A book about a fancy wedding and problems between 3 couples. Nor my favorite book by this author. The book was good but not great.

Thank you NetGalley!

3.75 stars

After spending 2020 reading mostly thrillers, I had gotten so good at guessing the twists that I decided to take a break from them in 2021. The reason that I ended up picking The Guilt Trip despite that self-imposed break was because it gave me very strong Guest List vibes. I figured I would dip my toes back into the genre to see if anything had changed.

I will give two major props to this book, one of which has to do with the actual writing and another that doesn't. I appreciated how Jones explored paranoia through the character of Rachel. I could really see how her fears and guilt clouded her judgment of the various situations occurring around her. The audiobook narrator also really helped with that as well with incredibly distinct vocal choices for every character that completely captured my attention.

While I did enjoy the story overall, a lot of the big twists felt overly advertised to me and I found that I could not completely get into the book because of it. Spending time waiting for characters to catch up with you can be fun if you play it right, but this was not one of those cases. I will say to anyone reading this review that I am probably more attuned to potential twists than most and you might actually find yourself guessing at every turn. If so, happy reading!

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

I absolutely devoured this family drama novel! Jones does an amazing job of revealing secrets slowly and in a way that is believable. In this one, the main character vacillates between two possible scenarios, with the truth only revealed close to the end. I definitely recommend!

Five friends and the new comer "bride to be" set off for a beautiful weekend and wedding. Set on a clifftop at a splendid resort in Portugal. what could go wrong?
But these good close friends have secrets and so does the soon to be married Ali. Secrets that could ruin friendships and destroy marriages.
The story swiftly takes off from the first page and moves at a pace to keep you fully engrossed. Lies start to be revealed, or are these people looking for conflict. To cover our own secrets will we invent some about others.
Tempers flare, minds speculate and everything these friends know about one another comes into question. Is it truth or prejudgment.

The ending is both exceptional and satisfying, as well as unseen.

My one take away word from this one is "Brilliant" Sandie Jones has created another great thriller that should not be missed

The narration was excellent throughout the entirety of the book.
Thank you NetGalley for the advance edition of the audio book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for not one, but apparently two copies of this book to review! This will be a combined review of the book and the audiobook.

I’ve never read a book by Sandie Jones before. I DNFed her book The Half Sister but still plan on reading her Reese pick because eventually I’d like to read them all. I’ve heard this is her best one yet which literally gives me zero hope.

This isn’t a thriller novel. At all. It’s a domestic drama book with a convenient wrap up at the end; albeit an extremely rushed ending that is extremely predictable. You see the story unfold from Rachel’s perspective and see her believe lie after lie after lie in an attempt to manipulate readers into twists. The problem is, Rachel is as gullible as they come and the twists aren’t twists…they are extremely obvious who-is-sleeping-with-who scenarios.

Overall, the characters are unlikeable as they come, bland and vapid. A very generic A-typical modern thriller. Pretty much pick up a Ruth Ware, Lucy Foley, or Megan Miranda or BA Paris novel and you’ve read this book. Unfortunately, nothing stood out to me. The writing was sub par and the setting of Portugal was incredibly meaningless. Plop this book in the middle of the Sahara Desert and it’s the same exact book.

I’m sorry I don’t have nicer things to say about this book, but it realllllllyyyyy wasn’t my cup of tea.

2 stars overall because the narrator made this basic book more interesting.

Also, semi-spoilery…but can we stop slut shaming women because they look nice, have worked hard, have opinions, and don’t take male shit? Thanks!

4.25 stars
Enjoyability 7/10

We follow Ali, her fiancée Will and 4 of his oldest friends Rachel, Jack, Paige, and Noah, as they attend Ali and Will’s destination wedding in Portugal. Throughout the weekend, secrets will surface and threaten marriages and friendships. At the end of the trip, all of their lives will have changed forever.

I love Jones’s work and her characters. I slowly got to know them, but at the same time felt like I knew them forever. Each one had their unique personality and voice, and their entanglement was almost a character in itself.

The plot was intriguing and promising, so I am sad to say that the execution fell short for me. I’m shucking it to wrong expectations, though. I was expecting this to be a fast-paced, twisty, and turny, batshit crazy book. It was more of a slow-burning character-focused story than I had anticipated. My opinion is not on Sandie Jones, her narrative is compelling, and I will be picking up more of her books; I was just in the mood for more action.

I first read The Guilt Trip as an audiobook produced by Macmillan Audio and narrated by Clara Corbett. I really enjoyed her narration style; she delivered a well-paced story that made it easy for me to both follow the story and identify the characters. I look forward to reading more books narrated by her. With that said, I feel that The Guilt Trip would have worked better as full-cast audio.

