Most of this I was waiting for the ball to drop. A steady build that managed to keep me enthralled and reading. The drop was there, the only disappointment is that I had already guessed it. And yet! This book still managed to get 4 stars from me because not only was I entertained, I was attached to the characters and pretty much read this in two sittings. A sure sign I’m into a thriller.

I really loved the sailing scenes. Sailing on the open ocean is both mesmerizing and terrifying for me, making the stormy sequences extra thrilling and exhilarating. Hope that’s not a spoiler but what is a sailing book without at least one storm.

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of the book. This was a perfect getaway to a secluded island and the trip goes awry. The story is with flash backs from Lux and Emma’s past as well as present day. I enjoyed the pacing of the story and wondering what will happen. I got turned off with the story once there was cheating involved and the 2nd half of the story and how it unfolded seemed so far fetched.

I could NOT put this book down!! It fantastically written, utterly gripping, and an incredible ride. I loved all of the flashbacks and actually felt like I was on the island with them. Perfection!

RECKLESS GIRLS BY Rachael Hawkins is the tale of six unrelated individuals whose thirst for escape and adventure brings them together on a deserted Pacific atoll for an idyllic two weeks of exploration and fun in the sun.

Twenty-five year old Lux chronicles the present-tense narrative which is interspersed with non-linear flashbacks that bring to light the circumstances, lies and secrets that have brought each of the other 20-something “islanders” to this juncture in their lives……..and the results of their decisions are harrowing.

Don’t want to give away too much of the story but do prepare to stay up all night having your mind blown while navigating everyone’s personal baggage in this exhilarating, claustrophobic, atmospheric and diabolically unsettling read.

I am thrilled to tell you all that I loved this one! Talk about unputdownable!

Lux has met the man of her dreams in Nico and Nico has just been offered $50,000 to sail two college girls to Meroe Island. Nico, unable to say no to an adventure, asks Lux to join them. Not only that but this money they can use to finally fix their boat, The Susannah, which means after this trip they can finally set sail just the two of them.

Meroe Island is steeped in myth after a shipwreck happened on its shores during WWII and only 8 of the 32 people on board actually survived. Since then many believe the island to be cursed.

Once they arrive to the picturesque island they realize they aren't alone at all. The Azure Sky is anchored there. On deck are Jake and Eliza who seem to welcome them with open arms.

For the next two weeks they luxuriate in the sea and sand all while drinking copious amounts of alcohol. Life couldn't be better. A trip of a lifetime. Or is it?

I'm not sure if it's the frigid temperatures and the fresh snowfall here in Massachusetts that allowed for Rachel Hawkins to transport me so effortlessly to Meroe Island but this baby worked for me 100%. I could almost feel the salty air and sand between my toes. There were so many secrets and lies that I was nearly hanging on every word. I wouldn't say there are any big twists or reveals. The one twist at the end I kind of suspected earlier and I'm thinking others might too but even in saying that I was not at all disappointed in the direction this book went. Others have not enjoyed the ending but I actually loved it and thought it was pretty darn perfect. Needless to say, having enjoyed two books by Hawkins now, I am eagerly awaiting her next book. 4 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my complimentary copy.

3.5 Stars

So, your hot boyfriend has been commissioned by two college age girls, to sail his boat to a tropical, secluded island which has a dark reputation. Do you jump on as his first mate? Lux does, even though she has some reservations.

First book I’ve read by this author. It kept my attention, but found the storyline to get tiring after a while. Predictable, ending just confirmed where I thought the story line was going. I can’t say I loved the characters; some rich, all good looking and fairly clueless. The writing was descriptive and made me long for crystal blue water, sunny skies and balmy breezes. Will definitely give this author another try. Would recommend this book as a vacation/beach read.

Thanks to Ms. Hawkins, St Martins Press and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone.

Things I liked: the author did a great job with world building. The island was another character in the book and suspense was built into the setting. I feel like this book will be popular for a spring break beach read! Things I didn't like: the story had a long build up and a fairly abrupt ending compared to the slow build up in the first 3/4s of the story. This felt similar to other books in the genre that I have read: The Sanatorium, One by One, The Guest List.... if you liked those, you will like this. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book and read it in one sitting! Rachel Hawkins is a master of building slow suspense that creeps up like a frog slowly boiling. In "Reckless Girls" the reader is transported to the most Eden-like island in the world and it's easy to understand why the visitors stay despite the eerie history. The twists and turns keep the reader guessing until the end. The characters are complex and have layers that unfold to the very last page. This is one I'll re-read for sure!

I've been looking forward to this tropical thriller from the author of The Wife Upstairs, and wasn't disappointed.

