Reckless Girls WOWed me and was the perfect first book of 2022. It kept me guessing the whole time. There were so many crazy twists and turns that I ended up reading it in one day because I could not put it down. It's definitely an edge-of-your-seat kind of mystery. This was my first Rachel Hawkins book but it for sure won't be my last. Would recommend to all thriller lovers.

Many thanks to NetGalley for sending me an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

3.5/5

For Lux McAllister, things have been anything but conventional and easy, so when she meets Nico one night, it seems like the moment she's been waiting for. He's charismatic, adventurous, and he likes *her*. They relocate, together, to Maui, with the promise of adventure on their horizon. Only things have fallen into a rut. Money isn't the easiest to come by, and while he has a boat, it's in a state of disrepair. Enter Brittany and Amma, two girls in their 20s, traveling the world. They have one last stop on their bucket list for this grand vacation. Meroe Island. Lux isn't thrilled for a few reasons, the main being she wanted to go on an adventure of her and Nico's choosing, and it's not helping that these girls are both gorgeous. Begrudgingly, Lux agrees to come along on this grand adventure. What's so bad about sailing to a remote island with your beloved and a couple of tourists? It's an adventure in itself and they'll be making some much needed money for the trip as well. Only Meroe Island has a dark and storied past that no one really wants to think about. Is it smart to go to an island that is likely haunted by it's WWII past, and pretend like it's just another part of Hawaii? Probably not. But they're going anyway.

I really enjoyed this one! It really is the quintessential "popcorn novel". It's fun, it moves fast, it's mysterious, and at times it's down-right creepy. I really loved the overall dynamic between all the characters and the feelings of jealousy and protectiveness they all seemed to have at one point or another over others being at this island they wanted to themselves. Originally the foursome that sailed from Maui really want the island to themselves, but quickly make friends with the two already there. Then when a seventh joins the party, he's brazenly creepy and menacing, and openly leers at the women in the group. No one is OK with his presence but no one wants to be that person. It's written REALLY well and I could feel myself being super creeped out on the original six's behalf. This was my first novel by Rachel Hawkins and it definitely won't be my last.

This was fine. I find this kind of review the hardest to write. If I loved a book (or hated a book) - I can easily come here and fill space telling you why. But when a book was just lukewarm fine - I don’t have much to say.

I love a “locked room mystery” - whether it’s a group snowed in at a resort or out at a remote island. It’s a setup that always draws me right in. So when Luc sets sail with her boyfriend Nico and two women they met who were willing to pay $50,000 to go to the remote Meroe Island for 2 weeks - I was all in. When they arrive to find another couple already there, I’m even more drawn in.

But then things didn’t really work for me. It was fine and kept me going to see how it would end - but I don’t think this is one that will stick with me or that I would recommend. There’s also a pretty big plot hole that I don’t understand/don’t think would have happened the way it did.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins is a thriller about how seven people end up on an island in the Pacific, but not all of them get to leave the island alive. Lux and Nico are in Hawaii, but they need some money to fix their boat. Brittany and Amma offer to pay them if Lux and Nico will take them to an abandoned Pacific island. Once they get to the island, they find another couple there. While on this island all together, they learn secrets about each other; and people start dying because of paranoia, suspicions, and fears. I did not find any of these characters to be likeable. While this story kept my attention, I didn't find it to be a very enjoyable read. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

Lux’s mother has died after a lengthy battle with cancer. Lux meets Nico as his server. They fall heavily for each other and sail off on Nico’s boat to Hawaii. The boat needs some repairs before they can continue on with their trip to anywhere but here. Enter the Reckless Girls, Brittany and Amma. They offer to pay for boat repairs if Nico will take them to Meroe Island. They even ask Lux to go too.

Meroe Island has no residents, but another boat has beaten them to the island. The boat’s people, Jake and Eliza, seem nice enough. But Amma seems frightened. Brittany and Amma have a past that is about to haunt everyone on tiny Meroe Island.

