Honestly, I thought I would be absolutely flying through my TBR list during this quarantine.
I also thought I would be taking gigantic chunks out of writing my book, I would finish up the cross stitch I started, and I would become a pro at the plethora of online teaching tools to help my students learn from afar.
Reality:
I’ve written maaaybe 5,000 words for the book, finished 1/16th of the cross stitch, and I feel overwhelmed and unequipped to even begin mastering all there is to know about distance learning.
I know I’m not alone in manifesting this idea that time in quarantine should be spent dominating all the goals we usually don’t have as much opportunity to accomplish.
But if you’re like me, just know doing what you can/want to during your time in isolation is 100% acceptable. Take care of yourself and your mental health, and everything else is icing on the cake.
Win for the Day: I can chalk up reading The Guest List to time well spent.
Synopsis:
Jules Keegan is a bride with ambition. The 34 year-old creator and publisher of a wildly successful online magazine The Download, has an eye for perfection. And her wedding to Will Slater, the smolderingly sexy television star of a reality survivalist show, will be nothing less than the envy-inducing wedding event of the year.
The wedding will take place on a secluded little island off the coast of Ireland where Jules envisions the romantic natural wildness will offer both ambiance and mystery. Though she and Will have only known one another for a short duration, Jules has set her mind to marrying this man of her dreams and will make sure her day is nothing less than spectacular.
But there are so many variables that can throw a wrench in these well laid plans…
Jules’s 19-year-old half sister Olivia, is battling some serious personal demons. A recent devastating event has made it difficult for Olivia to function properly day after day, not to mention shouldering the burden of being Jules’s only bridesmaid. Her problems threaten to push her over the edge in this hauntingly remote place, and her world may come crashing around her.
Johnno is Will’s best man, and his polar opposite in every way. Where Will is suave, Johnno is oafish and the brunt of every joke. On this island, with all of their old school mates together again reminiscing on old times, Johnno feels a scandal long buried scratching at the surface of his memory, struggling to come to light. All the secrets Johnno holds begin to unravel and it’s only a matter of time before they reveal themselves and change everyone’s perception of the truth.
Hannah is the wife of Jules’s best friend, Charlie. Though Hannah doesn’t feel particularly close to Jules, she’s excited for this opportunity to go away with her husband and have a romantic excursion without their two children. She has a family tragedy that begins to emerge as she becomes closer to Olivia, because Olivia reminds her of someone she once knew. The burden of Olivia’s struggle is something Hannah knows too well, a pain that obliterated her family long ago.
And the wedding planner Aoife and her chef husband Freddie. Aoife knows this wedding is an opportunity to bring business onto their little island. It’s a chance to scare away the ghosts that seem to linger there.
As drinks (and other illegal substances) flow, guests flit and flirt amongst each other, and an animalistic craving for fun and freedom take over, this island threatens to explode all of the secrets it holds like a volcano. And no one will leave this place unscathed. This will be a wedding that goes down in infamy.
No cap (as the kids say), this book had me on edge right up to the very last chapter. The twists and turns really started coming together at the last fourth of the book, and that’s when the reader starts putting the various histories and story lines together like a puzzle.
There’s a lot of “eluding to” in this book. The reader can tell from the get go that there’s something sketchy with the Golden Boy, Will. He’s too smooth, too veneered. But it’s hard to put a finger on exactly what’s dislikable about him. The males outside of Will’s private school clique seem to sense his offness, but the reader might chalk it up to male posturing and jealousy.
As the story progressed, I found most of the characters flawed and dislikable. Jules has a varnish over herself that makes her appear extra bitchy and unapproachable. Johnno is a pathetic mess, and his school friends are infuriatingly entitled. Charlie is spineless and edgy (the reasoning is covered later in the book). Olivia is fragile to the point the reader gets fed up with her over-the-top dramatics that give the impression she’s looking for attention (which is another mystery unraveled in the book.) And yes, Will is too polished and phony to the point it made me cringe.
The only character I didn’t find insufferable was Hannah. She seems like the kind of person to go out to happy hour with after work. She’s not completely focused on her own world. Instead, she observes the people around her, from her husband to Olivia, and she demonstrates an empathy that’s lacking from the other characters. Actually, Aoife and Freddy are tolerable too. They are trying to make the wedding as smooth as possible, and it’s admirable to observe how they contend with the antics of uppity rich people.
The best part about this thriller is there isn’t just one or two mysteries to solve. Every single character has a skeleton in the closet. It’s almost exhausting, how secretive this cast is. By the end of the book, I was starving for more, and the only downside of this novel for me was that it wasn’t longer.
I promise you, it will keep you guessing until the bitter end.
Happy & healthy reading!
Lexi
