Review: Shipwrecked - Siobhan Curham

Shipwrecked by Siobhan Curham, published by Electric Monkey on 3rd June 2013

Goodreads synopsis:
Grace Delaney and her fellow dance students are en route to perform on a South Pacific cruise-ship when a freak storm hits and they find themselves stranded on a deserted island. With the tropical heat rising, passions and tensions swell to breaking point. And the island itself is quietly steaming with a terrible secret..

Review:
Siobhan Curham is the author of the wonderful 'Dear Dylan' and 'Finding Cherokee Brown' both of which I have previously enjoyed.  Her new title 'Shipwrecked' is aimed at a slightly older teen audience and is the first in a saga.  Described as Gossip Girl meets Lost, the tagline made the book sound extremely promising and I was looking forward to a thrilling and sizzling summer read.   

Grace Delaney along with her friends, are en route to perform on a South Pacific cruise ship when a storm hits, leaving them stranded on a deserted island.  As they try to survive with little hope of rescue, strange things start happening and they fear that the island may not be quite so deserted after all.  I really loved the idea for this story and the plot sounded so promising but although all the elements were there for this to be a stand-out read, I felt like it didn't grab me as much as I was expecting it to. 

The pace of the story was slow and I found my attention wandering in the beginning half of the book, even with the dramatic events of the shipwreck.  It did start to pick up in the later chapters when there are some spooky goings-on but it was a little predictable at times.  I do feel like there is still so much more to come and it will be interesting to see how the rest of the series unfolds. 

I quite liked the main character Grace and events are told from her point of view as she struggles to cope with life on the island.  I enjoyed seeing her develop friendships with Cruz, Flea and Belle but I wasn't as keen on some of the secondary characters such as Jenna, Cariss and Todd who seemed a bit one-dimensional.

Although I didn't end up loving 'Shipwrecked', I'm keen to see what direction Siobhan Curham will take the story in next.  I still think that this could be a great series, but sadly, for me, the opening instalment failed to wow me which was disappointing considering the immense talents of this usually brilliant author.