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3.13 AVERAGE
3.13 AVERAGE
I really wanted to like this book but it turns out I feel right in line with the good read stating of 3.47 - I rounded to 3.5 :)
Who would guess that a trip to a desolate tropical island in the Indian Ocean would turn into a survival mission? Certainly not Virginie and her husband Jake who have gathered their life savings for the trip of their lifetime. One they arrive at Amarante they are met by several other people visiting the island. After about a month into their two month stay things start to go wrong and people aren’t who they said they were. Will Virginie and Jake make it off the island in one piece?
This book just fell flat. It was almost too descriptive and I found myself skipping portions because I was bored. It just didn’t keep me engaged and I disliked how the book switch character POVs without telling the reader - annoying! Special thanks to @netgalley for a copy of this book from the public catalog in exchange for an honest review.
Who would guess that a trip to a desolate tropical island in the Indian Ocean would turn into a survival mission? Certainly not Virginie and her husband Jake who have gathered their life savings for the trip of their lifetime. One they arrive at Amarante they are met by several other people visiting the island. After about a month into their two month stay things start to go wrong and people aren’t who they said they were. Will Virginie and Jake make it off the island in one piece?
This book just fell flat. It was almost too descriptive and I found myself skipping portions because I was bored. It just didn’t keep me engaged and I disliked how the book switch character POVs without telling the reader - annoying! Special thanks to @netgalley for a copy of this book from the public catalog in exchange for an honest review.
I read this book by mistake - my friend recommended Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith and I got this one in the library instead.
And this book is horrible. The setting is beautiful but the characters are unidimensional, Virginie is dumb, I don't even know what to say about Jake and Vitor. The story starts well, and then nothing important happens and Virginia and Jake are too boring for me to bother. At some point I was rooting for a Tsunami to come and kill all of them.
When finally something happens, I was sorry that the lot of them didn't drown. A huge pass.
And this book is horrible. The setting is beautiful but the characters are unidimensional, Virginie is dumb, I don't even know what to say about Jake and Vitor. The story starts well, and then nothing important happens and Virginia and Jake are too boring for me to bother. At some point I was rooting for a Tsunami to come and kill all of them.
When finally something happens, I was sorry that the lot of them didn't drown. A huge pass.
I love books featuring vacations gone wrong and based on the description of Deep Water, I had a feeling it would be right up there with some recent favorites. It gave me a bit of Reckless Girls vibes, with the remote island and no one around except others that visit.
The story starts out very suspenseful with Virginie and Jake being rescued at sea by a military ship from the catamaran that is in the middle of the ocean. Jake is badly injured and the captain questions Virginie to find out what happened, and it quickly comes out it's not their boat. From there, the story starts at the beginning, and readers will begin to learn the sequence of events that lead to their rescue.
I won't lie; it wasn't suspenseful enough for me. It was a good story but certainly felt like one I'd read before. I didn't really find anything unique about it. The ending was good, and a happy one too, but I did feel like it was a bit rushed and I still had questions.
Overall, it was a good story. I never felt the need to stop reading; in fact, I couldn't put it down. It just didn't feel like a new story.
3.5/5 stars
Thank you Gallery Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.
The story starts out very suspenseful with Virginie and Jake being rescued at sea by a military ship from the catamaran that is in the middle of the ocean. Jake is badly injured and the captain questions Virginie to find out what happened, and it quickly comes out it's not their boat. From there, the story starts at the beginning, and readers will begin to learn the sequence of events that lead to their rescue.
I won't lie; it wasn't suspenseful enough for me. It was a good story but certainly felt like one I'd read before. I didn't really find anything unique about it. The ending was good, and a happy one too, but I did feel like it was a bit rushed and I still had questions.
Overall, it was a good story. I never felt the need to stop reading; in fact, I couldn't put it down. It just didn't feel like a new story.
3.5/5 stars
Thank you Gallery Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.
boringggggg so boring! i’ve read a lot of thrillers so i just need to be stimulated and surprised or i won’t care at all. random details made no sense and since i didn’t care for the plot i couldn’t get past them
Enjoyable and interesting to learn about boat living but it was a bit slow-moving until the end where things just kind of shifted so quickly I almost couldn't make sense of it.
mysterious
medium-paced
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this novel. All opinions are my own.
I read a novel similar to this one and figured I would give it a good. An island that's hard to get to but totally worth it sounded right up my alley.
