Lux doesn’t have much tying her down: She’s working a dead-end job and her mother recently passed away. So when she meets a gorgeous, charming guy, she decides to follow him to Hawaii with grand plans to sail to far and exotic places with him on his boat. Once she gets there however, the boat is dry-docked in need of repairs and Nico seems to be in no rush to fix it. Her luck is about to change though when two women, Brittany and Amma, want to hire Nico to sail them to a remote island, and are willing to let Lux come along with them on their adventure. Unfortunately for Lux, her lucky day may turn into a nightmare…

Turns out I am super into island books this year. I seem to be an outlier in that I enjoyed this *more* than Hawkins' debut, The Wife Upstairs. Maybe the creepy isolated island setting was just more intriguing to this wanderlust filled gal than a rich Southern suburb. Speaking of the setting, Hawkins did a fantastic job here. I felt like I was on the lush island myself, and the foreboding sense of unease kept creeping up and up as the book went on. There are also a lot of books I describe as page turners that I don’t want to put down, but for me this one was even more than that. It wasn’t just that I wanted to flip the pages to find out what happened; I was actively looking forward to getting back to the island with Lux every time I got to sneak in another chapter or two.

I still had some problems though. I did have some early hunches that turned out to be correct (which meant I was less surprised than I assume I was meant to be later), and I just didn’t love how this ended. Compared to the very slow build of tension earlier, the ending felt rushed. It got a bit convoluted and crazy for me, and while I know it’s more realistic to write flawed characters, I really wish one of them didn’t make a certain choice. It felt off to me.

3.5 stars rounded up, though this would have been sitting at a comfortable 4 stars for me if the end had taken a different direction. I’m looking forward to Rachel Hawkins’ next, since she seems to be getting better and better for me.

In the Reckless Girls, Hawkins tells about Nico and Lux, a couple who live in Hawaii and dream of sailing all over the world in their fixed up boat. They are approached by college students wanting Nico to sail them to a deserted island. Deciding it's too good of an opportunity to pass up, the couple agrees. They arrive on the island to discover it isn't deserted after all. I appreciated the opportunity to read this pre-release through Netgalley. Our library will be purchasing this book for our shelves.

I have a headache and sore eyes from reading this in one long shot! What a well written, gripping read!
My full review will be posted closer to the release date. (Jan 4, 2022)


Thank you Netgalley, St. Martin's Press and Rachel Hawkins for the advanced copy of Reckless Girls in exchange for my honest review

The book does start off slow but once I hit 50% or so on my Kindle, I did not stop until I finished the entire book.

Lux is the main character and has gone through a lot of shit in her life with her mom dying and her dad not helping at all in the situation. She meets up with Nico and they pursue Nico's dream of sailing his boat the Susannah. They are hired to sail the boat to an island with Amma and Brittany. On the island they meet up with a beautiful couple named Elisa and Jake. Everything is wonderful until a new boat arrives on the island. This is where things get interesting. Secrets are revealed and everything comes out.

I definitely enjoyed this book as I love a good thriller and trying to figure everything out before it is revealed to me. The ending is my favorite as who doesn't love a badass girl!

🌟Book Review🌟

Thank you to @netgalley and the publisher for the #AdvancedReviewCopy

Publication Date: January 2022

Two young women hire Lux and her Boyfriend, Nico, to sail them across the pacific ocean to a remote island for an adventure of a lifetime. Sounds like the perfect job turned into a vacation, right..not exactly! At first glance, all is well with the isolated beach, the turquoise water, and hot sun, but what they weren't expecting was another boat. Is the secluded paradise island big enough for more than just the four?

Overall, I liked it!

I was super excited to receive this #arc because the blurb sounded intense, super thrilling, and bone-chilling cold. However, I never really felt any of the emotions I expected to feel. Not even toward the big reveal at the end. The characters were not likeable. The only one I rooted for was Lux, but then I  even lost hope for her when her credibility was shattered over her actions near the end. Despite this, the overall story was good, and there was a lot of drama filled scenes just not the creepy, island-vibe mystery I expected. The structure was good, esspecially with the added bonus emails scenes woven throughout from other characters. The pacing was great, and the back stories added depth.

So while I did have mixed feelings, I liked it overall, and recommend this if you're looking for an easy read set on an island with a lot of drama. Just don't expect as much of the 'Thriller' aspect and you won't be disappointed.
🌟🌟🌟.

Thank you to NetGalley and St.Martin's Press for the advanced copy of this book.

I seem to be in the minority here unfortunately, as this one didn't grab me as much as I had hoped. I loved The Wife Upstairs, and thought that Reckless Girls would be within the same vein. Much to my dismay, it was very different.

I did enjoy the writing, which was one of the factors as to how I finished it so quickly. However, I can't say I really connected with any of the characters that much, and almost half way through the book, I had next to no idea where the plot was going as nothing had really happened for 50% of the book other than them being on the island.

Overall, the concept for the novel was solid, however the execution was lacking.