The build-up of suspense in Reckless Girls is excellent. Something horrible is about to happen, something to both dread and run toward. Unfortunately, the plot just cannot meet my demands for a truly surprising twist. I’m not sure if the foreshadowing was overdone or I’m jaded from reading so many thrillers. However, I saw the twists coming from miles away. Still, it was fun to read so 4 stars.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Ominous, intense, and addictive!

Reckless Girls is an unsettling, locked-island thriller that sweeps you away to the infamous Meroe Island and into the lives of Lux and Nico, a young couple eager to charter two friends to a secluded island in the Pacific Ocean for a two-week vacation. Upon arrival, however, the island seems to have visitors already there, and long-buried secrets and skeletons from the past gruesomely begin to arise.

The prose is precise and clear. The characters are impulsive, secretive, and self-absorbed. And the plot unfolds and unravels quickly into a foreboding tale of lies, secrets, jealousy, deception, drama, manipulation, desperation, betrayal, violence, and murder.

Overall, Reckless Girls is a dark, taut, unnerving page-turner by Hawkins that does a wonderful job of reminding us just how easily people can often be psychologically and emotionally manipulated.

Lux McAllister isn’t sure what she’s doing with the rest of her life, but she knows she hasn’t found it yet. After following her charismatic boyfriend, Nico to Hawaii, she thought they’d be living a life of jet setting adventure. But a busted boat and a general lack of direction have been keeping both the boat, and their plans, both literally and figuratively, at bay.

Then two young girls approach Nico, asking him to be their guide to Meroe, a mysterious island with a sinister reputation. Nico wants to go, but given all she knows about the rumors surrounding the island, (and how little she knows the girls asking to go), Lux is reluctant. Ultimately the desire to explore outweighs the fear, and before long, the four of them set sail in uncharted waters.

As if heading to a mysterious island with total strangers wasn’t scary enough, upon arrival they find they aren’t alone for long. Now a group of six, they initially enjoy the freedom being away from civilization provides. But as another stranger enters the mix and more time is spent together, the briefly well knit group begins to unravel. Suddenly the strange things about the island that they’ve only heard through hearsay begin to turn into a reality. Can Lux make it out alive or is everything she’s heard about the island really true after all?

When I first started reading this one I was pulled into the story right away. A quick read, it can easily be knocked out in a few hours. However, the last quarter of a thriller can really make or break the rest of the story. In this case I was a bit disappointed with the outcome. That being said, Reckless Girls a quick, page turning journey that keeps you guessing from start to finish.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Lux is a girl adrift in more ways than one. When she meets Nico in San Diego and, after a very short time, follows him to Hawaii to sail around the world with him on his boat, she feels like maybe she has finally found her place.
After working a dead end job in Maui, Lux has finally had enough. When Nico is asked to charter a trip for two young 20-somethings to an uninhabited island for an exorbitant amount of money, Lux is all for it.
Enter Meroe Island. A deserted coral atoll used as a naval pit stop during World War II and the site of the shipwreck of the HMS Meroe (hence the name), it seems like as good of a place as any to get away - until it isn't.

I was not familiar with Rachel Hawkins before I read Reckless Girls, and it's safe to say I'll be hunting down her other books in short order. The story was the perfect suspenseful page turner. It's so common in novels with vaguely this premise to reveal too much upfront, but the pacing and reveals in this was almost perfect. You learned right along with Lux, for the most part, and it definitely kept things interesting! I am quite happy I made this my first read of 2022!

Reckless Girls started out just meh for me. Normally, I am hooked on locked room mysteries right away, but this one took me a while to get into. I found some of the flashbacks to be confusing and found myself not loving the whole shipwrecked island theme and stories. Towards the end, once all of the pieces started coming together, I started to enjoy it much more, and did not see the final twists coming! I will definitely read more of Hawkins’ books in the future, and know a lot of people will really like this one, but it just wasn’t a favorite for me.

This book was a lot of fun to read. Our narrator and her rich handsome boyfriend are taking two attractive twenty something’s to an uninhabited island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. What Could go wrong?? MORE LIKE WHAT. OULD GO RIGHT??
No food source,no drinkable water source, but what really matters is hell is other people, especially those with hidden identities and agendas.
The ending is a bit bonkers, but how did you expect it to end?

