The Babel family is headed to their South African resort for a celebration. The matriarch of the family plans to marry and wants her family to witness this celebration of love. The groom is much younger, independently wealthy, and has signed a prenup. Should the family worry? Although the mother, Odelia, is a widow, her children have concerns. The family business has grown under Odelia and provided for the family. Would her will change now that she is remarrying? Her adult children need to voice their concerns over inheritance to their mother without upsetting their relationship with her. The pace of the wedding festivities may prevent them from talking with their mother. Tension surrounds this family gathering making it difficult to feel celebratory.

Jacklyn Goldis describes the South African resort and surrounding area beautifully. She relates the story of a family trapped by greed, deception, and miscommunication. This poor, rich family can't get along and with the turn of each page, the reader wonders whether there will be any peace. Each person has a hidden agenda, revealed as each narrates a portion of this surprising story. Hints of trouble begin early yet the true scope of deception isn't revealed until the final pages. This is a thriller that delivers. It is easy to imagine the cinematic punch that this story would have in a "Succession" style show. Keep your wits about you, this thriller is sure to please.

I really liked this book… I enjoyed the other books by this author, and her settings are spot on. She really does her research when locating a novel. This book took place in a luxury African Safari resort… A locked room who done it murder mystery at its finest. I loved the characters and how they developed over the course of the novel, and I was surprised at who the murderer turned out to be. There were a lot of underlying other plot twists that I really enjoyed. Thank you NetGalley for the digital copy- all opinions are my own

This was a tough read for me and did not enjoy it. It was slow going and for me, it hard keeping up with the characters.

read if you like:
💰 wealthy mysterious families
🦒 safaris
👯‍♀️ multiple POV’s

summary:
This book follows Odelia Babel, a widow preparing to remarry to Asher Bach, her company’s clothing designer who is 25 years her junior. To celebrate, the entire family heads to South Africa to their family-owned resort to go on safari and hold their wedding. This includes her rebellious gay son, Sam, his twin, Bailey, their older brother, Joshua, his wife, Davina and their baby Ruby, along with her lifelong best friend, Gwen. Mixed with the staff that feels more like family, the group starts off having a good time — before Odelia turns up dead. Who killed her, and why?

This story starts off slowly but quickly gains momentum. The resort and its surroundings are described so vividly that you feel immersed in the setting alongside the characters. Initially, the number of characters and the depth of detail seem overwhelming, but as the action unfolds, it becomes clear which parts are essential. The climax arrives much earlier than expected and, while somewhat predictable, continues to develop in compelling ways until the very end. The alternating POVs provide insight into the characters and their backstories, deepening the impact of the final reveal. Additionally, the contrast between the privileged guests and the staff introduces a thought-provoking social commentary on wealth and power.

If you love South Africa and exotic mysteries, check this book out when it releases on May 20. Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for the advanced reviewer copy!

How many secrets can one family HAVE???? This family had ALL of them, and they all came out while they were gathered for a wedding at their safari camp in South Africa. This thriller was well paced, with backstory for all the characters interspersed with the current time frame as people were disappearing & getting murdered. There are multiple POVs, and you can’t tell who’s reliable or who to trust.
This was a fun, twisty story, with secrets being revealed right up to the last chapter.

“The Safari” is by Jaclyn Goldis. Lately I’ve been reading books about extremely rich people, along with a huge age gap between spouses. This book also has a number of points of view … from unreliable various characters, who also are unlikeable. Interestingly, this is the second book I’ve recently read about unlikeable rich people … hm, something to ponder. Anyway, this book begins slowly … like painfully slowly as I kept losing track of who was who. It started to pick up after the halfway point and then cruised to a conclusion in the last quarter of the book, but I had to push myself to finish reading the book. I did enjoy the South African culture and the safari setting. I think if you liked to armchair travel to South Africa and like a decent mystery, this might be a book to pick up and read. 3.25 stars, rounded down to 3 stars.

This was a great “locked room” mystery! I thought I had it all figured out but didn’t see the twist coming. I love when that happens! It’s so rare and wonderful. The characters were great, it was such a convoluted story and I loved all of it! Brilliant storytelling and a brilliant mystery.

This is closed-space, domestic/family murder mystery. A wealthy family owns a safari resort in South Africa, where they have gathered for a family member's wedding. Someone is murdered and all the family's long-held secrets are slowly revealed. A lot happens, some of it very unbelievable, but I wanted to keep reading. I didn't love many of the characters so it was hard to connect with their family drama. I also expected it be more atmospheric - I wanted to feel like I as in South Africa with them, but I thought it was surprisingly light on descriptions of the setting. I would recommend if you want a palate cleanser thriller.

This book was a wild ride! A family, a wedding, a murder, a missing person? This novel was a such a page turner, and I could not get enough. I never saw the twists and turns coming. Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books | Atria/Emily Bestler Books for a copy of this book for an honest review.

Tried multiple times to get into this and just had no desire to push through. The characters are flat and annoyingly obnoxious. The plot is played out in many other books and very predictable due to its unoriginal nature

This was my first book by this author. The beginning chapters moved from character to character giving the reader some insight into each character. There were several subtle hints along the as to secrets being held. Finally the murder occurs and the action begins. This story was filled with unexpected twists and turns often at a fast pace. I enjoyed this mystery and look forward to more by this author.

3.5⭐️

I unironically love a messy, rich, completely out of touch family so this was right up my alley. I really liked the look we got into each character and how the death of the patriarch of the family changed so much. The divide between the different family members as well as the divide between the the family and the 'help' at their resort in South Africa really drove the tension in the story.

