While there is a lot for fans of domestic suspense to sink their teeth into in Sandie Jones’s latest book, The Guilt Trip, fans looking for the truly thrilling elements (that ‘thrillers’ get their name from) may be frustrated with the amount of build-up to the action compared to the amount of time spent with the actual climax of the story.
Three very interconnected couples (all combinations of former friends, former lovers, and relatives) are traveling to Portugal to a beautiful cliff-side villa for a destination wedding for one of the three couples. Jones’s words illustrate the setting and the stunning scenery beautifully. However, suspicions, secrets, and jealousies abound within this group.
A lot of time is spent establishing these characters and their backgrounds and the history of their relationships, and this will likely be a big draw for lovers of soap operas and reality television shows where character development is more important to the viewer than action. All of this build up as we learn more about who these people are, and who they are to each other, is interesting and entertaining, but the twists and turns and surprising reveals are not present until the very end of the book.
The ending is a wild ride of twist after twist, but it feels much more quickly dealt with than many readers might prefer. I would love to have seen this climax take place sooner and then learn even more about the aftermath.
Overall, The Guilt Trip is a quick, enjoyable read particularly if, as the reader, you know you are getting much more domestic suspense, but less domestic thriller.
The Guilt Trip is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Rachel and Noah have been friends since they met at university. While they once thought that they might be something more, now, twenty years later, they are each happily married to other people, Jack and Paige respectively. Jack’s brother Will is getting married, to the dazzling, impulsive Ali, and the group of six travel to Portugal for their destination weekend.
Three couples.
As they arrive at a gorgeous villa perched on a cliff-edge, overlooking towering waves that crash on the famous surfing beaches below at Nazaré, they try to settle into a weekend of fun. While Rachel is looking forward to getting to know her future sister-in-law Ali better, Ali can’t help but rub many of the group up the wrong way: Rachel’s best friend Paige thinks Ali is attention-seeking and childish, and while Jack is trying to support his brother Will’s choice of wife, he is also finding plenty to disagree with Noah about.
One fatal misunderstanding . . .
But when Rachel discovers something about Ali that she can hardly believe, everything changes. As the wedding weekend unfolds, the secrets each of them hold begin to spill, and friendships and marriages threaten to unravel. Soon, jumping to conclusions becomes the difference between life and death.
