Things are not always what they seem. Especially in the world of social media and especially too-good-to-be-true relationships. Sawyer Stone III and Dani Fox are cruisers who have a YouTube channel called "Sailing with the Foxes" which they're trying to monetize while also waiting for the price of bitcoin to bounce back. Once night, after a potluck party with other cruisers in the Bahamas, Sawyer wakes up to Dani missing and no recollection of what happened the evening before.
Royal Bahamas police force inspector Veronique Knowles has been called in to find Dani. She has her hands full trying to keep the investigation on course with all the internet traffic and online "police" getting in her way. Meanwhile, Dani had scheduled posts to the channel which reveal a darker side to her relationship with Sawyer. But is he a killer?

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this e-arc.*

•••𝘿𝙉𝙁 @28%•••

𝘼 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙏𝙪𝙗𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙧𝙪𝙞𝙨𝙚𝙧 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙨—𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙡 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢 𝙜𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙬𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 𝙘𝙖𝙥𝙨𝙞𝙯𝙚𝙨.

I was so excited to read this book, it had a great premise & setup. Unfortunately, I tried the audio and ebook - neither of them were working for me. I don’t usually like DNFing this early into a book, but I was incredibly losing interest.

I may end up re-attempting to pick this book up again in the future - especially after seeing more reviews… as of now, it’s a DNF for me.

Gone Girls is one of my all-time favorite thrillers, so I was eagerly looking forward to this book after hearing it had that vibe to it… unfortunately, the characters were so off-putting and I just didn’t love the structure of the book.

Again, I might pick this back up later… but I’m going to DNF this one for now.

Thank you so much NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books, and Dreamscape Media for the review copies in exchange for my honest review!

ON THE SURFACE started out strong. I was very interested to figure out what was going on with Dani and Sawyer. I found the pace and storyline to be a fun and read. I also liked the different POV's presented throughout the story. Overall, I found it to be a good debut!

Many thanks to Crooked Lane books and NetGalley for my gifted ARC.

This review will be shared to my Instagram account (@coffee.break.book.reviews) in the future.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #CookedLaneBooks for the book #OnTheSurface by #RachelMcGuire. I thoroughly enjoyed this book about a couple that sail around and and posting it all on YouTube “Sailing with the Foxes”. To everyone else they look like the perfect couple. That is until Dani goes missing and all eyes are on her boyfriend Sawyer. She disappears after a party and everyone thinks she’s drowned. Was Sawyer responsible?

Never have I disliked main characters more than in On the Surface. It is intentional, but it’s like a train wreck you can’t look away from. Dani and Sawyer are cruisers. Not on a cruise ship, but on their own boat circumnavigating the earth. Sawyer’s first wife died under mysterious circumstances during a scuba dive. He was initially a suspect, but because conditions were poor and they never found the boat operator, Sawyer got off without any punishment. Now he lives on his boat Serendipity with Dani. Dani is a classic narcissist who films everything they do. She is trying to become a YouTube star so they can make money and move on from the Bahamas. Sawyer’s investment in cryptocurrency was a bust and they need money. Dani starts telling people that Sawyer is abusing her, and then she disappears. Neither Dani or Sawyer really cares about the other, just about their image to the public. They don’t have any true friends because they don’t know how to be a friend to anyone. They are both truly selfish people and are really hard to like. But, it made the story better because no one besides these 2 horrible people could have come up with the schemes they did. It is a great debut from 2 authors writing together. Written in alternate points of view gave the book more depth and helped develop the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This twisty thriller has truly awful characters, but the story is fantastic. This book is like the demon love child between “Gone Girl” and “Reckless Girls” which I absolutely love!! It was unbelievably intricate and extremely entertaining. If you’re searching for a book that will keep you hooked, this is the one I strongly recommend.

This book was like a story from a true crime channel on YouTube, enjoyed it quite a bit. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review!

A debut novel, Rachel McGuire’s On The Surface (2024) is a mystery thriller set in the Bahamas. Dani Fox has a YouTube channel – Sailing with the Foxes, displaying her life aboard a boat with her boyfriend, Sawyer Stone III. They live an idyllic lifestyle with plenty of sun, pristine beaches, and travel to exotic locations - yet their relationship is not all it seems. When Dani disappears whilst having a morning swim, the internet goes wild as followers investigate and offer their take on the missing American woman. An entertaining tale with a surprising reveal and the discrepancy between life as lived and broadcast on social media. An enjoyable light read with minimal tension and a three stars read rating that has a Gone Girl vibe. With thanks to Crooked Lane Books and the author, for an uncorrected advanced review copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own, freely given and without inducement.

I liked this book for the most part. The writing style is good and the author does a good job of describing the lifestyle of “cruisers.” I enjoyed the author’s way of exposing the “fake” side of social media. There are a lot of characters, but their backgrounds are easy to keep up with. The flow of changing POV between characters is easy to follow.
The first half of the book is very slow, it becomes more intriguing and fast-paced during the last half of the book; it was hard to put down! It was predictable, especially once the connection of the prologue was revealed.
The main reason I have a hard time giving this book 4+ stars is because the ending was way too abrupt. I don’t even want to call it a cliff-hanger, it felt more like pages were missing. It left me feeling the emotion I’ve felt while watching a movie and the electricity goes out….never to know how it ends.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for the arc!

A zippy thriller that's also a pointed poke at social media. Dani, Sawyer, Inspector Veronique Knowles and Sonja, a fellow cruiser tell the story of Dani and Sawyer after Dani goes missing in the Bahamas. Did Sawyer do something to her? They've been cruising and posting to YouTube but things haven't been going so well lately financially. There's a darker underside to their relationship than anyone knew but now it's all coming out. I liked this for the atmospherics- and the Inspector is terrific. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. No spoilers from me.

