Teens go on spring break vacation, one ends up murdered - they blame the best friend. Was it really her, could it be any of the friends, could it be an Islander the victim met? Anna was the best friend and is accused of the murder and has to go on trial in Aruba.... the story is from Anna's POV - I don't like the ending - I didn't like the motive (it's called being a teenager) - if this teen had anger problems as stated in trial, shouldn't she get some psychiatric help? Quick read - ( )

The most interesting part was the twist at the end. The premise had a lot of potential, but ultimately the non-linear narrative and epistolary feel were techniques used to disguise a shallowness of character and motivation.

Rating: 6/10
Gay-0-meter: 4/10 ( )

What the actual F is that ending?!?! Crazy out of control.

Anna, Elise, and their group of friends are on Spring Break in Aruba. It's one big, giant party in paradise... until it isn't anymore. When Elise is found brutally murdered in the beach house they're staying at, everybody becomes a suspect. When the blame lands on Anna, she becomes stuck in her worst nightmare: prison for something she didn't do. As she awaits trial by judge, she has time to reflect on everything that has brought her to this point. From the first time she met Elise, to all the fun and betrayal that would follow. The only way out of this Aruban prison is to find the person really responisble for this crime... and with the money and prestige floating around in her group of friends, plus a corrupt prosecutor, the fight for her life is going to get steep.

My Thoughts:
Another mindf*ck. That ending... I can't decide if it was genius or crazy. It was definitely disturbing. And I kind of love it, but I totally wanted more!!! I feel like there's so much left unexplained!! (If you could hear my voice right now, it would be totally whiney.)

I loved this book hard. It's very addicting and unputdownable. It's sort of Natalie Holloway-ish... but also not. It's not told in chronological order. It's all over the place. Sometimes I found that slightly confusing, but the chapters are labelled really well, so for the most part I really liked that part of it. If you read this book and don't feel compelled to turn page after page, I would be shocked. This is one of those books that cannot be put down!

The friendship between Elise and Anna was not right. It freaked me out most of the time. At first I thought for sure they had known each other for most of their lives, and then it's revealed they've just met in the last year. WTF?? Who gets all touchy-touchy with someone that fast? They were constantly hanging on each other and kissing each others necks and "nuzzling" each other. Sorry, but PUKE!! It was weird. Especially considering Anna is being tried for Elise's murder. There were genuine friendship moments between these two though, and that helped me not completely loathe the friendship. And they had this "miles and miles" saying that really warmed my heart. But for the most part I was ick-ed out by the way they acted.

The rest of the book is just full of teenage awesomeness and a stellar plot. This is how the book went for me: Betrayal, Betrayal, Betrayal. Aloneness. SO much hurt!! Friendship goodness laced with something not so right.

Basically, I loved this book. I loved the way Anna described her emotions. The writing was great. The book moved really fast and didn't linger long on any one topic. There were so many decoys and red herrings, liars and people throwing their money around that it is impossible to guess who in the end is the real culprit. I know I never saw it coming!! I was totally shocked... like insane, crazy, mind-blown, shocked.

OVERALL: I am super in love with this book!! It was a thrilling read right to the end... and that ending!!! I would recommend this to seriously anyone and everyone. It also makes a great summer or beach read. I'm really glad Abigail Haas (AKA Abby MacDonald) redeemed herself for me. I am no longer scared to read her other books (I was NOT a big fan of Getting Over Garrett Delaney).

PS- THERE'S GOING TO BE A [b:Dangerous Boys|19732381|Dangerous Boys|Abigail Haas|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1401967915s/19732381.jpg|27789580] BOOK?!?!?! I AM PUMPED!

My Blog:
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While the culprit isn't difficult to identify, there is a giant school of red herrings swimming through this book. I couldn't help flashing back to the sensational murders in the Caribbean and in Italy a few years back that had to have flavored this. It was a quick and satisfying read. ( )

Spoilers I guess.
This book had vivid descriptions of settings, which I liked. The person who had the book before me wrote in pen their reactions, and I was entertained since I knew how the book would end. We were annoyed by some of the same things. I was in a wildly different place in my life when I read this the first time. Starved for a good murder mystery and intrigued by this recommendation, I pounced. Since then, I'd wanted to read it again, but my library took it out of circulation shortly after I returned it. I figured it was due to the subject matter and thematic elements. Now, I bought a copy which I'm considering donating.

