A scary thriller depicted in a manner of a reality show! I felt it definitely kept me guessing and I would definitely read more books by this talented author.

"The Islanders" is a fast-paced, thrilling, scandalous tale of revenge. I loved the premise and watching the action unfold. I particularly liked the format and inclusion of social media reactions. I read with my book group and most of us skipped ahead instead of sticking to our allocated sections each week. The plot is over-the-top, just like the show on which it is loosely based. Overall an enjoyable read and satisfying slice of escapism.

I read this with my book club who are all NetGalley addicts!

Kimberley is selected as one of the players in a new series of a reality tv programme based on a remote Greek island. They will be the only people living on the island. She had watched the programme in the past and decided she would do it just for the chance of winning the first prize of £100,000.

She did not expect one of the contestants to be found dead on the first night. As she had previously worked in the police force, she is tasked with solving the murder by a ‘judge’ who appears by a live feed on their tv screen and is given an hour to do so or someone else will die.

An interesting version of a locked room mystery which I raced through.

We read this as part of our book club for March. Our overall rating is a 3.5 and my individual rating is a 3.

I enjoyed the fast-paced and easy nature of the book and the mixed media throughout. I also felt the length was appropriate for the story- any longer at it would have been more dragged out.

Despite all the loose ends being tied up, I did find the ending a little underwhelming.

Thank you #netgalley and #canelobooks for the advanced copy of this book.

The reality show LoveWrecked is back on tv and looking for house mates. Prize money of £100,000 pounds! A stay at a beautiful mansion overlooking the stunning blue waters of Crete and the chance to find potential love. So why not sign up now!

Kimberley King had been in a rut for the last five years, trying to forget why she left the police force. Being randomly selected to participate on LoveWrecked is the perfect escape. All she needs to do is find the perfect male partner so they can win the prize money and she can have a fresh start.

The island stay starts off with a meet and greet dinner party and ends with a dead body. Kimberley is then tasked, by an anonymous gamesmaster, to find the killer live on television. And if she doesn't succeed, one person will die every hour.
The game is afoot, all the contestants have secrets and time is running out!

This was a fast paced book that I finished in one day. It was a fun mystery and for the life of me I couldn't figure out who the killer was. It felt like a locked room mystery but on a deserted homestead instead. The plot flowed and the twists and turns kept me guessing until the very end.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley in return for an honest review.

This was the Tsundoku Squads Mach book, our third read together. We split it into 4 parts and had a discussion each Saturday at the end of the week.

Now I really enjoyed this, I loved the murder mystery and trying to figure out what was going on, but I quite enjoyed the character of the Judge. The judge shows their face on the screens after the first death in the villa, and it reminded me of something along the lines of the Saw movies, mixed with the Hunger Games. There was a fun element to this, having the timer there to count down to the next murder, and them all trying to figure out who it was.

I know some of the group said it reminded them of Love Island, now I’ve never watched it but you can guess that’s what it’s like. Not the murders of course, but the villa, the pool, the alcohol and partying.

There was pieces of social media in the book, after certain chapters, which agai wa someone. I liked, it brought a real time aspect to it. They were tweets at first and comments from people watching, then emails to one certain person from different people.

This book was quite fast paced and easy to read, but fun in my eyes, and a good one for a book group choice. I gave it 4 stars.

The premise of this book sounded really good and I had high hopes for the story but unfortunately for me it wasn't that great.
It is an easy read and is incredibly fast paced with lots of murder and drama throughout which I enjoyed but the main character Kim was unlikable and considering she used to be a police officer she wasn't very good at trying to solve the case. The drama was a little too much over the top and the likeness to the Love Island set was also a bit too obvious.
There were twists thrown in to keep the readers off the scent and I knew the suspect was going to be someone to do with Kim's last case as a police officer but I wasn't sure how everyone else fitted in.
The book is also set out a little differently, with chapters from Kim's POV, a news website that is providing fans with the latest goings on in the villa with attached comments and also further on we are shown messages to and from the Judge which offered a but more insight into the backstory.
Overall a quick and easy read that is a little over the top but offers good bits of drama.

Loved this! So good, so exciting, so gripping and great story. Can't wait to read more by this author - absolutely brilliant.

And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie's iconic thriller, has inspired many a retelling or update. S.V. Leonard's The Islanders is the newest in a broad pool of such takes, but it's the first I've seen that sets its doomed islanders in the middle of a reality TV show.

