Could feel the tension building with every page I read. There was great depth to the characters which I loved and felt added to the suspense of the story. Liked the whole idea of the plot and is a book I would have no problem recommending to others and I would even pick up the book again and read it.

I really enjoyed this whodunnit despite there being perhaps too much introspection and flashback by the main character. The heroine is flawed but capable and obstinate. Overall I was engaged and eager to learn the ending.

I was struck by the mature and accomplished writing of the author and was surprised to find that, according to Goodreads, Cameron Ward has written only one other book. Clearly, an author to watch.

A really different story that kept you well and truly hooked from start to finish. It is hard to pin down what is going on and who is involved keeping the intrigue ramped right up!

A dark twisted tale of a luxury charter which should have been a simple sailing for Sarah after she recovers from loosing her partner but instead becomes something of a nightmare as someone on the ship is determined to kill off the team and Sarah has a race against time to find out who and stop it happening.

Sarah French, an ex-Royal Marine, takes on a job as a security officer on a super yacht - a delivery from Mallorca to Antigua - an easy job says her boss and former colleague Mitch!
But from the start things don’t quite go as planned - the rushed departure, the disharmony amongst the crew, and then the lack of fresh water all seem to be reason to turn the yacht around - but captain Greg is having none of it, and orders the ship to go as fast as it can, straight into a storm! Sarah is uneasy and things only get worse - the storm is unrelenting and dangerous, and then the captain disappears, Would he have jumped overboard?
Sarah finds herself in charge of the ship - but who can she trust? And will her past continue to haunt her?
A readable book - although a bit far fetched at times.

Mega-yacht The Escape, mid-refit, embarks on a 12-day voyage to Antigua. On board is crew, two passengers and Sarah, an ex- Royal Marine employed as security.
Before long the weather turns nasty and the ship’s engines develop problems. Things get worse when it becomes apparent that there is a killer onboard ship. Sarah is forced to take charge, find the killer and establish their motives.
A Stranger Onboard has a slow start and it is more than halfway through before anything happens. The atmosphere is excellent, with a good feel both for the layout and workings of The Escape and its crew and the prevailing storm conditions. But really that’s about it.
The plot feels almost like an afterthought, the characters are thin, and I struggle to believe anyone could write a hero like Sarah in this way. One minute she falls in a faint with PTSD, next swooning in the arms of a stranger and the next performing all manner of difficult ad hoc rescue missions while carrying an injury. Oh, and stopping mid-crisis to explain why she has PTSD.
I felt brave in seeing it through.

I really enjoyed this book, it held my interest from the get go (probably because I have a guilty pleasure of watching Below Deck) and even though I figured out who it was early on, I was still reading fast to get to the end to confirm my suspicions.

Sarah was an interesting protagonist as a ex-Royal Marine with a fierce reflex. Her ability to hold her own against a crew of mercenaries was a joy (if that's the right word?) to read as was her empathy and compassion for others. A real complex character which I always prefer reading about.

A solid four stars from me :)

Sarah French is an ex Royal Marine come Security Officer. She’s been given a job on board a luxury yacht crossing the Atlantic, and she’s there purely for insurance purposes. It’s the ideal opportunity for Sarah to relax and try to banish the demons of her PTSD from her previous job. The boat is luxurious, there is only a couple of passengers, a tight knit crew and it really should be smooth sailing. Not all is as it seems though, when a couple of days in, things start to go wrong…

Who wouldn’t want a bit of decadence and luxury on board a privately owned super yacht – I know I would! This is what initially drew me to this book, the chance to see how the other half live! I really liked Sarah’s character. She’s a tough cookie but has taken some serious knocks whilst in the Marines, and her story slowly unfolds as the book moves on. Her boss thinks this job of security officer on board The Escape is just what she needs. The rest of the crew are a mixed bunch, and some I liked, some I didn’t. The dynamics worked between all the characters though and we are left with lots of mistrust, secrets and uncertainty.

The story is a bit of a slow burner initially, but it builds the suspense nicely, dripping it into the storyline bit by bit. By the middle point of the book, the action turns up a notch, taking us nicely to its exciting climax, ensuring that I was kept on the edge of my seat! Thrilling, chilling, nerve-wracking! I’d love to see this on the big screen! Would definitely recommend!

Very well written thriller with a razor sharp plot, a superb set of characters and a ticking time bomb of a super yacht. (Such a timely release with what's going on in the world now. ) I thoroughly enjoyed this peek into a world the 99% of us will never get access to. The author has clearly done their research and the rich detail of life on board a super yacht meant it was lust worthy read in itself. No spoilers from me but the plot races to its conclusion with such genuinely unexpected twists along the way. Highly recommend as a summer read.

This kept up at night! The narrative is well paced, cliff-hangers are at the right place, and the main character is relatable. I got engaged since the very beginning, even if the real action doesn't really start up to mid-way through the book (and I really mean 50%).
The mystery is a only a partial one. It is quite clear, or at least it was to me, who is behind it all. The clues are too much in plain view to be discrete. There are some attempts to conceal them, but it is all naive.
The main mystery for me was about the motive and the method. The method left me a little disappointed, but the motive was ok.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading A Stranger On Board. It was well written and engaging. The only downside was that the mystery was a quite obvious.

When ex-Royal Marine Sarah French joins a luxury superyacht as onboard security she's excited to get her life and career back on track. With a small crew, it seems the perfect place for her to start over. But there is a storm on the horizon and not all of them will make it out alive.

