A Killer Getaway by Sienna Sharpe Review

Falling in love can be murder...
 

No one in Lily Lennox's life can understand why, for each of the past five summers, she has shut her successful business and chosen instead to be paid minimum wage lifeguarding at the exclusive Riovan Wellness Resort on a sun-soaked Caribbean island. Fortunately for her, they also aren't aware of the mysterious deaths that have occurred on the island every time she's there.
 

Lily always does her best not to attract attention. She is determined to make toxic people pay for the damage they do - and when your mission is murder, it's best not to draw suspicious eyes. But this year a very attractive journalist, Daniel Black, is asking a few too many inconvenient questions. Is he there to hunt her down? And if so, how will she manage her growing attraction towards him - at the same time as getting away with murder?

The following review is based on a complimentary ARC provided by Sourcebooks Landmark via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Beautiful, fit, smart, on the surface Lily Lennox appears to be the perfect seasonal employee and lifeguard of the exclusive Riovan Wellness Resort that celebrities, influencers, and the wealthy flock to in the pursuit of healthy “wellness”. While physically matching the social media curated brand look of the resort, Lily hides a hidden motive for her annual Caribbean summer job. A lifeguard when on-duty, vigilante killer of toxic and problematic people off-duty, her fifth year at Riovan starts out like every past summer. That is until an attractive and charismatic guest Daniel Black starts asking the wrong questions, complicating her annual tradition as well as causing her to question her actions, motives, and her hopes of “saving people.” Despite this novel being classified on paper under the romance genre, A Killer Getaway has so much more to offer outside of a possible tropical summer romance. Blending elements of the mystery thriller, crime thriller, literary fiction, and of course a bit of romance, Sienna Sharpe has crafted an extraordinarily well-rounded and ambitious Women’s Fiction/Contemporary drama story that was a consistently smart and compelling page-turner for me.

Perhaps it’s an intentional strategy for marketing purposes, but interestingly despite its cover design, synopsis, and listed genres suggesting a romance read, for me A Killer Getaway is more appropriately classified as women’s fiction crossing over into the thriller genre. I went into this novel expecting a Mr. and Mrs. Smith style killer to romance trope with a lot of romance and spice (the serial killer romance FMC is a premise that really got my attention), but what I actually got was something far more nuanced, intelligent and ambitious. While there are certainly a few open bedroom and romance scenes, the bulk of the story is a character-centered one focusing on Lily plotting her annual kill and the past events that led her down this unorthodox path in life. Lily’s investigations, plotting of possible targets, and evading of Daniel’s too close to home influence are important, but Lily’s backstory, feelings of grief and fury, and the “why” all of this is happening are the most crucial points of the story. This is first and foremost a character piece full of excellent character work and narration that’s only enhanced by Sienna Sharpe’s balanced pacing and perfectly crafted plot. While this story wasn’t what I thought I signed up for, I was nonetheless thrilled with what I got and could not put this novel down. From start to end the story is a rollercoaster of surprises and although I was able to predict most of the plot twists surrounding Daniel’s character and role, I constantly had no idea how the story was going to end, which is rare and exciting for me.

While A Killer Getaway’s hook can either be the romance or serial killer elements, Sharpe’s true strength in the story is her consistently strong character narration and development. From the very opening chapter, Lily’s anger and disgust with misogynistic and gross men or the unspoken stressors women are subjected to on a daily basis in public has been done before, but the way her thoughts and internal logic are presented is incredibly relatable and effective, not to mention humorously sassy and unhinged. If you ever felt wronged by someone and wanted to get revenge in a flight of imagination, Lily Lennox and Sienna Sharp see you. Throughout the novel, I was constantly impressed with how Lily’s feelings and reactions were portrayed, which only grew more ambitious once the novel started exploring her backstory and pain that she carries with her. Even more impressive is that Lily’s character isn’t as simple as merely being angry, frustrated and impassioned. There’s a level of restraint and control, keeping it together, deluding others with a façade, not to mention her pain that balances out the anger that makes her far more compelling to read about. Various flashbacks and clues are woven seamlessly in and out of the events in the present and Sharpe’s placement of key reveals is spot-on. How the past events also shaped her interactions and hesitancy around Daniel and her difficulty of trusting others is also explored. Over the course of the story, Lily’s past connection to the Riovan as well as her past relationship with Jessica are experienced, but even veteran mystery thriller readers are likely to be pleasantly caught off guard by the ending Sharpe nails. I have a feeling that romance-focused readers will likely the romance towards the end to be a bit rushed or underwhelming, but I personally thought it to be narratively appropriate and well-suited to Lily’s no-nonsense personality.

When it comes to Lily’s serial killer premise and her summer stints at the Riovan, there are several themes that connect to every event or point in the story. These themes include the dangers and unhealthy obsession with “wellness”, the complex and often overlooked victims misrepresented by the justice system, even the inner demons of those deemed attractive on the surface (Sharpe does an admirable job with humanizing characters in this area). Does Lily’s removal of toxic people at the Riovan “save” people from them and make a difference or is the metaphorical blood on her hands just an excuse for her taking revenge out on others, acting as both judge and jury unchecked. As the story progresses, besides the solid chemistry and very good mental and verbal sparring between Lily and Daniel, both have different views of justice and serve as appropriate foils to each other. All this to say, A Killer Getaway is not just about angry revenge kills, it’s incredibly smart, insightful, and very mature compared to similar stories in its genres.

While the Caribbean setting and appealing romantic interest makes A Killer Getaway an easy summer vacation read recommendation (Daniel is described as a slightly nerdy 5 o’clock shadow wolverine with reading glasses), it has so much more to offer and a lot of meaningful things to say. But even when the novel is delivering sharp social commentary (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun), its character work and cohesive story are never sacrificed or diminished in the process, an unfortunate trend I’ve noticed with many popular recent works. The only potential drawback is that for readers who are looking for typical romance specifically, the romance is important to the story and as a plot mechanism but is not the main focus. There’re other elements of romance involving Jessica, but the content is more in the realm of literary fiction rather than contemporary romance. However, for all other interested readers interested in any of A Killer Getaway’s other narrative elements, this is an excellently crafted novel that’s definitely worth a read.