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𝑹𝒆𝒄𝒌𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝑮𝒊𝒓𝒍𝒔
𝙱𝚢: Rachel Hawkins / @ladyhawkins
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: Thriller, Mystery, Suspense
𝙿𝚞𝚋𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚛: St. Martin's Press]
𝚁𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎𝚜 𝙾𝚗: January 4th 2022
@goodreads 𝚂𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚎: 3.86
𝙼𝚢 𝚂𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚎: 👭👭👭👭 / 5 Girls

Thank you @netgalley and St. Martin's Press] for the gifted E-ARC of 𝑹𝒆𝒄𝒌𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝑮𝒊𝒓𝒍𝒔.

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. Lux & Nico are quick to bond with their passengers, college best friends Brittany and Amma. The two women say they want to travel off the beaten path. But they may have other reasons to be seeking an escape.

Meroe Island is every bit the paradise the foursome expects, despite a mysterious history of shipwrecks, cannibalism, and even rumors of murder.

What the foursome don’t expect is to discover another boat already anchored off Meroe’s sandy beaches. The owners, Jake and Eliza, are a true golden couple.

The new friends settle in to experience life on an exotic island, and the serenity of being completely off the grid. Lux hasn’t felt like she truly belonged anywhere in years, yet here on Meroe, with these fellow free spirits, she finally has a sense of peace. That is until a skeevy stranger sailing alone in pursuit of a darker kind of good time, the balance of the group is disrupted.

Soon, cracks begin to emerge, one person goes missing, and another turns up dead, Lux begins to wonder if any of them are going to make it off the island alive.

I enjoyed this wicked suspense novel so much. It was well crafted and brilliantly creative. I felt the eeriness of the jungle and Robbie's character sure gave me the creeps. One thing you must pay attention to is each character and their back stories because although Lux is our protagonist each chapter brings you back and forth to the past & present with each character.

𝑹𝒆𝒄𝒌𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝑮𝒊𝒓𝒍𝒔 releases on January 4th 2022.

I am thrilled to have received an early copy of #recklessgirls by @ladyhawkins. What an escape! I curled up with this book on Sunday and didn’t leave my bed until I was through. An island/boat mystery was just what I needed for a January stay-cation. This fast-paced read had me guessing at every turn, absolutely delicious surprises around every corner.
I went into this one without reading any of the spoilers or even the blurb and I’m really glad I didn’t because I felt like it lent to the overall suspense of the novel. I was chatting with my buddy @geauxgetlit about 25% in and she asked, is it a thriller? And I was like, I think so? It was all background at that point, introducing the characters and the back stories, but after that hold on because it gets crazy pretty quickly from the halfway mark on.

🤐I don’t want to say too much because I hope you pick it up blind just like I did and have the same experience. But I will say, it made me nostalgic for my 20’s and my days of international travel, sometimes reckless but nothing like these characters! Perhaps if I had more sinister travel buddies

𝙸𝚖𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜…

It’s the last night of Christmas break. Tomorrow’s Monday, and you have had the best time making memories with your family the past two weeks, but you are ready…for some alone time.
You wake up the next day. There is 8” of snow on the ground and the school has declared it a snow day. You’re hurriedly making breakfast for the kids, and haven’t had your coffee yet. Your husband walks in, showered and dressed for work, gets down on one knee and pulls out a blue box.
He’s been holding on to it for a few days, hoping to surprise you. Thought it would be funny since you watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s together over break.

𝙿𝙻𝙾𝚃 𝚃𝚆𝙸𝚂𝚃

Your husband’s boss called while he was in the shower.
His office…closed.
You grab the box, your coffee, and back away into your bedroom. Remembering to lock the door this time.
Thank goodness you added Reckless Girls to your box.

Pure escapism. That’s exactly what Reckless Girls by @ladyhawkins offers you. It’s the perfect antithesis to those holiday romance books that were the theme to December’s TBR.
Tropical beaches. Flawed characters. Drinking and poor decision making skills.
Nothing that actually happens in the book is anything like the life I would choose to have even in my early 20s, but it is certainly tantalizing to imagine. Add intrigue and murder to the mix and you’ve got the right stuff to have a fun afternoon read.

Rachel Hawkins wrote that this is the book that she’s been wanting to write for awhile, and it shows. The fun and excitement she had while writing, is infused within the plot line, and as the story progressed through multiple perspectives and timelines it only left me turning pages quickly, eagerly anticipating the twist.

