My Rating ~ Three stars

3-gold-stars copy 2

RELEASED: 7 August 2018

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Format: E-Book

Pages: 373

Blurb

They wake on a deserted island. Fiona and Miles, high school enemies now stranded together. No memory of how they got there. No plan to follow, no hope to hold on to.

Each step forward reveals the mystery behind the forces that brought them here. And soon, the most chilling discovery: something else is on the island with them.

Something that won’t let them leave alive.

Review

Miles and Fiona are schoolyard enemies who are chosen for an internship in Germany, at a pharmaceutical company. Things seem strange when they’re flown there in a private jet, with reservations at a five star hotel. But when their plane crashes onto a seemingly deserted island, things go from strange to dangerous. They’ll need to put aside their differences and work together, maybe even learning something new about each other along the way.

This book is told in alternating chapters – Miles and Fiona in Germany and Miles and Fiona on the island. I had a really hard time deciding on a rating for this book. I’m probably hovering between 2.5 – 3 stars in reality. The reason for this is I was really intrigued by the plot. There were conspiracies and enough “Wait, what?” moments to keep me guessing through the entire book. I was really looking forward to everything being revealed and working out how everything slotted in. Unfortunately, those questions didn’t resolve at the end of the book and nothing was actually wrapped up. I’m unsure whether there is actually going to be a sequel to this book, if there is, then those unanswered questions are fine. If there’s not, they’re just frustrating. I don’t mind books ending on a confusing cliffhanger. Sometimes I love it if almost everything is resolved, then the last page leaves you with a question, but this time there were maybe just a few too many questions. So, I’ve left it with the extra half star in the optimistic view that there will be a sequel eventually.

However, although the plot was interesting, the writing was, well, it wasn’t great. The characters were honestly a bit annoying. Miles is the typical arrogant rich guy, who, predictably, has a different side to him. Fiona is supposed to be this champion kick boxer, with these honed skills and tough personality, yet she spent most of the book talking about her hair and clothes. I mean, she’s stuck on this deserted island, killers are after them, and she’s talking about how cooling off in the ocean is going to fade her blue hair dye? The colour of her hair, the different colours she has dyed her hair, what colour her natural hair is…I can’t count the amount of times it was mentioned. You have blue hair. You stand out. We get it.

There was also a discussion between the main characters about a girl who had committed suicide that just had NOTHING to do with the story. I assumed it would all make sense at some point, but it was never mentioned again and was just completely pointless to the story. Fiona also made this comment with regard to the deceased girl’s family:

I’d seen her brother a few days before we left, and he still looked just as awful as he did months ago, not that I was surprised. How do you even recover from something like that? On the other hand, I heard that their younger sister, Anastasia, won another medal at some competition. She probably already had more of them than I did and would possibly ever get, depending on how the entire island situation would end.

What?? What does that even mean? I’m so confused. Her brother was grieving but her sister was off winning medals? So….she was not grieving? Is that what this was meant to be about? There was literally no other explanation before or after this scene that made this make any sense. Seeing comments like that in a book, especially a YA book, frustrate me at best. We don’t need more YA books telling people how they ‘should’ act in grief. There’s enough stereotypes around that already. I honestly have NO IDEA why this entire conversation was written in the first place. It added nothing to the story and was completely unnecessary.

I’ve probably talked more about the points I didn’t like than did like in this review, but I’m not throwing it out as a bad book. The plot was promising. The alternating settings were intriguing and I actually hope there is a sequel so I can find out what on earth was really going on.