3 destination wedding stars

Three couples head off to Portugal for one couple’s wedding ceremony. I did have trouble keeping all six characters straight. The prospective groom and his brother are two of the characters.

Then there’s Rachel and Noah who have been best friends since university days. They tell everyone that they’ve only ever been friends, but it’s obvious they really care for each other. Are they being honest with themselves?

There are secrets, lies, misunderstandings, and infidelity all swirling around in this one and I wasn’t sure what to believe.

The bride, Ali, has a lot of secrets in her closet and she’s been acting strangely with Rachel’s husband Jack. What’s going on there? And can anything she says be trusted?

One of my favorite parts of this book was the setting, I would love to visit Portugal someday, although I think I will admire some of the views from a distance.

This one has a tense ending that I’m still puzzling through.

I really wanted to love this book, and I did until about 60% of the way through it, when the incident that the description mentioned still hadn't happened. I was expecting more of a crime thriller, with twists and turns, but the crime itself didn't happen until 90% of the way through the book. So it was a lot of feelings and ruminating on feelings, and anguishing over what to do. There were many times I wanted to jump in the book and shake the main character for being so wishy-washy and so easily emotionally manipulated by others.

I loved the story and the premise, but I did not love the execution of it.

My Review:⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/ 5 stars
This is a thriller that revolves around 6 friends and a wedding destination weekend in Portugal. Jack/Rachel and Paige/Noah are friends - mostly because Rachel/Noah are best friends from University. Jack and Paige just had to go along with the ride - and now they are going to Jack’s brother’s wedding to Ali, a former associate of Jack (who is acting really weird about Ali). Naturally, Rachel thinks Jack and Ali are having an affair. She spends most of the wedding weekend trying to find more clues to their past while discovering new secrets about her own group of friends.

The story was ok overall. Reading it feels like I am in the middle of a very awkward dinner party where the hosts are fighting amongst each other. It got a bit confusing because even though Rachel is the narrator, you still don’t really know what’s going on in her head. This whole group of friends lie to each other so I am surprised they even are friends. The characters were all a little bit unlikeable so it was more difficult to care about what happened to them. I wished I liked this a lot more, but it was ok!

Thank you to Minotaur Books and netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

Rachel can't help but question. She can't help but wonder. Is she right? Is she wrong? Maybe she's right and wrong?

Another great book From Sandie Jones!

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

A destination wedding, what could go wrong?

Rachel and Noah have been best friends since college. Noah went away on a year sabbatical and Rachel meets and marries Jack. Noah meets Paige after he returns home and marries her. Jack's brother Will meets Ali and that is the wedding they are traveling to.

The arrive at a villa that is breathtaking beautiful, much to everyone's surprise since Will is known to be a little lax in accommodations. As the few days pass, secrets start to be revealed, assumptions made, and a horrific event happens at the wedding. Will they all be going home together?

This book was fantastic. As soon as I had something figured out - wrong!! It kept me guessing until the end. I cannot wait to read more by this author.

Three couples go to Portugal for the wedding of Will and Ali, one of the couples. There is a lot drama, lies and secrets between all the couples.
This book was all over the place for me. I didn't really like any of the characters. The 40 something women, Rachel and Paige, acted like catty teenagers. Ali is flirty and seems to lie about everything. At times Rachel seems half delusional and neurotic with her suspicions and conspiracy theories. .
The story has a lot of details and theories to keep track of and half the time I was feigning interest, because I didn't want to abandon it. I shook my head in confusion many times When it did finally come to a wrap it was quick and still left me confused and with questions.

I have really enjoyed other books by Sandie Jones so I was thrilled to see a new book by her. There is a lot going on-think soap opera drama. Destination wedding, who is lying, who is cheating, what is going on? This is a solid and entertaining beach read but not my favorite of her books.

Thx to Net Galley, Sandie Jones, and as always, a special thanks to St. Martins Press for this ARC.
This was my summer beach read and I enjoyed it. This is a combination ChickLit/Thriller. Story seemed to drag a little in parts, but the last quarter of the book is fast moving. I enjoyed the writing and the of the dynamics between the couples and the friends. I am always a Sandie Jones fan ! 4 stars..

Wow, what a wild ride! I received this ARC a little while back and quite honestly forgot what it was about by the time I got around to reading it, so I went into it pretty blind. Lots of drama, gossip, he said/she said, secrets, and lies….all over a destination wedding trip. There were so many times I thought I knew what was really going on and I was constantly revising my theories, only to find out the truth exactly when the author intended me to. I’ve never read any of Sandie Jones’ work before, but I’ll definitely be checking it out now. Thank you NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for the opportunity to review this book!

The Guilt Trip, by Sandie Jones, is more soap-opera fiction loaded with relationship drama,, less mystery/thriller, as the author previously penned. This destination wedding saga is ripe with gossip, miscommunication, lies and bad behavior.