So grab some popcorn and a refreshing, bubbly beverage and get ready to get your feet wet as you feast those eyes on isolated beaches and sweaty man muscles.

Thank you to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for the opportunity to read and review.
Available now at book retailers everywhere or when your mail person delivers your blue box.

Not sure how I felt about this book. I love the setting. The story started out strong and I grew to like Lux and Nico, and even got into the story of how they lived on the island but it started to drag there. I started to feel bad for Lux being stuck with a bunch of self-absorbed people. Then the story picked up and it got really interesting but by then, I had been waiting too long for something good to happen. I enjoyed the story on the whole but felt that it was drawn out way too long for such a short reveal. The ending almost made up for it.

⛵ • PUB DAY REVIEW

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins

rating: 3.5 stars
format: e-arc
length: 320 pages
pub day: today !

Lux and her boyfriend Nico are living in Maui, waiting to make enough money to repair Nico's boat so they can sail to multiple destinations. Two girls approach Nico, offering $50k to take them to Meroe Island, and to bring Lux. Not being able to turn down the money, they fix the boat and go. When they arrive, there is already another boat there with 2 other visitors to the island. Things are going great, until a new stranger sails in half way through their trip, and then things take a turn, and everyone starts turning on eachother. How much do you really know about these people you're stuck on an island with, and who will make it off ?

This was a true 3.5 for me, but I'll round up to 4 on goodreads since it kept me interested throughout. I haven't read The Wife Upstairs yet to compare, but I have read The Ex Hex and felt similar. It was a good book, with a lot of potential, but just something was missing for me. There wasn't enough character development to really feel for any of them, and instead I found myself just shaking my head at their actions. I enjoyed the concept of being stuck on an island, but I didn't find things picked up until at least 50% through. The first half I found myself double checking that this was supposed to be a thriller, but it's definitely more suspense in my opinion. I saw some of the little twists throughout coming, and even guessed the twist at the end, so there was no WOW moment for me.

Thank you to @netgalley and @simonschusterca for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Having read THE WIFE UPSTAIRS last year, I was eager to get into another book by Rachel Hawkins, seeing how this book compares to her first. I was surprisingly pleased by how different RECKLESS GIRLS was to THE WIFE UPSTAIRS, seeing how Rachel Hawkins expands more in the thriller genre. Though I was very intrigued in the first 30% of the book, it wasn't pulling me as much near the middle. Despite the potential strife between the Lux, Nico, Brit, and Emma (and the two others on the island), there wasn't a lot of conflict happening that kept me wanting more.

Really enjoyable read that I had a hard time putting down!
20-something Lux and her rich boyfriend are hired to take two young women to the Pacific's deserted Meroe Island from Hawaii. Meroe Island has been the source of many sinister historical stories but when they first arrive, they find that it's very beautiful. They meet another young couple in a large yacht and the 6 of them start to have a great time together.
After a while, the backgrounds and questionable motives of these island visitors catch up to them. Allegiances keep switching and the characters make stupid decisions. Normally that bugs me but I enjoyed it with this story because it kept the plot moving in a believable fashion.
I did deduct a half star because the ending was a little unbelievable. That being said, it was a great read during a cold winter month.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for my honest review!

If you were offered $50,000 to sail to an undeveloped island for a couple of weeks, would you? I mean, who wouldn’t?

Lux and her boyfriend Nico are hired to sail two women to Meroe Island, a remote and possibly haunted island in the South Pacific. Once there, Meroe is the ultimate island paradise. With… a few caveats.

Well that was a RIDE!
Suspenseful, escapist, and full of unlikable characters with juicy secrets. I loved the flashbacks of some of the major characters, it really helped flesh out the characters and hint at the bigger picture.

A lot of great elements were at play here, but there were some plot holes and predictable parts that took away from the overall experience. However, I DID binge the last half in one sitting, and that should tell you something.

The island setting of this book was a winner for me. It reminded me of Lucy Foley’s The Guest List: creepy and atmospheric. I found that the characters who were mainly in their twenties were hard to keep up with. A lot of them I found I didn’t care for much. There was a big surprise at the end of the book which I did not see coming, which I always love. Not the best thriller I’ve read lately but good.

Book Review:****/5

It's Publication Day for this book!!!! I have seen this book so much and it was recently selected as a BOTM pick for January. I received advanced released copy of this book on Net galley for an honest review.

