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Lyla is at a crossroads in her career as a virologist. Her post-doctorate research has ended and she might not have another contract right away. Plus, things are rocky with her boyfriend Nico, who is aging out of being a young actor.

Nico gets the chance to be on a reality TV show, One Perfect Couple, filmed on a beautiful desert island and wants Lyla to join him. Without her, he can’t go. She sees that this might be his last big chance at getting noticed for his acting, plus her work has dried up, so she reluctantly agrees.

They agree that she’ll sabotage one of the challenges early on so she can go home inside of two weeks, but the reverse happens. Nico is the first one sent home.

That night, a storm rolls over the island. The boat carrying Nico and the production crew doesn’t come back. In the morning, two people are found dead. Now, there’s only eight of them left, the radio is slowly dying, and they have limited food and water. Plus, there seems to be a killer among them.

The author does an excellent job at writing tired, hungry, stressed, and injured characters. This discombobulated state of mind is believable so when Lyla doesn’t draw connections to things right away, it’s easy to hand-wave it away as a reader.

However, there’s a teensy twist at the end, a page or two explaining why these couples were hand-picked for this reality show but I don’t think those breadcrumbs were given to the reader, making it very difficult to guess.

Having said that, the author holds the tension well throughout the novel. I was glued to it and found excuses to keep on reading. I’ve read a few other novels by this author and will likely keep looking for new releases.