The Guilt Trip, by Sandie Jones, is a soap opera worthy domestic drama until the climatic end. And whoa that ending – mind-blowing!! I was on the edge of my seat.

Without spoiling too much, this book reminds us to not judge others. You may think something of someone but keep your mind and your eyes open. They may not be who you think they are at all. Gasp!

This is my second book by Sandie Jones. Her descriptive and intriguing writing has moved her to my automatic-read column.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Sandie Jones for the ARC in exchange for my honest review! ❤️️

The narrator was good but this book still dragged for me. I tried to read the actual book and just couldn't stay focused. I found I was also losing focus while listening and that has never been a problem for me. Wish I could've liked it more!

A decent read it is a bit slow in places but would recommend. Three couples. A trip to Portugal for a destination wedding. A gorgeous villa overlooking a scenic and violent ocean. As family and friends gather for a weekend together in a Portugal Villa for Ali & Will's wedding...tensions rise. Even the most complex bonds within them are tested over some of life's most challenging moments. What should have been a celebration of a new family member for Rachel and Will's brother, Jack, Ali's lively personality irritates the guests. Rachel's best friend throughout her childhood is Noah and his wife Paige.... her go-to-girl and confidante. They draw conclusions about Ali and become fixated on her flaws. Then Jack delivers some scandalous info about an apparent affair she is having, which would crush his brother if he knew. This circle of friends become engaged in so many situations...some are rather hot and steamy scenes. Ali, the bride of The Guilt Trip, is a drama queen, making her someone the reader will find a bit annoying. Most of the first half of the book is filled with Rachel’s inner thoughts and suspicions, her dialogue with the others and basically how unhappy these couples are in their marriage. The marriage took place at a very picturesque spot. I did enjoy the descriptions of the cliff side restaurant and venue and the crashing of the waves off the ocean. The characters were not relatable and mostly unlikable. These characters are in their 40's and acted like immature teenagers.

It is of interest trying to figure out who is the guilty party but there is so much going on that it appears the whole party is guilty of something.

Thank you to publisher St. Martin's Press, the author and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for a review. Expected publication date: 8/3/21.

The Guilt Trip by Sandie Jones was just okay. It was a bit too "mean girls" meets "Guest List." I was looking forward to the fact that this story involved a destination wedding in Portugal but I barely even noticed it. There were almost no cultural references and other than what you see on the cover of the book, there is very little done to create scenic setting for the reader.

I truly loved Sandie Jones’s book The Other Woman. I thought, here is a remarkable new voice in domestic suspense fiction.

Then. The First Mistake. Strike One.

Then. The Half Sister. Strike Two.

Both of her follow up books were major disappointments.

Ever the optimist, I decided to pick up The Guilt Trip, and, I wanted to love. I did. I really did. But. Strike Three, you’re out.

Six friends...three couples....are traveling to Portugal for one of couples wedding. And they all have secrets their keeping from each other. You can guess what the secrets are. It’s boring. There’s no suspense at all. And then some bat**** crazy thing happens 25 pages from the end that’s random and makes no sense. I don’t know. It’s by far her worst book. And it makes no sense. The end.

I’m so sorry for this negative review, but thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy; the audiobook was fantastic, it was really well produced, but I do not recommend it.

To start off, I loved the narrator for this book. She emphasized at the right places, held back at quiet moments, and gave everyone a unique voice.

Onto the book - if you want twists and turns and flips and some more turns and a few more twists, this book is for you! This wedding weekend is not one this group of friends will ever forget. Speaking of friends…are they? Are the couples happy? What lies underneath? This book will have you questioning who you can trust, who is a true friend, and who has been deceitful in their relationships. And to add, you won’t know all until the very last bit, so sit back and hold on. There’s more than a few reveals at the end of this book. To measure this book, at times, I felt like I was being deceived myself. Or that I was questioning a friendship. Or that I felt like I may have just been stabbed in the back by someone I love, and thought loved me. I was the fly on the wall at this entire wedding weekend of reveals and revelations.

I did take a star off. I was hesitant to, but in the end, I decided I did have an issue with the book. Even reading the audiobook, with distinct character voices, I found at times it was hard to track who was talking to whom and what character was being talked about. The author does use their names pretty frequently which I appreciate, but I think for me, this issue started at the beginning of the book because I didn’t feel like the reader is given a strong foundation to emphasize who is married to whom. Who was character Xs best friend? Who previously dated or had a fling with character Y? (I don’t want to use their actual names to prevent any kind of spoiler.) There we’re some points where I felt like I needed a friend+family tree to keep things straight because these characters are so intertwined with each other in so many ways. Maybe one day I’ll read it again and make my own character tree and see how I feel then. ;) This might be a 4.5 for me because my issue isn’t a huge one in my opinion, I just felt like I should mention it for any readers that have difficulty tracking characters sometimes.

