I thought this was just okay until about 60% in, then it got really good and the end was awesome. The girls were really catty and annoying, which I know is how they are supposed to be, but wasn't fun to read at times. The beginning felt slow building up their stories, and they spent too much time 'being skeptical' of the island. But once Poppy started her revenge it was good, and the twist at the end was great too. Unfortunately I guess it though because I saw the name of the chapter.. so I'm not sure how you'd avoid that but it did ruin it for me.
Otherwise definitely an enjoyable and quick, tense, read.

This is an amazing summer thriller! I loved how fast=paced it was, the multiple POVs, the twist (which I guessed, but still enjoyed). The revenge elements were fantastics! I love an unlikable group of characters and this book is all about unlikable characters. I was hooked! The chapters were a bit on the long side, but they flew by. This is a great locked door thriller, and I can't wait to share it with my followers.

This one had me from the prologue. It was a fantastic way to grab my attention!

Back in high school, four girls made Poppy’s life hell. Fast forward 10 years later, those very girls are invited to Poppy’s hen party and asked to be bridesmaids. This party is all expenses paid to a private island, how can you say no to that? Before you know it, weird things start happening and people start dying. The author does a great job causing you to doubt who is doing the killing. I was able to guess the what I thought was the big twist about halfway through, but there ended up being a twist within a twist that I only somewhat suspected. I enjoyed the book and it was a quick read. I loved locked room tropes in my thrillers!

It really makes you think about how you treat people and how your actions can affect them years down the road. Poppy never got over what those girls did to her. And the results are catastrophic.

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive...

Poppy Greer was bullied for years!!! Mainly by Annabelle, Chloe, Esther, and her ex-best friend Tanya, but of many others from school join in, Poppy has no friends.

10 years later Poppy is getting married and decides to reconnect with the four of them. She starts following them on their social media pages and they become invited to her "hen do", a bachelorette party. The four of them, who stayed somewhat in touch over the years, have no clue why Poppy would even ask them. They discuss it, are a bit doubtful, but along with the invitation came a first class plane ticket for a three day weekend on a private white sanded beach on a Caribbean island, so who cares why, they're going!

The party pretty much starts upon arrival and they are ready for it, but they become disappointed with no Wi-Fi and have to give up there cell phones. They immediately object to that. Chloe, a social media influencer, with over a million followers, has already informed her followers of where she was going and promised them pics along the weekend. Esther, an investor for a bank, has emails daily that she must keep in touch with her clients. Tanya, a well known event planner, must keep in touch with her clients also. Annabelle, has two degrees in the phycology world became a housewife and doesn't want to give hers up either, but tosses it into the box, they follow.

They quickly discover Poppy has changed, and for the better, she's not that timid little mouse she used to be. Poppy has discovered deep dark secrets about them, some they didn't even of each other and it's about to go down!

The twists and turns are throughout the book, some are jaw droppers, but some are also eye rollers. I will admit I did guess one of them, but not completely, it had me going back and forth.

Thank you #WilliamMarrow #NetGalley for allowing me to read #SheStartedIt

Have you ever or do you now partake in bullying someone? If so, you may want to consider that after reading this story. Memories of hurt and betrayal last for a very long time, and revenge is sweet. Ten years ago, Poppy was bullied and harassed by a group of four girls. They made her life hell. So, they were very surprised when they were all invited to a tropical island for her "hen" party, all expenses paid. Although they had not seen her in all that time, they happily accepted. Only one left the island alive. I realized.who else was involved. but not exactly how they played their part. The book is told from five points of view, plus we are given flashbacks of what happened in the past via Poppy's diary. This is not the kind of book that I want to say I liked, given the subject matter. But I was quite interested to see how it played out and it kept me reading. Thanks, NetGalley and William Morrow for the chance to read this debut thriller. It was pretty good.

Thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow & Company for allowing me to read this one in return for an honest review. I thoroughly enjoyed this revenge story! So many surprises and so much drama. AND a cast of horrible women who you just wanted to see get what they deserved. I devoured it. 4 stars.

