This book pretty much ruined my idyllic vision of escaping it all by spending time on a remote island.

Lux’s boyfriend, Nico, is offered a load of cash to ferry Brittany and Amma to the island of Meroe in the South Pacific, an island with a creepy past. This was mistake #1, not counting the mistake Lux made in choosing Nico and ignoring all the red flags. So off they go, and when they arrive, they unexpectedly meet a couple on the island who has a well-stocked liquor supply and plenty of delicious food.

You know this isn’t going to go well, and it doesn’t. Everyone has a secret but their liquor-fueled days are a slog to wade through. No one is likable, which isn’t a deal breaker for me, but reading pages and pages of angst and drama from a group of drunk twenty-somethings whose idea of intelligent conversation is filled with f-bombs (184 according to my kindle search), was boring.

Despite the “locked-room” island setting, I felt no creepy vibes or suspense and could not have cared less what happened to any of them. They were all stupid and obnoxious and I would have been glad to see all of them die. The entire book was filled with implausibility, plot holes and unanswered questions. The ending was preposterous. I can sometimes excuse these things if I’m having fun with a book. This was not one of those times.

I loved the author’s first book, The Wife Upstairs, and will read her next book, but this was a complete miss. Many readers enjoyed it so do please read their reviews. This is probably a case of me being the wrong reader for this book. Not every book is for every reader.

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins was a "I can't put this book down" kind of book. It was so good. You must go read it.

A great, quick thriller read. Of girls who are tired of getting the short end of the stick. Set on a deserted island with a macabre past, it definitely has some "Lost" feels. Definite page turner for those who like revenge-type thrillers.

This was a very quick read for me and for the most part, I enjoyed it.

Lux meets Nico while she is in drift mode after the death of her mother. Nico is rich and has a boat, proposing grand adventures, so why would Lux refuse? While the boat is being fixed, two young girls meet Lux and Nico while they too are "drifting" and Nico is hired to take them to Meroe Island - a mysterious, uninhabited island not too far from Hawaii.

Upon arrival at the island, another boat is there already leading to more connections, interesting turns in relations and even more interesting back stories for all the converged characters.

The ending left much to be desired. Otherwise, a solid read.

Thank you for the ARC!

I did like the premise of this book, but that is pretty much where it ends. Now, onto the rest of the book which was silly, ridiculous, and frankly unbelievable. Perhaps, its intent was to show the greed, foolishness, and spite, millennials can sometimes harbor, but from the mindless main character, Lux, to her boyfriend, Nico, to the deserted island setting, this book landed on the inane pretty quickly.

Hired by two girls, intent on escaping the real word, the four companions head out to a remote island only to find another couple already there. Instant friendship and of course sex ensues, until another drifter shows up and things seem to get blown apart. The island has a mysterious feel to it, (of course it does) and seems to have murder, mayhem, and cannibalism in its murky past. Of course everything goes to proverbial hell, as this unlikable bunch head down the road to asinine choices.

Brainless, inane, and vacuous are some words that come to mind when I read this book. So sadly, for the intrepid team of Jan and I, we cast this one into the absurd pile, once again hoping to hit next on the right combination of a worthwhile and meaningful story.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review.

talk about a cover that POPS.

<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1633483350l/57693168.jpg"/>

i really enjoyed [book:The Wife Upstairs|53137893]; hawkins' [book:Jane Eyre|10210]-in-suburbia retelling, so i jumped at the early-opportunity to read this one, which promised to contain all the things i love in a thriller: flawed characters with seeeecrets stuck in an isolated environment where THINGS START GOING HORRIBLY WRONG AND BODIES START DROPPING.

lux mcallister* and her boyfriend of six intense months, nico johannsen, are slumming it hawaii-style as the novel opens—she's working as a maid in a posh hotel, he's hanging out at the marina waiting for lux to earn enough paychecks to get his boat fixed after which they plan to sail off into the sunset for a life of romantic adventure.

nico comes from money, but he's committed to making his own way (i.e. allowing his girlfriend to bring home the bacon), but it's fine, it's <i>fine</i> because he's hot and a very chill guy and lux—who most certainly does <i>not</i> come from money—has nowhere else to be and only tragedy in her rearview.

when college-besties and young lovelies amma and brittany hire nico to take them out to meroe island; a tiny, uninhabited, out-of-the-way atoll with a troubling past history of shipwrecks and cannibalism and missing persons, lux is slightly more concerned with the potential for infidelity-shenanigans than the island's unsavory reputation.

but as it happens, the girls want lux to join them on their adventure, and after lux negotiates the terms of payment, they arrive on the island to find another couple with the same idea: wealthy golden australian lovebirds jake and eliza. and then there were six. six beautiful carefree twenty-somethings with nothing to do but spend an idyllic two weeks bacchanaling on the beach.

and then came robbie. and suddenly the island was a little too crowded.

