Goodreads

Release date: July 9, 2024

Publisher: Bantam

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Synopsis:

When an heiress goes missing, her best friend races to unravel the secrets behind her disappearance using clues left behind in an explosive manuscript…

Gia and Abby have been best friends since they were girls, forever bonded by the tragedy that unfolded in Greece when they were eighteen. In the aftermath, bookish Abby threw herself into her studies while heiress Gia chronicled the events of that fateful summer in a salacious memoir.

Twelve years later, Gia is back in Greece for the summer with her shiny new husband and a motley crew of glamorous guests, preparing to sell the family estate in the wake of her father’s death. When Abby receives an invitation from Gia to celebrate her birthday in September beneath the Northern Lights, she’s thrilled to be granted the time off from her high-pressure job. But the day of her flight, she receives a mysterious, threatening email in her inbox, and when she and Gia’s brother Benny arrive at the Swedish resort, Gia isn’t there. After days of cryptic messages and unanswered calls, Abby and Benny are worried enough to fly to Greece to check on her.

Only, when they arrive, they find Gia’s beachfront estate eerily deserted, the sole clue to her whereabouts a manuscript she wrote detailing the events leading up to her disappearance. The pages reveal the dark truth about Gia’s provocative new marriage and the dirty secrets of the guests they entertained with fizzy champagne under the hot Mediterranean sun. As tensions rise, Gia feels less and less safe in her own home. But the pages end abruptly, leaving Abby and Benny with more questions than answers.

Where is Gia now? And, more importantly, will they find her before it’s too late?

Review:

I was very into this one right from the start, the setting in Greece, the possible toxic friendship between Gia and Abby, the secrets and lies, so much to enjoy. I also loved the structure here, you get Abby’s perspective in the present day and Gia’s via her manuscript as she details the events leading up to her disappearance. It was a very immersive read with a steady pacing that kept me engaged and I assumed it would be a four or maybe even a five star read for me most of the time. But then the ending was just sooo disappointing for me, I hate when things are ambiguous and that’s what happened here. I don’t want to have questions about what really happened, I want answers and I don’t want to come to my own conclusions. So overall this one wasn’t for me, no matter how good the rest of the book was a weak ending will ruin it for me.

Overall rating: 2.5/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.