Hmm...

I'm not sure if this is a great revenge tale where the bullies' target exacts her vengeance against villains so loathsome you can't help but cheer on the bloodshed or it's just...something else.

She Started It is a quick read and works if you can put aside the unbelievability that a group of supposedly bright/well-to-do women is going to accept an invitation to the hen party of a girl they viciously (yes, viciously, regardless of their doe-eyed "we were just kids!" nonsense) bullied. But it was hard to read nonetheless. I don't mind POV switches at all, but Annabel, Chloe, Tanya, and Esther could have been one person. They all sounded like carbon copies of each other that it was difficult to figure out who was whom after awhile. And they're all just so...evil that it's hard to stomach reading their narratives.

Thanks to William Morrow/Scene of the Crime for making this available to read for a review.

Wow…great twisty thriller to start the summer reading! She Started It by Sian Gilbert is a page turner! Four friends are invited to a bachelorette party on a secluded island in the Caribbean by an old “friend” they haven’t seen in years. But they all know something is off because this friend was someone who they bullied and treated awful, so why on earth would Poppy want them as her bridesmaids?

But the idea of an all-expenses paid vacation is too much to resist, despite their reservations. When they arrive on the island, the Poppy that meets the boat, isn’t the Poppy they remember. She quickly starts to drudge up the past—bringing up old pranks and hurt feelings. It also becomes apparent that all the girls are harboring secrets from each other, despite their friendships. What is Poppy’s end goal?

I like how the book was mostly told in the present day but then every once in awhile we’d get a story from the past to help explain a relationship. The story was interesting and tense. I struggled a little at first with each chapter being told from a different friend’s perspective, but as the story progressed and I got to know the characters, it got easier. Overall, good thriller, lots of parts kept me guessing.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC. I unfortunately did not enjoy this book. It dragged on and was completely predictable from the start. How many times can someone say something along the lines of “she knows my secret” in one chapter?

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Imagine getting a letter to be in a friends wedding. When they arrived nothing seems amiss. This book grabbed my attention at times

<i><b>It's hard to believe this was Sian Gilbert's debut novel...it's THAT good.</b></i>

This book has the POV from 5 people and a diary. Annabel, Esther, Tanya, and Chloe, who were childhood best friends, and a mystery person. The 4 best friends are invited to a remote island hen party (bachelorette party as we call it in the states), all expenses paid, to be Poppy's bridesmaids. It doesn't matter the fact that Poppy is someone the 4 friends bullied in high school, or the fact that they haven't spoken to her in years. The thought of an all expensive paid vacation is too alluring for them. After all, that was 10 years ago, all left in the past.

It starts out seemingly innocent enough playing games, drinking, and the typical bachelorette party stuff. The games seem to start to take a turn and make the friends think that maybe Poppy has invited them to the island with more sinister intentions. <i>Maybe the past really wasn't left in the past.</i>

I don't want to give away too much of the plot as to spoil anything but I promise you this book had me on the edge of my seat the entire way through. The <i>ending</i> was fantastic. I read so many thrillers that I can usually guess the plot twists. I couldn't even guess this one. It had me shook!

Thank you Sian Gilbert, NetGalley, and William Morrow for the ARC of this book!

Unfortunately this was a DNF at ~13% for me. A premise of it sounded really good but as soon as I started reading it I just couldn't connect with any of the characters or the story. I do love the cover though!

Thank you NetGalley, William Morrow & Company and the author for ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A novel of four friends getting together on an island for a pre wedding weekend. It just didn't capture my imagination and I put it down after a few chapters. I'm sure others will love the book.

4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This book was a really good binge worthy read. I finished it in less than a day because I enjoyed it that much. I'm usually not one for catty, revenge thrillers but this one changed my mind.