All in all, I do recommend this book as a solid summer read, and I can’t wait to check Sandie Jones's other novels.

Disclaimer: I first read it as an ARC. In exchange for an honest review, I am thankful to Macmillan Audio, Sandie Jones, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of The Guilt Trip

This one fell flat for me. I thought the characters were sometimes a bit over the top and the storyline felt very slow. I wouldn't consider this to be a thriller, but more of a soap opera mystery. It was a bit confusing at times and had a very predictable ending.

This is the first novel I have read by Sandie Jones but I will go back and read her previous novels! While the book had a slow start, the pace increased quickly and it was easy to become engrossed in this soap opera plot. A group of friends: Jack, Rachel, Noah, Paige, Ali, and Will are on a trip to Portugal for Ali and Will's destination wedding. Noah and Rachel have been the best of friends through university but married other people. The story is told from the perspective of Rachel and the facts unfold quickly. We soon learn that all is not well in their multi-layered relationships. The constant lies, betrayals, twists, and turns keep you engaged throughout the book but also keep you perplexed at the actions of all the characters. Rachel’s suspicions guide the narrative and grow throughout the novel and you are left wondering who is actually telling the truth and what is real vs. conjecture. The pace quickens toward the end and while there is a plot twist it is somewhat unsurprising (and a bit over the top). Still, I enjoyed the story and the characters will stay with me. Thank you to NetGalley for the early release copy. This book will be published on August 3, 2021.

Sandie Jones has quickly become one of my favorite authors and The Guilt Trip was one of my most anticipated releases of 2021! This book was full of secrets, lies and betrayals between a group of friends which is normally right up my alley! Give me all the juicy friends and lovers drama! However, this was not my favorite of hers. I didn't like the characters and I had a very hard time staying interested in this one. I liked this book but just didn't love it like I wanted to.

I have recently discovered books by Sandie Jones and have not been disappointed and this book will not disappoint either. It was a great read. Just when I thought I knew where the story was going there was a twist or two and I was thrilled. I would definitely recommend this read.

Lies, lies and MORE lies!

This started off as your typical thriller... destination wedding, close group of friends, and an obvious fly in the ointment.

But the last quarter of the book is... insane! As the story climaxes, you really don't know what is true, and what is a lie.

Jones did a great job encapsulating the human condition here, highlighting how guilt can cloud your own judgment, and move people to do unspeakable things. Overall, well worth the read!

Jack and Rachel, Noah and Paige, and Will and his bride to be, Allison, are on their way to Portugal for Will and Allison's wedding. Jack and Will are brothers, Paige used to work for Jack, and Rachel and Noah are long time friends. The group of friends are very close, besides Allison, who they are all worried about her true intentions with Will. Rachel has many suspicions, but when she finally figures out what is going on everything changes as drama begins to unfold.

This book was giving me The Guest List vibes. A group of friends traveling for a wedding turns into lies being revealed and them questioning everything. I loved the book, it was a quick read that had me turning pages to figure out what was going to happen next. Just when you think you have it figured out, another piece falls in that changes it all. Even down to the epilogue, that has you wondering if you really know what actually happened. The twists were great and I loved the characters and all of their unique relationships. Sandie Jones is definitely an author that is at the top of my radar now!

This audio book has been a pleasure to listen to, especially in the light hearted summer mystery style. It has a good story line, a good narrator, and a good series of events, with a couple of twists.

It was odd though, that a couple of times I stopped the audio to search for the story. The group of friends in a secluded location is fine but there were some details that were really reminiscent of other stories I could not find.

This did not cause it to be less likable.

Thank you to NetGalley for the book.

Rachel and Jack. Noah and Paige. These couples are about to attend Ali's and Will's wedding. However, the fireworks are already popping before they even leave the airport. Will these couples survive this wedding?

This book frustrated me in a variety of ways. It felt like it didn't have an identity. Is this book supposed to be a mystery/thriller, a romance, or a drama? As a mystery/thriller, the chapters were too long. Also, the book was extremely predictable. I had a good inkling of what was going on in the first couple of chapters. As a romance, this book fell completely flat. The Guilt Trip didn't really capture the nostalgia of an old love. Also, for all of the rumored activities, there was not a great amount of steam. It felt mostly on the PG side of things when this book should have had more The Hunting Wives flair. Finally, this book as a drama failed to deliver. The plot wasn't really moving along fast enough. The dialogue was where the book was really progressing and most of the book could have just been skipped. The Guilty Trip could have been much better as a short story.

Overall, this is a big pass for me. The story was horrible. I do think that the narration on this was wonderfully performed, and I enjoyed the different voices. In the future, I would love to hear more from this narrator, just with different content.

