This was a compelling read.
This is a very character driven novel about a group of friends and their relationships to each other.
This is a family based drama

Fantastic.
The authoress really knows how to tell a story!!! I mean, this novel is mainly about a couple of days vacation that two families spent together. But what a description of a vacation this is! Even the most common, small family happenings read as a great literature, fascinating and breathtaking in their everyday-ness.
And I came to love these families in their commonality, petty mistakes and mix of characteristics and all. They are me, they reflect my own normality.
But...there is also a dark undercurrent behind all the common surface. You only see glimpses of something, here and there, but slowly you realize there is going to be some climax.

And - then it happens. And it changes everything in both the present and the future time.

And the aftermath of that event is why I am not going for the full 5 stars but 4. Still a fantastic read, but after “it” the novel loses steam. Mainly because after “it” chapters are short and some motives are never being explained or even named. A pity.
But this novel also made me a fan of the authoress and I will definitely follow her work in the future.

Slow Burn Suspense.....
Suspicions, secrets and rumours abound in The House in Fripp Island. Two families, one holiday on Fripp Island. It will be a Summer to remember. A slow burn suspense with writing that unfortunately didn’t pull me under its’ spell.

Great book to read. It was exciting and fast paced. A good thriller . Great plot, interesting characters that all fitted well. The book was very well written.

An intriguing study of two very different families thrown together on a holiday. The men couldn't be much different and the women, old friends, struggle to hold it together. The children all have their own issues and agendas. We know from the introduction that someone dies but we don't find out who and how until the very end. Not fond of the writing from beyond the grave thing, but other than that it was a good family drama with twists and turns that were not expected.

The House On Fripp Island was a truly atmospheric psychological family drama, with a cast of intriguing and realistic characters that is immediately involving.

Two families, one holiday, many secrets, that’s the scene we enter into and we immediately become aware that this holiday will not have a happy ending…

But that’s where comparisons to popular psychological thrillers stops. The author tells a compelling story of interacting relationships, of children at various levels of coming of age, where everyone holds certain things close, those secrets we all keep. Yet all the way through there’s an underlying tension, a sense of doom that seeps into the sunniest corners..

The House On Fripp Island certainly delivers on its promise.. you will want to talk about crime and retribution when you get to the end of it, the reality of actions and consequences is firmly embedded into this and is hugely thought provoking.

Rebecca Kauffman creates a set of characters who can at turns be both likeable and really horrible, a multi layered group dynamic that really makes the finale shocking.

This is an intelligent thriller that takes normal people with all their personalities and flaws and shows us how easy it is for one single action to end up being catastrophic.

Highly recommended. Read this.

The House on Fripp Island by Rebecca Kauffman is yet another cleverly plotted book. It starts with a prologue and our narrator talking about their one and only trip to Fripp Island. Before fairly casually dropping in the fact they were dead by the end of the short getaway... Lovely Bones-style.

The prologue implies that twenty years have passed since our narrator dies on Fripp Island, so Kauffman (presumably purposely) stumps us for a while. As the book proper opens we meet our key players... the Daly family - Scott, Lisa and their daughters Rae and Kimmy. We fairly quickly learn that the marriage between Scott and Lisa isn't entirely amicable and this quickly escalates once they arrive on the island.

They invite Lisa's childhood bestie, Poppy and her husband John (and their two kids, Ryan and Alex). The two families couldn't be more different. Lisa and Scott live a life of privilege and revel is the best of things, whereas Poppy and John keep afloat. 

Poppy in particular is resentful of those with 'more'.

"Poppy could feel a familiar and deeply unpleasant volatility stirring inside her. Being around rich people made her feel small and precarious. It made her want to be mean." p 12

Despite having 'less' materially, Poppy and John are obviously happier together and Lisa admits to us that—though she doesn't envy their lifestyle—she's slightly resentful of their relationship.

"But instead she was finding Poppy's radiant energy cruel in the way it illuminated her own misery. Poppy was living a good life—that was undeniable. It wasn't a life that Lisa desired, at least not on its surface, not that husband or that tax bracket. It was Poppy herself who had something Lisa desperately wanted...

This is what Lisa wanted most. She wanted to be sure she was living the right life....

