The Retreat by Sherri Smith is a recommended thriller. Four women head to The Sanctuary, a wellness retreat. Will they make it out alive?

We know from the start that someone has killed multiple people, we just don't know who. The four women who head to the retreat are all connected through former child star Katie Manning. Ellie Rose, Katie's brother's fiancée, invited Katie. Katie, in turn, invited her two friends from her brief college attendance, Carmen and Ariel. All four of these women have some big secrets they want to hide, but the whole purpose of the retreat is to find themselves and inner bliss. The weekend culminates with the ceremony where all the retreat attendees drink the hallucinatory ayahuasca tea.

Smith does develop her characters to give them depth; however they all seem to be caricatures of a type of person. The whole novel is populated by unlikable and unreliable stereotypical characters. It is also relatively easy to figure out early on who is the killer, so the thrill is in reaching the conclusion and find out what happens to tie the opening scene to the story. The narrative is told through the four women who travel together to the Sanctuary, so the reader is privy to their secrets, schemes, and insecurities. All of these women are vastly different characters.

The writing is good, in spite of the fact that the plot is predictable and the characters stereotypes. There are also scenes that really serve no purpose except to be disturbing or depraved. This is an airplane book, read it to pass the time, but you won't cry if you misplace it or never finish it.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of the Tom Doherty Associates.

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This is the story of four dysfunctional women carrying some heavy baggage as they join together at a weekend retreat. This will be a life-altering experience for all. The retreat seemed more like a week to me. A cauldron of stirred up dark secrets that became repetitive, the story losing momentum midway.

Katie is an aging child actor who is introduced as an alcohol-loving mean girl, Carmen, an anxiety-ridden, thieving, scalp scraper, gullible, obsessive Arial, and Ellie, a supermodel type, the outsider of the bunch rounds out the group and is someone who initially I could sympathize with. As time went on though, I lost any connection with her and the others. I really tried but I just didn’t care. Too many dark characters with few redeeming qualities. The pinnacle event of drinking a hallucinogenic tea at the end of the weeked was played up but when it actually happened, meh.

This book was enjoyable even with its many unlikable characters. The writing was good and the story did hold my interest. There were many secrets that were revealed for each character throughout the book that made it interesting. It did have a twisty ending, although I did figure out who the killer was early on. Not a bad suspenseful read.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy.

Kate Manning is a trouble child star who thinks a wellness retreat, suggested by her brother’s fiancée Ellie, my be just the cure for her car crash of a life. She invites her two best friends, Carmen and Ariel.

When they get there everything quickly turns into a nightmare, until there is only one left standing.

The Retreat is slow burn psychological thriller with a hint of menace and plenty of creepiness running throughout.

Each of the characters were interesting, each with some secret they’re hiding. Ellie seems too perfect, Ariel is running away from something, Kate is in denial about her life and Carmen desperately needs money to help her family survive. None of them are particularly likeable but I think it works well for this story.

Fair warning there is a fair bit of drug use/sexual scenes scattered throughout the novel which I know some readers may not like.

Then there was the ending. I personally didn’t think it was all that surprising which was a shame because the rest of the story was quite gripping.

Overall The Retreat was creepy and compelling psychological thriller that I’d recommend for fans of this genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this novel in return for my opinion.

The synopsis of this book was brilliant and was what made me want to read it. A girls’ retreat, and a murderer amongst them, who IS one of them? Sign me up!! I did enjoy the novel thoroughly, as it kept me guessing. The atmosphere was well done by Sherri Smith and the tension that built was undeniable.

However, the weak part for me, and where the book struggled, was the characterization. I find it very difficult to remain interested in a book when the characters are unlikeable or off putting. Don’t get me wrong, I strongly dislike cardboard cutouts. I appreciate characters who are complex, quirky, gruff, even sometimes jerks. They need to feel HUMAN. However, they still have to straddle that fine line of being unlikeable, yet remaining compelling in some way, or being unlikeable, yet having redeeming traits. I felt the author struggled with that.

All in all, it was still an enjoyable and suspenseful read. Just not my cup of tea.

Katie Manning, a former child star who drinks and sleeps through her days, decides to attend a wellness retreat with her brother's fiance in hopes of turning her life (and social media account) around. She tows along two of her friends - each one battling her own demons and secrets in the form of failed relationships / terrible debt / and family issues - who also hope to find peace in reconstructing their lives.

Temptation and secrets grip the women as they partake in meditation, group gardening, and other assorted organized activities, and the weekend culminates in tragedy that no one sees coming.

