Member Reviews
Thanks to NetGalley and publishers for an ARC of #BadTourists.
Oh M G, what a book. While reading this book it reminded me of braiding a plait in someone's hair, you pick up one strand, and another strand, and another strand to make a full picture. Every chapter added another mystery to the story, another strand of hair to the braid. Every perspective made me question any assumptions I made at the start, and I could not put this book down. I cannot wait for the author to release another book.
Bad tourists review
A gripping psychological thriller-when three friends take a once-in-a-lifetime holiday to a luxurious tropical paradise what could possibly go wrong?
The evocative depiction of the dream holiday location contrasts with the rising tension as the story unfolds.
Everything is not as it first seems and the Tragic backstory is of the characters emerge as the holiday progresses and we learn more about and understand the shocking events that happen in the 1st chapter (don’t started this when you are alone in a strange hotel room!!)
The thrilling story builds to a dramatic conclusion with a twist that I never saw coming!
With an ultimately happy ending for the innocent protagonists it’s a satisfying and brilliant read
If you're after a classic summer thriller beach read with a twist then look no further than this new release!
The Blurb:
Best friends Darcy, Camilla, and Kate who've been brought together through a tragedy years ago, escape for a post-divorce retreat in the Maldives, the perfect place to relax, reset, and embrace a fresh start in life. Darcy is learning how to be a free woman at forty-two. Camilla has found the perfect calling as a fitness and wellness influencer with a devoted following. And Kate is finally working on the book she was meant to write after years of telling other people’s stories..... But while basking in the paradise lifestyle old truths stir up and erupt with catastrophic results!
I was hooked the whole way through, love the setting and the characters were well defined. It's not ground breaking enough to be up there with my top mind blowing thrillers but it's absolutely perfect for a gripping summer read.
Thanks to @atrandombooks @transworldbooks @carverofbooks and @netgalley for the ARC of this book
#bookreview
#goodreads
#bookstagram
#summerthriller
I really liked this book, I found it to be a great summer thriller that I could have finished in one sitting but *ugh life*. It's exciting, full of surprises, and keeps you on your toes until the end. The plot twist had me shocked!
This is my first by this author, so I will definitely be looking into her other works!
★★★★
———————
I want to thank NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishing for the opportunity to review this book.
This one wasn't my favourite unfortunately. I feel like the beginning had a lot of filler and that it also felt disconnected from the prologue and what came after.
2.5
Quintessential beach reading. Pulls you in quickly and an absolute page turner. Great setting and lush descriptions of the Maldives believable characters, twists and turns, fast paced, deliciously dark and a deeply satisfying conclusion. It has everything I look for in a holiday read.
One to buy in the airport and read on the beach. Recommend.
4 stars.
A holiday to celebrate a divorce over a tough anniversary for Camilla, Darcy and Kate. A beautiful beach holiday full of excursions is just what they all need but death seems to follow these women. The past and present converge in a dramatic way making them rethink all they thought they knew.
Wow what a dark twisted ride this was. It starts out fairly simply and you think you know them all but then it all starts to twist and turn. There's a lot going on throughout this but it all comes together in an explosive ending that was uttely brilliant and so clever. And that ending wow talk about dramatic, you just had no idea who if anyone would survive. I love a thriller that hooks me in like this one did. The characters all have their flaws but you do warm to some of them. The writing is detailed and expressive. I also liked the changing of pov's throughout. It just adds more depth to the story. A brilliant twisted thriller.
This was a fab and thrilling read with plenty of twists that kept me engaged.
What initially was meant to be 3 friends who are seemingly bonded by trauma taking a trip to celebrate a divorce turned out to be a whole lot more with murder and death following them all the way to the Maldives.
The book began with so much suspense which actually was maintained throughout so I loved that.