Several friends arrive for what is supposed to be a fun getaway and a fabulous wedding. Instead one ends up dead, while the others are left to come to terms with secrets that were discovered, opening up old wounds, but creating second chances and new beginnings. In the end, the reader is left guessing who did what, and if you’re gullible like me, the answers will shock you. I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery and will recommend to patrons! Also a huge thanks to Netgalley! I was able to read AND listen to this one. The narrator was great!

So, The Guilt Trip starts off with a dead body. Then, backtracking, we follow three couples as they travel to a destination wedding, and stay together in a scenic villa in Portugal. We follow Rachel, a 40yo mother, as pieces of old and new secrets are uncovered, ratcheting the tension ever higher as they get closer to the wedding.

This book was kind of like watching a train wreck in motion, you just can't look away, as these characters start to unravel before your eyes. The tension was excellent, and tightly strung the whole way through. We live heavily inside Rachel's unreliable, overimaginative and highly paranoid mind as she struggles to keep her secrets hidden, while also desperately trying to pry open everyone else's. I think this book did an excellent job of keeping us guessing on what was true and what was a lie, as everyone became more and more unstable. And I will give it to this book, I did not know how it was going to end, and it definitely gave me that, "I have to know feel."

But, Rachel was not my favorite.... I wouldn't say I actively hated her... but there was definite dislike. She's highly hypocritical, constantly beating around the bush, quite repetitive in her justifications and worries (maybe trying to convince herself of certain things perhaps, but still a little wearisome), and honestly just overall hard to connect to. I didn't really get why the other characters liked her... and I definitely didn't get the connection between her and Jack at all. I guess my one biggest beef was that this book hinges on a past mistake she made that I still just *Really* don't understand, and makes her really unlikeable. I actually had to stop and look at my husband and ask if her actions made sense in any way. Answer: Um. No.

But, despite that issue, I still enjoyed the listen. I thought the narrator did a wonderful job with the voices and the tension, and even though I didn't like Rachel, I blew through this twisty story, and was mostly satisfied with the ending. If you're into dramatic relationship-based thrillers, I would totally recommend this. (3.75/5)

Loved the locale and fast paced action in this exciting novel set in a villa on cliff overlooking the sea in Portugal! 6 smart friends gather for one of the couples wedding there. All are intertwined so pay attention to their conversations and affairs and enjoy the surprises as they unfold. It’s hard to know who one should believe, all seem suspect. The narration went a bit fast for me and was quite shrill at times when speaking for Ali, I actually jumped several times w her loud bursts ( a bit too overdone). I had to rewind several times to absorb all the details. In all, a great beach read, w a good ending and possibly a bit ambiguous!! Enjoy your listen.

The Guilt Trip is Sandie's Jones' latest thriller. Six friends go away for a destination wedding with their suitcases packed full of secrets and lies. Ali, the fiancee of Will, knows all the friends the least. Ali is also liked the least by the other two women, Rachel and Paige. Jack (Will's brother) and Noah add more suspicion to the mix. The trip doesn't even start off well and the tension just continues to mount. The narrator did an EXCELLENT job of creating the perfect annoying voice for Ali, it honestly made me cringe. She had good pacing and made it easy to distinguish all six main characters. I found some aspects of the plot implausible, but not so much that I wasn't able to set my doubts aside. This will be a thriller that will be a crowd-pleaser. Public libraries all over should purchase and promote this title--a great book club title as well. Thank you to Netgalley for an ALC in exchange for my honest review.

The Guilt Trip is quite the trip! Literally! I loved everything about this story. The drama, the characters, the entire story line. I was questioning everything and it all tied together well at the end! An ending you definitely didn’t expect!

I definitely liked this book better toward the end. It started as a slow burn but got juicier as it went along. The Guilt Trip is told from the perspective of Rachel, who along with her husband, Jack, is traveling to Portugal for her brother-in-law, Will's, wedding to fiancee Allie. Along for the ride are Rachel's current best friend, Paige, and her husband, Noah, who was best friends with Rachel in college. Confused yet? Yeah. There are a LOT of interwoven connections and relationships to keep up with. Slowly, dark secrets about the vast cast of characters are revealed, and the friends begin to question whether Allie and Will should be getting married after all. The last 20% ends with a pretty drastic "twist" that wasn't exactly suspenseful, but I suppose it did pack some action. After getting the characters straight, I enjoyed this book but the "couples exposing dark secrets on vacation" trope just felt a little unoriginal. I certainly wouldn't consider this a "thriller"--maybe more "domestic drama." 3.5 stars rounded down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for my honest feedback!