The story is basically a locked-room mystery set on an isolated island, and that format worked so well. was never quite sure who to root for, even once I was finished. It was fast-paced and suspenseful, and it ended with a bang.It's the perfect vacation thriller to read to escape the current cold weather conditions!

Read this if you liked The Guest List or And Then There Were None.

Are you looking to sail off to a secluded island in the Pacific to your own private island? Doesn’t that just sound perfect right now as we are in the dead of winter? Reckless Girls is the perfect thriller to pick you up and transport you into a tropical world and leave you sitting on the edge of your seat.

Is this a thriller or mystery?

Oh, this is a good thriller! There is a great deal of tension and a sense of unease and anxiety created throughout the course of the story…and a bit of nail biting on my part too. What begins a fin vacation and escape, gradually becomes what nightmares and urban legends are made of.

As you read this story you will have to suspend some sense of logic with the number of coincidences that occur in the story.

Did you read this one or go with the audio?

I read this book but have chatted with others who went with the audio version. They loved the narrator and all the different accents used for each of the characters. One thing to note is that this story has the f-word a lot, and this may end up being more distracting on audio if cursing bothers you.

How was the pace?

This was a quick read that hooked me from the start. If I hadn’t had three buddy reads going on at the same time I would have flown through the book in a day. It was nearly impossible to put down when I had to. I kept wondering what was going to happen next and when the twist would happen.

Do you recommend this book?

Overall, I definitely recommend this book! This is an excellent thriller that will take you on a wild ride!

I would like to thank Rachel Hawkins for the anxiety I felt reading this! The suspense was extremely well written and I felt a lingering uneasiness the entire time I was reading.

Lux and her boyfriend Nico are hired by two women to sail them out to a remote island with a dark history - say no more! I was invested from page one.

The whole time reading this book I was anxious and wondering what the heck was going to happen. I had to take a few breaks here and there because I was nervous about where it was going! The deserted island setting was so atmospheric and creepy.

This book hooked me right from the beginning and I was constantly trying to guess what was going to happen and it was still throwing me for loops until the very end. I felt the ending happened very abruptly but it fit with the chaos that ensued. I had to reread one chapter to get over my shock and really process what had just happened.

Thank you so much to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for this digital advanced copy.

A tropical vacation on a deserted island??? Sounds like the perfect escape from this 20 degree weather we’ve been having.

I loved the concept of this book & I loved how it made me feel like I was actually on the island with them. I’m a huge fan of closed room mysteries & I think the setting of this one made it even more suspenseful. Overall, I really enjoyed the story & all the twists throughout.

3.5-4 stars
Reckless Girls is a great thriller beach read as most the story takes place on an island. It starts out a little slower while introducing the characters but then picks up and leaves you an unexpected ending.

When someone offers you $50k to take them to a deserted island you don’t pass that up, at least Lux and his girlfriend didn’t. After accepting the offer and taking the girls to the island they meet another couple and all ended up clicking. However they weren’t the only people on the island. One goes and one ends up dead and Lux finds himself second guessing everything.


Overall fun read, thank you #netgalley for the ARC.

4-4.5 stars

When Lux and Nico are hired to sail two women to Meroe Island, the timing couldn’t have been better. Lux followed Nico to Hawaii after a family tragedy and since then had been working a dead-end job. She’d been longing to travel more and this was the perfect opportunity to leave behind the remnants of her mundane life.

When they arrived, the island was even more beautiful than they imagined, but they weren’t expecting to see another boat already anchored by the beach. They all seemed to get along well enough, but knew next to nothing about one another. It quickly became apparent that their trip would be anything but smooth-sailing, and it didn’t take long to realize that not everyone had been honest about their pasts. The island has a turbulent past as well, and I was beginning to wonder if the island was affecting them or if some of these individuals were just downright sinister.

Overall, I thought it was a pretty good book. It definitely had plenty of suspenseful moments and dark hidden secrets, and it kept my attention until the very end, but something about the ending didn’t sit well with me. Maybe it was the change I saw in Lux after everything that happened; it was like she did a complete one-eighty and suddenly I wasn’t a fan of her anymore. However, I will say that the ending was quite a surprise, and that made this book worth reading.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4358059042

Usually I don't enjoy stories where I feel like the characters make a lot of unwise decisions. But, with the title of Reckless Girls, what did I expect? In this case, I enjoyed this story of several 20-something women living life on the wild-ish side. It was towards the very end of the novel that the story really goes lopsided, far fetched, and over the top.

Lux's life has been difficult since she had to drop out of college to care for her dying mother. Once her mother died she drifted until she met Nico, a rich guy with his own boat. Lux has always wanted to travel the world and Nico gives her a glimpse of a better life. It's only a year later, when two young women hire Nico to take them to a Meroe Island, that Lux and Nico finally start their adventure, with paying passengers.

