I decided to read this book after seeing on the blurb that it had some of my favourite thriller tropes. A group of people stranded somewhere? And then add in a reality TV element? Sign me up!
But unfortunately this one didn't quite hit the spot for me.
This book really started out strong for me, I loved the setting of Eilean Manach aka Monk Island a medieval derelict abbey in Scotland and throughout the book this setting really did add to the story.
Another thing I did like about this one was the atmosphere. It positively drips with the autumnal/wintery gothic abbey vibes.
But after a while it began to feel like that was all there was to it.
It is written in the third person, which I have never been a fan of. I think that I would have enjoyed this more if it was written in the first person with multiple POV's.
The reality TV aspect of the plot didn't really play a big part to the story at all in my opinion and I feel like this could have played a much bigger part than it did.
For me after a while the was a complete lack of tension. I think this was because I didn't connect to the characters at all. I wasn't invested in them so I didn't care what would happen.
This book overall fell a bit flat for me. So much so that by the 70% mark I did lose interest and just wanted to finish it.
It doesn't really add anything new or fresh to the thriller genre and there are better books like this that have already been written.
At the end I felt disappointed because when this started I was enjoying it and had high hopes that it would be at least a 4 star read.
However if you are looking for a thriller that is full of atmospheric vibes to read this autumn/winter you might like this more than I did.

What a great read! This is a highly entertaining, fast paced and exciting thriller, well written and with a finely drawn group of characters. Although it has a number of the typical tropes of the contemporary thriller, it is original, engrossing and surprising. The basic premise is a reality show on a remote island, peopled by so-called celebrities who all have their own particular reasons for wanting to win. And then the deaths start....

I love this fast paced debut thriller. It such a fun read.
10 celebrities spend 2 weeks on a remote Scottish island. Things start to go wrong, people start to go missing.
If you love programmes like the Traitors then this is for you. It was so addictive and gripping, I couldn’t put it down.

At the start of the book it took be a few chapters to get into the book. But once I got into the book I am finding it interesting. It reminds me of Iam a celebrity get me out of here but these contestants are totally in their own.

I am liking reading the book from Lauren’s perspective and her having a different agenda to why she is there. Let’s see if she finds the evidence she needs about Nate.

Contestants have already started to disappear but you don’t have a clue where or why. You think it’s not part of the show but is it?

In my opinion the first 1/2 of the book was slow but it was creating the setting and build up of the story. After the story started to take shape I really enjoyed the book and couldn’t put it down.

I did not work out the end of the book and who did what but by gosh it was a good ending.

I would recommend this book if you are looking for a thriller and something you need to work out and get into the mind of the journalist. Some parts of the book crept me out as I stay at my house during the week, but I got there in the end. This story is a cross between I am a celebrity gone wrong and the contestants have gone wild and let loose.

Fel rhywun sydd wrth fy modd gyda The Traitors ac I'm a Celebrity a rhaglenni felly, roedd hwn yn apelio ata i yn syth. Ni chefais fy siomi chwaith, 10 o enwogion yn mynd i ynys bellenig oddi ar arfordir yr Alban i geisio goroesi mewn mynachlog ar ben creigiau serth, ac roedd y disgrifiadau yn y nofel yn creu darlun clir o'r lleoliad yn fy mhen. Ond nid un teulu bach hapus yn canu o amgylch y tân a gawn yma, ac mae pethau'n dechrau troi yn eithaf cynnar ar ôl iddynt gyrraedd y lleoliad, gyda'r cymeriadau amrywiol yn dod i adnabod ei gilydd a chwestiynu beth yn union yw cymhelliant pob un i ddod ar y rhaglen ac a oes modd ymddiried yn y lleill a'r cynhyrchwyr? Stori llawn tensiwn, gwrthdaro, amheuaeth a dirgelwch, mae'r ysgrifennu yn dwyn eich sylw ac yn llawn cyffro ac anodd iawn oedd dyfalu beth oedd yn llechu rhwng muriau'r fynachlog anghysbell. Os ydych chi'n hoff o sioeau teledu tebyg i'r rhai uchod, mae'n rhaid i chi ddarllen hwn!