Each character had things to hide that made them all unreliable narrators. Most of the characters were extremely unlikeable and also having motive to want Odelia dead. I also really liked the twist and how it proved that your past will always come back to haunt you. Between the story and the descriptions of the South African Safari, this was a fun read!

Thanks Netgalley and Atria Books for providing this ARC to me!

The only way I know how to describe this book is The (Jewish) Real Housewives of Miami meets National Geographic. Odelia is celebrating her soon-to-be second marriage to Asher, a MUCH younger designer at her clothing company that she inherited from her first husband. Her kids, Joshua, Bailey, and Sam, are less than thrilled to be heading to Leopard Sands, their personal safari resort in Africa to celebrate the nuptials. Throw in an obsessive BFF, a mysterious resort manager, and a "cooky" safari guide and you've got The Safari. I wanted to like it but I'm not one for reality television and truly that's all I could think about while reading this one. It may be a good one for you if you're into a good Bravo show!

Reviewed for NetGalley:

Odelia Babel and her three adult children and her much younger fiance head their family resort in South Africa to finalize her nuptials. Until Odelia is found murdered at the resort.

This was such a fun mystery, thriller with so many twists and turns. Definitely made for a fun and quick read.

This thriller was a lot of fun, especially because of the safari aspect. You don’t get thrillers with that kind of setting. It was enjoyable and a great weekend read. I really like the author’s previous books, so when I saw I was approved for this one, I was extremely excited. Thank you NetGalley, Jaclyn Goldis and Atria for this digital arc.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC of this book.

I was interested in this novel because of the setting--a (luxury) South African safari reserve. The story follows a wealthy American family as the family matriarch plans to marry her (much younger) fiancé.

What I liked: I did appreciate the setting and learning a bit about the people who populate this world. There were lots of twists and turns. I'm intrigued by the older woman/younger man narratives we're seeing more of today--we absolutely should normalize this so I was interested in that narrative set-up.

What didn't work as well: While I noted the twists and turns above, there was A LOT happening here. This reminded me of a 19th-century serially-produced sensation novel that had to have a cliffhanger at the end of every section. You'll see some of the twists coming. Some maybe not. But it feels like the narrative depth was minimized for the sensational twists. It was also hard for me to connect with any of the characters--they are mostly all unlikable, with is not a problem for me usually. However, they just seemed too shallow. I couldn't absorb them as well-rounded characters and their dialogue often felt inauthentic.

If you're looking for a light-ish, twisty read in a unique setting, this might work for you. If you want a more nuanced thriller with greater character development, this might be a miss.

This book had an interesting plot. However, I don't think this book was executed that well. This book had too many characters and too many perspectives to keep up with. I kept getting confused with who was who. That took away from the intense vibes of the book. This sounded so good but just missed the mark for me.

Thank you, Artria Books and Netgalley for the ARC of this book. This comes out on May 20.

I was so excited when I received notification that my request was granted, but that excitement quickly turned to utter confusion. I had never heard of this author before I put in this request, and after I started to read the first few pages, I was sitting there going "HUH????" because the writing was so poor.

Imagine my shock when I ran to goodreads (to see if anyone else had read this), and saw that this author has several books out already. I read through the lowest-rated reviews, and it seems like everyone had the same complaint-that the writing didn't feel natural, that it was "over-written", and just a bad book, and, I have to agree.

I can only speak about this specific title, but there were so many glaring issues just in the first couple of pages, that I wonder if this book was generated by A.I. This story is not written in a natural way at all. It's like prompts were just generated, including things like "bushes that shiver" (bushes do not shiver/do not experience fear), which is what the author was implying, and it makes more sense to me that this was a book cobbled together by AI than it having been written by an actual person, with it being green-lit for even just ARC reviews. It's that badly written.

If this was not written by AI, then I don't even know what to say other than this was an extremely jarring and frustrating read that needs a serious rewrite and a good editor. I would even say this book is unreadable. I have read plenty of bad books over the years, but at least I can say that those books felt like they were just either not for me, or were just poorly-written by an author who needed more time and/or a better editor, but this book just felt so......not like a book. It's hard to describe unless someone has read it themselves.

Thank you for the opportunity of allowing me to read and review this book,

The Safari by Jaclyn Goldis is a compelling mystery, however I did not like or relate to any of the characters in this book.

The characters in this novel consisted primarily of a group of entitled siblings that feel that the money their parents earned should be freely handed out to them, that somehow they have "earned" it.

The mystery in this book has a few talented twists, however I was intrigued by the title of this book, and I hoped to learn more interesting facts along the way about the animals seen on a safari as I doubt I will experience one.

I did finish this novel, however, I feel it lacked in character development.

Just because a book is a mystery, it is still nice to have a person or two with good intentions along the way. If this isn't the case, it minimizes one's pleasure in reading the story (you merely feel lucky to not be surrounded by such a group of one -dimensional selfish people).

When I got the email for this one, I was sold with the premise. It just didn't work for me with all the multiple POV's of unreliable narrators that were all highly unlikable. The beginning of the book is very slow and nothing really happens. It was too much of a slow burn for me that even if it did pick up, it had hindered my enjoyment already. I have seen it being recommended to people who enjoy Ruth Ware and Lucy Foley, those are 2 authors I don't vibe with. Hence why I think this was in the same style and wasn't for me.