Three couples head to Portugal for the wedding of Will and Ali. Will is the brother of Jack, the spouse of one of the two other couples and the reason the others have made the trip. Ali, Will’s fiancé, and former employee of Jack, seems to rub everyone the wrong way with her outlandish flirtation and often questionable behavior. All of these friends have histories, in one way or another; histories ripe with secrets that create problems a plenty on this celebratory weekend.

I loved the previous books by this author , but this newest release fell a bit flat for me. It focused more on the immature drama of a group of so-called friends, than an actual mystery, and was lacking in suspense. It tended toward the repetitive, circling the same plot points without actually moving the story forward in any significant way. As such, I struggled to stay invested and the novel felt far longer than it should have. I kept reading solely because I was curious to find out the resolution.

The latter half of the story definitely had several red herrings and kept me guessing, though ultimately, the offender wasn’t all that shocking. What was surprising, if not far-fetched, was the cataclysmic event towards the end of the story.

The Guilt Trip is aptly named and kept me turning the pages until its astonishing conclusion. It wasn’t, however, what I was expecting and that affected my enjoyment of the novel. I also felt that the slower pace and lack of propelling events, along with the implausible behaviors, kept me from staying as engaged as I hoped to be.

This might be my favorite book of summer 2021. Great mystery with well defined characters. Sandie Jones had me hooked from beginning to the end.

Sandie Jone's The Guilt Trip is pure pleasure reading. It is easy reading and it's a joy to read. Sometimes you just need to escape, and The Guilt Trip is the perfect "escape" to go on.

I couldn't put this book down and it was very hard to stop reading! In my book, that deserves a 5/5!

I can't wait to see what Sandie Jone's will write next.

Audiobook Review: When I started listening to this book I had already read the eBook version so I thought I knew what was going to happen. What I realized that by just reading and not actually hearing the words I missed some emotions and reactions of the characters. Clare Corbett, the narrator, did an amazing job of taking the thriller of a story and bringing it to life with her tone and cadence. My attention was easy to keep and I found myself looking for times to listen to more.

eBook Review: I love a good thriller. Sandie Jones wrote a book that pulled me in from the beginning, kept me turning pages, and loving every word she wrote. I loved the twists, the turns, the ups, and the downs. I followed the characters exactly where they wanted me to go, I may have missed some clues, but I still had many guesses as to what was going to happen next.

The beginning introduced a lot of characters in a short timeframe, and I have to admit that I had a hard time keeping them all straight, especially who was with who. As I continued to read, I realized that may have been done intentionally. It seemed each character had a tie to another character and it was fun to figure out who was doing what with who and when.

I enjoyed Sandie Jones’ book. The characters were twisted, fun, and relatable. This is a perfect, fun, twisted suspense, mystery, and thriller.

Sandie Jones always has such fun with creating drama in a book and adding a twist that shocks me. In this book three couples are staying together in a villa in Portugal for one of the couple's destination wedding. As the weekend develops so do doubts in their partners especially as more and more lies and secrets are revealed.

This book was more thrilling in a way of suspense building and drama. All the drama was keeping me intrigued throughout the read. I wasn't sure with character I liked or which to believe. I did see one or two of the twists coming but Jones is an expert in twists and she saved the most shocking, didn't see that coming, twist for the end. The end was definitely more action packed and twisty then the rest of
the book and once you got to the wedding it was hard to put down.

Twisted guessing at every turn. I did not know what to expect when I started reading as I choose this book based on the author! I am a huge Sandie Jones fan since The Other Women and I couldn't wait to read this one. I honestly had no clue where this trip was going throughout the entire book. Great ending and so well written

Do you ever wait so long to write up a review that you don’t even remember much about the book? I feel like that kinda says it all for this one because if I had really loved it I don’t think it would be so forgettable. I know it was super dramatic and had some seriously messy situations and it was definitely a quick read. Also remember thinking that the end was decent and made up for some slowness in the middle. And the characters were all toxic. So maybe I remember more than I thought 🤣🤷🏻‍♀️ Anyway, I guess this was ok for me? I do remember thinking it was ⭐️⭐️⭐️ You’re welcome for this amazingly detailed and eloquent review.

Thanks @minotaur_books for my copy!

The Guilt Trip by Sandie Jones

They went away as friends. They came back as suspects.

This was a thrilling mystery, full of intriguing twists & turns. Talks about family, friends, and a destination wedding. Many secrets to reveal. Kept you thinking until the end. Many interesting characters. I enjoyed this boo9k.

Thanks to Net Galley for sending me an advanced reader’s copy for review.

Sandie Jones just does it right! I will say it was a little slow in the beginning as is for most thrillers but once it picked up I couldn’t put this book down! I really loved this one... prob more than her other books. Pick this one up

Another good one from Jones. Family, friends and a destination wedding. A perfect setting for chaos and murder. I didn’t guess the ending. I will definitely be looking for more by this author. Thanks to NetGalley for the privilege to read and review this book.

# The Guilt Trip by author # Sandie Jones is a new release this month. It's about a weekend vacation that doesn't end well. At the end of the weekend one person will be dead. This thriller is hard to put down. Enjoy!!
Thank you for the advance copy,
#Netgalley, # # Sandie Jones, and # Macmillan publishing