One week until The Greek Island...🌴

Hello!

The Greek Island will finally be out in the world on Friday.

Eeeek.

Honestly, release weeks never seem to get any less nerve-wracking. You’d think after eleven psych thrillers I’d be cool, calm and collected about publication days by now, but sadly not. I’m still checking Goodreads far too often and convincing myself every mildly ambiguous review is a personal attack. 😂

Thankfully, though, the early reviews for The Greek Island have mainly been lovely, and one thing that keeps coming up again and again is how much fun people are having reading it.

Which makes me very happy indeed because this book was always meant to be the kind of twisty, addictive thriller you slip into your beach bag before heading down to the pool.

Or onto a sun lounger in the garden if, like me, you’ll be holidaying mainly at home this summer…

A few reviewers have called it the perfect beach read, which was exactly the vibe I was going for.

After all, who doesn't love reading about messy people behaving badly in paradise?!

'I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'This would make a spectacular movie with an A-list Hollywood cast.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'I was enthralled from the first page.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'Perfect for summer reading!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐

'Beautiful setting and untrustworthy characters kept me flipping pages long past my bedtime.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Three couples. Two secrets. One murder…

Amber can’t believe her luck when her handsome older boyfriend Dominic invites her to spend a week at a luxury villa on a tiny Greek island with his old university friends.

But from the moment she arrives, she knows she doesn’t belong among these beautiful, polished people and their charmed lives.

Especially when Dominic’s ex-girlfriend Simone makes it very clear she wishes Amber wasn’t there.

As the temperature soars, cracks begin to appear beneath the group’s glossy surface.

Old rivalries simmer, secrets start spilling out and Amber discovers that more than one person staying in the whitewashed villa is lying.

And then one morning, a body is found…

If this sounds right up your street, you can check out the book here.

One thing I haven’t talked about much yet is the audiobook, which I’m SO excited about because audiobooks seem to become more and more popular every year.

The Greek Island has three brilliant narrators: Tamsin Kennard, Eilidh Beaton and Harrie Dobby.

Tamsin has narrated all my Bookouture books so far and always does an amazing job bringing the characters to life. She’s narrated hundreds of audiobooks across the thriller, drama and crime genres and somehow always manages to nail exactly the tone I imagined while writing.

Eilidh, who plays a rather snooty character called Victoria, is an award-winning narrator with more than 200 audiobooks under her belt, known for her brilliant character voices and storytelling.

And Harrie, who is the voice of my teenage character Willow, is a hugely versatile audiobook narrator and voice artist who has recorded thrillers, YA and historical fiction, among many others.

I’ve listened to some early clips already and they sound absolutely fantastic.

Speaking of The Greek Island, my first paperback copies arrived the other day which is always such an exciting moment.

There’s something very surreal about finally holding the finished book in your hands after months of writing and editing.

Naturally, Princess Amber (aka our tabby cat Amber, who shares her name with the book’s heroine) was extremely interested in inspecting the finished product.

Or possibly just waiting for me to empty the box, because all cats love boxes. It’s the law. 😹

Either way, I think we can safely say the paperback passed feline quality control.

In other news, Adrian and I took my mum to Sissinghurst Castle Gardens a couple of weeks ago for her birthday.

The gardens were looking absolutely stunning and it was nice to escape the desk, the edits, the emails and the low-level panic about next week's book launch for a few hours.

Sissinghurst is such a beautiful example of an English country garden. Do go if you ever get the chance.

I’ve just finished proofreading Adrian's new book, The Good Bad Wife, which is out just four days after mine on Tuesday 2 June.

I know I'm biased but I think it's his best yet and I hope it'll do really well.

Maybe not quite as well as mine, but almost. 🤣

Stay tuned to see who wins the Battle of the Wills!

You can check The Good Bad Wife out here.

That's all from me for now as I need to get back to work. I'm trying to finish the first draft of my next thriller before the end of the month. I think it's in pretty good shape, but I'll let my first reader - Adrian - be the judge of that...

Don't forget, if you’d like to pre-order The Greek Island so it drops onto your Kindle on Friday, you can do so here:

The Greek Island

Happy reading and speak soon!

Amanda x