it's a very twisty story; an elaborate house-of-cards plot built upon secrets and lies, betrayals big and small, vanishing acts, and hidden agendas. before too long, their isolation becomes a trap where a collision of variables—sex, drugs, boredom, booze, machetes, guns, and those hidden agendas result in a murder-in-paradise scenario, and boy, these girls are RECKLESS.

it's an agatha christie <i>type</i> of story, although it is far more comfortable dropping "fucks" and "cunts" than dame christie's characters ever were, and if 'island gothic' wasn't a thing before this book, it definitely is now.

for the most part, it's a propulsive page-turner, but there are some draggy bits where you're waiting for characters to catch up to what you, dear reader, have already deduced, but that doesn't diminish the enjoyment of a class-and-gender-focused thriller that asks the important questions:

<blockquote>What am I when you strip everything else away?

I'm a motherfucking <i>survivor</i>.</blockquote>


* lux interior is the only lux for meeeee

<img src="https://cdn.idolnetworth.com/images/20/lux-interior-0.jpg"/>

I wish I had a brighter review to match this cover, but unfortunately, I don’t.

A “locked island mystery” sounds super intriguing right?! Well, at around 50% I was still struggling to figure out what the point of the plot was. It was going nowhere FAST. We get introduced to the characters in the past and present but I didn’t feel enough of a connection for those chapters to even matter.
I found myself waiting for something to happen so my focus was waning.

That moment where I became gripped because of a twist, never really came. The so-called revelation was so dull that it didn’t excite me. I can see where some would think the ending justified the drawn out storyline but it wasn’t enough for me. Sadly, I was disappointed.

What I liked: the narrator did a good job with the multiple characters and their accents.

Rating: 2.75 ⭐️
Pub date: 1/4/22

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest review

I could have sworn I’ve read other books by this author, but this is my first. It moves quickly and kept my interest throughout. It takes a different turn than I expected and I enjoyed the characters but it wasn’t the best mystery/thriller I’ve ever read. Still good!

A gothic suspense set on an isolated island? Love the concept and this book drew me in so deeply I could barely put it down. I loved the foreboding darkness that simmered beneath the surface, and felt chilling thrills when the inevitable “bad things” made their way to the surface.

My personal preference would have been for less of the history provided about the island throughout the book. The epilogue also didn’t hit right for me, but this book was entertaining and suspenseful. I definitely recommend it if a dark island read sounds appealing.

Lux meets Nicholas (Nico) in San Diego where he offers her a chance to travel the world, to sail around the world. They join back up in Maui, where they meet Brittany and Amma six months later. The girls hire Nico to transport them on his boat, Susannah, to Meroe Island for $50K. When they arrive, they find a boat already anchored there by a young couple, Eliza and Jake, who play a major role in the plot.

The story is written around an almost lifelike character in itself; the secluded, uninhabited island of Meroe. Gorgeous waters, beautiful beaches, waterfalls, and lush tropical vegetation.. BUT looks can be deceiving. The island has a sinister history of cannibalism and shipwrecks, and is uninhabitable with it’s tainted water and poison fish. They’ll soon find that it’s anything but paradise.

They all seem to become instant friends right from the start, until they begin to clash after an unwelcome boat drops anchor, with a strange man on deck. This is when the story alarmingly veers in a new unexpected direction, and when it does, things get a bit crazy, and this is where I had to suspend my belief a touch. It’s very atmospheric, and the sense of foreboding grips you to its core. The flashbacks of all the characters was pivotal in bringing the story together to it’s satisfying chilling end. It’s a great escapist read.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley for kindly providing an arc for an honest review.

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins is a thriller novel about a couple, Lux and Nico, who are asked to charter a boat for two young women, Amma and Brittany, to a remote island in the Pacific. The offer is too good to resist and Lux is excited for some adventure. When they arrive on the island, the visitors are not alone as they expected to be and after another suspicious person arrives, the island appears to be more sinister than before. Is everyone who they say they are? Who is hiding secrets? And who is not going to make it off this island alive..?

So first of all this book is fast-paced– I finished it in three days! I love books with short chapters and this book delivered. It also was a bit different from other thriller books that I have read. I enjoyed the different backstories and the present-day story. In the beginning, I found the “before” parts to be a little bit hard to piece together; however, as the book went on, the backstory did piece together with the present-day story.

I also really liked the ending of the book. There were definitely many twists and turns throughout this book that I enjoyed. Once it all was pieced together, the ending did not go as I expected. It was thrilling up until the final pages.

One of the parts I loved most about this book was the setting– a beautiful, remote island with a dark, mysterious past. It made for such an exotic, different location than other thriller books. As a winter release in the US, this was a nice escape from the cold, winter months. I wanted to bask in the sunlight with these characters (up until the island became very sinister that is).

