Well, that was a slog.

Predictable from the first chapter, painfully long, and, if I’m honest, not a single character I’d want to be stuck with at a bus stop, let alone an entire book. They were all absolutely vile. I kept hoping someone vaguely likeable would appear. Reader, they did not.

There was no suspense, no intrigue, just a steady plod towards an ending I saw coming miles off, like a badly driven Ford Mondeo with no headlights and a dodgy exhaust. Sometimes a predictable plot can be comforting, but this was not one of those times. This was the literary equivalent of soggy toast: unappetising and entirely unnecessary.

I considered DNF-ing it more times than I can count, but for reasons known only to my stubborn inner masochist, I kept going. Do I regret it? Deeply. I could’ve spent that time alphabetising my spice rack or watching paint dry—both would’ve offered more emotional payoff.

In short: no twists, no tension, no characters to root for, and about 150 pages too long. I finished it, but only out of spite.

Lily returns to a resort, a place that tragically led her girlfriend to attempt suicide every year. And strangely, every time she visits, mysterious deaths occur. Just a coincidence? Maybe not, especially since Daniel, a detective, is there this year investigating those very deaths.

An absolutely yet wondering book. I truly wasn’t expected to love this book as much as I did and it went in a way that I wasn’t prepared for. I highly recommend it

Female serial killer 🤝 Summer Rom Com read

Beach bodies by Sienna Sharpe
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Low key not seen anyone on my insta connections read / review this so this is my prompt to pick it up this summer for a fun read but that delves into the toxic health and beauty industry!

This is a peak summer read for sure! And whilst I didn’t love it from a writing / style point of view, I found the storyline engaging and I read it very quickly!

However, I did feel it was very surface level. The thriller-side of the novel was the weakest part and at times very predictable. The parts I found myself liking more was the romance. There was chemistry, a bit of angst, a tiny bit of yearning and overall I felt the connection between the characters (even if it was a bit insta-lovey).

The thriller parts of the novel, felt very…scooby doo and basic. There was just something missing that made me fully invested in the stakes of the murders, and at times even felt more like a back burner for the character’s grief. It wasn’t very thriller-ish, and is more of an exploration of grief, guilt and letting the past go.

I very much enjoyed the discourse around the toxicity of the health industry, and the ramifications of its toxic culture and the pressures to fit in to a ‘perfect’ body image.

Overall, I’d say this book is better suited to romance readers who are looking for something a bit different rather than thriller readers.

PS - I love the UK title of this - a double play on the culture of getting “beach body ready” and also the fact there’s a serial killer in a holiday beach resort

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for granting me an early eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Don't let the cover fool you with this one, I was expecting a romance, but luckily, I still enjoyed it.
Part romance / part revenge story Lily visits the resort, which made her girlfriend try to kill herself each year, and mysterious deaths happen each time. Coincidence, right?!
The problem is this year, Daniel is around investigating those deaths.
This was an interesting one as the reader is drawn in to Lily’s thinking and the unravelling of why she is who she is.
I enjoyed spending time with Lily, but it would have been fun to get Daniels POV too.

This was defintely an interesting read for me! I loved the sporadic nature of Lily's character and loved the summer setting aspect as there aren't many thrillers that feel summery. There were points where I felt a bit confused with the time jumps (but this could have been down to the format of the eARC on my Kindle) and I was expecting a bit more of a plot twist or like big plot drop. Overall, however, this is a solid summer holiday thriller that was defintely faced paced and gripping!

What a great story. Draws you in following Lily and her quest for revenge woven in with her meeting with Daniel and falling in love. What a great mix! Loved it all! Thoroughly recommended.

An enticing mix of romance and revenge draws you into Lily's world, but as the story darkens and deepens, you realise Lily has a secret and is not what she seems. Her secrets should make her unlikeable, but they don't. Lily engenders the readers' empathy and understanding as she fights for what she believes is justice. Corporate evil is easier to dislike. All the characters are complex and flawed, even Daniel, the romantic hero who keeps secrets on his journey to seek justice. I like the contemporary relevance, the humour and the moral dilemmas this story evokes. The setting is idyllic and is perfect beach reading material. The plot is twisty, and the final twist and conclusion are resonating.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

I loved this clever revenge story with underlying disturbing themes about the wellness industry. I loved the main character, and her backstory. I enjoyed the romance with the journalist, and was surprised by all the twists and turns. Gripping, fun to read and perfect for the beach!

