Member Reviews

An intriguing mystery set around 3 long term friends. I would definitely recommend this as a beach read to anyone

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This is a thriller. The pacing is very good. The characters are very good and they all have secrets. The twists in this book aren’t exciting. An average thriller

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Really enjoyed this - will definitely be recommending and looking forward to the next one by this author!

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I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

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Found it slow to begin with. But it soon picked up and became a fantastic read. It was exciting and once it got going I literally couldn’t put it down. It was well written. Good plot that played out well. Wasn’t to keen on the characters

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This was quite a slow burn and I didn’t find myself being very engaged with this, I did enjoy the dual perspectives and parts of the plot but I was a bit disappointed by the ending

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A bit of a slow burner for me, and I almost didn't finish the book. A modern twist on the classic locked room mystery, which will appeal to a number of difference audiences. Twisty, once you get into.

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Lissa, Bronwyn and Georgie have been best friends for years through their love of swimming. Lissa, the strongest swimmer of the group unexpectedly drowns off the island resort she and her husband recently bought.
Georgie missed the reunion so wasn’t there when Lissa dies but travels there for the funeral.
The story is told through Georgie and Bronwyn’s POV which help to build the tension and fear between them , particularly when bad weather leaves them stranded on the island.
How did Lissa die? Did someone kill her and if so why?
A slow burn book with tension between the friends, Lisa’s husband and the others attending the funeral.
4 Stars ⭐️
Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book in return for a fair review.
Recommended.

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Try as I might I just could not get into this book. I restarted it so many times and even purchased the audible version to see if that made a difference. Unfortunately another book destined to the did not finish pile.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to see an ARC

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How To Kill Your Best Friend is told from two of the characters perspectives, Georgie and Bronwyn, but the writing style of both of these characters chapters, were sadly not very distinct from each other. This made it slightly difficult for me to tell which of the characters I was currently reading from and difficult to tell those two chapters apart from each other. This meant that I kept constantly mixing up those two characters and whose backstory belonged to who, including what was currently happening to them. So, I do wish that there was more of a difference between them, which would have lead to me actually enjoying the story a lot more. Once I got into the story though, things started to escalate as I started learning more about the characters, the events and I started to really enjoy the story and start flying through it.

This book is definitely a mystery thriller, but there were moments and small elements of horror and supernatural thrown in, depending on how you looked at it. While on this island, there is a local legend that surrounds Kanu Cove, with a creature living in the water. A creature who takes who wants to be taken or who is sacrificed. You never really fully gets a definitive answer about this creature and whether it’s there or not, or possibly all in the mind, which would usually annoy me, but I liked that you can interpret it however you want to as a reader.

The ending was a bit of a disappointment for me, as thrillers these days like to add on a little twist ending right at the last minute that usually appears out of nowhere after everything had seemingly been concluded. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the initial conclusion to the story and felt that it wasn’t too dragged out, but wasn’t rushed, even leaving you still with some mystery regarding a certain character, but then they threw something else in. This went from leaving me with a good satisfied ending, to mainly a blah ending, because it wasn’t completely necessary. I liked that it summed something up at the end, but then left me with more questions, regarding what happened afterwards. I see what it was trying to do, but it just wasn’t needed, for me anyways.

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A slow burning summer thriller. The narrative point of view fluctuates between two friends Georgie and Bron as they gather for a memorial for their missing and presumed dead friend Lissa. Although an accomplished swimmer, she never returned from a swim during a last meet up with the group. Georgie missed the last meet up and now on the island that Lissa owned with her husband, she is receiving missed emails from Lissa hinting at sinister goings on. Both Georgie and Bron have life threatening experiences and threatening messages. The Island is menacing and poses imminent danger. With poor weather closing in, escape is increasingly difficult. Each of the female and male friends all have their secrets and the narration being from the girls' perspective adds to the unreliability. The plot is slowly peeled back with chapter heads giving menacing methods in how to kill your friend and get away with murder. The pace picks up at the end with twists and reveals. An entertaining read. #howtokillyourbestfriend #lexieelliott #netgalley

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Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A compelling thriller that is full of twists and turns. An easy read. Recommended.

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I wanted to like this book. I think the author can write in an engaging way, and I was intrigued by the characters and their friendship dynamics. But then the story got repetitive with them constantly swimming, as a tribute to their dead friend, and I just wasn’t hooked. I also think the author gave too much away regarding Lissie’s backstory (she seems like a psycho with anger problems) via other characters’ renditions as they reminisce about her. There were major red flags and I saw that twist coming, so it just didn’t surprise me. I found the antagonist stereotyped and her/his motivation cliched.

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Such an amazing thriller, really on the edge of your seat stuff – loved it!

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

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This was great! Unusual and a bit chilling and an interesting, true-feeling study on a friendship group's twists and turns. I was holding my breath at moments, definitely recommended.

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An intriguing psychological thriller with a great group dynamic of characters gathered together to mourn the loss of one of their own. Weird things start happening and it seems like someone is after revenge.

This was an easy fun read, one of those addictive read in one sitting novels that are always wildly entertaining. It has the added advantage of being really well written and twisty as a box of frogs.

Georgie was my favourite character but they were all great and this was a really good read.

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This book is brilliant! I can say nothing negative about this one!! Absolutely brilliant from beginning to end.

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The setting was dark and atmospheric and I love all books that had a locked room feel to it. This had the ominous feel of locked island where answers had to be sought during a storm emotional and otherwise.

The author's writing kept me keen where a single chapter soon became the end of the book. A great entertaining thriller.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Well this was one twisty wild ride!
Firstly I found the characters all rather awful (we are meant to) and adding to this a phobia of deep water and drowning, since a childhood incident, I found this an uncomfortable and scary read, so much swimming in oceans and to boot a bloody great serpent slithering around, yikes!
I didn't see most of it coming and there are some great twists and really good writing (phobias aside) but I am a reader who needs to connect with a character and there were none here I could invest in, but if you don't need that then you will love this!

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Georgie, Lyssa and Bronwyn were friends since their time together on the college swimming team. But now Lyssa is dead, and her friends are attending a ceremony in her memory on a remote island, where she lived with her husband who runs the hotel there. Their stay in this picturesque and luxurious remote location is marred by their grief, and by strange sinister shenanigans. Who would want to kill their friend and why?
I really enjoyed the narrative of this story, as we follow it from Bron’s and Georgie’s perspectives (I have partially listened to it as an audiobook too, so extra kudos go to both narrators, Ell Potter and Jane Collingwood), and although you would have to suspend your disbelief in some places, I still thought it was an entertaining read. I liked the main characters and the “logic” behind their actions, I liked the conclusion too. Altogether, a nice bit of entertainment.

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