Brittany and Amma give Lux a chance of having girlfriends again, even if it's just for the duration of the trip. Lux misses the camaraderie of girlfriends from her college days, girlfriends who all fell to the wayside when Lux had to quit college and care for her mother. But once at the island, there is already an anchored boat. And then days later a very skeevy guy shows up in a another boat. Dynamics go from casual partying to something else, with a boatload of secrets among the group, threatening to erupt.

This story is full of atmosphere, from a couple of days at sea, a dangerous storm, the claustrophobia of four people on a small boat, and then the beauty of an unpopulated atoll, away from jobs, phones, and responsibilities. But into this blissfulness we have bits and pieces of back story of most of the characters and it's obvious that one or more of these people are wearing masks, hiding their true selves. I was so interested in watching where things were going, rushing through the pages entranced, and then things go bonkers, leaving me a bit stunned and wishing I could fill some plot holes with answers. Still, my overall enjoyment of the story left me mostly satisfied but landlocked forever.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

This one took me a few chapters to really get into it, but.I was very glad I stuck with it. I can’t say any of the characters are particularly likable but they are very entertaining. I’ve always liked a good locked room/house mystery so how could I resist a deserted island murder mystery? A group of 20-somethings end up on a deserted island with a sordid past (think cannibalism). The story changes perspectives and gives some of the background to the characters but the background comes slowly. The main character Lux’s life was derailed when her mother got sick with cancer while she was in college and since her mother’s death she has floated. Most recently she has floated to Hawaii with her boyfriend Nico. Nico is hired to bring two young girls to a local island and insists Lux comes. What comes next no one could have predicted, but it’s a bumpy ride!

Yikes! This book started out really well. The setting is intriguing and the writing throughout is excellent. I thought I'd really like it, but it devolved into something so dark and violent that I didn't really enjoy it. There is not a single character to like or to care about, although that doesn't become totally clear until the latter part of the book. I was grateful to have access to this book through NetGalley; my thanks also to St. Martin's Press/Macmillan Audio. In the NetGalley feedback, I did say I'd recommend it to book clubs and through readers' advisory, especially since many people gave this book high ratings. However, I'd want to make sure the prospective reader would enjoy a dark book because I don't think it's for everyone. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Barrie Kreinik, and she was absolutely wonderful in every way.

You're stranded on a tropical island that is known to have a dark history. Sounds like the perfect vacation spot right? I mean, come on, all that dark history could simply be the truth fabricated and stretched to sound like a terrible tragedy. Or is it?

I really liked the idea and concept of the story. It reminded me of the kinds of movies I would definitely be interested in watching. I just wasn't super impressed. It felt really slow to me and it honestly didn't pick up till the last 20-30% of the book. It felt predictable although that is not something I find as a bad thing. What I have an issue with it being predictable was that it didn't surprise me or wow me enough to be , "I knew that was going to happen!!!" My reaction was more like, "I knew that was going to happen." See the difference in punctuations? It wasn't a terrible book! Not at all. I found that book to be decent. Okay. Good enough that I'm willing to recommend it to others because they may find it a lot more enjoyable than I did. What I really liked was the epilogue and how the end was wrapped up. It was, to me, the perfect way to end the book.


Many thanks to NetGalley, Rachel Hawkins, and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book!

This is a thriller with lots of twists and turns. Starts out with Lux and her boyfriend, Nico getting an offer to sail two tourists looking for an adventure on a haunted Meroe Island 2 days away from Maui. With the offer of adventure and enough money to fund their own sailing trip afterwards they agree. Things start getting weird when they realize that they are not the only boat anchored by the island they meet a rich couple looking to join in the adventure. Lots of rumors from the island are correct with poisonous fish and sharks surrounding the island and when they find a skull Lux starts feeling very uneasy about staying there. Keep reading to see how all the female characters are connected and who will end up leaving the island alive at the end!

This book is a wild time. 3.5 stars, rounded up to four.

Now, I'm a sucker for isolated, closed-circle mysteries. Give me one of those in a thriller or mystery and, generally speaking, I'm going to like it. And, I think Hawkins did a fantastic job with hers! I loved the setting of the isolated island and how tensions arose between everyone on what, on the surface, is just a fun vacation adventure. It's fast paced, and kept me wanting to read "just one more chapter." This would definitely be a great beach read.

I will say, I can see the end being pretty divisive. I think folks will either love it or hate it. It's...wild. I definitely didn't see it coming. I'm unsure I buy character motivation, but it was still fun if I just suspended disbelief. And the writing wasn't quite my cup of tea. It was repetitive, at times.

All in all, I would recommend this to those wanting a good isolated, closed circle mystery beach read.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.