The Islanders by S.V. Leonard

Her dream escape is about to become a nightmare...

Kimberley King has spent the last five years trying to outrun the reason she left the police force. Her life is a mess and she's desperate for change. So when she is randomly selected for the new series of the hit show LoveWrecked, she can't pass up the chance to win the GBP100,000 prize. All Kimberley needs to do is couple up with one of her fellow contestants, win the infamous LoveWrecked challenges, and she will have enough cash for a fresh start.

But the island isn't the paradise she was promised and within hours, one of the contestants is dead. Then the announcement comes: one of the islanders is a murderer and Kimberley must find out who, live on television. For every hour it takes her, one more person will die.

The game is rigged, everyone is hiding secrets, and time is running out…

I received a copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley in return for an honest review.

This was the Tsundoku Squads Mach book, our third read together. We split it into 4 parts and had a discussion each Saturday at the end of the week. 

Now I really enjoyed this, I loved the murder mystery and trying to figure out what was going on, but I quite enjoyed the character of the Judge. The judge shows their face on the screens after the first death in the villa, and it reminded me of something along the lines of the Saw movies, mixed with the Hunger Games. There was a fun element to this, having the timer there to count down to the next murder, and them all trying to figure out who it was. 

I know some of the group said it reminded them of Love Island, now I’ve never watched it but you can guess that’s what it’s like. Not the murders of course, but the villa, the pool, the alcohol and partying. 

There was pieces of social media in the book, after certain chapters, which again was something I liked, it brought a real time aspect to it. They were tweets at first and comments from people watching, then emails to one certain person from different people. 

This book was quite fast paced and easy to read, but fun in my eyes, and a good one for a book group choice. I gave it 4 stars.

Check out Em’s group collective review over on her blog at emandherbooks.com