As my second "retreat-gone-wrong" focused read of 2019, I found The Retreat to be an enjoyable page-turner that kept me guessing until the end. I completely disliked all of the characters, but I actually liked that in this book I was rooting for no one.

I can easily recommend this as a fun beach, plane, or porch read for the final days of summer. (Or snuggle up with a coffee and a blanket when the air turns crisp and you want a lighter fall thriller.)

From the beginning of this book I was hooked! The opening was done so well and every chapter following just kept you wanting more. Each of the four main characters came to The Sanctuary with different intentions and as I watched their stories unfold I couldn't decide which character I hated most. I love a thriller with zero likeable characters and The Retreat definitely delivered. Every time I read a new character perspective I was thinking "oh, you are definitely capable of murder. No wait, you are definitely capable of murder". The twists and turns guided perfectly into a fantastic ending! I already want to reread this book to see if I can catch onto any of the clues throughout the story. Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for providing an advanced copy to read & review.

I enjoyed this book. It appealed to me in so many ways - the reference to Reiki as a practitioner myself along with the whole "wellness" concept was right up my street!

I didn't particularly connect with any of the characters though. I didn't find them likeable, and it was a slow start. Persevere though and it's well worth it.

In general, I prefer endings that are a bit more believable. I found the whole concept of this book a bit outlandish. That doesn't mean to say I didn't enjoy it though and it was still worth a read.

It's a 3.75 for me rounded up to 4 stars.

#TheRetreat#NetGalley

The Retreat by Sherrie Smith, is an atmospheric, sometimes dark, but fast paced suspense novel. The setting is at a wellness retreat, located in a remote area of the Catskills Mountains. The four main characters are each flawed, with secret lives, and ulterior motives, but are well developed. Although you may not like them, you will find yourself immersed and carefully following the story to unearth the dark secrets each woman holds. I found the characters complex and interesting and enjoyed the interaction among them. The reader quickly becomes acquainted with Katie, a washed up child star with plenty of baggage. Seeking a new beginning, Katie takes up the offer by her future sister-in-law, Ellie,to go the Sanctuary, a weekend wellness retreat. Since Katie is not particularly fond of Ellie, she invites Carman and Ariel, friends from college. Each woman has her own expectation of what she wants to accomplish while at the retreat. With hidden secrets and leaving behind unsatisfactory lives, they all hope to leave as "a new person". After all, that's what was promised when they signed up for the pricey weekend.
Do promises always come true and could a new beginning be this simple? According to Dr. Dave and his creepy wife, they will leave the retreat with a new positive outlook on life and return home to fulfill their dreams!
But soon the women discover that all is not as it seems. A bloody knife appears, illegal drugs are discovered and one of the guests goes missing, presumed dead!! The wellness weekend turns foreboding, with betrayal, danger, and a prevailing feeling of mistrust among all the guests and the eerie leaders of The Sanctuary.
There are many twists and turns and red herrings galore that will keep the reader turning pages!
I gave The Retreat a four star rating and recommend it to mystery lovers!

Thanks to the author, Sherri Smith, to NetGalley and to the publishers Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I had absolutely no idea what to expect from The Retreat, but I found myself completely absorbed in this tense and gripping tale of secrets and betrayal.

Sherri Smith has created some great characters in Katie, Ariel, Carmen and Ellie and the rest of the cast of people who have gathered at 'the retreat' - each character has their own flaws but also various likable characteristics too. Katie, a has-been (once a child television star), heads to an elusive retreat with her sister-in-law-to-be, Ellie, and invites along a few of her friends, Carmen and Ariel. 

What follows is complete craziness - I don't want to give too much away here but the key is just to completely suspend your disbelief and enjoy. I certainly did - I loved the chaos that ensured, with dark secrets and plenty of confusion for both the characters and the reader! You're left wondering exactly who the 'she' is who is mentioned in the very impactful opening pages, and as the novel goes on I thought I had it... not quite!

I loved the 'whodunnit' elements to this story and the shady backstories to some of the characters which only made them the more intriguing. Is anyone exactly who they appear to be at this retreat? I had a lot of fun finding out!

I loved the idea of this story. Four very different women go away for a girls weekend to a wellness resort, but one of them (really all of them) are not whom they seem to be. While I liked the idea, I had a herd time getting through this book. I’d read a few chapters and then forget about it for a day or two. I had to remind myself to go read. I also figured out who the killer was pretty quickly, so that might have put a dampener on my desire to keep reading. I finally sat down and finished to make sure I was right, and I was.

