The Guilt Trip: A Novel

The Guilt Trip by Sandie Jones is a domestic suspense novel that delves into the complexities of friendship, trust, and hidden secrets. When three couples travel to Portugal for a destination wedding, what’s meant to be a joyful celebration quickly turns tense as secrets, jealousy, and suspicion bubble to the surface. As hidden truths unravel, one shocking revelation threatens to destroy everything—and someone might not make it home. Okay, so I’ll be honest—The Guilt Trip didn’t hit like I hoped it would. The blurb on the back sounded so promising, but the story itself? It felt more like a slow-burning episode of a reality show where everyone is kind of the worst. I’m usually all for messy drama, but the characters lacked depth, and I found it hard to care about any of them. It just didn’t feel natural or gripping the way a good thriller should. This leaned way more into domestic suspense than thriller territory, and it dragged for me. It actually took me way longer to finish than it should’ve because I just wasn’t that invested. That said, I did end up giving it 3 stars because even though the pacing was off and the plot felt a bit manufactured, I didn’t see the twist coming—and I always appreciate when a book can still catch me off guard. If you enjoy slower-paced, character-focused domestic suspense with a bit of drama and a scenic setting, this might be up your alley. Think Big Little Lies vibes without the punch.

While the story did come together, it took too long to do so for me. I kept waiting for the big event, and it felt like it just fizzled out.

A group of friends decide it's a good idea to air out their issues whilst on vacation, instead of breaking up or going to therapy like normal people would.

Meh. 2/5.

This was an interesting story! I loved all the drama and love triangle type stuff that was going on. Sometimes it was hard to tell who was lying and who wasn’t - which is the case with unreliable characters. It was a little slow for me at first but once things started unfolding, I didn’t want to put the book down.

I can see this being on screen.Hard to put down, one of those books where I could not let the story linger on, needed to know the ending asap, on edge from page to page.