When Chantelle Higgins and her best friends, Erica and Ashley, head off for spring break to the sunny Caribbean Island of Artula, things go horribly wrong. Instead of a week of hedonistic indulgence and seaside pleasures, Ashley goes missing.

Responsible Chantelle seems to be the only one concerned about her carefree friend’s disappearance. While everyone, including the corrupt island police, are sure Ashley is off having fun, Chantelle launches her own investigation, which leads her to Jason Shear. Jason, the last one seen with Ashley the night she vanished, is a New York editor in town doing research on the white sex slave trade, which he believes is the motive for the disappearance of nineteen missing girls over the last seven years - including his sister. When a lead is killed to cover information, the stakes rise. Fearing for her own life, Chantelle is forced to leave the island. Is Ashley caught up in a high-stakes sex-trafficking conspiracy, or is there something more?

The suspenseful, mystery-driven Spring Break captures the essence of a vacation gone bad. At first it seems as though bestselling author Kayla Perrin is writing a fictional account eerily based on the Natallee Holloway case, but it soon becomes apparent this is a story all its own.

A romantic sub-plot and a few late-breaking twists eventually distract from the main plot, changing the whole essence of the story. The unsatisfactory ending seems rushed and leaves the reader feeling a bit cheated. Even so, the rest of the book is so well done that it is most definitely an exciting and worthwhile read. Perrin does a fantastic job setting the scene and the reality of the situation speaks volumes. Behind the sand and palm trees there is a seedy side to island culture. Don’t let your guard down; something sinister lurks in a place called paradise.