The premise is actually kind of brilliant - the reality show element means the contestants have a reason for being on this island, despite being a totally disparate group, and most of all it lends the story an additional sense of spine-chilling fearfulness, as there is literally someone watching at all times. Plus, the original story's conceit of putting its victims on trial to be judged for their crimes works perfectly for a medium in which, week after week, contestants are judged and found wanting - and eliminated, one by one.

Of course, that elimination is usually a bit less gory than in S.V. Leonard's murderous riff on Love Island, here called LoveWrecked.

There's a certain amount of suspension of disbelief necessary for the plot to work, but nothing really more than I was willing to do - it's a wild, over-the-top premise in the first place, and you just have to buckle in and go for it. Where the story lost me was with the lack of clues or information to help the reader (not to mention its ex-cop protagonist, Kimberley King) solve - or try to solve - the mystery before it's actually revealed. I simultaneously predicted the killer almost instantly (based on...well, knowing how books should work?), and felt like there was no way I could reasonably have been expected to get their on my own. The fun of a whodunit is the sense, once all has been revealed, that one SHOULD have been able to tell - that the solution was inevitable, right in front of one's nose the whole time. The Islanders is more of a thriller than a whodunit, despite being based on a classic of the latter genre, but I missed that sense of "ah, of course!" following the revelation.

I also have to mention what felt to me like a weird and uncomfortable strain of, not so much a pro-police attitude (I wouldn't have expected much else, as the book stars a former cop), but rather anti-anyone-who-dares-criticize-the-police. There were just a few lines that frankly could have been edited or excised without adjusting the storyline at all, but they left a sour taste in my mouth. So that's just something to be aware of, as a reader.

But for the most part, The Islanders was a fast, absorbing, cheesy-fun amusement park ride of a story, and while it may have moved too quickly to include much in the way of evidence, it also moved too quickly to ever get bored. Body after body, drama after drama - just like a good reality show.

Thank you to NetGalley and Canelo for the advance review copy.

I really had high hopes for this one as I both enjoy a locked room mystery and a fun reality televison show. This just fell a little flat for me. The plot didn't make sense at times and was just so unbelievable. The book setting was interesting but there was little character development. I just didn't even care about any of the reality contestants. The ending saved this one from being a 2 star book.

A reality tv show meets crime?

Sign me up! Not in real life ofcourse, but in a book, I am really eager to get into this!


The story was fun and well written, I enjoyed reading it!

Love wreck is a reality TV show that has been off air for 5 years. They announce that it's coming 1back but the contestants will be chosen at random this year. Kim is a barmaid party girl she is approached and asked to join this years cast. With no money or job and £100k prize money is to tempting so she agrees to take part in the show. But paradise doesn't seem quite right and her senses are high from arrival. So when she hears a fellow cast mate screaming and sees one of the contestants is dead in the pool, she knows things aren't what they seem because she knows it's murder and that means one of them is the killer.


I really loved the concept of this book and I must say it is written so well. We follow Kim throughout the story she is ex police which becomes obvious quickly and yet her life seems to be a mess. I enjoyed trying to discover what it actually was to turn her into her. She has some funny thoughts to help break up the intensity of the book but still keep us hooked.

Even though the story is told from Kim's point of view we can still tell that there are obvious secrets that everyone is telling and that leads us on the investigation further. I enjoyed this because even when some secrets are revealed we don't know straight away whose Is whose. Its wrutten very cleverly

The novel breaks up between the show and an online newspaper I have noticed a lot more books are including modern technology within their writing and it adds something to the story

Would I wrecommend this book? Yes I would it's a interesting read and has a gripping storyline. I hope one day this is made into a film because that is the one of the main reasons I can only give its 3stars I feel n the description was lacking I'm so and overkill at other times. But I liked the story do I totally think its worth it..

Thank you to netgalley, the author and publisher for allowing me an arc in exchange for my fair and honest review.

Entertaining and pacy debut.

I've seen this being pitched as Agatha Christie for the Love Island generation & it is a gripping locked door murder mystery. The early time on the island really gripped me & I found myself flying through the book. This is one of those books that, by its nature, makes you play along with Kim in trying to work out who the murderer is, its drops clues & red herrings as it goes along.

I'm glad you get answers though the ending left me a little cold as I couldn't believe it would be allowed to pan out as it did. However having everything wrapped up in a neat bow was satisfying.

A quick, compelling read. If this were a normal year I could imagine this featuring heavily round the poolside as a book of the summer as it is full of sun and suspense.

