Awesome read! A page turner with many twists just as I’ve come to expect from this author, Fabulous! Thank you publisher and netgalley for this arc in exchange of an honest review.!

A fun and drama-filled "friendship story" that will keep you turning the pages just to see what will happen next!

What could be more fun than a destination wedding with friends! Rachel and her husband, Jack, along with her long-time best friend, Noah and his wife, Paige, are flying with Ali, the bride-to-be, to Nazare, Portugal for the nuptials. Ali is not the woman that any would have picked for Jack's brother, Will, but they all put on their game faces and are determined to make the most of the weekend. Their seaside villa is gorgeous, but things start going wrong almost from arrival. Under the facade of these seemingly happy, stable relationships is the seed of suspicion that keeps growing until the truth is revealed. NO SPOILERS.

I found this an entertaining and quick read that is perfect for a pool or beach day. The gradual revelations and the typical secrets and lies scenario combine to hold interest even as the reader is probably shaking their head because it takes so long to GET IT ALL OUT. Not sure where it was all going at first, I thought I had things figured out by the halfway point only to find out that I was wrong by the end. None of the characters was particularly likeable, and I'd say who was my favorite, but that might be a spoiler. Sometimes when surprised by a character, I'll look back to see if the foundation was laid for their later behavior or motivations -- and in this particular book, I will say I wasn't prepared. I guess people like that wear masks and are good at putting on acts. But, you know how it is -- why don't people just come out with it instead of dancing around the issues!

Have fun with this soap opera! Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for this e-book ARC to read and review.

I received this an ARC through Netgalley. The Guilt Trip had a slow build for a while. Then when you think you've figured it out, it keeps twisting and turning. I felt it repetitive in some parts as Rachel keeps saying the same type of things over and over and over again. That really bothered me. Happy to have read it though.

Thank you NetGalley and Minotaur Books for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When I first started reading this book I got vibes of Big Little Lies and The Guest List. The drama was tense from the get-go.

There are a ton of secrets and there are plenty of twists and turns. The ending was mine blowing but almost in and over the top way. You certainly will not see it coming!

The entire story focused on infidelity and the mental downward spiral that occurs when infidelity is suspected in a significant other. This is a topic that I shy away from for many reasons. That being said I did not enjoy it near as much as other people might.

I give 4.5 ⭐️ for THE GUILT TRIP by Sandie Jones. Wow this book really keeps you guessing! Right up to the very end. It makes you start to question everyone in your life - all their actions and possible motives! There wasn’t a tremendous amount of action in this book, but it still holds your attention. The one thing you take away from this is trust no one, especially those who are closest to you!

#minotaurbooks #minotaurpublishing #netgalley

Book description:

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

Rachel and Jack. Paige and Noah. And Will. Five friends who’ve known one another for years. Then along came Ali, Will’s new fiancée.

The three couples travel to Portugal for Ali and Will’s destination wedding. The weekend away at the gorgeous cliff-top villa is a chance to relax and get to know Ali an little better. She seems perfectly nice―and Will seems happy after years of bad choices.

But when Rachel discovers a shocking secret about Ali, everything changes. As the wedding weekend unfolds, the secrets each of them holds begin to spill, and friendships and marriages threaten to unravel.

In Sandie Jones’s explosive new suspense novel, jumping to conclusions can become the difference between life and death.

I’ve never read anything by this author before. I was hesitant going into this one. I ended up not liking it. The characters seemed childish.

A very, very slow-moving plot, full of unlikeable characters, that got very repetitive. Look for it on your Lifetime movie channel.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

My fourth book I’ve read from Sandie Jones! She always proves to give me a thriller I can’t quite put down with an explosive ending!

Six friends are heading to Portugal for Will and Ali’s wedding. Rachel and Noah have been friends since university and while they may have almost had something once, they both have been happily married to Josh and Paige for years. While Ali has a tendency to rub everyone the wrong way, Rachel has always been patient towards her future sister in law...but when she discovers something about Ali she can hardly believe everything changes. Secrets start to spill out, and marriages and friendship become rocky…and eventually leads to death.

The beginning of this book was a slow burn of trying to figure out the real dynamic behind these six friends. It had me guessing and hooked for sure, but it’s the ending goes off the rails! Down to the last page I was trying to figure out what the Hell had just happened. While some of it I found confusing, I do always enjoy a thriller that throws you for a loop right till the very end so I did quite enjoy this one!

The Guilt Trip is one of these books you'll start reading and not want to put it down. I suggest going into it blind then enjoy the ride. The characters were just amazing and I really enjoyed the story. Thanks to the NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy so I can provide an honest reveiw.

WOW!!! Where to even start with this one?? Sandie Jones has quickly become a favorite author of mine! Three couples head to a destination wedding in Portugal and realize they aren't as good of friends as they thought. The author does a great job with short chapters that leave a cliffhanger, move onto the next chapter, leave a cliffhanger, going back to the previous cliffhanger and all while keeping you breathlessly turning pages! Super twist and a LOT of 'AH-HA! I know where this is going!' moments, only to be wrong. AGAIN! READ THIS and while you're at it, pick up all of her other books too!

Thank you to #NetGalley, Sandie Jones and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for this ARC!

Ever a Sandie Jones fan, I was so excited to get my hands on her new book! I would summarize it here but there seems to be a mismatch between the synopsis on the book, and with the story I read.