4.5/5

I have been anxiously waiting for the next book from Rachel Hawkins ever since I read and loved The Wife Upstairs. After seeing a bunch of mixed reviews for Reckless Girls I wasn't sure what I would think but I ended up absolutely LOVING it!! It is a slow burn but at the same time, I didn't want to put it down. I was immediately sucked into the story, and I loved how we got multiple viewpoints as well as past and present time periods for them. Every flashback to the past gave you a little more info about each of them, and I really liked how it all tied together at the end. I was truly shocked by almost all of the twists, and I had no idea where the book was going to end up at any point. I did catch onto a couple of things, so it wasn't all a complete surprise, but for the most part, it was, and I loved that.

Reckless Girls is full of unlikeable characters, and in my opinion, people you love to hate. The story also gets pretty unbelievable, so you need to make sure you are going to be able to suspend disbelief to truly enjoy the story. I think this would make a great beach read but just make sure you aren't on a cursed, deserted island or it may not be! I ended up reading the book in just a couple of sittings because that's how into it I was, and it was such a bingeable read. It has been ages since I have been able to sit down and finish a book so fast, especially by reading it and not listening to the audiobook, and this is clearly a testament to just how much I loved it. The tropical setting was lush and vivid, and I thought there was just the right amount of suspense to the story. If you like tropical settings, atypical locked room mysteries, and plenty of drama Reckless Girls just might be the book for you!

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This is a great beach read thriller! It kept me entertained the entire time but I honestly didn't love it. I loved the setting, the private island and the boats had great vacay vibes. I didn't like any of the characters and the ending was just ok. I feel like the big twist towards the end I had figured out early on so I wasn't really surprised by much. This is my first book by this author but it won't be my last.

This was a pretty good book. Lux and her boyfriend Nico end up helping two college girls sail out to a deserted island to have a small getaway. Lux and Nico take advantage of the payout they will be receiving. They help Brittany and Amma with this adventure. While on their paradise style island, they meet Eliza and Jake. While this island may be paradise, there are a lot of lines to cross, temptations, risks, and reckless behaviors.

I like that this story had some unexpected turns and twists. It did focus heavily on interpersonal relationships and the dynamics that young, good looking people may encounter when placed on an island alone. It was a quick read and kept me guessing from start to finish. It felt a little tense, but I would not classify this as a thriller. This was more a suspense style novel. Not really a mystery and nothing too crazy happening. Still, there were just enough moments of surprise that it turned out to have a solid ending.

Oh, Reckless Girls, how I dislike your name but like your story. There are no girls here and pretty much everyone is reckless. Lux and Nico are a couple. She follows him around while he decides how they will live their lives. He decides they will take two women to a deserted island for a week or so of fun in the sun. They sail for days only to get there and find another boat already there.

None of the characters seem to have a very distinctive voice to begin. Their personalities are basically stereotypes. Women who view each other with both sisterhood and suspicion, both pretty quickly. Nico is a basic dude. A bro.

I started to think that this was all on purpose. Everyone was really hiding what and who they were. At first they all melt together and when they start to solidify again they all are different. Some have seemed to become each other. It’s the difference between how people behave around new people. Their public face. Then, they all seem to come together again.

So is the island evil or are we just talking about people? Interspersed throughout are reports through the decades and centuries from different people who visited the island. Everyone had the same feeling of dread. The island itself is filled with and surrounded with dangers. There is a reason it is uninhabited. But is it evil? That’s left to the reader. What is not left is that people surely are. The secrets being kept here are not harmless.

What’s also left with the reader is to decide what exactly makes the women the reckless ones? Is it reckless merely for women to travel the world? Whether alone or with men? Are they always just “girls”? Helpless and reckless.

Author Rachel Hawkins has written another fabulous book, Reckless Girls.

Lux and boyfriend Nico are living a less than luxury life in Hawaii. Lux was in hopes of adventure and travel on NIco's boat. But she is working as a maid in a resort.

Nico meets two young women, Brittany and Amna who are willing to pay $50,000 to take them to a deserted island in the South Pacific called Meroe. Lux jumps on the opportunity to experience a two week getaway in paradise..