I will say that although I enjoyed reading this, there isn't anything wholly original or groundbreaking here. In fact, I was able to guess every twist. However, it was emotional in a way I didn't expect which I found added another layer to the story. There isn't a whole lot of characters which made the book easy to follow (although there were some times that I did get mixed up) but that does mean that things are pretty easy to figure out.

I enjoyed the writing style and there was never a point in which I was bored. The characters are unlikeable though and I there wasn't any redeeming qualities about most of them. That didn't bother me, but it's just something I wanted to point out.

All in all, this was a good read and I'm looking forward to what the author will come up with next.

✨BOOK REVIEW✨

She Started It

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.3/5

The story follows four girls who have been best friends since high school. They all get an invitation to Poppy Greers bachelorette party. An all expenses paid trip to a private island for 5 days to spend with a girl they haven’t spoken to in 10 years and bullied in high school. Secrets are revealed and Poppy’s out for revenge.

Wow. This book was something else. I felt conflicted the whole book! The story is told in alternating POVs between all 4 girls which I was a fan and not a fan of because sometimes I forgot whose POV I was reading. The ending was something I wasn’t expecting and definitely not who I thought did everything.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for the digital ARC! She Started It is mostly predictable but extremely addictive! The book follows four friends invited to a hen do (bachelorette) island getaway by their high school bullying victim. The book begins with the transport boat operator navigating to the island. On the island, the bride stands alone and covered with blood. All she says is, "She started it." The book then flashes back to each friend, Annabel, Esther, Tanya, and Chloe, preparing for the trip and flashing into their thoughts and what they are dealing with. None of them understand why Poppy would want to have them as her bridesmaids, but they're selfish enough to take the free trip. Once on the island, they feel that there's something different about Poppy but aren't quite sure what (other than she looks gorgeous). Then bit by bit the horrors of their past parallel the horrors of the present. She Started It is full of despicable, catty characters that behave atrociously. You won't like them, but you also won't stop reading about them. This book may please fans of The White Lotus, but be warned, these characters are far worse!

What a cluster of a mess! There was so much going on in this book. I took notes to keep the characters straight! I guessed the twist pretty early on but it was still a decent read. Full of mean girls, backstabbing, lies and revenge.

This is a story about four friends (Annabel, Chloe, Tanya, and Esther), who have known each other since highschool that get invited to a hen (bachelorette) party by a former school mate (Poppy) that they used to bully. The party is an all expense paid luxury trip to a private Caribbean island. We get to know each friend with each chapter being told from their viewpoint. We learn about the bullying and torment Poppy went through from Poppy's past diary entries. This is a very satisfying yet sad novel about revenge against mean girls.
Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow and the author for this arc.

I just finished this book and I'm FLOORED. There were so many beautifully crafted twists. I'll admit I started out thinking it was a slow read and felt too much like The Guest List, which was kind of a disappointment, but I was wrong. This book was fabulous. Granted, the characters put themselves into this mess being absolutely stupid enough to agree to a hen party, but that's that. The themes woven into the story and that story, my god! I loved this. I kept thinking it was going to end in one of two predictable ways, so I was geared up for a disappointing ending, but no. I will definitely be recommending this for a book club pick, because there's so much to talk about.

I really think I’m in a thriller slump … I haven’t read a 5 star thriller since the beginning of this year and everything I pick up, I completely pull apart 😅

I’m usually all for a remote location mystery - there’s something about being trapped in a place WITH the murderer that gets my heart pounding! - but this one was so predictable to me

I knew right from the beginning that the first character to die wasn’t actually dead, and I could have planned how the rest of the story went. however, I did appreciate the way that the author wrote the changing POVs to get the reader suspicious of everyone!

and of course, the idiocy of the main characters was a little much for me … I mean, if the person whose life you ruined as a child invited you to their bachelorette party, I certainly wouldn’t go 😅😅😅 but then again, I would never be in that position anyway

the theme of reaping what you sow is always a good one, and I did have a good time flipping through this thriller - however, I do think the story lacks originality.

thank you to netgalley and william morrow publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

rating: 2.5 stars
wine pairing: napa valley zinfandel