Didn’t love, didn’t hate, just didn’t necessarily love the characters? I was rooting for no one and felt like the book dragged in places

Jaclyn Goldis is back with another stylish whodunnit set in a luxury safari resort in South Africa, where the deadliest predators are not the animals...

The Safari follows the Babels a wealthy Florida family whose matriarch Odelia is set to marry her much younger fiance on her family's safari resort in South Africa. Her dysfunctional family and deep dark secrets clash amidst the dangerous African landscape where they each become the prey of a predator who has killed Odelia hours before her wedding. Everyone becomes a suspect as family secrets and money stalk the surviving relatives into turning on each other like the wild animals that surrounds them.

What I liked about The Safari was that the actions of the Babel's mirrored the behaviour of the animals helping to create a tense atmosphere full of adrenaline. Overall I thought this book was not as strong as the author's previous two destination mysteries. Something about the setting or location did not appeal to me like France or Italy did in the last books. I had a hard time envisioning the location in my head and I did not feel there were enough thrilling aspects. The mystery did not grab me and was more of a soap opera this time around. The beginning of the book lagged a bit with the stakes not high enough to get me excited for the story. There were enough twists and turns and stylish Agatha Christie inspired elements as always that will appeal to many readers. However, for me, the mystery wasn't interesting enough and the suspense only appeared in the last few chapters of the book.

Fans of locked room thrillers and whodunnits will love The Safari by Jaclyn Goldis.

This was a decent thriller but it took a long time to get to the thriller part. The first half of the book is a lot of character development and family drama. It was a little dull but the Safari aspect kept me going. The end of the book finally had the excitement I was waiting for but then the ending felt a little rushed.

Talk about a dysfunctional family. This family has secrets galore, and they are NOT ready for them to be exposed.
A lush setting of a private hotel among the safari in Africa, a new fiance and a family hell bent on getting what they want and letting nothing get in the way.

This was a great read!

I didn't know what I would think of this book, but I absolutely loved it! The writing was wonderful, and the suspense was great. I loved the plot twists throughout and was constantly left guessing!

Thank you to Netgalley, Jaclyn Goldis, and Simon and Schuster for this e-ARC.

Wow, this was quite the rollercoaster!! So much deception and betrayal among the Babel family, who own a luxury safari getaway in the South African Bush.

The family arrives at Leopard Sands to "celebrate" their mother's impending wedding to her much younger fiance. Then people start to die, and disappear, making emotions high, and very tense. Secrets are revealed, and there are a lot!! The backdrop is an amazing, but terrifying land full of predatory animals, but the humans are what's truly dangerous in this land.

The Safari is an edge of your seat psychological thriller that keeps you guessing and wanting more. Excellent read!

What an exciting mystery set to a backdrop of a safari destination wedding. There are so many moving parts in this story. Mom finds new happiness with a young man, while her adult children have difficulty accepting the loss of their father, no less accepting a new man into the position. They also each have their own personal and family issues. They all work in a family business, and money is always an issue among them. The safari itself introduces dangerous elements to the trip. What starts as family drama becomes a basket of secrets and intrigue and danger, where one peril is stacked on a clue, stacked on a puzzle. There are so many twists in this tale that you feel you are meeting a new cast of characters come the end of the book! Excellent cloaking of clues, and a masterful reveal of secrets. This book will draw you in with it's nature and beauty, and hold you tight with the cutthroat action!

This was an intense, captivating and suspenseful thriller. Its many twists and turns kept me from being able to stop reading once I began!

WOW. What a wild ride.

Join the affluent Babel family for the opulently indulgent destination wedding of their matriarch and her much younger fiancé at their 5* luxury safari camp in South Africa.....You'll soon discover that nothing is as it seems.

I devoured this book in a single day..

This masterfully crafted, thrilling tour-de-force and emotionally evocative safari is one you won't want to miss!

3.5 ⭐

The confluence of an unhappy family, combined with a superb setting and opportunity, forms the perfect conditions for murder. I loved being swept up in the Babels' world and in an unpredictable story full of questionable people, unforeseen twists, and deep dark secrets. Although a little difficult to remain anchored at first because of the multiple perspectives and because of the sensory overload (overly descriptive), as the land heated and the ironclad alibis stacked up, I discovered I was sucked into a grandiose story and completely lost track of time.

I think I’ll shelve my dream of an African safari for the time being!

I was gifted this copy by Atria and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

I can totally see this book as a White Lotus mini series! What a fun, suspenseful, intriguing mystery about a complicated family on safari! This book grabs you and leaves you guessing until the very end, and even then, there is another mystery that is unraveled. I really enjoyed all aspects of this book and will look for this author’s previous books to read. This wa a just the book I needed when I picked it up.
Thank you NetGalley for an ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Safari.

I've read the author's previous book and though I wasn't a fan I was interested in the premise of Safari.

What I did like about Safari:

The setting; the descriptions of the animals, the wildlife, what it entails to go on a safari

As a city kid, I'm enthralled by animals in their natural habitat.

What I didn't like:

Everything else.

The writing is good, but SOO wordy and verbose. Tons of long winded exposition on every character in the Babel family.

Long narrative with little to no suspense or urgency.

