I found myself not caring.

To be fair, maybe I was expecting too much. I read a lot of thrillers and this one just wasn't for me. That doesn't mean another reader won't enjoy it. Give it a try. You may like the ride and the storytelling. The alternating chapters between Caroline and Aidan were so well done.

This book was a good old fashioned thriller with enough twists and turns to keep me guessing until the end. It will be a great summer beach read.

Who is telling the truth? I asked myself this a hundred times reading this. Truly a book full of twists and turns and it is hard to put down. This book made me want to check out more of the authors books

Caroline and her husband have built a beautiful beach house, but while she is looking out at the view, she sees a stranger. A young man looking up at her house from the beach. After that moment, nothing is the same in the life of Caroline, or the stranger. His name is Aiden, a local with a troubled past. Their attraction is immediate, and potentially dangerous. This story was very interesting, there were times I was confused as the stories of Caroline were completely different to what Aiden describes, so it's really hard to know who is telling the truth and what the real story is. A good read overall!

A truly twisting tale. Who is telling the truth? What is actually happening?

Those are the two questions you’ll keep asking yourself. I couldn’t put this book down because I needed to know what would happen next.