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I loved the tropical location, the ending, and the short, fast-paced chapters.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have to start by saying I loved The Wife Upstairs by Ms. Hawkins. I just could not connect with any of these characters in Reckless Girls, although the title was a good lure. I look forward to her next book, with pleasure. Thank you #NetGalley#StMartinPress#Reckless Girls

This book was not at all what I thought it was going to be. It always drives me bananas when our main female character follows a boy. No good ever comes from it, but they will never learn. I did like getting the before and now perspectives. That helped answer a lot of questions. In the end this book just wasn't for me, and I can not recommend.

I read The Wife Upstairs by the same author, so I am beginning to think she's not for me.

Lux McAllister and super hot Nico may seem like the golden couple but looks can often be deceiving. Frustrated cleaning hotel rooms while Nico’s days are filled doing odd jobs at the marina and soaking up the sunshine. All of this work to fix up the Susannah, Nico’s sailboat. Lux is losing her steam as months pass and life in Hawaii is not what she expected. She didn’t leave much behind in California except for a miserable past and painful memories. Meeting sun kissed Nico changed her life and it was no choice at all to follow him to the islands in hope of starting a romantic adventure of their own. When two random pretty girls hire Nico and his boat for a ridiculous amount of money, it is too good to be true. A two week stint to Meroe Island and enough money for Nico and Lux to finally be free. Once anchored, the foursome meet up with Jake and Eliza - a too beautiful couple, sailing a magnificent catamaran and only too happy to share expensive food, wine and whatever else may follow. They learn this idyllic location has a history filled with murder and tales of cannibalism. By the time another (creepy) sailor turns up in the cove Lux is on edge. Something does not feel right and her mind begins to unravel, suspicion at every turn. Everyone seems a little off and she is determined to find the truth. Romance, sailing, mystery and everything in between. In this modern day Lord of the Flies no-one can be trusted. Start the year off with this brand new unputdownable fast paced thriller.

I was really excited to kick off 2022 with a new novel from Rachel Hawkins because I absolutely LOVED her last novel, The Wife Upstairs.

Similar to The Wife Upstairs, Reckless Girls centers around a main female character, Lux McAllister in this case, and switches perspective back and forth as the story unfolds, with the past playing a large role in how and why the characters made the decisions they did. I personally really like when a book switches perspectives from past to present, and it really works with psychological thrillers, because it helps to get inside the characters’ heads and understand what happened to make them the way they are.

Lux and her boyfriend Nico are hired to take two college besties sailing to a deserted island with a horrific history. Untethered, recently fired, and seeking adventure, Lux is thrilled to finally take off sailing with her boyfriend and feels like she’s found potential girlfriends in Amma and Brittany, but the group begins to splinter when they arrive at the secluded island and find others are already there.

One of the key themes throughout Reckless Girls was family ties. Each character was untethered in a different way and looked to friends who became family for the support they were desperately missing in their lives. Justice and loyalty were another. Each member of the sailing party had secrets and a bone to pick with someone else on the island.

Overall, I enjoyed Reckless Girls and read it fairly quickly, finding it easy to just keep picking up another chapter as the story unfolded, but I have to admit I was a little disappointed. The beginning and middle were a little slow and the end left me with a lot of little random questions.

Amma clearly didn’t like Eliza from day one, but did she recognize her or know what felt off? Where did Robbie fit into the group? Was he connected to the group in some way or truly just a random drifter with bad timing? There were also a lot of passages throughout the book referring to emails, tweets, and other correspondence. Some of it seems random, so I think I’d need to reread the book again now that I know the end to understand where some of the pieces may have fit in.

I just didn’t love this one as much as The Wife Upstairs, but it was still a good book that I would recommend for anyone looking for an easy thriller off-the-beaten-path.

Reckless Girls was definitely Rachel Hawkins best so far. This was like a twisted Gillian’s island. I literally devoured this in one sitting. Impossible to put down. I might even have whiplash

I'm always interested in what Rachel Hawkins is writing and this is a fun one. You just drink it down like a margarita. I don't think it has especially deep things to say about wealth and gender, but that's okay, it's a boat murder book set on a creepy island in the South Pacific. It's fast-paced and satisfying and I'm glad it avoids explaining too much. It's a great one to save for the summer as it's really a perfect beach read.

I did not know what to expect from this story. I didn’t really read the synopsis before starting it as I enjoyed her previous work. I listened to this on audio and the narrator did an excellent job with the various characters and their voices.

The story itself was good but I didn’t really understand the premise. I get that the title says that it is about the girls but it to me, it wasn’t a cohesive plotline.

A young couple kicking around in Hawaii agrees to charter their boat to two college girls. They head to a deserted island in the South Pacific for a two week experience of living off the grid. The island has a troubled past and when they arrive, they find another boat already anchored there. What unfolds is a suspenseful tale with a cast of characters who are not what they seem. I read this in one sitting. Well done.

I really loved how this story unfolded. We mainly follow Lux but throughout we get to see a bits of what lead the others to come to this island. It adds a mysterious layer to an already twisted cocktail.
It was a quick and entertaining read.