Too many POVs; we have the Babel family and the staff of the safari plus the new husband-to-be. All the voices began to blend together.

Everyone has a deep, dark, and deadly secret. Oh my.

You know, when everyone has something to hide and the narrative is written in that "but she/he knows something and will do anything to achieve their goals.." it actually decreases the tension and suspense.

Nothing happens until the last 10% of the book where every twist imaginable is thrown at the reader so be prepared to suspend disbelief.

My disbelief suspension meter is in good working condition so it was hard for me not to roll my eyes when I got to the end.

And it'll going to take a lot of time to get to the point.

What was really sad: I guessed some of the twists already because I read so many books in this genre, I've read variations of these twists in so many others books so there was nothing new here.

I didn't like anyone; there wasn't even a dog to like. There were plenty of animals but dogs are my favorite.

I found Gwen especially annoying with her tarot cards and believing everything the cards said would come true.

A family drama that starts with a murder. This was very twisty and full of secrets that suddenly came to light. Good pacing that made me want to finish “just one more chapter”. An enjoyable book!

Family goes for a wedding and murder and mayhem follow. This is a complicated plot and all characters have life changing secrets. This will keep you guessing.

Thank you Netgalley and Atria Books for the egalley of this book.

Odelia Babel, CEO of a sustainable fashion empire, is about to marry for the second time—to a man twenty-five years her junior. Asher Bach is the thirty-something designer of Odelia’s luxury clothing line, the darling of every high-fashion journalist, and madly in love with Odelia.

Eager to celebrate her nuptials with her nearest and dearest, Odelia invites her adult children, her daughter-in-law, her grandchild, and her best friend/assistant to an all-expenses-paid luxury safari at Leopard Sands in South Africa, the Babel family’s favorite vacation spot. In its soil, they have deep roots—and even deeper secrets.

It seems like the perfect trip, but not everyone is thrilled for the happy couple. Amid game drives in the bush and bonfires beneath the desert stars, tensions among the family threaten to boil over. And then, the morning after a big fight with her son Sam—and hours before the wedding—Odelia is found murdered. Sam is immediately the prime suspect, but he claims he has an ironclad alibi—he was with his twin sister, Bailey. Only Bailey is nowhere to be found…

As the heat roils, desperate poachers and ferocious animals lurk, and dark motives fester, it becomes clear that whoever killed Odelia isn’t quite finished yet, and the rest of the Babel family is their prey.

This book was OK. I really disliked books in which the story is told from so many perspectives. I found it hard to keep track I'd who was who at the beginning. I couldn't relate to any of yhd characters. I found the storyline a little to far fetched. I had hopes for this book, but overall would give it a pass. 2.5 out of 5 ⭐️.

The Safari by Jaclyn Goldis is a story about a very wealthy family that goes to South Africa on a safari, staying in their extravagant resort for a family wedding.

Odelia Babel will be marrying Asher Bach, who is a designer at their family fashion empire.

Asher will be Odelia’s second marriage and is 25 years younger.

This book has all the family drama, and secrets which include Odelia’s three children, and a long-time best friend.

We are given mystery, drama, deaths, suspects, and many secrets.

This is the first book that I have read by this author, and I am not sure it is entirely my favourite style of read.

To me it came off as a bit of a soap opera. Just a tad too much being thrown at the reader, and a bit of an unbelievable story.

The book, however, will do well and find its audience.

Thank you to NetGalley, Author Jaclyn Goldis, and Atria Books for my advanced copy to read and review.

A solid whodunnit themed mystery. The different characters points of view throughout the book offered readers a unique perspective on the unfolding story, revealing characters’ deep secrets and inner thoughts. And the books spends a large amount of time on character development. However, at times, the constant shifts in conversation, extra storylines/ events and internal monologues became overwhelming, and confusing, making it difficult to follow. It ultimately slowed down the pace and detracts from the overall plot. Overall, it was an engaging and well-crafted mystery set in a beautiful location.

“No. Animals don’t scare me. Only humans do.”

I loved the juxtaposition of this murder mystery set against the backdrop of the South African safari! It’s a slow burn, but I loved the atmosphere and getting to know all the characters through their POVs. They were the perfect balance of incredibly unlikable while understanding the rationale behind their motives.

Like the quote above, this story is a reminder that humans are more cutthroat and bloodthirsty than any lion, leopard, hippo, or crocodile. It’s got all the dysfunctional family dynamics and buried secrets of Succession and Knives Out, with Goldis’s signature immersive prose. Highly recommend!

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

The Safari by new to me author Jaclyn Goldis, published by Atria Books is a raw and gritty read. Odelia is a wealthy CEO, a businesswoman extraordinaire and the bride of 25 years her junior Asher who's working as designer at her company.
The two and the whole family are invited to safari in South Africa. When Odelia is found unalive a whole avalanche is raining down on the survivors, only they aren't survivors for very long.
An ok read, was bored at some time, but will give 3 beautiful stars.

This is a great vacation read set in the safari of South Africa. I loved that the story was told in multiple points of view and that some of the characters were unreliable. There is a lot of family drama, murder, lots of secrets, and lots of twists. This was fun thriller and Jaclyn Goldis is one of my favorite authors.