Sarah, I immediately liked. She's tough and uncompromising with an early hint that she is trying to escape something. The book is well written with believable characters. A whodunit of the high seas. With Sarah as the protagonist, it would make an excellent series (maybe that will happen?) I haven't read any previous work by this author but I will definitely look out for some in the future.

A great read with a story that keeps you guessing all the way through. Plus a terrific ending.

My thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Michael Joseph UK and Cameron Ward for this free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An enjoyable read with a lot of mystery in it, but it was a bit like a book I have read before or something, can’t quiet figure out what but there you go but I did enjoy it ..

A fantastic, fast-paced story with enough intrigue to keep you gripped and guessing until that final climax!

I really enjoyed that the protagonist was female, flawed and felt completely imperfect at times. This helped to give depth to the character and I was 100% rooting for her!

Fantastic book, I will definitely read more from this author.

I chose to read this book as I was going on a ship for a week. I'm quite thankful that i didn't get a chance to read it until I returned home! What a thriller of a ride! I won't try to replicate the book description as the professionals do a much better job. I think that this book would make a good film thriller with a 15plus rating! I'm sure that it won't be long before it's snapped up as I've not seen a film coving this type of situation. I have to also add that it was SO unrealistic but that's why we often pick up something like this to read isn't it?

You may think you would fancy a voyage on board the “floating palace“, superyacht “Escape“ but at the moment you definitely wouldn’t. It’s drifting, thousands of miles from land, icy sea water crashes its sides, the weather is shocking, there’s no light showing from the glittering chandeliers, the crew are huddling fearfully together whilst one solitary figure moves furtively on the side deck. What has put them into such a state of terror? What rottenness lies at the heart of this supposedly routine trip taking the refurbished vessel from Majorca to Antigua with a skeleton crew? It’s a plan of breathtaking audacity. Security officer Sarah French narrates, she’s a ’kick ass’ former royal Marine who is carrying her own demons.

Well, the superyacht sure is… super! There are good descriptions of it, it’s OTT but then if you’re mega rich why not and the setting especially at sea oozes atmosphere. The novel has multiple strands which makes for interesting reading with Sarah‘s backstory, the ship owners family issues, dysfunction amongst the crew as well as as the plan that endangers them. The dynamics are done well as is Sarah‘s story which comes to the surface a little bit at a time.

The issues on-board mount in intensity with a string of events that could be bad luck, incompetence or…? Add in natures fury and you have a never a dull moment, fast paced plot which I really enjoy. The tension becomes increasingly taut, there are multiple twists and turns, it becomes very exciting as it escalates and builds . The ending is good, maybe a tad unlikely but does it achieve excitement? Oh that would be a definite yes! The ultimate ending feels right too.

My only negative is that there are a lot of characters and although the author does a decent job at letting you “see“ them, Sarah inevitably is the only one that feels well fleshed out.

Overall, this would make a great action thriller movie as that’s what the author has made it feel like. Who would play Sarah ?? It definitely needs an actress with plenty of grit.

With thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Michael Joseph for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

Sarah, who is an ex Marine with the obligatory PTSD is hired to be security detail on a super yacht sailing from UK to the Caribbean. Needless to say things go pear shaped and people are not what they seem. A decent enough read but not without flaws. A good plot with well drawn three dimensional characters, this author , will I suspect get better with subsequent books so I will try the next one.
Ye gods though- a female lead who can't possibly be "just a strong woman"-nope she has to have PTSD . has to be a mental health issue. Needless to say there is another cliché too- the "dead or dodgy rule" (can't say more as would be a spoiler. Also it felt like I had read the story before. Quite slow going until the end where it dissolves in a barrage of explosions and shoot 'em up scenes which stretch credibility somewhat. Some things were left unanswered and the ending felt a bit convenient.
Having said that , I think a lot of people will like and enjoy it and if you found it in the library on holiday it wouldn't be a bad choice by the pool

An excellent modern day thriller set on a Super Yacht where things rapidly go downhill for the skeleton crew manning a seemingly innocuous trip of moving an ultra wealthy person plaything from Europe to America over the Atlantic.

The story starts by narrating what happened 8 days into the voyage. Ward expertly ratchets up the tension throughout and the sensation is like that of being slowly strangled by a snake, it is happening and there appears little that anyone can do to stop the inevitable. However, Sarah an ex-Royal Marine is on hand as security for the yacht and thank goodness she is.

An enjoyable story with plenty of turns and action to delight the reader 4/5.

I would happily read something by Cameron Ward again.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an impartial review.

This was an entertaining mystery story. Set on a super yacht, we find Sarah French, a retire Royal marine suffering mentally from her recent personal and military experiences, sent by her boss for what should be a an easy, relaxing job looking after the security of the yacht as it is relocated from Majorca to the Caribbean. But everything is not as it seems amongst the crew, and as the ship sets sail things start to go wrong and people start disappearing and dying. This is four stars rather than five, because I couldn't believe based on Sarah's military experience she would have been as lax as she was portrayed not to react quicker to her feelings that something isn't right. But this didn't stop me enjoying the story as a whole. If I was in this horrifying situation I would want Sarah to be there to protect my back. Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin books for letting me read an ARC. This review is my freely given opinion.

Ex-marine, Sarah French is given a once in a life time opportunity to provide security on a super-yachts maiden voyage across the Atlantic. However, some teething problems occur, which then turns into pure sabotage. Someone is board is not who the claim to be and other crew members start to disappear. Sarah needs to work out what is going on before it is too late.
An enjoyable thriller, but slow to escalate and then an explosive ending.

Absolutely loved this book! If you’re a fan of the TV show Below Deck it’s a must read. Definitely a few twists and turns that I didn’t see coming, would highly recommend!