My only critique on this occasion was the friendship between Kate, Camilla and Darcy. Sadly I just didn't feel like it was authentic enough. If the 3 lasses were bonded by a tragic incident I thought they would be more closer than they seemed but I didn't feel like they knew each other very well at all. Which made me question why they would actually go on holiday together. I think maybe it just wasn't conveyed enough in the beginning of the story.
Alas it was still a good read and didn't really take away the enjoyment factor for me as I do love a great thriller.
Thank you to Netgally for the book in exchange for my own honest review.
Darcy, Camilla and Kate head to the Maldives to celebrate Darcy's divorce. The three women are linked by a massacre that happened 22 years ago, in which Camilla's twin brother and Darcy's boyfriend were killed, and Kate was the sole survivor. As they luxuriate in the stunning Maldivian report, surrounded by crystal clear waters and perfect white sand, the cracks start to appear in their unlikely friendship and secrets are revealed.
The setting was glorious! The characters were certainly interesting, although not necessarily likeable, for varying reasons, so the drama that surrounded them didn't come as a huge shock until it definitely moved up a gear or two, with a body found in the water.
There were some shocking twists and revelations, loads of tension and a totally unexpected finale. A great summer read.
4 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Caro Carver and Random House for an ARC in return for an honest review.
A well paced engaging read.
This is a book that was a great holiday read, it flowed well and kept the reader engaged throughout. It had interesting characters and intriguing events that moved the plot along but not so much that it all became confusing. The level of suspense was just right and kept me turning the pages long after I should have turned out the light.
Ooh my! Loved this, was hooked from the start!!
3 friends go on a trip to celebrate one of them, Darcey's, divorce. What follows is the story from past to present, and is told by different perspectives. Someone is murdered on the resort, who is hiding a massive secret?, has someone led them to the Maldives under false pretences?
They meet a newly married couple, and they have their own secrets. How do they relate to the 3 women.
This was a fantastic read and the biggest twist, wow!!!
I recommend this book. Thanks to netgalley for the arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Three friends embark on a trip to the Maldives to celebrate Darcy’s divorce. They are looking forward to relaxing, celebrating a d starting a new chapter of their lives. However it seems as if this luxurious resort is harbouring a killer. This is a tale of friendship but also secrets and lies. The plot unfolds well and at pace and I can recommend this book. Thank you to NetGalley, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers and the author for the chance to review.
Best friends Darcy, Camilla and Kate have just landed in the Maldives for a luxury holiday at the exclusive Sapphire Island Resort. They can't wait for ten days of scorching sun, crystal-clear waters, white-sand beaches - and the chance to put a traumatic shared past behind them. But what awaits them is a murderous revenge plot that none of them saw coming. Or did they?
Well, this review is going to be hard to write without any spoilers but, as I refuse to give anything away that will ruin your enjoyment of this title, I will try my best! The writing style embraces the three main characters, hearing from their different POV’s through the chapters, interlinked with flashbacks to the past and how their stories all connect. The friends brought together and the formation of a united front that has got them through the tough times is evident, although all are very different characters.
The pace never falters, culminating in a final section that you won’t be expecting, your heart will be in your mouth at several points believe me! I believe this is the first thriller title from C J Cooke, written under the pseudonym of Caro Carver, and with writing like this I look forward to reading more from this author in the future. Adding this to the list of great summer reads for 2024!
I really enjoyed this book
It held me from the off and all the twist and turns till the end definitely kept me intrigued throughout.
I always enjoy different POVs and thrown in also was a timeline which always add fun, however I do prefer to read those more physical but that’s a me issue.
Overall I would definitely recommend this book
Oooo this was a little bit juicy and, although I did guess a few little things early, kept me in the dark for the majority!
We start back in the past, with a shocking massacre which left only one survivor, the perpetrator swiftly brought to justice.
Back in the present day and we catch up with three women. Camilla and Kate are travelling to the Maldives for a holiday to celebrate Darcy's divorce. It should have been a fantastic relaxing holiday, well the setting is perfect after all, but as the story goes on, cracks start to appear. It's hard to say much more without spoiling things but the connection that the women have, their arrival on the island, and who else is there, is not coincidence...