She wanted to stop feeling that somehow she'd gotten confused, fallen off course, and the right path had vanished altogether. She wanted to stop feeling like she was doomed, like all that lay before her were different wrong lives, and she was on the brink of committing herself to one of these seriously wrong lives for the rest of her days, leaving no possibility for escape or a redo. Lisa didn't want to feel that she was on the brink." pp 96-97

I have to admit, though I wasn't overly fond of Lisa (as a person... and yes I know she's not real, though Kauffman obviously did a good job with her character!!!) I could understand her fear of having taken the wrong path and uncertainty whether pursuing will take her further from contentment.

I don't think I'm really offering any spoilers by mentioning that we soon realise that our narrator is obviously someone we meet during the families' visit to Fripp Island. Whether it's one of the two women or three daughters we're not sure. And of course we meet other locals, so Kauffman keeps us guessing.

I assume I requested this book for review because I love a good mystery, but in many ways this is a study of families and relationships. Both functional and dysfunctional.

We're also exposed to two very different sibling relationships and we're told Lisa and Poppy were akin to sisters themselves when younger. Indeed now, Poppy (who remains in their childhood hometown) is playing the role of daughter to Lisa's sick mother.

There's a strong sense of the gulf between the 'haves' and 'have-nots'. It's more about having money, rather than 'class' though I'd suggest. It's most evident with Lisa and Poppy, who grew up together in similar circumstances, but whose lives diverged significantly... and then their values (also) as a result.

And of course there are secrets and misunderstandings. Scott's obviously hiding something and Lisa has her suspicions. Poppy tries to support her friend but Lisa seems to prefer the acrimonious relationship she's putting her family through rather than lose what she has lifestyle-wise.

As a result there's also a sad sense of misjudgement and badly formed assumptions. Although Kauffman keeps us guessing on the specifics, we readers can see what's coming but are powerless to stop it. 

In many ways the tragic events of this book result from misunderstandings; from things said; and actions taken, without consideration of the consequences. And that's really kinda sad. 

3.5 stars

I'm in two minds after putting this book down. It was not a bad read but unfortunately, it didn't wow me. I think the thing that bothered me most was the conclusion. It just didn't feel right. I also found the behaviour of some of the characters odd at times.

Thank you to NetGalley, Serpent's Tale and Profile books for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Two families take a trip to South Carolina for a summer holiday. The Daly’s are Lisa, Scott and their two daughters are used to taking this type of luxury holiday. However, for their guests this is a dream come true, Lisa’s childhood friend Poppy, her husband John and their two children can’t turn down an all expenses paid trip like this. It’s a strange mix of one wealthy family and another they might not normally mix with. They might not get on. But, none of them expected there to be one less of them on the return trip.
I was interested in the back story of the two women, who grew up very close to each other. This is probably because I’m middle aged and we tend to look around us and realise that people end up in very diverse places in life, either through work or marriage, In these women’s case Lisa moved away and up the social ladder a few rungs when she married Scott. Poppy lived next door to Lisa’s mum, then when Lisa’s mum was very ill Poppy looked after her like a daughter. There’s a sense in which Lisa owes Poppy, but in another way she might resent her. This holiday was Lisa’s way of paying her friend back and I got the sense that normally she would have refused, but this was a prize winning holiday so Lisa hadn’t paid for it personally. I also enjoyed the prologue where we learn that someone on this holiday is murdered. The author is skilled at making each person suspicious in their own way and the end was a genuine surprise for me, I would recommend it to others who enjoy mysteries.

This was an amazing domestic drama that kept me guessing. I found it to be unpredictable, and enjoyed every page. It was a quick, great read that I definitely recommend this one!

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this E-book to review via Netgalley.

I think the premise and setting of this book were amazing. I was really looking forward to it. It was well written and it had the elements of an intriguing book, but somehow the story didn't come together in an exciting way.

We know there's a murder of a person in the end, but we don't know who. Howver, the problem was things didn't tie up in a holistic way.

So, enjoyable but not the greatest in terms of plot.

Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

A mysterious story of two friendships.
Kauffman brings together two people who’s worlds have gone in very different directions and they try to find the connection they once had as kids.
However the island has a different plan for them and situations occur that led to secrets and unexplained behaviors.