This book starts off when a naval vessel finds a stranded catamaran in the Indian Ocean. The husband isn't doing well and the wife, when they find her, claims that she "killed then all".
When the vessel takes Virgninie and her husband Jake on board, she begins to tell the tale about how they ended up stranded, just just who they might have killed.
While this novel wasn't exactly full of twists and turns, and the island wasn't quite the paradise I was expecting, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and what it had to offer. Not everything is as it seems in this novel, and that's part of the appeal.
Steer clear of the mixed reviews and check it out for yourself, you might just be surprised.
I read a novel similar to this one and figured I would give it a good. An island that's hard to get to but totally worth it sounded right up my alley.
This book starts off when a naval vessel finds a stranded catamaran in the Indian Ocean. The husband isn't doing well and the wife, when they find her, claims that she "killed then all".
When the vessel takes Virgninie and her husband Jake on board, she begins to tell the tale about how they ended up stranded, just just who they might have killed.
While this novel wasn't exactly full of twists and turns, and the island wasn't quite the paradise I was expecting, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and what it had to offer. Not everything is as it seems in this novel, and that's part of the appeal.
Steer clear of the mixed reviews and check it out for yourself, you might just be surprised.
tense
medium-paced
It was ok. If you like boats and sailing you might enjoy this.
It was mediocre for a thriller. All more or less predictable.
The end was a miss.
It was mediocre for a thriller. All more or less predictable.
The end was a miss.
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
This book had an interesting premise, but overall it was a letdown. The best chapter was the first one. The rest of the story didn’t live up to the mystery created in that first chapter and what was promised by the blurb going into the book. There was nothing “shocking” about it.
I was hoping for more intrigue, a more interesting plot, more mystery, more tension. This book did not read as a thriller. It was easy to figure out what was going to happen. What happened was fairly predictable and not mysterious at all. There were hints of paranormal influence that never turned into anything. If it had been marketed as general fiction and had some depth to the characters, it might have worked for me.
Virginie came across as totally oblivious, boring, and honestly kind of dumb. Jake was okay until he wasn’t. Their relationship was so bland. When Jake goes off the rails, there was an opportunity for Virginie display character development and growth, but she didn’t. The characters were all a bit flat. Even Virginie’s sympathetic backstory was just told to us, I didn’t feel anything. The villain was moustache-twirling. A bad guy doing bad things because he’s just a bad guy… not mysterious, shocking, or interesting.
The writing itself was okay, not consistently good but not consistently bad. I’ve always thought writing a multiple POV book with one POV in third person and the other in first person was an interesting idea - I know now that it’s something I do not enjoy.
The last chapter when we see the “after” of the characters’ lives felt really disjointed and unbelievable. I get that there SHOULD be a bond between Virginie and Tengku, but it didn’t feel natural based on what I’d just read. It was all just told to the reader and I didn’t believe it. I also don’t believe that Jake is good for Virginie - actions speak louder than words, right?
Weirdly, I found Tengku’s chapters the most interesting. (This is weird because I generally don’t like first person, or reading from a male character’s perspective.)
I was hoping for more intrigue, a more interesting plot, more mystery, more tension. This book did not read as a thriller. It was easy to figure out what was going to happen. What happened was fairly predictable and not mysterious at all. There were hints of paranormal influence that never turned into anything. If it had been marketed as general fiction and had some depth to the characters, it might have worked for me.
Virginie came across as totally oblivious, boring, and honestly kind of dumb. Jake was okay until he wasn’t. Their relationship was so bland. When Jake goes off the rails, there was an opportunity for Virginie display character development and growth, but she didn’t. The characters were all a bit flat. Even Virginie’s sympathetic backstory was just told to us, I didn’t feel anything. The villain was moustache-twirling. A bad guy doing bad things because he’s just a bad guy… not mysterious, shocking, or interesting.
The writing itself was okay, not consistently good but not consistently bad. I’ve always thought writing a multiple POV book with one POV in third person and the other in first person was an interesting idea - I know now that it’s something I do not enjoy.
The last chapter when we see the “after” of the characters’ lives felt really disjointed and unbelievable. I get that there SHOULD be a bond between Virginie and Tengku, but it didn’t feel natural based on what I’d just read. It was all just told to the reader and I didn’t believe it. I also don’t believe that Jake is good for Virginie - actions speak louder than words, right?
Weirdly, I found Tengku’s chapters the most interesting. (This is weird because I generally don’t like first person, or reading from a male character’s perspective.)