I’ve read and enjoyed books by Alex Marwood in the past, but I just couldn’t get into this one. The premise was interesting, but reading it felt like a chore. It was a DNF for me at 30%.

When a wealthy family moves to a beautiful island they hire a child to be a playmate for their daughter. Flashforward thirty one years and said playmate is still working for the family and with their daughter back on the island, she is at the young woman’s beck and call.

Add in a mother who is looking for her young daughter who disappears more than a year ago and she heads to the island looking for her daughter, whom she believed was attending a party on the island. While Robin is looking for answers, the islanders are not very talkative and it leaves the question of what is going on on this island and who may have the information she needs on her own daughter?

While this was a n interesting read, it was rather slow to get into it and I struggled a little to truly get into the rhythm. Once I did, it went a bit better, but I saw through the plot and had figured out the ending midway through. Still a fair read, but the first I have read by this author, so maybe it was more a matter of me adjusting to the writing style the first time. I would definitely try another book from the author in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley for an arc of The Island of Lost Girls in exchange for an honest review. This review is wholly my own & may not be reproduced.

In 1985, multimillionaire Matthew Meade & his daughter Tatiana arrive on the island of La Kastellana. Meade spreads his wealth around the island, but his price is very sinister. Jump forward to 2016, same island – Robin is searching for her daughter, Gemma, who has been missing for more than a year. She is trying to get answers and find Gemma, but the islanders are less than helpful. She tries to figure things out on her own, but will she figure out what happened to the lost girls before it’s too late?

I had sooooooooo much hope for this novel. Just the description sounded amazing, but it was a bit underwhelming. Not horrible, but not great either.

The pacing was extremely slow. Every time I tried to read this at bed time, it very quickly put me to sleep, which – yay for sleep, but not so good from a suspense/thriller. And the characters were just very lacking & boring as well. It was just a hard read for me. And I know I’m in the minority on this one.

I wouldn’t turn anyone away from this one, but I won’t offer it up as a recommendation either.

I rated this one 3 Stars

Alex Marwood has done it again - she has crafted a sly novel that slowly reels you into the dark secrets of what happens to women....

Via two timelines, we learn about island life near Greece, in the 80;'s when a young girl is paid to be a playmate of a very wealthy family and again in 2016 when the wealthy daughter returns to the island and her past paid friend is forced to serve her.

Mercedes was only 12 when her family agrees to a contract for her to play with Tatiana. What might sound like a dream, becomes a cold reality as Tatiana does not play nicely nor treat her toys and her staff well. Many years later Tati returns with a wealthy client and Mercedes is forced to be at her every beck and call. Along the way we meet Robin, a desperate mother searching for her 17 year old daughter who she thinks may be attending a party on the island.

Marwood draws you in with tales of wealth and sunny carefree days, all the while hinting at a very dark and secret plan. If you love mysteries and thrillers and beautiful islands and tales of the rich, The Island of Lost Girls is for you!
#harper #theIslandoflostgirls #AlexMarwood

This story has alternating timelines 15 years apart. In 1985 in La Kastellana 12 year old Mercedes meets 13 year old rich girl Tatiana. The friendship quickly crashes and burns. 15 years later Robin searches the island for her missing daughter Gemma. Girls have been coming up missing there for a while.
This book was very entertaining and hard to put down.
Thanks NetGalley and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks for this ARC that will be released June 13, 2023!

3 stars

This was quite a slow moving book. I’m not sure I would call it a thriller but maybe close. The writing was good, and the story was not quite what I expected, but very solid and kind of sad and too real. I’ll definitely be looking into more of Marwood’s books.

This book was just so-so for me. I figured out the premise and it never felt like anything happened. It was a chore just to finish.

The Island of Lost Girls was my first book by Alex Marwood and it will certainly not be my last. I would hesitate to call this book a thriller but I was certainly captivated by it. At the beginning of the book, Mercedes finds the dead body of her long lost sister Donatella in the ocean. As the book unfolds, we slowly learn how Donatella ended up dead. The book is a searing portrait of sex trafficking. It shows how the rich and powerful lure the most vulnerable of young women (targeting one as she was shoplifting cosmetics). They are promised modeling careers only to be used and abused by powerful men. This story will certainly stay with me for a while.

I definitely did not realize where this book was going when I first started it. Totally threw me for a loop. I would have given this five stars, but the first half of the book was slow moving and a little jumbled.