My public loved Rachel Hawkin's books, I'm glad shes continued her quality the further her catalog grows.

This book was just okay to me. I think the writing style is just not for me, as I seem to be in the minority.

Ok, I can see why there were many mixed reviews on this one. On one hand, it was intriguing enough to keep me reading and I wanted to know what was going on, but on the other hand, it wasn’t “thrilling” enough to keep me up reading.

(Spoiler alert) but as you get to the end… there is to a giant plot hole and I just can’t get over it, why didn’t Amma recognize Chloe/Eliza when she pulled up to the beach.🥴

This one is a quick and simple suspense for someone looking for some sinister drama in a tropical location 🌴🌊☀️

Rachel Hawkins - welcome to my favourite thriller author list. I've only read 2 of her thrillers, but they've been huge hits for me. Seems, once again, I have a minority opinion by loving this one, but the audio as simply fantastic! I couldn't get enough and I needed to know what the hell was happening and who was doing it!

This is a slow burn, which almost never works for me, and the characters are pretty damn unlikable, again which rarely works for me, but maybe all of it together finally did work? Because I loved it and it definitely worked. It took a few chapters to really get invested, but I found it kept me interested enough to want to know more. I didn't predict the ending at all, which is pretty normal for me, but it certainly left my mouth hanging open. It was wildly entertaining, and a quick, easy listen! Highly recommend.

This book is EXACTLY what I needed these last couple cold, winter nights. I read a few chapters yesterday, and then COULD NOT put it down today until it was finished!
💙
I was quickly transported to the hot, sandy beaches of Meroe Island. Oh what I wouldn't give to swim in the ocean, sip cold Chardonnay, and eat oysters while watching the sunset right now. This book brought me on vacation, and quickly gave me ALL the heebee geebees that come with the island.
💜
From the description, Meroe Island instantly reminded me of Algae Island in Life of Pi. I kept waiting for the meerkats to appear, and possibly a lost tiger named Richard Parker.

Review

I will say that this book was an amazing read, and I was engrossed by the story from the beginning. I've had The Wife Upstairs on my TBR list for months, and when I saw Rachel Hawkins would be releasing a new book, I was eager to read it as well. This book exceeded my expectations, and I'm glad I read it first because it gave me a good idea about how engaging Hawkins' writing is.

While the story is not linear, the split timelines are clearly defined at the beginning of each chapter. The flashbacks provide details that become important as the story unfolds. For example, one of the chapters explores how Amma and Britanny met and how they ended up traveling Europe together. Another one gives details about how Lux ends up in Hawai living with Nico. The chapters are told from different people's POVs, including Lux, Amma, and Brittany, so the reader gets a clear idea of the events leading to the group sailing to the island.

Reckless Girls is crafted in such a way that it seems like the island is cursed. From the beginning, there are references to the bad things that have happened in the place and stories the locals tell about events that can't be explained. Lux and Nico dismiss all of the warnings because they love sailing and they need the money Britanny and Amma are offering, so they go on what they think will be once in a lifetime experience with these two American girls they just met. And for the first few chapters of the story, it seems that this will be a fun adventure with a group of twenty-something people who love traveling and meeting new people. And then, all of the sudden things get uneasy and tension starts to build up.

Hawkins does a great job slowly creating a suspenseful setting in which the characters don't even realize that something odd is happening. Some of the foreshadowing in the story is subtle, and I didn't even realize that certain details were meant to create tension until I got to the end of the book. And the way she has crafted the story keeps it engaging from the first chapter. This was one of those books I could put down.

The main plot is concise and succinctly feeds the secondary storylines which end up being connected to each other in a surprising way. I was pleasantly surprised that the twists kept coming because they kept me reading the book and wanting to know how the story would end. I was misled on several occasions because the red hearings in the story were introduced in such a way that I thought I had guessed the ending, so when it finally came, I was aghast. I must say that the final twist came out of nowhere and because it was in the final chapters of the book it was truly shocking. However, I had questions about how realistic it was because of the one plothole I found in the book. Without giving it away, I'm still confused about how Amma didn't know or say anything about Chloe.

