Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

*2.5 Stars

I always find it difficult to write reviews for books I didn’t enjoy as much a I thought I would. This is one of those books, unfortunately. I have to admit, the synopsis made it sound very intriguing, with a great premise. However, it did not deliver in my opinion. It was quite tedious to get through the first third of book — lots of teenage-type drama from 20-something year olds. The plot moved oh so very slowly, too. I soon lost interest in the story, and found myself struggling to get through most of it.

Characters, for the most part, were not very likable, nor relatable. I couldn’t connect with them, as hard as a tried. Certain plot points in the story didn’t really belong, or were forced. And I have to admit that the scene with the deer seemed irrelevant and gratuitous, and was so difficult for me to read.

But…I never want to write a review without touching on some positives of a book. So for this one — the writing, overall, is very good. The POVs of the main characters were constructed well, giving the reader a glimpse into the person’s mind and thoughts. And once the action picked up in the last third of the book, it did improve. But all of this wasn’t enough for me to give a high rating.

Thank you NetGalley, Sherri Smith, and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for gifting me a copy of this book. I appreciate your trusting me with an honest review.

3.5 out of 5
I will always love a good suspenseful who’dun’it type story. ALWAYS. Even when it takes me almost a month to read it and I’m a little bored most of the way through. We’ll just add it to the list of my toxic reading traits. I WAS interested in this book. I was. Just not the way I wish I had been. I found that I was incredibly annoyed and bored in the beginning with all the talk of “Shelby Spade” and all the high school girl banter back and forth between Katie, Ariel, and Carmen. Even when we got further into the book, we kept getting snippets of Shelby Spade episodes and how they were similar to the real situations Katie was in. I powered through them and I guess they sort of served to set the stage of Katie’s childhood, but I feel like in the grand scheme of the book, they held no weight. They were pointless.

The book jumps back and forth from each girl’s perspective and is also split up into each day of the retreat. (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday)
The first third of the book kind of just annoyed me. It was all just Katie being a brat, Ariel and Carmen being annoying, and of course, the author setting the stage and providing little details and snippets that would prove to be a bit important later on. The first third was why it took me so long to get through this book. I struggled to sit and read this ridiculous high school mean girl drama unfolding on the way to the retreat and on their first night there. We have to read about Ariel sulking because she didn’t get to room with Katie and Katie not caring about anything other than keeping her phone instead of putting it in the basket with everyone else’s during their stay. But again, I get it, the stage was being set. And I don’t think we were ever meant to really like any of these characters. Which… I didn’t.

The second third started to get good… until it fell flat. The third… third… was the most exciting. It was like one of those movies that you sit through and are just “bleh” about until it gets to the last 20 minutes and then everything happens so quickly and you feel like your head is gonna fall off.

So the second third… I was excited. YAY! MURDER! Right off the bat! First page! Now we can start being detectives and try to figure out who it was! But, not even a few pages later, I knew… I knew exactly who did it because it was the only logical explanation. I was just a little disappointed with how easy it was. And THEN I was disappointed that people weren’t dropping like flies after the initial killing. But that’s not the way the story was meant to go, and I get that.

There was a moment in the beginning of the last third of the book where a knife was mentioned and it took me a second to realize they were talking about the murder weapon that killed the first victim. We had spent so long in the middle of the book learning about Katie’s history that I had completely forgotten someone even died. We went from a bloody knife being found to being thrown headfirst into the sea of Katie’s childhood and allllllll of her history. This alone is the reason I took half a star away from the review. I pretty much read the last half of this book without stopping and still managed to be so deterred with other elements of Katie’s convoluted story that I forgot what I was originally here for. MURDER.

I was promised FOUR secrets and I honestly feel like only one of them was a gasp moment when it was revealed. The others weren’t that grand to me. Though, they do play a direct role in the downfall of the characters. So they’re not without purpose.

I feel like I’m being primarily negative though and as you’ve probably noticed, I gave this book 3.5 cats (stars). I did enjoy the story. It was vindictive and manipulative with completely unlikable characters who didn’t make you feel bad for sitting there and cheering on the killer. I LOVE a book where I can be detached from every single character. Not a single main character in this book had any redeeming qualities. We had all of the seven deadly sins and I LOVED that. Pride, greed, wrath, gluttony, envy, lust, sloth… everyone was accounted for. At some point in the book, every one of those sins reared their ugly heads and it was completely entertaining.

Honestly, if some production company were to pick this one up, it would be a good b-list slasher movie. I would watch it.

Overall I did enjoy it. Do I think I’ll remember it later down the road without looking at my notes or someone detailing what the story was about? No. Which is another reason I rated the way I did. But I did definitely enjoy the last half of the book in the moment.

WOW! What a left turn this book took in the last third.

It was a slow burn and I was really starting to get bored. I typically don't like "who dun it" books, but I'm so glad I stuck with it! This has been on my TBR for a few years now and I'm super happy I picked it up.

Okay, this was fun.

Is it a little unbelievable at times? Sure. It’s a beach read.

But it’s also entertaining, scandalous, and just plain fun.

These characters have so many secrets! While I didn’t find any of the secrets particularly shocking, they certainly added to the drama of the story.

And easy, breezy, enjoyable read!

An interesting and well-written mystery novel. Smith offers a sharp-eyed critique/examination of the wellness industry, and wraps it up in a revenge thriller/mystery. It was interesting to spend time with the four characters (the story is split between their POVs), especially Katie. An intriguing story, well-paced, and quite gripping.