It was weird opening this book again, since I knew how it ended. That...is not a good sign I'll like the book again, if that's my first thought. I have a list of a dozen murder mysteries I regularly read and recommend. Unintentional triple alliteration, woo! A quick google search tells me that yes, emergency services in Aruba is indeed 911, and the dispatcher will likely respond initially in Dutch. Initial complaint struck down. The book opens with this, then officially opens with the first of far too many incredibly repetitive scenes of teens partying. Their frequency makes me think the author was actually trying to use them as characterization. As an added bonus for her, they padded out the word count and made the book nearly four hundred pages. She could have picked only three, spaced them out carefully throughout the book, and garnered a much better effect. One of the party scenes does have a paragraph of who's who in the group and how they came together. It's not quite a hundred pages into the paperback I read, and is -much- more natural than the infodump and hurried descriptions rammed into the book when they're all panicking. The book jerks jarringly between 'then,' 'after', 'now' and news transcripts and court transcripts tracking the case. I just went with it. As in, weird choice, but whatever. "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" by Jenny Trout is an entirely different book that also uses 'then,' 'now', and online articles to denote information and the passage of time, in a smoother and clearer way. It feels more natural there, whereas here, maybe the author made this choice to up the drama and try to create immediacy. Doesn't work.

A quarter of the way into the book, there's a 'blink and you miss it' line that establishes that all of them are indeed minors. Not eighteen-year-old high school seniors. No, their parents apparently got notarized documents and arranged for their kids to get past customs and security to go on a great spring break bash. There is of course no mention of the airline staff meeting and accompanying them there, which is common if not required, especially on international flights. All the author needed was to put a few overly permissive siblings in the group with them to sign stuff, slip them booze and weed and fake IDs, and I'd believe it. Didn't happen. And the cops saying murders never happen in Aruba? Rare, but happens. More likely they're worried about how tourism's gonna take a dive since this is an international incident. Murder mysteries take place on islands and at sea constantly! This isn't new, author. I note this next point as someone who reads a lot of police procedurals, murder mysteries, and a few legal thrillers. I don't advocate doing this IRL: the author missed an opportunity to have Elise's body fall in the water. Evidence washes away. Each kid's legal team triples in size: maritime law, international law, criminal law, and since they're minors, possibly a family law lawyer or two. Raises the stakes and makes it more interesting. The author presumably wasn't aware of that. It's fine. Would've been interesting, though. On the topic of lawyers: these families clearly came from serious money to be paying massive legal bills. The lawyers are all here probably pro hac vice, with the associated business tasks and costs. It ain't cheap. I'm more interested in the legal stuff since I don't care about the teenagers.

Anna is fairly emotionless and this is used against her at several hearings. There's a good reason for this, but still. Aaaand the bullshit about the court spectators gasping and being horrified about pentacle necklaces on Halloween, and vampire costumes with fake blood on Halloween. Posing in character for photos on Halloween. Apparently, both the prosecutor and the spectators are stupid and easily shocked. If the author ever discovers modern Pagan and Wiccan communities, many with kind, harmless people, she's going to have a full sobbing, screaming meltdown. Possibly while stomping her feet. This was a quick part of the book that made me so furious on both reads that I set it aside for awhile. Such ignorance! What a lack of research and lazy writing on this point and others I've addressed. I'm not done.

I did like the foreshadowing about Elise and Tate cheating on Anna. One of the lawyers refers to it as an "affair." They are teenagers! "Affair" is not a word that fits the situation. "Betrayal" maybe, but still a strong word. A hundred and twenty pages from the end of this bloated book, Anna is the center of a televised interview while sitting in her prison cell. What? I--what? And Dekker, the prosecutor who has a boiling hatred of Anna for no established reason is called to be a witness at her trial. WHAT?? I'm guessing Dekker's hatred is of American tourists in general and rich teenage girls in specific. Why would he testify? Especially after being reprimanded by the judge for inappropriate lines of questioning. It doesn't add anything to the story, either. The ending wraps up things way too neatly and evenly, and Anna has her happy ending via " she's innocent" (being found innocent is wildly different than being found not guilty). Book deals, tv appearances, accepted into a dozen colleges which will of course defer her due to that pesky murder trial. Not deny, but defer. With such lazy writing, I shouldn't be so annoyed or even surprised. (sighs). ( )