Overall, I truly enjoyed Reckless Girls. Regardless of the questions I have about the one plothole and the ending, I found the writing style engaging and intriguing. It has given me another reason to read more of Hawkins' work.

I DNFd this one! I loved The Wife Upstairs and was so excited about this one. But it just wasn’t for me. Plus the cheating! Ugh! Next!

When a small group of new friends plan to sail to an island with a mysterious past, they are expecting the trip of a lifetime. But what happens instead will change the course of their futures forever . . . for those that get them.

There’s just something about Rachel Hawkins’s thrillers that have me absolutely ADDICTED. Between this one and The Wife Upstairs, I am 2 for 2 on favorite thrillers. Reckless Girls had everything I love seeing in thrillers - multiple POVs, awful characters, an isolated setting, and so many plot twists I didn’t see coming. I loved the main character, Lux, and her strong personality. She definitely wasn’t likable at times, but I personally love unlikable characters in thrillers. I ate this book up and cannot believe I waited so long to read it!

CW for murder, violence, blood, dead bodies, cheating, loss of loved one, cancer.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins!

WHOA. What a fast paced thriller.
Seriously, Rachel Hawkins kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I tore through the pages so quickly they almost tore out of the book itself. The setting of the creepy haunted tropical island, uninhabited by man, with a WWII history, definitely drew me in. I loved it.
The characters were so well done in the sense that I hated them. Honestly. I hated all of them. At first, of course, like any reader, I was definitely team Lux. How could you not be? Adventurous with the haunted past, the daddy issues, the wild spirit. I hated Nico right off the bat, because who doesn't know someone like Nico? You hate him on principle. I didn't want him dead, necessarily, but I knew ultimately that was what was coming.
Amma and Brittany. What a weird friendship. I liked that the book had multiple POV's and alternating timelines without making it too complicated to keep up with. I liked seeing both Amma and Brittany's side of their European adventure, before the island. But here's where Reckless Girls kind of lost me- why didn't Amma recognize Chloe when she saw her again? If she did, why didn't she make a bigger deal of it? I was so confused by that. Because surely, that's a red flag if I ever saw one.

Moving on to Eliza/Chloe and Jake. I mean, I see the motive there. It's understandable. It's cringe-y and weird, but I see it. Their whole relationship was odd to me, and out of all the characters, I think it was Jake's that I felt the most sorry for. He didn't know better. He was raised in wealth, and no repercussions.
Nico, what a bum. An absolute bum. His character absolutely infuriated me. Way to flirt with Amma right in front of your girlfriend, and then SLEEP WITH HER. But on that same note, I was deeply disappointed with Lux for taking the bait and sleeping with Jake, too. I thought you were better than that, Lux. I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU.

Another, maybe minor, plot hole to the book was the interview at the end. She had said that the island decayed the bodies, but wouldn't that be determined by forensics that there were gunshot wounds? Machete wounds? Just seemed weird to me, unless of course the bodies were decayed considerably. But even then, bones always tell the truth.

Overall- I deeply enjoy Rachel Hawkins and I can't wait for her next book!

Make sure you don’t have any other plans when you pick up this book to read because reading it is all you will want to do. Full of tension when fun becomes murder.

I really enjoyed the wife upstairs so I was excited for this read! I really enjoyed how it was so fast paced and it kept me on my toes!

I absolutely loved this book! I found it hard to put down. I highly recommend reading it! You won’t be disappointed.

Literally need to set a reminder to never traveled to a deserted island with this group of people, huh?! This was a quick, fast-paced thriller that is full of suspicious characters and suspense. I loved the setting. I loved the unexpected, surprise ending. I couldn’t get enough of this book and I think that Rachel Hawkins is a new “auto buy” author for me!

Reckless Girls was a hundred shades of WILD, y’all. This book was so good, but super fucked up at the same time.

The story is told from the first person POV of Lux in the present, and third person flashbacks from other characters central to the story. As always, I loved the multiple POVs and the non-linear timeline.