Lucy and her boyfriend Nico are hired by two girls to sail them out to a deserted island. Since Lucy has just lost her terrible job at a local hotel it's the perfect escape from life and maybe the start to the adventure Nico promised her. Brittany and Amma have been traveling the world together after a tragedy occurred that brought them together. When they begin to approach the island, they discover that someone else is already there. Jake and Eliza are a rich couple that seem to have it all figured out. Everyone hits it off and Paradise seems to be exactly what they all needed. However, when another person arrives who doesn't seem to fit in, everything goes wrong. Will they make it off this Island alive or will they become another part of the Island's history?

I found this book such an easy read. I was immediately drawn in from the very beginning. I became invested in finding out each character's past and waiting to see what was about to happen to each of them. There are a couple of questions that I have about parts of the plot. I felt like the story was told very well. An i really enjoyed the way their pasts where discovered. i think Rachel Hawkins did a very great job on this book.

I came into this book with the bias of believing it was going to be a retelling like The Wife Upstairs (similar covers and blurbs calling them gothic stories). I kept waiting to find out if this was based on a Daphne Du Marier book but no. It has hints and traces of what could be retellings but nothing stood out to me. I think without this assumption (completely on my part) I would have really enjoyed the story more.

Oh my gosh, did I love this book! This is the perfect vacation or summer read that will have you wishing you were on a beach somewhere.

This thriller is set on an isolated island with strangers who soon become friends. But things start taking a turn for the worse when the characters true colors start to show.

I couldn’t put this book down. It is definitely one you can binge in one setting. The characters may be reckless and entitled, but something about it just works for the story line. The ending was super twisty and complicated while also being super fulfilling since it wraps everything up.

If you’re over the cold weather and ready for a summer thriller, look no further!

Thank you to Netgalley for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

I was really looking forward to this latest book by Rachel Hawkins. This one was just ok for me. There were twists and turns and had me guessing at times. Thanks to NetGalley for the privilege to read and review this book.

Lux followed her boyfriend Nico to Hawaii on his promise that they would travel the world once they had earned enough money. But now she’s stuck in a rut working a dead-end job. When she and Nico are offered a job sailing two women to a remote island in the Pacific for a staggering amount of money, they eagerly take it. The island is every bit the paradise they expected. But the island has a dark history, and the passengers are hiding dangerous secrets.

Reckless Girls is told in two separate timelines. One timeline is told in the present in the first person from Lux’s perspective. The other is told in the third person and follows passengers Amma and Brittany detailing how they met, as well as fellow island visitor Eliza and how she came to be on the island.

I enjoyed this one. You have no idea who to trust, including the narrator. I loved trying to figure out how each of the characters connected and the mysterious island. The island was such a fabulous setting, but also incredibly dark.

This is a book that will keep you up late at night with your heart in your throat. I thought the ending wasn't worth the hype, but the rest of the story was great!

Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for the review copy! All opinions are my own.

When Lux and her boyfriend get propositioned to sail two college girls to a remote island with a dark history for $50,000, they just can't refuse. It will change their lives. Little do they know, their plans of relaxing on the beach for two weeks is not all that is in the cards. When a sketchy sailor arrives their peaceful island getaway gets disrupted.

This book is the perfect guilty pleasure. The relationships between the characters was driving the story and pay attention to the back story. It was fun to try to put together what was going to happen. There are a few plot holes that don't get explained (or maybe I missed them) but regardless I couldn't put it down.

This would make a perfect beach read or if you are craving the warmer weather in the winter, this will definitely transport you!

The best thing I ever did for myself was decide that I should read heavy hitters in the summer, and dark twisty things in the summer, but really layer on the fluff for the wintertime greys. It is the best because I immediately did the opposite, and I always wind up enjoying a bonkers thriller at the beginning of January that reminds me why I love mystery/thrillers as much as I do.

In Reckless Girls, we are introduced to Lux, who is the cool girl that travels Hawaii with a guy she just started dating, Nico, on a quest to see the world that ends up with her stuck working whatever jobs she can. Nico meets two young women Britt and Amma, who are traveling and need him to take them on their boat to a small obscure island. Nico, being a questionable boyfriend, but not an idiot, brings Lux along. The four of them get to the island and immediately run into another couple Jake and Eliza, and then everything gets even trickier.