Gripping tense book, page turning. Ripe for an adaptation. The character of Kim is one to be admired, an arc of development and growth throughout the plot whilst others are stubborn and not willing to adapt

Kimberly is an ex-policewoman who is struggling to find herself again after spiraling downhill from a case that almost broke her. Out of the blue she is told that she has been randomly selected to join the cast of the reality television show "The Islanders" and will have the chance to win $100,000. The show has been on hiatus for the past five years and this is the show's way of bring back more tv watchers than ever before. Kim desperately needs the money and would love to get away from her life for awhile so she accepts the invitation to be on television 24/7 with a group of people she doesn't know on a secluded island in Greece and a chance to win money that she really needs. She'd be crazy not to participate, right? A beautiful island in warm and sunny Greece, living in a mansion for weeks with all amenities paid for. What could go wrong other than making a fool of herself in front of millions of viewers. Trouble in paradise begins almost immediately when a few cast members have a heated argument and the next morning one of the cast is found dead. Accident or murder? Unbeknownst to the group is that they are stranded on this island without any communication to the outside world and there is a killer hiding somewhere in their midst and that they plan to be the only survivor left when the cameras stop rolling!

This was a fast and entertaining read for me. If any readers enjoy reality television shows this book is for you. A cross between "Survivor" and "The Challenge" is how the show sounded. I didn't have to wait long before the action began and what fun it was to keep guessing who the killer (or killers) were and the reasoning behind why all these contestants were chosen. I really enjoyed the continuous action and being kept in suspense until the very end. I recommend this book to all readers who enjoy a fast paced and exciting mystery full of island drama This was a well-written and plotted story and I hope to read more S. V. Leonard books in the future!

I wan to thank the publisher "Canelo" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this story and any thoughts and opinions expressed are in it and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 3 Sinister 🌟🌟🌟 Stars!!

I'll admit that I was intrigued by the prospect of this book - a crossover of Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None' and Love Island! The idea of a murder mystery under the all-seeing eye of a reality TV programme was definitely an attraction as I'd read and enjoyed 'Dead Famous' by Ben Elton on a similar theme many years ago.

This book centres on an ex-police officer, Kimberley King, who is invited to take place on a reality TV programme on a remote Greek island. The show - 'LoveWrecked' - is scheduled to have a number of young, beautiful people take part, but only a few make it to the island before it is cut off from the outside world. Along with the show's producers and a cameraman, the contestants are pulled into a dark and disturbing situation when corpses start turning up with alarming regularity. Who is the Judge pulling all the strings and will anyone survive?

This was an engaging and fun read - I raced through it to find out what happened. It is cleverly plotted and fast-paced - I liked the fact that the narrative was broken up with chapters of news reports or social media feeds or emails. I also enjoyed the fact that - like Kimberley King - I was useless at working out the solution and was kept guessing to the end.

I found I didn't have much sense of the characters as individuals, although I guess that is partly due to the reality TV element - how much do you really know about people just from watching them interact? The focus is mainly on Kimberley and you do get a bit more of a sense of her. I think I just accepted that the surface-level characterisation and back-stories were inevitable given the social media and reality TV premise.

Yes, some of it is far-fetched and perhaps doesn't hold water entirely, but I'd recommend you suspend disbelief and just immerse yourself in the story. There's certainly plenty to keep you reading - lots of dodgy characters to suspect, lots of twists, lots of deaths. It's a lively story with a fun setting - so just enjoy!

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

My head is reeling, I don't know exactly what to say other than OMG! Remind me never to go onto a reality TV show ever, it could be the last thing you ever do.

I think even programmes like "When Reality TV Goes Wrong" wouldn't have been able to know what to make of the events that happened in the LoveWrecked villa over the course of the book. And a word of note if you are a TV producer, I know ratings are key for you, but please don't allowing live streamed murder, and then the rest of the happenings in this book on your programmes, its horrific.

That being said I can't help but think The Islanders would make a wonderful film, full of intrigue, its fast paced, you literally don't know what will be thrown at them next, other than Kimberley is being put into an impossible situation.

This is about a reality TV programme but not as you know it and its very hard to know who you can trust, and at no point did I guess just who set it all up or who was responsible. Then again the action was so frenetically paced that my head didn't have time to try to work anything out, just trying to keep up with what was happening.

This is one seriously impressive debut, I read the book in two sittings and that was only because I wanted to go to bed, not because I wanted to be parted from the story that was ramping up at all times. Utterly brilliant!

Thank you to Canelo and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily,

If you like reality TV programmes then you will love this book, a modern take on Agatha Christie - Then there were none! A few twists and turns, the story flows quickly through the events with an untangling of the back stories towards the end. Whodunnit? Read the book to find out. Thank you #NetGalley for the copy.