As someone who loves The Traitors and I'm a Celebrity and other similar programmes, this appealed to me from the offset. And I wasn't disappointed, 10 celebrities head to an isolated island off the coast of Scotland to try and survive in a monastery on the top of a steep cliff, and the descriptions in this novel created a clear image in my head of the scene. But we don't get the happy family signing round the campfire between the pages of this book, and things take a turn quite early on as they reach their destination, with the various characters coming together and questioning what their reasons are for coming on the show and can they fully trust the others and the producers? A story full of tension, conflict, suspicion and mystery, the writing draws your attention and is full of action and it was hard to guess what was lurking between the walls of the ancient building. If you enjoy the programmes I mentioned above, this is a must-read!

I raced through this book as I couldn’t put it down.

10 celebrities have been selected for a new reality tv show, taking place on a remote island off the Scottish Highlands in an abandoned monastery. From the moment they arrive things start to go wrong; has the health and safety team made some potentially fatal errors or is someone out to get them?

When there is a massive storm and the communications with the mainland knocked out, everyone’s true colours are revealed, what secrets are they hiding? Lauren, an investigative journalist, is determined to find out before it’s too late.

The characters were all well written and believable. I was rooting for my favourites, and hoping the bad guys were found out. Louise Minchin was a contestant on I’m a Celebrity, in the UK Welsh Castle years, which makes the reality tv aspect particularly well informed and interesting.
Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a dark story! 10 believable characters have signed up for a reality television show on an isolated island in Scotland, however, things don’t go as planned and people start to die.
I couldn’t put this book down, I was hooked!

Isolation island is a great read, ten celebrities are put on a remote Scottish island for a tv show and they are awarded a prize for the final contestant. They think they know what they have signed up to, but it’s not what they think. When one of the celebrities ends up dead, who’s going to kill them all to win?

I really enjoyed this book, it’s a bit like Traitors and survivor in a book. It’s dark with lots of secrets that untangle throughout the book. The main characters are interested and I liked them. It’s very well written and you won’t be able to put it down. A gripping 5 star read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable thriller. It's one of those ones that sends you down lots of blind alleys until what really happens is finally revealed - and it was a shock! Atmospheric and page turning, set aside an afternoon for this book - you won't want to put it down!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC without obligation.

I enjoyed this - I mean who doesn't love a celeb reality TV show? And, the first half was just that and definitely my preferred part of the book setting up an extreme reality or reality show gone wrong. But sadly it didn't pan out like that with the second half going in a different direction. It also felt flatter because as suspicions rose and the group fractured, the narrative inevitably became more of a monologue. Such a shame because it was a brilliant concept, location and characters (with an unexpected twist) - all of which I wanted more of, not less. I also really wanted an epilogue.

Lauren Brooks is an investigative journalist who has managed to win a place on the TV reality show Isolation Island. Ten “Celebrities” will be marooned on Eilean Manach, an island off the coast of Scotland, in an old monastery. Each person however, as is usual on these shows, has their own agenda and Lauren’s is to get close to a Hollywood star whom she has been investigating for 2 years about abuse. There are a lot of characters introduced quite quickly and I did get a bit confused at first.

Briefly, the weather is, naturally, wild and the biggest storm for decades descends on them. Chaos reigns from the very beginning and when they really do find themselves cut off without help, things turn decidedly nasty. Can Lauren or indeed anyone survive before help arrives and who will win the big prize?