If you like unreliable narrators, you are going to enjoy ON THE SURFACE. Not only is there one unreliable narrator but there are two. Dani Fox disappears after a cruiser party and Sawyer Stone blacked out and doesn't remember what happened that night. Is he responsible for Dani's disappearance?

ON THE SURFACE is told in multiple perspectives and is part police procedural. There are a lot of unlikeable characters, and I didn't know what or who to believe. I found it interesting that there are people called cruisers that live on boats and travel the world. Once I picked this one up, I couldn't put it down. It is a quick read and is the perfect summer book.

There are so many great thrillers coming in July and you don't want to miss this one! Thank you @crookedlanebooks @rachelmcguireauthor and @netgalley for the ebook.

When one half of a boating couple goes missing after a night of partying on their friend’s boat in the Bahamas, the suspicion immediately falls on the boyfriend. Did he do it? Where is Dani? And what the hell happened that night?!

I love a book with unreliable narrators, and this one has TWO! You never know exactly what is really going on in this one! I loved reading through Sawyer and Dani’s perspectives! The pacing was a little off with this one, starts with a bang and the middle can be a tad slow, but that didn’t stop me from HAVING to know what exactly was going on with this couple!

On the Surface was immediately intriguing to me based on the blurb and it turned out to be an excellent popcorn thriller that absolutely kept me turning the pages.

I’m a huge fan of multi POV, and I loved that this gave so many perspectives. It was full of such good love to hate characters, almost everyone in this book was AWFUL and it made for an amazing read.
My favorite part was probably the social media aspect. This book really highlighted the terrible way social media can influence every part of life these days. The message boards were a lot of fun to read and I really enjoyed the unique vlogging storyline.
There were so many points in this book where things took such a sharp turn I thought I had brain whiplash. I especially loved the prologue directly connecting to the very last page ending twist. I can say I truly didn’t guess the final turn until the last couple chapters when things clicked for me.

All in all this was an utterly compelling debut novel and I’m so excited to see what the authors (love a good collab) do next!

Thank you to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books, and the authors for this ARC.
Publication date 7/9/24

Although this novel started off with an intriguing prologue, it was still a slow burn of a thriller. The premise was interesting enough to keep me reading, but I still sit on the fence when it comes to rating scores.
The setting was one of the best parts and will ensure this book lands on many summer reading lists. You follow the trials and triumphs of characters living their best life of sun and fun in the Bahamas, sailing by day and partying by night - until the worst happens.
The major pitfall comes in the main characters. Two of them are so unlikeable that it's hard not to hope for their demise. The remaining POV, a female Bahamian detective, is likeable enough, but boring - which is arguably the worst sin in a suspense novel.
Not my favourite of the year by far, but I would still say it makes good poolside reading - light, easy to follow, with characters you can feel good about hating.

This book kept me reading, in spite of the unlikeable main characters. I was a little disappointed in the ambiguous ending, but I enjoyed reading about the Bahamas “cruiser” lifestyle. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The cover of this book instantly attracted me to it! This was a fun, suspenseful summer read ~ sexy setting, fast paced lifestyles, beautiful people..& every bit of their lives are documented on social media. I loved the multiple POVs, as always! It was insightful to jump from one character’s perspective to another & slowly piece together more of the story. This book had a wonderful pace. A nice, slow burn. Sawyer was an easy MMC to hate! His character was despicable. Honestly, I wasn’t a fan of Dani either. She was unhinged. But as I read about her upbringing, I became sympathetic towards her traumatic past. The sinister yachting lifestyle that was portrayed kept me addicted. There were so many surprising side characters & twists during this read. IMO, this would be perfect for a series adaptation.

“There are plenty of people you’ll love to hate in the cruising world.”

Thank you to thrillerbookloversthepulse, Rachel McGuire, & Crooked Lane for this suspenseful ARC! I look forward to reading more from this duo.

This was a binge worthy thriller that ended up falling flat. There wasn’t enough to the overall mystery that I felt paid off in the end. I did like the setting and the set up to the mystery, I just wish there had been a bit more to it.

“I don’t like the idea of pleasure diving in someone’s watery grave.”


On The Surface by Rachel McGuire

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️


This book started off with a bang and quickly lead to me slogging through characters I absolutely hated. I wasn’t shocked, I was annoyed. By the end I didn’t care who did it or why I was just happy to be done.

The rating I’m giving is because the author did such a good job creating characters I couldn’t stand that the credit is due.

Slow burner thriller for Ruth Ware fans. It reminds me of a thriller that falls into her category if you are into those kinds of thrillers. Board, water, couple, and a mysterious death. Great summer beach read!

A book about an influencer??? Umm yes please!! Sign this girl up!! 🙋‍♀️ Dani and Sawyer are killing it with their YouTube channel Sailing ⛵️ with the Foxes.. 🦊.. Dani is OBSESSED with social media. The men love her… and the women tend to… not.. 😬

Boat 🚤 hopping.. partying 🍹 with fellow cruisers… life is good 👍… well until Dani goes missing… 😳… She left a party… with Sawyer… and vanished into thin air… OMGGG you know it is ALWAYS the husband… or the boyfriend… YEP we are looking at you Sawyer… 😉

What did I love?

✅ Unlikable characters are my FAVORITE!! These two were so self centered!! BUT I loved it!! It just made them more interesting!! 🤷‍♀️

✅ Holy Hell of a twist!! I literally said OH NO WAY!! 😳 Which just opened it up for ALOT more questions! 🤔😂👏
✅ Fast paced… edge of your seat… EVERYONE is starting to look 👀… suspicious 🤨…

This thriller had me questioning… who is telling the truth??? What the HELL is actually going on?? 😂 I thought I knew… but .. I was SO wrong!! Bravo 👏 Fantastic debut!!