Lux McAllister has decided to again leave it all to go on an adventure with her boyfriend, Nico. Only this time, it may cost her her life.

Lux met Nico at a terrible time in her life- she had just lost her mother to cancer. So his plan of living in Hawaii while his boat gets fixed and then sailing to0 far off lands sounds amazing. When an opportunity comes up for Nico to take two college girls to a maybe haunted island, Nico wants to immediately take it. Although Lux is hesitant at first, she goes along because the money is too good. When the group gets to the island, there is already people there. Although these two seem friendly, another boat shows up that brings trouble.

I enjoyed "The Wife Upstairs" by Hawkins, so I knew I would probably like this one too. I was right. This would be good for a beach read- the setting is perfect and the mystery (although a little obvious) will keep you reading.

I've really been enjoying Rachel Hawkins' foray into adult suspense and that continued with my read of Reckless Girls. I'm a sucker for island stories, especially with a group of friends/frenemies/strangers with a killer among them and this was an entertaining ride. This book also solidified my decision to never get on a boat, ever.

Reeealy enjoyable thriller. The audio was well done, and the narration alternated between past and present. We got a couple different perspectives & everything came together nicelyyyy! Very entertaining

I LOVED her first book The Wife Upstaris, I wanted to love this one but didn't. The cover is stunning but the story was just too far fetched and not an easy one to believe.

While this wasn't as big of a hit for me as her previous novel, I'm not mad that I read it. On the other hand, this novel is a little out there. There are a lot of situations in this story that just don't seem possible or don't make sense. It's not enough for me to have walked away from it, but not something I would read again.

I really enjoyed this book and the island scenery was just great even though scary at times. This one really kept me going and was a bit hard to put down. Another round of applause for Rachel Hawkins on this one. I highly recommend it.

Reckless Girls is a slow burn that builds up to a twisting and delightful surprise ending. I thought I loved her young adult fiction, but I'm in love with Rachel Hawkins's transition into adult fiction.

I am super disappointed with how this book panned out! It started so promising: a character with a haunting past, an unusual opportunity to sail out to a deserted island with strangers, exploring a gorgeous landscape with an uneasy aura, a potential danger lurking in the jungle...but that all led me to believe this would be more, idk, creepy? spooky? mystical? than it was.

The first half was good, great even, but it took a turn when <spoiler> Robbie showed up on the island. I think Hawkins could have done something cool with the history explained in the texts and letters in between the sections of the book, or this idea that someone was still living in the jungle. Instead all the murders and lies were tied together last minute by uncreative reasons and unbelievable coincidences. </spoiler>

<spoiler>This whole anti-man thing that popped up out of no where was very odd and I am not sure why Lux dove in head first. So what, now she is the new Chloe? What Nico did was so bad that she is now out to turn all American girls experiencing their first real break-up into men-hating criminal masterminds? </spoiler>

I liked The Wife Upstairs (I mean, I LOVE Jane Eyre adaptions) so I was excited to give this book a try hoping for a creepy island thriller. Unfortunately, that's not what I got out of it.

Thank you to NetGalley and St.Martin's Press for giving me me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The book cover drew me in. This book had so many twists and turns and I could not put it down! Is a great beach read and I recommend to all who enjoy a thriller.

As good as advertised, if not better. And I did not see those last two twists coming at all! Fantastic book. Should have been released during the summer, though.

When Lux McAllister and her boyfriend, Nico, are hired to sail two women to a remote island in the South Pacific, it seems like the opportunity of a lifetime. Reckless Girls is a tension-packed read about a group of 20 somethings who stumble upon each other during a trip to a remote island. What starts off as a fun journey filled with alcohol and beautiful people becomes a dangerous and sinister stay that leads to murder.

Lux is the main narrator and she sucks you into the story. Additional POVs are shared through flashbacks that took place a few years before the island adventure. The reader sees not only how Lux met Nico but also how their charter guests, Brittany and Amma, met. Through old diaries, letters, and emails, the reader learns the dark history of Meroe Island. The atmospheric island setting is great which leads to the suspense. You can feel the creepy factor rising up with the story.

I loved the pace of the book and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. The ending was a shocker in the best possible way.

A treat for thriller fans.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for sending a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Who else wants to sail off to a remote island to hang out for a couple weeks? No other humans around, no cell reception, just you, the sun and sand, and a pile of books to read. This sounds pretty damn ideal.

And that's basically the setting of this book: a group of four set out to rest and relax on a remote island off the coast of Hawaii, but then, they meet another couple, a weirdo dude shows up, and they begin to spiral and let the island's macabre history leech into their psyches. And yes, since this is a thriller, they're all hiding their pasts, have dangerous secrets, and ulterior motives.

