I was entertained, I wasn’t swept away.

Jasmine Bartlett has just lost her job (rather unfairly) and consequently her home and has to move back in with her parents. She receives an invite from her old friend Maxi for the holiday their group of friends always talked about, but never had.

Jasmine accepts, and so do the others. They were great friends in school, but after school the group fell apart, going to different universities or not to university at all.

There’re a nice bunch of people, except Clarky, who doesn’t seem to be concerned how his actions affect other people. But the rest of them are nice. Mainly proven by the fact none of them have ever strangled Clarky, or thrown him out of their group of friends.

The holiday is in a villa on a small island off the coast of Italy. While most of the group is content just lounging by the pool, Clarky wants more excitement. He books the group on a shipwreck experience, without telling anyone. When the group do find out - when the boat doesn’t come to pick them up after an afternoon of fun - no one suggest they eat Clarky first when they run out of food.

The story is set in the present, with some chapters set during key events during their time in school.

Mike gets a sort of personality make-over halfway through.

Mike’s always had a temper.

You can’t drop that information into the narrative at 60% of the story. Particularly not when there has been plenty of opportunity to show (did I mention no one ever hurt Clarky, or even lost their temper with him?) There’s some showing of Mike’s temper (or moodiness) after that, but the ‘always’ doesn’t sit right. His temper flares it very particular times.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.