This is a story about two families who go on vacation together at Fripp Island. The two women, Lisa and Poppy, grew up together but Lisa moved up in the world when she married and lives a middle class life whereas Poppy and her husband continue to live a working class life and have to watch the pennies. Both have children who get along well with one another.

Mostly the book is a good character study and easy to read. We know from the start that a dramatic event is going to occur but we don't know who is going to be affected. I enjoyed the story until the ending which was a bit disappointing and to my mind not really credible. There were also a few loose ends which were never tied up but weren't important to the main plot. Overall a good story.

The House on Fripp Island</em> is the newest novel written by Rebecca Kauffman. The novel follows two families, the Dalys and the Fords: the former are wealthy and have won an all-inclusive retreat at the Island on raffle, while the latter are a family that lives paycheck to paycheck, trying to make ends meet. Poppy Ford is invited by her childhood friend Lisa Daly to join her family for this holiday: both families have 2 kids, who seem to get along. However, during the prologue of the book, the reader discovers that one person has died: not sure who, or how, which adds mystery to the novel.
thought this book was well-written and engaging: everybody had secrets and the author is very good at pulling all the characters together in a realistic way. I did, however, expect to find out more about the murder earlier on, and I thought it would be a thriller, while it seems more of a contemporary fiction novel, with a murder in it, that doesn't really get mentioned if not at the beginning and very end.

I was actually really excited to read this book: my grandparents live on Fripp Island and I've been going there since I was born, visiting them every summer until very recently. I was expecting to find in this book the characteristics that I love of the island, maybe some well-known spots mentioned (like roads, or even beach names etc), but it's sad to say I was disappointed: it almost feels like the author has never been on the island and has just randomly picked a nice place to set her book in. She also gets a few things wrong (for example the island has two golf courses, not one. She talks about surfers, but no one surfs on Fripp, as the waves aren't tall enough, etc.). I mean, being that the island really doesn't serve a true purpose to the story, other than to continuously reiterate that it's for the rich and wealthy, it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things

<p>I did enjoy this book though, as I read it in only 2 sittings. I thought it was well-written and the characters were all well-rounded, and had their own personality. She does also tie up things very nicely in the end, although she does set an unrealistic "happily ever after" to all the characters (well... except for the person that died).

I enjoyed this book but it left me feeling unsatisfied. It is beautifully written, and I enjoyed the interactions of the two families. We know that someone will be murdered by the end of the vacation, but it was a let down the way it happened. I did like that there was a chapter covering what happened to both families after.

Lisa and Scott have not been happy in their marriage for some time. Their two daughters and the wealth they surround themselves with are not enough to reconcile the pair. But perhaps an all-expenses holiday to Fripp Island will be? Or maybe it will provide the backdrop for their undoing, instead.

The four are joined by Lisa's childhood best friend, Poppy, and her family for what promises to be a sun-drenched four days of relaxation and family fun on the white sands that are metres away from their front door. But there is something, or someone, lurking near their new abode that is potentially far more sinister than the beach sands and with only a small section of it to separate them. And whilst Lisa's attention is directed towards the figure she thinks will become her next nightmare, in addition to the turmoil lurking within, another is rearing its head and none of them can stop it from striking.

This was an absolutely riveting read I tore through over the course of a single day. Mysteries were in abundance and every character had something to hide from the others. It never veered into the realms of melodrama and never felt overdone in its suspenseful journey to the climax, however incredible and inciting the incidents became. Instead, Kauffman kept the readers on an even pace that matched the leisurely days of the holidaying families and that made the conclusion, and small previous reveals, all the more shocking for the supposed serenity that surrounded them.

I'm afraid I found this anti-climatic and really a bit dull. We know someone will die from the opening lines but not who... but it takes a long time before the story catches up with lots of laborious talk, making of meals and drinking. I wanted more tension, a more sinister atmosphere, clearer characterization, just more oomph. Even when the murder appears, it's sort of unconnected to the story we've been following, is over in a flash, then there's a long 'years later' section that is very 'told'. I couldn't get excited about this one at all - sorry!