If you think I’m A Celebrity (Welsh version) meets Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None you will get the idea behind this story. The book starts off quite slowly but it ramps up in the second half. There are some good twists and turns and I did enjoy the story but it didn’t feel original, I’ve read a number of similar stories. A good debut crime thriller and I’ll be interested to read the authors next book. 3.5⭐️

What a whirlwind of a book! I am a sucker for any book with a remote setting, where the characters appear to be picked off one by one. That is what appealed to me about this book,
I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the isolated island, the crumbling monastery, the harsh elements. Yes please!
The first half was a little slow but once the book hit the halfway mark, it very quickly picked up the pace.
I really enjoyed the twist even though I saw it coming from pretty early on. I still enjoyed the ride in spite of knowing the destination
I've never read anything by this author before but I'd definitely read from them again
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley and had such a fun time.
I read it pretty much in 24 hours as I found it so compelling. It brought nothing new to the genre but I found it had a good mix of suspense, pace and character work that made me just want to keep turning pages.
The setting of being a reality tv show was fun, if a little bit of a stretch with everything that happened on the island.
I felt like the twists kept coming but not in a bad way that some books do, when they throw everything at the book in order to puzzle the reader. I feel like all the twists in here were grounded with good reason and background despite not seeing some of them coming.

Overall I really enjoyed the murder mystery element of this book, although I found the first 60% slow to read the last 40% was super fast paced as the plot was unraveled. I would have loved a few final chapters to explore the fall out of what happened on the island maybe with a 6 months on to see where they are now and what happened to them when they got off the island.

The perspective is written in the third person which took a little getting used to. Because of this I’d have loved perspectives from each of the characters and maybe an externally view from a production standpoint.

I have never read a thriller quite like this with the reality show setting and it made it really refreshing. With a varied cast of characters and a tense setting it is such a great debut by Louise Minchin.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

This is really pretty good! It's a cross between Big Brother, SAS Who Dares Win with a touch of And Then There Were None.

It's a bit confusing at the beginning when all the characters are introduced at once and throughout the book I did keep getting some of the male characters mixed up.

The story is good and quite exciting and there is a real tension and sense of fear when the storm moves in. I can see this book as a film, there are even bits where the characters hear noises or whatever, and instead of hurrying back to the safety of the warm Hall with everyone else, they decide to venture down dark passageways or up dark stairs.

I felt that the ending was a bit flat and also rushed although the twist was good.

I suppose when you take the time to think about it, there are a few flaws but when you are reading it, you are quite swept along by it all , so i will give it a 4 for readability and enjoyment.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an ARC of Isolation Island.

I think when a ‘celebrity’ or well know name writes a book, you are always a bit wary of them branching out. However, I was not disappointed with this from Louise Minchin!

The atmosphere she created, with the monastery and the storm, together with a really eclectic mix of characters, made me want to keep reading.

Although it was a relatively short novel, I enjoyed every chapter, and was disappointed when it ended. A good debut from Louise, looking forward to the next!

I found this book a little slow to start but once I got a few chapters it oh my!!!! Was such a pleasure to read. It gripped me, kept me reading and I needed to know more. I struggled to put it down. Such an enjoyable thriller with twists along the way. If you ever want a gem of a book to read this is the one! Loved the characters and story line! I’m just sorry it took me a little time to get into it.

Ten celebrities travel to a remote Scottish island for a new reality show. But when a storm strands them there in complete isolation, it turns out that some of the contestants may have different reasons for being there ...

This was a really gripping and well written thriller! I read it in less than a day because I needed to know how it ended - and was completely satisfied by the final twists. Definitely one to pick up if you like an atmospheric murder mystery!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

This was a very slow start and seemed to be so bizarre, a lonely isolated island, all clothes and personal objects to be disposed of so that they all wore the same clothes, cameras everywhere and o other prson to tell the things to do. The premise was good but I did not always feel that it delivered the best. In a way I felt that it was like Agatha Christie when 10 people come for dinner and one by one they all die. So instead of dinner this was an isolated island where all the competitors had a reason to be there. This was very much in line of the show " I am a celebrity get me out of here" which did make it plausible. I do have to say that it is full of twists and unsuspected information given by tthe competitors from the very start which did give it a lot of credence. It was certainly atmosperic and I shuddered at the idea of staying in a remote abbey on an isolated island knowing that one of my fellow celebrities was a killer.