3.5 🌟

I really enjoyed this and flew through it because the concept was so intriguing - however, the aspect of this was hardly there and it focused a lot more on the romance. I was ready to support a women's wrongs but there were no wrongs (beside previous ones discussed) to support! Lily's story overall was truly heartbreaking and her motives came from a good place in her heart, I just wish we had more thriller vibes!

For the last five years Lily has travelled to the exclusive Riovan Wellness Resort in the Caribbean, shutting her successful business. Fortunately, no one has noticed the suspicious deaths that occur when she is there. Lily is back again and trying not to draw attention to herself, however she did not expect to meet guest Daniel, who asks too many questions. Can she manage her attraction to him while getting away with murder?

This ended up being a fun read based around the current popular female serial killer trope. I enjoyed that this one was set in a luxury location and found the wellness retreat interesting. I quite liked Lily as the main character and while I don’t always love romance in a crime book, I didn’t mind it here.

I think the story started strongly and I was excited to see where it would go. Unfortunately though, the pacing was slightly off and seemed to drop in the middle before picking up again at the end, which lost a few marks in my rating. Even so, this was still an entertaining mystery, with some dark humour and a great choice for an easy holiday read. 3.5 stars rounded down. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy in return for an honest review.

I'm really enjoying satirical thrillers with morally ambiguous female protagonists at the moment. So billed as a "sharp, spicy 'thromance' about a woman determined to make toxic people pay" I was expecting to like this. But I didn't just like it....I loved it! It had everything I was expecting being witty, sassy and colloquial but unlike most in this genre it was also had emotional depth. Uniquely it focused more on the motivations of serial killer Lily than the murders themselves, and it was hard not to empathise with Lily's truly tragic backstory. I also loved that the author delivered both the ending I wanted whilst also making sure justice was served. I will definitely be looking out for more by this author.

Having clearly not paid enough attention to the blurb, I’d assumed this was going to be a holiday romcom read and found myself pleasantly surprised that, whilst there was some romance, there was also some murder and a look at the often toxic “wellness” industry too! Definitely much darker than I expected, although I listened to the audiobook and the narrator had a fairly chipper voice so it may read even more emotionally.

Whilst I’m not sure it’s one I’ll remember in great detail a few weeks from now, I really enjoyed it whilst I was in the story!

This was a fun destination thriller to read. It focused more on the motivations of Lily - the FMC and serial killer than the uncovering of a murder. She's back at the luxury resort for the 5th summer and is looking to find her next victim until Daniel, a journalist, comes along, asking more questions than needed for a health article.

I liked how the story unfolded, learning more of Lily's history and what led her to go back to the resort every summer. So although the reader knew what Lily was doing, the way her past was unvieled felt like there was still thay aspect of putting pieces together to solve a mystery. The book tackled some heavy topics like grief, the dark side of diet culture, and eating disorders while still showing light and some quite funny moments.

Although I liked Daniel and Lily's together, I didn't feel the intense sexual chemistry described. So that part of the romance was a bit lacking for me, but I did enjoy their interactions and the cat and mouse game between them.

It is an easy read and good pallet cleanser between books.

ARC given by Netgalley, thoughts and opinions are my own.

this book was so impactful, so powerful, and so much more than a thromance. although it certainly was a thrill and certainly was a romance. it was a stunning book. and im so appreciative of books like this. they are stand outs amongst their peers. and i dont say that lightly. it was so much more layered and emotional than i ever thought it would be going in. just wow. the characters themselves were just stunning. they held so much in what they were both doing there. and there relationship from how it started to how it developed was just gorgeous. and i was rooting for them in their own individual ways. but also drawn in to caring for them,
the book gives us Lily. who just goes on luxurious resort to work every year. no biggy. its just a summer job. its just lifeguard. except she doesn't go there for her health, or others for that matter. she goes there to right wrongs. to get rid of toxic people. and noone knows. except one year someone starts asking questions. someone starts asking all the right questions. and they are getting nearer to her. not just nearer to her actions but nearer to her heart.
is it time she is exposed? will this mystery man be the one to do it?
Lily is so brilliant to read about. you think she is doing something and you might assume why. but there is so much deeper you need to go to learn her truths. and she scoops you up into her world and her thinking which are often so much more vulnerable and raw than you think it will be.
she wants to save others but she also needs to save others. as though it might save herself.
Daniel also had a story to him. one that comes under a ruthless cover to get to the truth. hes come with a mission but is it the one for his job?
this is a brilliant read. just brilliant.