Glad I got to read it!

I was able to listen to this audiobook and found it to be wonderful! The main story revolves around three couples that are friends some of which might or might not be more than just friends. The story started with the main character, Rachel, wonders how her life might have been different if she had chosen her friend, Noah, over her husband, Jack. Rachel’s now best friend is married to Noah. The four friends are off to Jack’s brother’s wedding. The bride is a bit much to take and is quite a flirt, clouding Rachel’s judgement about her husband. As you can imagine, this was all a setting for quite a drama field wedding weekend!

First and foremost - this narrator is fantastic! I think she made me enjoy the book a lot more than if I had read it on my own. This book starts out really strong but after hallway things get a little of weird. I figured out the main plot twist early on but still wanted to see how it played out. There were lots of things left unexplained and I’m still perplexed why the author thought doing what she did at the end was a good idea? I was still hooked all the way through and still recommend reading this! Especially grab the audible!

3.5 stars

There is a lot happening in this book, including several plot arcs and false leads. There were things I didn’t love (ex. the bride’s past trauma/current confidence comes largely from the fact that she used to be fat but is now miraculously thin, stylish, and admired), parts of the story aren’t super original (I think I’ve read too many from this genre over the past few years, but it does remind me a bit of a Lucy Foley novel as well as a couple other stories), and it felt like a few elements weren’t necessarily wrapped up super smoothly,
but overall, I did enjoy it. The title is also clever, which I appreciate. If you’re looking for a fun read (or listen, for the audiobook version; I’ve listened to books from this narrator before, and I usually enjoy her voice), then you should give this one a try.

🐸🐸🐸/5 BOOK REVIEW 📖
The Guilt Trip by Sandie Jones. Release Date August 3rd.
Rachel and Jack. Paige and Noah. Ali and Will.
Six friends, three couples travel to Portugal for the wedding of Ali and Will. As the couples arrive at the cliff top villa, secrets and suspicion start to unfold. Rachel discovers things may not be as they seem, while also trying to keep her own secrets from surfacing. Told from Rachel's point of view, sometimes being in her head was chaotic and confusing. The narrator made Ali's character overly obnoxious. Overall I did like the book. It definitely kept my interest and enough mystery to keep me guessing. More drama than domestic thriller. Listened in one sitting, It was a good distraction for the day.

Thank you to @netgalley and @minotaur_books for an arc audiobook for an honest review.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for providing a free e-book ARC copy of this book in exchange for my review.

I'm in the minority here, but I really didn't like this book. There were parts I did really like, I did have page-turning moments, then it would switch and I would find my mind wandering. I would have stopped reading had this not been an ARC, but I wanted to give it a fair chance to review.

For me, this is a 2 star book = 'it was ok' But I do seem to be the outlier for most of this style of book, so maybe it's just me.

The Guilt Trip is a mind-twisting story of how lies and deceit can pile up and ruin a marriage, a friendship, or even a life.

Rachel and Noah have been friends for years. They had a brief "will they or won't they" stint, but they are happily married to their own spouses now, and Rachel is good friends with Noah's wife Paige. Jack's younger brother Will is marrying Jack's former employee, Ali, and that means a group trip to Portugal. The group can't deny how exhausting Ali can be, but they tend to just ignore her antics rather than stop them. After Jack shares information with Rachel and Paige that Ali is cheating on Will, things quickly devolve into a web of confusion. Rachel spends most of the rest of the book trying to determine if Ali is having other affairs and with whom, leading her to distrust anyone and everyone around her.

I did really enjoy this story, for the most part. The first half of the book was really tight and engrossing. Rachel's paranoia over Ali's role in their lives draws readers and listeners in and doesn't let them go. Unfortunately, I found the second half a bit too loose, leaving a want for just a bit more editing. I found the chaos of this last half a bit confusing, especially because I was listening to it. It was a different type of domestic thriller than I was expecting, which I liked because it subverted my expectations. Claire Corbet's narration was gripping and had my attention from the start.