The Islanders is a riveting locked-room thriller and a promise of paradise and exotic luxury that quickly turns into a bloody nightmare. After a five-year break in broadcasting, smash-hit reality television show LoveWrecked is about to return to viewers’ screens in a brand new series. Twenty lucky people chosen at random from their social media accounts, rather than asking for applications as in previous years, will be transported to a remote island off the Greek mainland and must pair up with a contestant of the opposite sex in order for the couples to fight it out in survival-based challenges to defeat the others. One couple is eliminated each week until only one is left. The winning team will scoop a cool £100k each to take home and do with as they please. Police Officer turned bartender Kimberley King, who is trying to get over the upsetting memories tied to her job in the force, is picked as contestant number one. She suffers from PTSD and is struggling daily not only with her mental health but with paying the bills that just keep mounting up. She feels she has nothing to lose by accepting the place and if she's lucky it could be the solution to all of her financial woes. When they arrive on the secluded island only a few crew members and contestants have managed to make it there through the huge storm and the first evening sees everyone extremely drunk.

This suits Kim fine as she's always been known as a bit of a party girl back home. When they wake up the following morning the alcohol-induced effects are still going strong but blurry eyesight can't stop them from the horrific sight in front of them; a body is floating face down in the swimming pool. It's Jack Peak. Then out of nowhere a television lights up and a figure is shown on the screen. Dressed like a judge, the figure informs everyone that's it's Kim’s job to investigate and ascertain who the murderer is among those present on the island and not only must she do so on television but also against the clock. For every hour that passes with the perpetrator left unidentified, another of the islanders will meet their maker. Can she save the rest of the cast's lives? This is a riveting and deeply compulsive read from the turn of the very first page, and although you must suspend your disbelief at how the plot isn't exactly realistic, the rapid-fire pace, engaging characters, twisty-turny narrative and intense mystery keep you reading way past your bedtime and more than make up for it. Kim is an interesting character who ends up taking this opportunity to escape the hell she is going through mentally and financially but ends up in an even worse position than she started. It is a gripping, immersive and enthralling tale. Highly recommended.

I have to admit, after reading, that I think this is going to be a ‘Marmite’ book for most people. Love it or hate it, I think it will be one to spark discussion and comment. However, that being said, I am 100% in the ‘love it’ camp and I really hope my review can do some justice in explaining why.

First of all, the set up, the title of the TV show and the use of the ‘Fire Pit’ is of course all reminiscent of the popular British TV show, Love Island. To me, this was a hook in, as I absolutely love that show (love a bit of trash TV) and I was eager to see how this book followed that structure, but also departed from it.

having said that, I think it does the book a great disservice in some ways to compare it to the set-up of Love Island. Yes, it is clearly a book about something that is rather far-fetched and staged, but it is also much more than that. Namely, I found this book to be original in style and structure, completely gripping and also cleverly incorporating and subverting some ‘traditional’ elements of the murder mystery genre.

Following the exciting but in some ways predicate Love Island-style opening to the novel, the book becomes increasingly dark and takes us on quite a rollercoaster of twists and turns, after the mysterious ‘Judge’ character appears. “One of them killed Jack Peaks, but who? And why?” Just when we think we are getting close to the ‘truth’ or ‘solving’ the puzzle, we are proved wrong.

I really enjoyed the way S V Leonard wrote the characters in this one. It has completely turned my ideas about what good character development is like, upside down. Traditionally, you expect a main character to be introduced and the back story explained, in order to build a relationship between reader and character, possibly build a sense of sympathy, etc. S V Leonard’s approach here is very different. We are given so little information about the characters, that it makes it difficult to trust anyone, and we are soon questioning everything and everyone.

This obviously clearly creates tension and suspense throughout the book. This is also done quite stylistically and sophisticatedly through the chapter structures, with many chapters ending in cliff-hangers, and through some of the memorable descriptions. “How can the sun continue to shine even over this?”

I also made links between this book and a book by one of the greatest crime writers of all time. I feel revealing the name of it may give away a couple of spoilers, so I won’t do that, but it is referenced in the book and I can really see the relevance of it.

I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that in this sparkling and explosive debut, S V Leonard takes traditional tropes of the murder mystery genre and throws them wholeheartedly into the 21st century, with a confidence and originality that I have absolutely adored. If I could describe this book in three words I would say it is: gripping, ground-breaking and gritty.