I went in thinking this would be a psychological thriller, with the promise of “jumping to conclusions becomes the difference of life and death”. There was none of that. This was a domestic suspense, chocked full of drama. Relationship problems, mean girls, secrets… and feuding best friends. All good things, but not what the summary has promised.

All in all, I liked this book a lot. It kept me hooked through out the story, and whole predictable, was still pleasantly surprising on its twists and turns.

I am a huge fan of the author, but this book was a little stranger than usual, with some unexpected twists. It is the story of friends together at a gorgeous villa in Portugal, there to celebrate the wedding of Will and Ali. The relationships between the couples involved are as complex as the secrets that they hide and the lies they tell. Rachel and Noah became good friends in college and could have been a couple, but they aren’t because Rachel is married to Jack, Noah is married to Paige and the couples are friends. Well, kind of. As much as you can be friends when you hide things from each other and put on a false face when you lie to them. The plot was a simple one about a wedding and the drama leading up to it. The book itself is a character study of shallow characters, with secrets and lies slowly being revealed. All in all, this was slow-paced and methodical, a study of flawed characters with dysfunctional relationships. With a new lie hiding behind every corner, the book was engaging as well as puzzling at times. I was not sure who was telling the truth, a half-truth or a full out lie. None of the characters was particularly likable and Ali, the bride-to-be, was not just unlikeable; she was loathesome, with no redeeming qualities. Her fake enthusiasm for the wedding seemed to be all show from the beginning. Everything she did was to be the center of attention, a space that she thought she deserved. Paige’s truth zingers came at the most unexpected moments and were almost like comic relief from all of the drama. All of the characters are on a collision course for disaster, and I just kept waiting for the next shoe to drop. This book was a cleverly written diatribe about people without much substance and who make a whole lot of noise. The plot was simple, complicated by lies and a thoroughly enjoyable read once I got used to being in “Peyton Place.”
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

This is the first book I've read by Sandie Jones, so I had no source of comparison to her other work. Overall, I found it to be an engaging story that kept me guessing about who could be trusted. Even at the end, I still felt a bit uncertain about how everything really went down. The characters usually aren't meant to be likeable, but I was more comfortable with these than the characters in other books of this genre that I've read. Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the advance copy to read and review.

This book was fantastic, I could not put it down! The entertwined lives of the three couples, in addition to knowing something was happening based on the prologue, made for a very exciting read. The character development was phenomenal - I didn't know who to trust, who to believe, nor could I begin to guess the fate of the six involved. I don't often read the thriller genre but from now on, I will always pick up one by Sandie Jones.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

#TheGuiltTrip is drama packed and I am here for it 👏🏼 I flew through this one and I enjoyed unraveling everybody’s secrets. I was a little confused by the ending but still really liked it! I will read everything #SandieJones writes 🙌🏼

Full review to come on Instagram and Amazon. Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a review copy.

I absolutely love Sandie Jones and all of her books. The Guilt Trip did not disappoint and left nothing to be desired. I love that she grabs you from the beginning and keeps you hanging on at every turn, and what you think is, may be. But it is never all that there is to it. In the end, you get that little something extra that all of us mystery lovers need to have at the very end.

Her pace and writing are everything!

I've been reading Jone's books since her debut. And what I always like about her books is the twistiness and fast paced, plus the horrible people that do horrible things to each other. Oh and you never know who is the bad one till the end. Even if then.

This book was exactly that - quite a lot of people who seem good and nice, but really aren't and have a lot of secrets to hide from each other.

There's a destination wedding that brings all these people together. But we follow Rachel on this trip. She dislikes the bride, Ali who is marrying Rachel's brother-in-law. She thinks Ali is too out there, too obnoxious, too self assured. There was a line in the book - she was a man's woman, not a woman's woman. So as you can tell, lots of female jealousy and rivalry.

To add fuel to the fire, Rachel has suspicions that Ali and her husband Jack are actually sleeping together. But as we get closer to the big day, we find out that Rachel has secrets of her own. So who is going to end up hurt in the end?

The audio was excellent and easy to follow, but for the most part it wasn't action filled. It literally was a story of who slept with whom, and finding all that out in a beautiful location. Nothing new, but it kept me entertained on many rides this week as I really wanted to see who was the best lier in this book.

Thank you to Minotaur Books and Netgalley for my audio advance copy of the book.

Reflections: remember locked room mysteries of the past? A group of friends or strangers find themselves in a location with a murderer on the loose. Some examples of these mysteries were by Agatha Christie or John Dickson Carr.

Today's locked room mysteries are at destination weddings. In "The Guilt Trip" six couples fly to Portugal for a wedding. Forty guests are invited. The women have distinct personalities ... there's a drama queen, a tell-it-all who rants.

Many thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read this book.

Hmmmm, this one was a little tricky for me.

It felt a little longer than it needed to be and I think because of that it took me a bit to get into it. It took a while for the characters to really sink in & be able to tell them apart but after a bit it started coming together. Overall I did like and enjoy it! I had a hunch that kept changing as the book did but felt it was done well - also the writing style felt very unique which I liked.

It wasn't anything like a wow factor but it was nice, overall. The epilogue kind of ruined the story for me BUT if we pretend that part was left out then a pretty solid little story.

Don't know if i'd recommend though! I'd say if you have time and attention to spare than go for it - but if you only get to read now and again I'd go for something a little more substantial.