Have I whetted your appetite? Honestly, this was the gift that kept on giving. One which, at the start, I would have never believed we would get to where we eventually ended up!
The characters were cracking. The three women are all completely different, it was hard initially working out why they were friends, but after that particular "aha" moment, I started to understand them all better. And they had to be well drawn, which they were, as, as well as being a cracking story in itself, it is all quite character driven too.
The story was well plotted and ably executed. As it ramps up towards the end, it does get a bit dramatic, and I was a bit worried that it would degenerate into farce. Luckily it just managed to stay on the right side of this, and once all is finally revealed, the level of what happens does make sense. Culminating in a rather shocking conclusion.
I understand that this is not a debut book as such but an established author writing in a different genre. I enjoyed this book so much that I'll definitely be checking out her back catalogue. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.
What a ride this book was. Every time I thought I had it figured out I was proved wrong. This was a fantastic read, start to finish in 24 hours! I loved it, it was fast paced, full to the brim of shocks and twists.
It is the perfect holiday thriller. Set in the paradise that it’s the Maldives, 3 friends are celebrating one of their divorces being finalised, a once in a lifetime trip with no expense spared. The women are bonded by tragic events from 20 years ago. Slowly their histories start to replay, leading to disappearance, murders and deep deception.
This book has it all. I am certainly going to be on the lookout for more books from this author!!
I quite enjoyed this summer read of a group of friends with a tragic past having a 'divorce' holiday in paradise, only for the threads to start getting pulled and the twists and turns revealing that all is not quite what it seems in this little corner of paradise.
Bad Tourists is not really a novel about tourists at all. It’s about a group of friends who go on a once in a lifetime holiday to the Maldives and come back very different people...
Best Friends Darcy, Camilla and Kate are all in the Maldives 'celebrating' Darcy's divorce finally coming through.
But they are also all together to support each other through the 22nd anniversary of a B&B massacre which Kate survived and Camilla and Darcy both lost loved ones.
The tragedy and subsequent investigation was overshadowed by 9/11 happening the very next day, and none of the group feel that they ever seen justice or had closure.
They’ve hired a private investigator to try and find out more about what happened on that fateful day. But what happens when that person discovers something unthinkable that's been hidden for years and changes everything they thought they knew.
Their friendship seems strong, but how well do they really know each other?
There are a lot of twists in this novel to keep you guessing, even if the ending does seem a little off the wall!
I liked the concept of this novel, with three friends linked by a massacre in a run down hotel over twenty years ago going on a trip to the Maldives to celebrate the divorce of one of them. However, I didn’t enjoy the execution, firstly because I never got a good feel for the characters or their relationships to one another. They met as a result of the trauma, with two of them losing a brother or boyfriend and one being the only survivor of the massacre. I got the feeling they supposed to have been tight knit friends to go on a trip together, but there wasn’t much evidence for this. I don’t think they knew each other all that intimately at all, so it raises the question of why would they agree to go.
Secondly, the twists in the plot kept making me ask the question Why? It wasn’t clear what the motive was for what happened in the past, 22 years ago, or in the present. The way people behaved seemed unrealistic and even ridiculous at times. Overall, I think the concept and themes could have been better developed to heighten the plausibility and generate a suspenseful atmosphere. However, I seem to be an outlier here, so if you like the sound of the novel, you should read it for yourself.
I thought this was a really fun read - one that 100% had my thinking cap on. The story follows three woman who are bonded by a tragic event from their past and they escape on holiday to a fabulous sounding resort for a week long holiday.
While I enjoyed this, I don't think it gripped my attention as much as others I've read recently which I am sad about because I love the concept and the ending.
It felt like there was so much going on in this story and my head was spinning with all the different pieces of narrative.