Rachel & Jack travel to Portugal to attend jack’s brother Will’s wedding. Jack is not too happy about Will’s bride Ali, and also he doesn’t want to travel to attend a wedding. He seems to be very irritated about everything Ali says or does. Rachel notices this and confronts Jack, at this point Jack reveals a secret about Ali.
Noah & Paige, are also part of this wedding – Noah & Rachel were in college together and at some point in time were meant to be together. But that doesn’t happen as Rachel meets Jack and decides to marry him.
As Ali and Will get married, more secrets are revealed and Rachel’s life starts spiraling out of control.
By the end of the whole event, tragedy strikes – and someone in the group will go back home alone
This was an ok read, felt a little dragged about what Ali’s intentions were and I didn’t feel the reveal was too suspenseful as it was staring right in the face all the time.

Really enjoyed this book and couldn't wait to see what had unfolded and how. I didn't expect the incident - very clever! Looking forward to reading more from the author.

A mystery about three couples on a trip to Portugal. The story was a bit predictable, I disliked the characters but enjoyed the Iberian setting. A decent beach read but not for me.

Full review to come on Goodreads and Amazon. Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a review copy.

This was a good read with well defined characters. I didn’t particularly like all of them and some of them I changed my mind about during the course of the book. I liked the tight time frame with the majority of the book taking place over one wedding weekend in portugal and with only six main protagonists. I don’t think I’ve read a book by Sandie Jones before but I’ll certainly be looking out for her in the future.

I love books that are set abroad, it makes me feel like I’m with them for one and in this weird covid world that’s absolutely great. I also love a group holiday turned bad kind of trope so this was a perfect read for me.
It gripped me, I felt like I was really getting to know the characters and I genuinely could not guess where it was going to go!
This book is full of drama and suspense and keeps you hooked. Really enjoyed this one!

Six friends, three couples, and a picturesque wedding. What could go wrong? Apparently murder and mayhem when long lost secrets and recent reveals brought them all out to the forefront.

Author Sandie Jones’s books had always intrigued me. I went into this with much gusto. Unfortunately, this entire book was formulaic, but I had hoped for great gossip from the gang. I expected it to start with a bang, but the women were mean to each other in the name of friendship.

The first half had only self recriminations and insecurities by lead characters who were apparently in their early 40s and needed botox. Sheesh!!

All 6 of them were varied, though how they remained friends was a mystery to be solved for another day. I would have walked away from this friendship long ago. But this was fiction, so it was allowed as it added to the thrill of pent up anger.

The book meandered most of its way, and the main lead got an opportunity to spew her venom. I cheered. Yayy!! At last something was happening here.

The ending was good predictable. Much ado about nothing. The (high) drama in this book was inversely proportional to the suspense (low).

After reading the authors previous novel The Other Woman I was really excited to recieve this ARC but in all honesty I was just left feeling frustrated.

This didn't feel like it was even written by the same author! Even the writing style didn't match. This felt more like a soap opera than a thriller, more about who's sleeping with who, who likes/dislikes who etc.

The whole book can be broken down into 2 parts... 90% build up to what you're hoping is a brilliant ending and 10% of an ending that was done and dusted way too quickly.

Basically a no from me,

Thanks to netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC.

Wow
This book was amazing I loved it, kept me guessing right till the very end of the book thought I knew what was going to happen then another plot twist. A brilliant author can’t wait to read her next book.

A really good easy, fast read. A trip to Portugal for a wedding. A tight knit friendship group with a newcomer - the bride. A body and lots of suspects. Good twists to find out whodunnit.

The Guilt Trip is centred around the upcoming marriage of Will and Ali in Portugal as a group of friends and family join them in a stunning villa to celebrate. Will's brother, Jack, and his wife, Paige are there along with friends Rachel and her husband, Noah. It is clear from the outset that there are tensions in this group of 40 somethings and as the novel progresses, secrets are revealed.
I found the book quite difficult to get into and the slow pace didn’t help to capture my attention. A good edit would help the book become more readable and focused.

I have loved everything about this one. This is well-written and a book that I have been completely unwilling to put down. I am a huge fan of this author and cannot wait for more.

This was a bit of slow burner for me and as I have previously enjoyed some of her other titles, this one I found just didn't make the mark. I enjoyed the storyline but did not connect with the characters as much as I wanted to. It is worth a read but I don't think its as good as her other titles.

Thank you Netgalley

A really good read that had you guessing throughout as to where the storyline was leading only to have a massive twist at the end that you didn’t see coming !!

I found this book a bit slow at the beginning and maybe a bit more romance than thriller. But I loved the setting and did enjoy the story. Not my favourite by this author but definitely worth a read.

The Guilt Trip was a decent read, I thought. I have to admit that I didn’t like any of the characters but I think that actually helped in this read.
The book starts at the airport, getting ready to jet off to Portugal for the marriage of Will and Ali. The other two couples have known each other years, Jack and Rachel are married and have a teenage son and Noah and Paige are married with a teenage daughter. It is obvious from the start there is quite a bit of tension between the couples but you are led to believe it’s from incidents in the past. When they arrive at the cliff side resort things start to heat up a bit with a few things happening and being revealed and also some misleading information making you dislike one character more than you should.
I enjoyed this easy read, it did start off a little slow but I think that was needed to enable you to get to grips with the couples and their histories.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

Even though I enjoyed this it didn't wow me. Part of me thinks it might have been better as a duel timeline. Where we get flashbacks to the lead up to the incident to add more suspense.
Instead we got 90% of build to an incident we don't really have any details about. Then the aftermath was so short I felt like I was missing part of the book.
We go from a chapter of police asking questions then the very next chapter the trail is done and everything has moved on. We are missing so much information from between the questioning and trial. It felt unfinished.
The characters were unlikeable and slightly annoying that I didn't really care who was involved.

It felt obvious Paige wasn't who she said she was with how she was behaving at times. I felt it was given away she was the mistress not Ali with how she lied about not having a conversation with Ali to then say she did actually moments later. Or when she didn't want Rachel to talk to Ali that she should do it instead.

Even best friends will keep secrets from one another. But what if those secrets turn deadly and someone ends up dead? This is the premise of this thrilling read, and will keep you glued until the end!

I wouldn’t categorise this book as I thriller I don’t think. It has an element of suspense but the situations that do arise between the characters seem more and more unlikely. Add to that the unpleasant characters of practically everyone in it and I’m sorry to say I wasn’t very enamoured.

This was an enjoyable read but with very difficult characters.

Rich, judgemental narcissists make relating very hard.

All of the characters were unlikeable.. Rachel and Noah were bitter and twisted by their own choices, Jack was a disgusting human being (& I hate women fauning over such a man) & Paige was a grotesque caricature....who I cannot imagine anyone would want to call their best friend...let alone on every other page!

However the story itself was tense and I intriguing and I was really looking forward to where it went. I really enjoyed the first half but around the mid way point it lost steam and I absolutely hated the ending.

That was quite a wedding! However the one thing after another that happened became more and more ludicrous until it was so unbelievable that I struggled to read the end.

I am also not a fan of "make your own mind up" endings.

Think maybe would have worked better being shorter with not so much padding.

Thanks to the author; publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.