If that seems like a lot of setup, it is only because I was so fascinated by the story structure and wanted to make sure I was keeping all of these young mysterious people’s names and backgrounds straight. This book really reminded me of one of my favorite Saturday afternoon movies, The Perfect Getaway. Immediately I assumed everyone was lying about everything that came out of their mouths, which was fun to react to. The twists were sharp if not that surprising, and everything played out in a way that I had expected, but I enjoyed the island setting and picking up the clues of their pasts bit by bit. An island getaway feels like a dream right now, and this murder was the ideal escape.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

This book was phenomenal as a whole. If you stop to think about the likelihood of the events or the like-ability of the characters, it starts to detract. However, I am someone who reads to escape and "travel," and Reckless Girls absolutely delivers.

I couldn't put it down and my jaw just kept dropping. Chances are, you'll want to read this in one sitting.

I read Hawkins’ The Wife Upstairs this time last year and couldn’t put it down. With Reckless Girls, I had a similar experience of wanting to keep reading to find out what’s going on, but unfortunately, the final reveal also happened to be a huge, unexplained plot hole that just made the whole build-up fell flat.

Lux (25) has been stuck in life after her mother passed away from cancer. When she followed her boyfriend Nico (26) to Hawaii, she was hoping for some travel adventures but ended up working at hotels instead. Then Brittany (22?) and Amma (22?) showed up, wanting to hire Nico to take them to Meroe Island, a secluded atoll famous for cannibalism legends in WWII. Soon, Lux finds herself heading for the island with Nico, Brittany, and Amma, but they aren’t the only one there. Rich boy Jake (30) and his girlfriend Eliza (30) are also on the island. As the days go by, terrible things start happening, and Lux begins to see that this was not a friendly trip after all.

I really liked what the author was trying to do in this book. Many of the characters are victims of rich white boys who never got the punishment they deserved, so the reckless girls have to do something. Thematically, it was similar with The Wife Upstairs, but execution-wise, there was something left to be desired—believability. I’m not saying that every book needs to be super believable, but I was waiting for a clever and shocking reveal toward the end of the book and got a plot hole (and a rather cop-out solution) instead. How could one of the characters never realize it? If they did, why would they not say anything?

Anyway, I did enjoy how Lux built a friendship with all the other five people on the island and subsequently experiencing everything falling apart. I wasn’t entirely sure what role the rando (there was a weird guy showing up in the middle of the story) was supposed to play and what would have happened had he not show up. The interwoven timeline in Lux’s first-person POV and flashbacks of Lux’s, Amma’s, Brittany’s, and Eliza’s kept me guessing, and yes, Reckless Girls was such a page turner!

The suspense of the story was great (love me some shitty characters), but the final reveal was not. I’m rating it 3 stars for the enjoyment I got throughout the read and not for the mystery plot that ended up not making sense. If someone could convince me why the climax was the way it was, this book would have a higher rating from me.

[content warnings: gaslighting, violence, blood, gun, drug dealing, drug abuse (laced hash), mentions of cannibalism, mentions of dui (alcohol), mentions of cancer, mentions of losing parent to cancer, mentions of losing family to car accident, on-page and off-page murder, overdose of minor character, sex (m/f, not graphic)]

I am a big fan of locked room thrillers/mysteries and I am grateful to have received an e-arc and ALC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review - thank you!

Reckless Girls, by Rachel Hawkins, started off really strong. There were dual timelines of past and present that kept me turning the pages to know how everything was connected. None of the characters were particularly likable (which typically doesn’t bother me in a thriller) but it was incredibly hard to connect with them. (I really wanted someone to root for!) I enjoyed the secluded setting of the island with its mysterious history. There were some twists and turns but overall, didn’t live up to my expectations. The ending took me by surprise! A quick read with some thrills- you may enjoy this one more than I did.😁
3.5⭐️

An isolated, tropical island with a mysterious history. A chartered boat with the owner, his girlfriend, and two young women eager for an Instagram-worthy adventure. When they arrive at the island, there is already a young, wealthy couple there and they have a seemingly endless supply of alcohol and food. Now there are six people looking forward to two weeks of sun, fun, and games. Except, nearly everyone is harboring secrets. And, those secrets are about to turn deadly.

Reckless Girls is a suspenseful, can’t-look-away kind of book. The descriptions of the lush, untamed island are stellar and the character development is well-done. Little by little the backstories of the four women are revealed, as the over-all tension among the characters increases and the island paradise begins to take on a sinister quality. The twists in the story are unexpected and the plot is original and unique. I enjoyed Reckless Girls and will definitely read more books by Rachel Hawkins.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.