Thanks to Netgalley and Headline for this ARC.

Read the blur, and it seemed right up my alley more for the murder and mystery storyline.

Needing a break from read one particular genre I thought I would try one of my other favourites mystery and thrillers....and boy this didn't disappoint.

Famous people are left on the island on the outskirts of Scotland to live for two weeks whilst battling to win their dream reward, all while being filmed for a tv series.....but someone dies whilst on the isle.

You can't write too much without giving something away, but this debt novel is definitely worth a read. A lovely quick read that manages to keep you engrossed. In the story, you don't know who is going to die, but you can work out who is involved....a nice little twist at the end, too. If I had to be picky, I would have liked there to be a bit more to the ending of the story, but that hasn't stopped me from enjoying the book. The characters ate great the storyline fast flowing, and you never get confused by the plot. It is a great first fiction book by this author. I will certainly pick up more books by Louise Minchin in the future

Minchin is known as the former co-presenter of BBC Breakfast. It’s a debut novel that makes the same mistakes as all debut novels, but is too chaotically structured to be a truly entertaining read.

The title is a fictional reality show, Celebs have to perform tasks, with their heart’s desire as the prize. Lauren is a TV documentary maker. She’s joined by a soap star, twin bloggers, an ex pop star, two athletes, a Hollywood icon and an action movie star. But Lauren is there with her own agenda.

I know that sounds oblique, but to say more would spoil potential enjoyment of the novel. The key incident in it takes place about halfway through and from then it accelerates to the end at confusing speed. The characters aren’t fleshed out enough, even through it is fairly obvious who they are based on. One exits the novel early, for no apparent reason.

Michin’s writing style is curious too; with a use of present tense with sentences and descriptive passages that are just too verb heavy. With better editing and structure, she’ll write a better novel. But it’s a book that doesn’t make the most of its Traitorous, Faustian concept. It’s published by Headline on September 12th and I thank them for a preview copy. #isolationisland.

Wow this is a fantastic read. I was hooked at the very first page and I read it all in one sitting. Louise has written an absolute belter of a thriller. Slightly like Then There Was None and a really horrifying Big Brother type setting. This is one of my favourite reads this year. If you like breath holding thrillers you will love this.

Unfortunately the formatting of this ARC makes the book virtually unreadable as there are line numbers at the end, or in the middle, of every single line. An unforgivable error from whoever was responsible for the formatting of the book for Kindle readers and a real let down of the author. The book started well, but I was only 11% in when I decided that I couldn't continue with the formatting as it was. This scoring is representative of the publisher's formatting NOT the actual author's work

I can't review this properly as it's unreadable. There are numbers at the beginning of every line, in the middle of lines, and lists of them in gaps. It makes it very jarring to read. I couldn't concentrate. I understand ARCs aren't perfect but this is ridiculous. The author has been let down by whoever decided to send the book out in this unreadable state. My rating is reflective of this and not the actual book itself. It's a shame as I was looking forward to reading this.

'Isolation Island' is a strong debut thriller from Minchin. I loved the concept, it is reminiscent of actual reality shows whilst also feeling unique and fresh. The setting of a remote, Scottish monastery is great and helps add to the sense of being isolated and trapped. The characters are celebrities who have all been offered the chance to win a prize personal to them so the enter Isolation Island. The characters were good and definitely an eclectic mix. Minchin sticks to what she knows by having a journalist in there and there are a few characters reminiscent of Minchin's stint on I'm A Celebrity...
As I have said the premise is good and there is a lot of action and drama throughout. There are some strong twists in this book as well which helped add to the excitement. My main negative is that some of the descriptions, particularly early on, are too lengthy and it hampers the pace of the book. This aside, and I thought 'Isolation Island' was a promising debut.
Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for an advance copy.

I was so excited to started this but I just couldn’t get past the first chapter as their is a isssue with the book
Every line had a number at the end and it was just a nightmare to try and read

I will be buying when released

I would struggle to be able to review this book due to issues with the file/download. The issues stopped the flow of the book. The issues are:
- Numbers down the side of each sentence
- Stop/start sentences on different lines
- No clear definition of chapters.

I’m not sure if it was a file/download issue but there were lots of gaps and stops/starts which ruined the flow. I would love the chance to read a better version as the description of the book appeals to me. I would be more than happy to re-read the book with a better file or as a physical book as the book topic and genre are of interest to me. If you would like me to re-review please feel free to contact me at thesecretbookreview@gmail.com or via social media The_secret_bookreview (Instagram) or Secret_bookblog (Twitter).

I've award stars based on the art work of the book cover as well as the book description.

I’m a celeb come Traitors come And then there were none. I struggled to get into this right at the start - some of the writing seemed a bit creative writing studenty - but after it got going it was a real page turner. I found myself thinking about it when I wasn’t reading it and charged through it in only a couple of days on top of a full time job and 2 young kids!

All that said I predicted the culprit very early on and found the characters all very one dimensional and basic. I honestly didn’t like any of them, including the ‘heroine’ who irritated me throughout with her prissy righteousness.

There was certainly some well achieved suspense in parts but the ending felt cut a bit short and anticlimactic.

A decent first novel or this genre and I’d definitely give a subsequent novel a go.