While I found this book enjoyable, it was, for me, also very predictable and a little slow. The last 100 pages really ramp up, but the plot lags in the middle a bit. I can easily see this being a popular beach read come summer!

Pick up this book if you're in the mood for:
- Women who want revenge
- Douchy rich dudes getting bested
- A creepy, remote setting
- Fake friendships

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a digital ARC via NetGalley.

[Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for my gifted e-ARC copy, in exchange for a review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.]

This is my second Rachel Hawkins novel (the first being under her other pen, The Ex Hex), and I think they have a similar energy. They have a fun, easy to read premise, but aren't groundbreaking or my favorite reads at the end of the day. Do I recommend reading Reckless Girls? Yes, but with a disclaimer: the pacing is slower than you'd anticipate from most "thrillers".

The story has all of the juicy ingredients you could want: an abandoned island with a creepy history, mysterious new friends with wealth, a huge cash payment that could change the course of your life, and oh - of course, murder. The story begins set in a "paradise" feel and things slowly turn sour, and I do mean slowly.

I wish the pacing was quicker throughout, and more time spent on the ending scenes, but I did enjoy the book overall.

3/5 stars.

I finished this book in two days. I know that is not extremely fast, but I read several books at once, so it usually takes me 4-5 days to finish one book.

There are multiple characters that you are introduced to, and the first portion is dedicated to learning about them and their backstories.

The pace picks up dramatically once a body is found. Lux is my favorite character, but they were all pretty unlikeable at one point or another.

I received a gifted copy of this book, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Suspenseful read! Liz and her boyfriend Nico are going to take his boat out on a trip. It’s to take two young women out to see a remote island who hired them. Once there, they run into three other people. As the days go by, the stress level of the people seems to rise and boundaries are crossed. This feels like a recipe for some kind of drama to occur.

I’ve really enjoyed some of Rachel Hawkins’s books and was excited about this one! While I ended up liking it quite a bit, the start is quite slow. It took me a while to get into it. I even put it down for a few weeks, not ideal for a boom pitched as a thriller. Once I got past wanting lots of action in the beginning, I found myself pulled in. The plot unspools slowly, reading more like general contemporary fiction for most of the book. However, it all comes together with a bit of a bang. The characters were all rather unlikeable, but that’s part of the appeal of this kind of book. Reading about people you don’t really like making questionable, but entertaining, decisions.

“Reckless, reckless girls sail to deserted islands with strangers.”

Do you know that saying, “Gorgeous, gorgeous girls get ___.” I feel like it was in memes, on insta and in articles for awhile. Well this book reminded me of that slogan with its title.

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins was a super quick read. Flashing between ‘then’ and ‘now’, the story is about this group of friends (but really strangers) coming together and sailing to the deserted Meroe Island, off the coast of Hawaii. Being on this island has a way of changing the six of them. When everyone starts to discover secrets not only the island itself but also those who they are sharing it with.

“This island doesn’t twist people up. It just turns them into the purest version of themselves, hones them like a knife’s blade.”

Reckless Girls was a novel to find an escape to a deserted island. To see how appealing it can be to be there at first, until you realize that escaping doesn’t necessarily fix any problems at all, just takes you to a different location to deal with them. The mystery thriller part didn’t come in until the last 50 pages or so, but it still kept my attention.

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for this eARC copy to read and review.

This book is the ultimate vacation destination gone wrong in a book! I have been hating the cold weather lately and loved escaping to a tropical island paradise (but boy am I glad I was only there on paper - because this is not a vacation you want in on!) While I did find there were some plot points I would have liked explained better, I was able to fill the gaps myself in a way that the book still made sense. The characters are all truly characters that you love to hate (my favourite in a thriller). The writing is easy to devour in a few sittings, and as I already mentioned the setting is a big win! I love a good closed door mystery and can say that I was suspecting everyone by the end!

What a fun read this was! Rachel Hawkins' latest thriller, Reckless Girls, centers around a pleasure trip to a legendary deserted island…what could go wrong? This book is well-paced, suspenseful, and I could tell it was building to an action-packed ending…. but that ending! 😨

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for my gifted physical copy + NetGalley for my e-copy!

Thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press and Rachel Hawkins for this wonderful ARC.

Fantastic job of keeping me entertained while away on vacation ..... Everytime I picked it up I had a hard time putting it down! Just love books like this with mystery, crime, romance, murder, love triangles ..... And that twist at the end .... Wooozer! Didn't see it coming at all!

#netgalley #goodreads #rachelhawkins #recklessgirls