A romance with a decidedly dark side.
Beach Bodies tells us the story of Lily Lennox, a woman in her late twenties who spends her summers working as a lifeguard at the exclusive Riovan Wellness resort. She is surrounded by people paying a fortune to spend four weeks under intense scrutiny as they aim for a better version of themselves. Scathing about the toxicity and shaming that takes place under the guise of inspiration, Lily’s motives for her annual trip are not entirely honest.
We quickly realise Lily has her own agenda. Every year someone she deems unworthy is killed. So far, her body count is up to five. As she goes about her work she is on the lookout for who will be her next victim.
While we don’t know the full story behind Lily’s actions, we get enough background to know her mother was imprisoned for killing a boyfriend who got a little too close to her daughter and that someone she loved was never the same after her stay at the resort. For Lily, this is personal.
In a rather unexpected twist, this year a journalist is staying at the resort. Daniel Black has his own reasons for getting close to Lily, and she has to decide how close she will let him get. Their romance is somewhat hampered by the knowledge we have of what each character is doing.
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read and review this before publication.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This was a really unique thriller that tied in a love story!

The dialogue was funny and I found myself rooting for the female MC, even though she was a literal serial killer. Kinda like the female Joe from You!

Had no idea how it was going to end which was part of the fun!

A unique and fun beach read for summer!

Thank you NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book!

I absolutely loved this book, it was so much fun but also explored some deep and emotional themes like grief, diet culture & fatphobia.

Our main character Lily Lennox has been working as a lifeguard at a luxury wellness resort for the past five years and every time she's there, someone mysteriously dies. Well, the correct word to be used would be murdered. Murdered by none other than Lily herself. But this year is different - a fitness reporter Daniel Black is vacationing at a resort in order to write an article about the wellness program. He's asking way too many suspicious questions but that doesn't stop Lily from getting entangled with him. Will she murder again when she thinks someone is watching her?

The one thing I really loved about the book is how we didn't know the full story of Lily's motivations until the end of the book. The author was giving us the tiniest crumbs throughout without revealing too much and that made the reveal so much better. I'll be honest I started suspecting the real story around halfway through the book but the author threw me off the scent so well later on that I was in shock when the reveal finally happened.

I found Daniel to be a really interesting character. We knew his intentions from the very first time they met by him saying Lily's full name but he still stayed mysterious throughout the book. I think he perfectly encapsulated a person battling between his moral compass and love. Which one do you chose? He was such as genuinely good person it was hard not to root for him to discover the truth even if I also wanted our girl Lily to get her justice.

I found Lily's story truly tragic and I sympathised so much with her character. While murder is obviously wrong, it was not hard to understand what pushed her to such drastic actions in the first place. Losing the person you love the most in this world can change turn someone to the most heinous things. I'm so glad she got her closure in the end.

In the end, everyone got justice in one way or another.

Honestly I couldn't recommend this book enough. I couldn't put it down and devoured it in two days. Can't wait to read more of Sienna Sharpe's work!

A part romance, part destination thriller about a woman who returns to the same resort each year with sinister motives. I was not too convinced about the character of Lily, the attraction to the sexy journalist a bit contrived. However, readers who enjoy White Lotus type dramas will enjoy this novel

Loved it!!! Take me to a luxury Caribbean resort anyday (despite the toxicity). I adore books set in holiday day locations, it's such an escapism.
Despite our MC Lily, clearly being so messed up and dangerous, I loved the vulnerability of her and just wanted to give her a hug. I'm not usually keen on anything romantic but this romance wasn't cheese, it was hot!!
I love the ending and I believe there scope for a 2nd book on how Lily's life continued?... I'd be the 1st in line for this for sure and I'm certainly looking up the author #SiennaSharpe other books.
One tiny niggle of annoyance was they kept referring to drinks as "beverages", alot! not a term I use or rarely read in books, seemed odd.
Big thank you to #NetGalley for the advanced copy