Loving the trend of books about drama and murder at a destination wedding? Well, I’ve got another title to add to that list! Check out my review of The Guilt Trip by Sandie Jones!
What is the Guilt Trip About?
The Guilt Trip by Sandie Jones. To be published by Minotaur Books on August 3, 2021.
Synopsis: Rachel and Noah have been friends since university. 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 the destination wedding. As they arrive at a gorgeous villa perched on a cliff-edge, 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 also finding plenty to disagree with Noah about.
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.
Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review.
Review of The Guilt Trip
This was my first book by this author, and I thought there was a lot to like about The Guilt Trip. Noah and Rachel were close friends before Rachel met and married Jack, Jack introduced his brother Will to Ali, as Ali and Jack used to work together, Noah’s wife Paige and Rachel are best friends. All the history between the couples made for a lot of potential drama.
The revelations came fast and furiously, and there was a major misdirection that I thought worked well. The plot moved quickly, which kept me reading.
On the less positive side, the book felt very dialogue-heavy, which for me meant that the setting (a seaside Portugese villa) and the characters ended up a bit underdeveloped. This was told in close-third POV, with insight into Rachel’s thoughts, and most of exposition happened by conversations between various characters, which made the feel a little thin at times.
I also felt there were a bunch of things that were left unexplained, which didn’t make me happy. I go into all those in my Spoiler Discussion of The Guilt Trip.
But all in all, if you are looking for a light and twisty beach read that will keep you glued to the page, The Guilt Trip had a beauty setting and a lot of drama.
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Oh that’s too bad! The setting would’ve been a good selling point, and of course, beefed up characters.
This looks good except for the questions left unanswered. That drives me crazy! I do like the premise though so I’ll check the other books you mentioned.
The setting Portugal piqued my interest, but i am sorry it didn’t work out as well as you would have liked.
Yeah I could have used more setting tbh. The book was really a tight timeline (a weekend) and focused on the drama between these six people but it started to feel like one of those drama filled trips the Real Housewives take lolol