Legend is that the island of Meroe has a history of shipwrecks, murder and cannibalism. The island was used during WW II, 32 men were shipwrecked and only 8 walked off the island.

When the four arrived to Meroe it is everything Lux dreamed of. Deserted, natural, crystal clear waters and white sandy beaches. What she did not expect was the island was a bit eerie, creepy with a troubled past. But, they are not alone, another boat carrying Jake and Eliza has already arrived. The six become quick friends they enjoy drinking, sunning and relaxing on the beach. When another boat arrives the seventh person adds a entirely different vibe. Soon events that take place spin this vacation out of control

Thank you NetGalley the opportunity to read and give an honest review.

3.75 Stars

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins is a twisty, deliciously wicked suspense novel set on a deserted Pacific island with a dark history—shipwrecks, murder and cannibalism. It is a bit of a “locked room” mystery, with a hint of Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None.” The resemblance ends there—this is a story featuring brash, young adults, with their own unpleasant back stories and personality quirks.
The tale is told in two timelines—Now and Before—to shed light on the histories of the characters and show how their back stories contribute to their behavior in the present.
Meroe Island is the setting for most of the action. It is atmospheric and feels claustrophobic and unfriendly, as there are no natural resources on the island and it is mostly dense jungle. I liked this locale as a perfectly sinister and desperate place for the characters to play out their dark deeds and tragic results.
One problem I encountered as a reader was my inability to like or care about any of the characters. Lux, the female protagonist, was alternately gutsy and foolish; the other characters were all selfish and irritating, with malevolent motivations, and self-absorbed mindsets and behavior.
That said, this is a well-plotted serial murder mystery, with a nicely creepy vibe, lots of action, secrets, and dark twists. It will be a perfect fireside or beach read in 2022. I like Rachel Hawkins’ writing style and will definitely look forward to her future novels.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest opinion.

This was an entertaining and fast read with short-ish chapters. A dark story of secrets, betrayal, murder and survival. I liked the concept of being off the grid, escaping to be alone on a deserted tropical island, especially to an island with a dark history. But it's scary at the same time as you are cut off from calling for help and no drinkable water or food, just poisonous fish.

While I enjoyed the story overall, not a single character was likeable, there were a few plot holes (which I won't go further into to avoid spoilers), and the bad language was a bit much for me. I also found the ending a bit predictable. A solid 3 star read.

\This book about people from two different boats unexpectedly meeting at a deserted atoll in the Pacific with a doomed history started out strong. But as with most thrillers that I read, the ending ruined a book that I was otherwise enjoying. This will be a good vacation beach read for anyone who likes thrillers.

This is a Suspense Mystery. This is not one of those books that pulled me in from the beginning, but I did find the beginning so funny at times. The two main characters had to grow on me for a little bit before I got pulled into the storyline. I love that this mystery takes place mostly on an Island that the characters sailed to. I liked and did not liked some of the characters, but they where written to be liked that. I did not see the twisted coming, and they where really good. I have to say if you do not love sailing or Island books then you will not love this book. I think the setting may this book so great from me. The suspense builds up through out this book before the twists is revealed at the end. I was kindly provided an e-copy of this book by the publisher (St. Martin's Press) or author (Rachel Hawkins) via NetGalley, so I can give an honest review about how I feel about this book. I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.

"... she wondered why every time a guy fucked up, he did exactly this - made a girl think somehow it was her fault, that if only she were cooler and more fun..."

I am LOVING the trend of women taking control.
In the Acknowledgments, Hawkins confesses to her long time desire to write a shipwreck novel. She delivered.

A creepy island with a long history and mystical atmosphere draws bold tourists from Hawaii to explore her shores.
Lux still recovering from the devastating loss of her mother, meets Nico - a rich young man with a boat desperate for self funded adventures. After setting sail from California, the boat becomes damaged, forcing Lux and Nico to make Hawaii home.
With the funding from two young women wrapping up a world tour, Nico and Lux agree to take them to Meroe. A decision that will haunt them always.
Loved this book - the story told by Lux with backstory chapters to give the plot depth and movement.
Very enjoyable. Highly recommend.