I recently bought a new kindle after my old one broke. For some reason I was unable to download this title from the cloud onto my kindle, therefore I will be unable to review this title. I am sorry for any inconvenience caused

I really loved this book in a new to me author. The characters and location really and to the story. I can't wait to read the next one. This book keeps you guessing until the end.

I heard great things about this and I really wanted to enjoy it. For the most part, I did. The writing was great, and the characters fit perfectly, but the thrill/mystery itself was a bit easy to figure out. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t done well, it just means I wanted a bit...more.

After a very intriguing start, I soon floundered as I found it extremely difficult to emotionally connect to any of the four women characters. I am a bit funny with unlikeable characters, sometimes they work well for me, and sometimes they don't, and sadly this was the latter for me. After a few stops and starts I felt I wasn't enjoying the journey at all and decided to DNF. I have previously enjoyed books by this author and will definitely read her future books, this one just wasn't a good fit for me.

The Retreat is a novel about 4 women who attend a wellness retreat. Katie, Carmen, Ellie and Ariel are all drastically different from one another. As the chapters shift from one woman to the next I felt myself hoping that I would find one that I could connect with and look forward to her next chapter. This was not the case but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Each of these women were train wrecks in their own respect and they were all super sneaky and hiding everything from each other which I secretly liked. As one would expect the Guru of the retreat was super creepy and everything about him and his wife screamed fraud. This was not your typical wellness retreat book. The cast of supporting characters covered the spectrum of personalities; weirdo groupie, wellness retreat frequent flyer; computer geek, handsome hunk and then the women and their stories. I really enjoyed that there were 4 stories going on simultaneously and I wondered how everything was going to pan out. I did feel at times that I knew where things were leading and what was ultimately going to go down....but I was wrong. Honestly, I love being wrong. I love being repeatedly taken aback and I felt that Sherri Smith really did this with this novel. I will be looking to read other books by Ms. Smith in the future.
Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Retreat had such a unique story, which centered around four women at a wellness retreat. Compared to Liane Moriarty’s Nine Perfect Strangers, but I haven’t read that yet, so I can’t really compare.

It was dark and twisted, and full of all the secrets and lies. Looking for your next revenge murder story, look no further!

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the free copy for review. All opinions are my own.

The synopsis grabbed me straight away but in saying that , this book was ok but it just didnt have the thrill factor for me. It kind of just dragged on.. I knew the killer way too early which kind of let the book down. I couldnt really connect with the characters which is really important for me. I liked it but I didnt love it.

The Retreat by Sherri Smith is a blend of mystery/thriller genres. I like cozy mysteries and this reminded me of those books but with a suspense twist. It was a predictable and easy read to enjoy over a cup of tea. The atmosphere was well done but I absolutely hated the main characters. I found it hard to connect to any of them but then that is not the point or focus of the book. Overall, I found it to be worth reading and I look forward to reading more by this author.

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

I really enjoyed Follow Me Down by Sherri Smith– so when Sherri emailed me about reviewing The Retreat- I did not hesitate.

I read The Retreat in just a couple of days and I REALLY had to laugh at some of the snark in this book. Plus, even though we’re not supposed to like the bad person- oh those lines are priceless!

What I Liked:

The cover. I really think it works for the overall tone of this book.

The snark. Yes, I mentioned it above, but it bears repeating again. Sometimes suspenseful books really don’t have funny/snarky moments- but when used correctly- they can really work!

The bad person. This person is playing the long game in manipulation and you’ve got to admire that.



Bottom line: Sherri Smith has another winner on her hands!

the story was ok. Nothing really surprising about the plot.

i liked the writing style, but the story felt a bit slow at first and I had a bit of trouble getting into the story. Once the writer took some more risks I really got into the story it was surprisingly nice.

I loved everything about The Retreat from page one, it really is one of those books that transport you to another place!

So fair enough when I started this book I kind of guessed the twist and the murderer so I was thinking nope too predictable, the characters are all so unlikable and it was becoming a 2/3 star for me, but then just after half way the book picks up speed, more twists and turns are thrown in and the ending is brilliant! Yes the characters are all awful, unlikable, self centred humans and yes you don't really care what happens to them, BUT what a great story line, brilliant writing and just a great thriller.

The story follows four "friends" Katie and her sister in law to be Ellie, Katie's two best friends Carmen and Ariel, they all go to a retreat to "find themselves" and basically from the start of the book you are questioning each girl as they all seem pretty capable of murder, they aren't great people and neither are the people they meet on the Retreat it seems, so many twists and turns and just horrible human beings.
I would recommend this book if you enjoy thrillers and don't mind not getting too attached to the characters as it's really hard to like anyone in this book!! But it's definitely an explosive ending!

This book centers around four women attending a well being retreat in hopes of relaxing experience, but when hidden secrets and death arise that's the last thing to occur. The narrative is told from the 4 pov which i really enjoy to see the different views on the same situation. . I did find this book predictable, with very unlikable characters

This one took a bit for me to get into. It took about 100 pages before it actually took off. Once it started taking off though it was a wild ride. I did enjoy it just wish it didn’t take so long to get going.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced reader copy. This was much different than I expected, but I really enjoyed this. I do think it’s better than Liane Moriarty’s 9 perfect strangers, which fell very flat to me.