Overall rating: 3.5/5 (rounded to 4)

The Guilt Trip will be available for purchase on August 3rd. Be sure to add it to your Goodreads shelf. Also, be sure to check out Sandie Jones’s website!
I was lucky enough to be able to listen to this Advanced Reader's Copy through my partnership with NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

There is so much chatter about this book, that I was really excited to get the chance to read it. However 1/3 in I am struggling to follow the storyline and connect with the characters. I want to say that I think this is due to the narrator as I am reviewing this as an audiobook. There is something missing from the expression and dialogue on the audiobook.

So I want to give it a fair shot again and read it in print when it comes out.
So far I really like Rachel. I think she is sound in her friendship with others and genuine in getting to know Ali.
So once the book is published, I will give this a try again.

This was more like a 3.5 for me. I really enjoyed the first half but then it all just kind of fell apart a bit. I went from not wanting to put it down, to checking to see what percentage I had left. The story and characters are just seemed to fade as the story progressed. It also just really reminded me of The Guest List, and I liked that story better. I’ll read more by this author for sure, but this one just fell a little short.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

If Good Company and The Guest List had a literary baby, The Guilt Trip would be the resulting offspring. Decades-long friendships threaten to be upended by decades-old secrets during a destination wedding with a “locked in” mystery vibe.

I felt like this book had a promising concept and lots of potential, but I didn’t fall in love with the execution. Sandie Jones has created memorable characters with clearly defined personalities and backstories—her characterizations possibly being the strongest element of the novel!—but seems to have sacrificed something in the way of setting and atmosphere-building in order to get there.
With the book being set in Portugal for a destination wedding, I expected elaborate descriptions of Portuguese scenery, architecture, and culture to be included. I felt a little let down to find that the entire story could have literally happened in Topeka, Kansas, and almost nothing would have had to change.

Additionally, I struggled with the pacing of the plot. Very little action happens in the first 75% of the book, with much of the plot progression centering around rumors, speculation, and suspicions, even though Rachel (the main character) has very little actual evidence to support her theories. Conversely, the final 25% of the book moves so fast that it is almost trying to play catch-up with itself, and my head was spinning just trying to keep up with who was telling what story and who might be lying.

Despite all of this, Jones’s writing style absolutely is propulsive and kept me reading - I had to know how the story ended, and finished the entire book in one day. I listened to the audiobook and loved the narration so much that I didn’t want to turn it off! It’s a quick read, great for a long drive or a vacation, if you’re okay with taking some good with some not-so-good.

——

A huge thank you to Sandie Jones, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A group of long-time friends takes the trip of a lifetime when one of them gets married. It seems only the groom cares a jot for the bride, but everyone is willing to get through things for his sake. Soon, it's obvious that there is a deeper undercurrent beneath the jovial facade and nobody will remain unaffected by the impending fallout. The narration is spot-on, pulling the listener into the depths of the story. For fans of psychological suspense.

I wanted to like the book and I did like the story. However the narrator threw the whole thing off for me. It was quiet and then would get really loud. Then quiet again. It was kind of frustrating to try and listen to.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Minotaur Books and Macmillan Audio for gifting me both a digital and audio version of the latest suspense novel by Sandie Jones - 4 stars! I alternated between the audio and digital versions of this book. The audiobook narrator, Clare Corbett, did a great job with this cast of characters - I was easily able to differentiate between the characters speaking and her voice had a great quality with good pacing.

The story takes place with 3 couples headed to Portugal for one of their weddings. Rachel and Jack, married for 20 years; their good friends, Paige and Noah; and Jack's brother Will and fiancé Ali. There is history between the couples - Rachel and Noah have been best friends since university, even close to making it more than friends. Jack introduced Will and Ali, as Ali once worked at his company. Ali's addition to the couples' friendship is a bit grating - she's quite outgoing and everyone seems to be questioning her actions. Then those actions become too much for any of them to ignore any longer.

This was an enjoyable read and I was anxious to find out how it would all play out. Everyone was keeping secrets and motives to themselves and there were lots of questions along the way as to the truth. Since the prologue opened with one character in the hospital after an incident, you knew it wasn't going to end well for all of the characters. Another good read by this author!

An entertaining audiobook thriller. Great narration. Very clear differentiation between characters. The ending was a bit off/didn’t quite fit the plot to that point, but overall a fun read.

This was an alright domestic thriller. Some of the choices Rachel made were a little iffy. Like her train of thought didn’t make a lick of sense at some points. She was really sitting there and making excuses for her husband. The ending came literally out of nowhere! I was so flabbergasted!! But these couples’ relationships were a train wreck you couldn’t look away from and that’s what made it so entertaining!

I’m still not over the ending. I did not see it coming and I’m not sure it really went the vibe of the story. Either way, it was wholly entertaining.