I wasn't a huge fan of The Wife Upstairs but this one sounded so different that I had to give it a try. And I'm so glad I did! It was a fun ride and I enjoyed the characters. It wasn't the most shocking thriller I've ever read but I would read it simply because it's incredibly rainy and cold in real life and I enjoyed nothing more than pretending I was on a remote island off the coast of Hawaii. I didn't even see the final twist coming. It wasn't anything I had considered and I definitely had an audible gasp moment when it all unraveled!

This was a good book up until the end, at least for me. Lux and Nico have a whirlwind relationship, and while she thinks that she is happy, she soon comes to realize she gave up everything for him and he doesn't seem to feel the same way. Nico meets two friends, Amma and Brittany, who want to go to a deserted island for a few weeks and are willing to pay $50,000. It seems like a no brainer, but instead of the cash Lux has them agree to repair Nico's boat so they could use that.

When they do get to the island, they see a beautiful catamaran and are greeted by Eliza and Jake. They have a great time with them initially, but then Robbie shows up and everything changes.

I enjoyed this read but the end felt very rushed and unbelievable to me. I did figure out some of what was going to happen prior to it happening, but other things just didn't make sense.

**Disclaimer: I received a free early access copy of Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this opportunity.

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins is an adult mystery-thriller novel.  It's about a young woman named Lux who goes with her boyfriend and two women who have hired them as guides to a remote island nearby Hawaii.  Things quickly intensify there.  It is set to be published on January 4th, 2022.  I rated it four stars on Goodreads.

Here's the summary from Goodreads:

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Wife Upstairs comes a deliciously wicked gothic suspense, set on an isolated Pacific island with a dark history, for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware.
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. Stuck in a dead-end job in Hawaii, and longing to travel the world after a family tragedy, Lux is eager to climb on board The Susannah and set out on an adventure. She’s also 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 like Lux, they may have other reasons to be seeking an escape.
Shimmering on the horizon after days at sea, Meroe Island is every bit the paradise the foursome expects, despite a mysterious history of shipwrecks, cannibalism, and even rumors of murder. But what they don’t expect is to discover another boat already anchored off Meroe’s sandy beaches. The owners of the Azure Sky, Jake and Eliza, are a true golden couple: gorgeous, laidback, and if their sleek catamaran and well-stocked bar are any indication, rich. Now a party of six, 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.
But with the arrival of 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: it seems that Brittany and Amma haven’t been completely honest with Lux about their pasts––and perhaps not even with each other. And though Jake and Eliza seem like the perfect pair, the rocky history of their relationship begins to resurface, and their reasons for sailing to Meroe might not be as innocent as they first appeared.
When it becomes clear that the group is even more cut off from civilization than they initially thought, it starts to feel like the island itself is closing in on them. And when 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.

Rachel Hawkins is definitely one of my favourite authors, and I was really glad to get to read this.  I had a lot of fun with her first adult mystery, and you can find my review for it here.  Reckless Girls did not disappoint.  It wasn't a perfect five star read from me, but I still had so much fun reading it!

The story is well developed, and I appreciated how you get snippets of all the different characters.  Most of the novel is in Lux's perspective, but you also get flashbacks in her life, and flashbacks in the perspectives of the other characters that she encounters.  It all helps guide you to the ultimate conclusion of the book and helps give you a fuller picture of the story.

Lux felt like a very real character. You can understand where she's coming from and you can relate to how she's feeling.  Her interactions with the other characters were realistic, and you can understand why she might feel doubt in her relationship with her boyfriend or how she relates to the other characters at varying points in the story.

The atmosphere of this novel was really well done as well.  I liked how the tensions slowly increased like we were the frog put into the gradually getting hotter water.  Things get more and more unsettling as the novel goes on, and it quickly becomes clear that you don't really know who you can trust.  I really loved that.

Overall, it was an excellent read and if you like a good thriller, I definitely think you should check this novel out when it publishes in early 2022.

4/5 stars!!

After suffering tragedy, Lux moves to Hawaii with her new boyfriend, Nico. They are then approached by two girls who want Lux and Nico to sail them to a remote desert island. Why could possibly go wrong?

This book was such a fun read and quite a wild ride. Sort of a “closed door” mystery in a way, this book will keep you guessing until the end. The author has a way of creating unique, morally ambiguous characters without you totally hating all of them. This is hard to do because for me, usually when all the characters are unlikable, I hate the book. But in this authors hands, the characters are all multi - dimensional, multi -faceted and are not simply “caricatures”. No one is simply all good or all bad.

This book has all the elements of a fun summer read: day drinking on the beach, affairs, drama, backstabbing, and murder! This book will keep you guessing until the end and maybe even after, as it sets itself up perfectly for a sequel! I will definitely put more of Ms. Hawkins’ books on my tbr!