When Lux and her boyfriend, Nico, are approached by a couple of girls to charter a boat to an abandoned island, Meroe Island, and three day sail away, Lux sees it as her chance to finally get out of Hawaii and convince Nico it’s time to embark on their grand sailing adventure.

But not everything is as it seems with the two girls, Brittany and Amma, and when they arrive at the island to find a couple already anchored there, things only get weirder. And after one final arrival, what Lux thought was going to be a relaxing vacation on a deserted island turns deadly in a hurry.

This book was twisty. I absolutely loved getting to guess how each of these characters fit into the grand scheme of things, and how it would all end. Hawkins wove an incredibly clear story, where I could easily picture myself on the beaches, hacking my way through the jungle, or anchored in the cove of Meroe Island.

“…this island doesn’t twist people up. It just turns them into the purest version of themselves, hones them like a knife’s blade.”


While the story was full of secrets and lies, deceit and betrayal, with complicated relationships between each of the characters, I have to admit I was a little disappointed at how predictable it tended to be. I wasn’t surprised by any of the big reveals, and wish some things had been a bit better explained in the end.

That said, I really did enjoy this one. It was a quick read, keeping me hooked throughout. Reckless Girls gets a stamp of approval from me.

This was a fun beach read. Even though I couldn't stand a couple of the characters (you'll know which ones), I was still entertained. I didn't really consider this a thriller, but the author did a good job with creating the atmosphere. Thank you Netgalley!

The perfect beach read!

I loved this concept of a deserted island and the people you meet on vacation. It took me on a wild ride and was full of drama. While some parts seemed a little far-fetched, I couldn't put it down and it was great escape to the tropics this winter. Thank you NetGalley, the author and the publisher for my e-arc of this entertaining read.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book! I enjoyed this one and thought it was really nicely written and enjoyed just about as much as the last one. Cannot wait to read her next one!

Told in first and third person by multiple narrators, this story has a closed room, or island, style setting. I found the timeline a little confusing with its “Before” and “Now” labels, but I understand the necessity of it to provide ambiguity in order to obscure connections that the reader may infer too early that will spoil the mystery. I enjoyed the characters for the most part, some unlikeable and some rootable, even though I felt like it should have been titled “Feckless Douchebags” most of the time.

Throughout the majority of the novel, I kept getting this reminiscent feeling from the atmosphere that “I think I saw this movie” and while I kept racking my brains to try to remember the old movie that it reminded me of, I just couldn’t quite get my memory to go back far enough. I was elated when I read the author’s note at the end to see that it was inspired by the book “And The Sea Will Tell” and it dates me to say that I had a VHS copy of the mini-series that was based on many years ago and watched it many times. Recommended to closed room mystery/thriller lovers that can suspend their annoyance at a few bone-headed decisions, douchebags and Reckless Girls.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the free copy provided for an honest review.

I read this book in one sitting. I could not put it down. These are the kind of books I love, when you hate all the characters, none of them having a single redeeming quality.. When you want to reach into the book and say stop being so stupid. This book did that for me.

This book follows a a couple and 2 friends who want an adventure "Off the beaten path". Nico and Lux trade their guiding/sailing services for repairs on their boat. They take Brittnay and Amma out to a Atoll in the middle of the pacific ocean, 3 days from anyone else. But there just happens to be another boat at the Atoll. And then shockingly a 3rd boat shows up.

If you want messy drama this may be the book for you. You aren't sure who you can trust, or who is even telling the truth. I did have to suspend my disbelief for this book to work, but I still think it was worth the read.

9/10 would absolutely recommend

What this book had going for it:
-great setting
-easily readable in a few hours
-some very unlikeable characters (that's not for everyone but it is for me)

What wasn't great:
-one character that is so flip floppy in her moral code, she just totally goes dark at the end
-you find out later that 3 people knew each other but they didn't think to warn others?

I wouldn't call it a thriller. The thrilling parts were only at the end so I'd call it more just a contemporary