Reckless Girls
Are you looking to sail off to a secluded island in the Pacific to your own private island? Doesn’t that just sound perfect right now as we are in the dead of winter? Reckless Girls is the perfect thriller to pick you up and transport you into a tropical world and leave you sitting on the edge of your seat.
Synopsis: When Lux McAllister and her boyfriend, Nico, are hired to sail two women to a remote island in the South Pacific, it seems like the opportunity of a lifetime. Stuck in a dead-end job in Hawaii and longing to travel the world after a family tragedy, Lux is eager to climb on board The Susannah and set out on an adventure. She’s also quick to bond with their passengers, college best friends Brittany and Amma. The two women say they want to travel off the beaten path. But like Lux, they may have other reasons to be seeking an escape.
Shimmering on the horizon after days at sea, Meroe Island is every bit the paradise the foursome expects, despite a mysterious history of shipwrecks, cannibalism, and even rumors of murder. But what they don’t expect is to discover another boat already anchored off Meroe’s sandy beaches. The owners of the Azure Sky, Jake and Eliza, are a true golden couple: gorgeous, laidback, and if their sleek catamaran and well-stocked bar are any indication, rich. Now a party of six, the new friends settle in to experience life on an exotic island, and the serenity of being completely off the grid. Lux hasn’t felt like she truly belonged anywhere in years, yet here on Meroe, with these fellow free spirits, she finally has a sense of peace.
But with the arrival of a skeevy stranger sailing alone in pursuit of a darker kind of good time, the balance of the group is disrupted. Soon, cracks begin to emerge: it seems that Brittany and Amma haven’t been completely honest with Lux about their pasts––and perhaps not even with each other. And though Jake and Eliza seem like the perfect pair, the rocky history of their relationship begins to resurface, and their reasons for sailing to Meroe might not be as innocent as they first appeared.
When it becomes clear that the group is even more cut off from civilization than they initially thought, it starts to feel like the island itself is closing in on them. And when one person goes missing, and another turns up dead, Lux begins to wonder if any of them are going to make it off the island alive.
What appealed to you the most in this story?
The suspense! I love it when a story can hook me from the very beginning and then keep me on the edge of my seat till the very last page.
Is this a thriller or mystery?
Oh, this is a good thriller! There is a great deal of tension and a sense of unease and anxiety created throughout the course of the story…and a bit of nail biting on my part too. What begins a fin vacation and escape, gradually becomes what nightmares and urban legends are made of.
As you read this story you will have to suspend some sense of logic with the number of coincidences that occur in the story.
Did you read this one or go with the audio?
I read this book but have chatted with others who went with the audio version. They loved the narrator and all the different accents used for each of the characters. One thing to note is that this story has the f-word a lot, and this may end up being more distracting on audio if cursing bothers you.
How was the pace?
This was a quick read that hooked me from the start. If I hadn’t had three buddy reads going on at the same time I would have flown through the book in a day. It was nearly impossible to put down when I had to. I kept wondering what was going to happen next and when the twist would happen.
Do you recommend this book?
Overall, if you can just suspend your logical brain and treat this book like the soapy piece of entertainment it is, you might enjoy this wild ride to a deserted island.