When Nico asks his girlfriend, Lux, to join him on a sail trip across the world, she can't say yes fast enough. Lux has always wanted an adventurous life so choosing to sail the world with Nico wasn't a hard choice. After six months, though, Nico and Lux have only made it to Hawaii and Lux is working as a housekeeper waiting for Nico to say they should continue their trip. But Nico doesn't seem to want to leave Hawaii until Amma and Brittany show up. Amma and Brittany are two gorgeous college best friends who tell Nico they'll pay him $50,000 to sail them to Meroe, a remote island in the South Pacific - and they want Lux to join, too. Lux agrees but she wonders how two young girls have that much money and why they want to use it on going to an island with a dark, twisted history. When they arrive to the island, there's a couple already there: Eliza and Jake. Eliza and Jake are easy to like as the two are wealthy and generous, so Lux finally starts to relax and enjoy her time on the island with her new friends. As the six people begin to explore and learn about each other, a seventh person shows up, and he seems like bad news. It quickly becomes clear that everyone is hiding something - something dark. And when someone is found dead, Lux knows she needs to get off the island before she's next.


Last weekend, I took Amtrak out to Glenwood Springs and needed a good book to occupy the 6 hour ride, and I am so glad I had Reckless Girls. Reckless Girls jumps between Lux's present and past, as well as the pasts of Amma, Brittany, and Eliza, to tell the story of how and why each person ended up on the island. Rachel Hawkins has a unique way of story-telling that makes the reader genuinely feel the high-stake, risky situations the characters face. Although the book doesn't have a ton of twists and turns, it is high-tension and fast-paced, and the ending left me feeling haunted. And, while I enjoyed the characters, I didn't feel a particular connection to any of them, but I was interested in each person and their respective stories. Overall, though, this was a really good book and it's one I would highly recommend.

Such an easy, fun read in the best way possible. I enjoyed getting to know all the characters and the island setting. Of course, I couldn't put down this book because of this sense of 'what's going to happen?' and this impending doom or twist of suspense.

Having read 2 other books by this author I was thrilled to read the latest thriller. It had everything that you are looking for with lots of action, interesting characters and twists and turns. I look forward to discovering future books by Rachel Hawkins.

I loved the setting of this gothic thriller set in the unexpectedly wicked area of the Pacific. The characters’ outward perfect appearance truly hid a multitude of sins and their dangerous intentions. A fascinating and surprising book that will make you think twice before setting foot onboard a floating vessel of any kind!

So enthralled with this novel! I love a good thriller and this one kept me on the edge of my toes! Definitely perfect read for these cold fall nights!!

This was a super fast, interesting read. Great for a chilly weekend. I couldn't really guess where it was going, which was nice. And I couldn't wait to get back to it throughout the weekend and read a few more pages.

Thanks to Net Galley for the copy!

Lux and her boyfriend are hired to sail two women to a remote island for a secluded adventure. Upon arrival they meet another couple anchored at their destination. The group quickly bonds but everyone is hiding their own past. A lone shady sailor arrives one day and quickly causes everyone to become wary of his intentions. Quickly the group begins to fracture and chaos erupts.

The first element of this story that captivates is the remote island setting. Being trapped in such close quarters feels claustrophobic almost immediately. Then the lies and secrecy begins to come out. This is a page-turner and, although plenty of action occurs, the psychological element of the being stranded is what kept me on the edge of my seat. I won’t spoil anything but this book had a great ending. Exciting, unexpected, but made perfect sense. I really enjoyed this one.

Thanks to Rachel Hawkins, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I requested this one on NetGalley because I read this author’s previous book and really enjoyed it!

Lux and Nico are living in Hawaii, dreaming of life at sea, when an opportunity presents itself: sail two young women to a secluded island for two weeks in exchange for them paying for boat repairs. It seems like a win to Lux, who is desperate to set out on the adventure Nico promised. When they get there, though, they aren’t alone as they thought. Jack and Eliza have anchored up, and they all decide to civically spend time together. But secluded islands are that way for a reason, and sometimes there is such a thing as too much aloneness.

I have some mixed feelings on this one. I wasn’t particularly keen on any of the characters, which makes it hard to care when they start dying off or have other misfortunes. Despite that, I was intrigued enough about the island and how Hawkins was going to spin it to keep reading.

While I wasn’t super impressed with the overarching theme (battle of the classes), all of the threads of the story come together nicely. For me, the major saving grace here was the setting and constantly wondering if the island was, in fact, cursed.

I finished Reckless Girls in one sitting. It just pulled me in from the start. This gothic story set on isolated Meroe island in the South Pacific embraced the contrast between the beauty of the location and Its dark past. Lux has a lot of emotional baggage and all she really wants to do is travel. So when boyfriend Nico accept a charter to take two college girls to the remote island for two weeks of off the grid fun, she agree to join. Once at the Island we meet Eliza and Jake with their luxury catamaran and milky past. Told in two time lines, Lux is our POV for the present. In the past, however, we learn the back stories and secrets of all four women. I like how the author has given us some morally gray characters and then created deep secrets and complex relationships that she slowly reveals. The twists just kept coming. The story slowly builds an incredible tension that leads to an shocking end. Karen Hawkins has written a fantastic book.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the e-arc.

I am such a huge Rachel Hawkins fan, so I was very excited to dive right into this book. Lux and her boyfriend Nico agree to take two women to a remote island for a few weeks, an island with a pretty dark past. When they discover they aren't the only ones on the island, things begin to take a turn for the worst. This book has great characters, a thrilling plot, and a lot of twists. Thank you, NetGalley!