2 1/2 ⭐️‘S
This book was really hard for me to get into. I would read a few chapters and set it aside. I found it painful to just finish!! With unlikable, unremarkable characters at a cult like retreat center, there was really not much I liked about it. The first few pages were intriguing and had me interested, but it quickly went down hill from there. There was no real suspense to speak off and I knew who the killer was from the get go. Interspersed with every cliche possible at a retreat center, this book was just not for me!

i'm going to be honest - this is one of my harder reviews to write

for the most part, i really liked this book and will admit that i did find it hard to put down. plus i really enjoyed all the snark and have a few particular lines that i just loved

i did enjoy the lay out of the book and i really really liked Katie

while i LOVED the idea of this book i felt there were too many plot lines and i really wish the author would have tightened that up. also at times it felt like the writing was a bit too abrupt

lastly the end... let's just say i wasn't completely satisfied despite there being resolution

overall despite some lukewarm feelings i would read/try another book by this author

Who is the murderer?


Katie and Ellie go to a weekend Retreat, to get to know each other before Ellie marries Katie’s brother. Unbeknown to Ellie, Katie has invited two of her close girl friends as well, but which of them has murder on their mind?

This thriller opens with a dramatic murder, and then the reader is left wondering “who did it” as the story is unfolds through the eyes of Ellie, Katie and her two friends. As the women’s reasons for being there gradually become clear, the suspense and wonder of how it is going to end grows. There are plenty of cliff-hangers, and exciting moments along the way in this fast moving thriller, and by the final pages all becomes clear.

2*s from me, as I found the girls pretty unlikeable, and struggled to stay interested in what happened to them. Initially I found I got confused between the two names Ellie and Katie – who was who? Good cliff-hangers, but as the story was constantly moving between the four girls, by the time the cliff hanger was returned to so much else had happened that the original moment had been overtaken. Just not for me.

I always like a good thriller and an unreliable narrator, but I like the mystery to be, well, a mystery. I knew way too early who the culprit was and it wasn’t just a hint, but pretty clearly laid out. There were a couple moments where I thought it could be more complicated and surprise me, however in the end I was left feeling unsatisfied.

Smith created some fabulously unlikable characters. If you need a character to root for, then this might not be the book for you. Some of these characters were so annoying, I was waiting for their demise and for some the moment was too late. I would have preferred a more typical slasher death with one being picked off at a time until we are left with a “final girl”. The main character even references how much people love final girls, so that would have been a perfect set up!

One element I felt was lacking was tension. In a mystery/thriller it’s expected, but the only time I felt it was in Katie’s flashbacks of her childhood. The sections of flashbacks were the strongest to me and I thought Katie was easily the most interesting character.

By the time I made it halfway through, I was really ready to be done with this book. The annoying characters were too grating and some sections were very confusing and I had to read them through several times, but this might be fixed with a bit of editing. By the time I got to the big reveal, it all seemed a little too ridiculous. Maybe it’s one of those things where I’ve read too many thrillers or my expectations were too high. I also felt like there were still some loose ends, not necessarily of the main plot, but some of the side characters had no real resolution.

I really enjoyed some of Smith’s writing. It was fresh and funny and there were some great quotes I marked. I kind of liked Ellie’s annoyance with Katie and her friends, because I also felt it, even though Ellie has her own issues. I’ve had another book by Smith on my to-read list for awhile and maybe I’ll pick that one up and see if it was the storyline that wasn’t for me. Some of the relationships and the wit of the characters also makes me think she’d make a really great contemporary romance author.

Although the premise was intriguing, this thriller just didn't...well, thrill! Characters I couldn't connect with, plot that seemed to drag, interspersed with bits of rather trashy sex and other risky behavior--on a 3-day weekend retreat! Quite a suspenseful ending rescued it from 2 star range and tied it back to the horror of the first chapter but with some nice twists.

I received an arc of this new novel from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review. Recommend for a quick beach read.

Thank you so much for this ARC.

I was so intrigued by the summary of this book. However, I actually found this story very hard to get into and difficult to follow.

"'I sense tightness in you, Ellie, like your braving yourself for something.' Ellie dropped her napkin onto her plate and shifted her chair over in an obvious way, but Dr Dave acted as if he didn't notice. This was going to be a long weekend. The worst part was that Dr Dave wasn't wrong. She was bracing herself."

Invited to a retreat in Catskills, upstate New York, by her soon-to-be sister-in-law Ellie-Rose, Katie Manning hopes to escape her dreary, alcohol-fueled, purposeless life as a former child star. Katie's brother, lovestruck Nate, is hoping his sister and his fiancée will finally get on. From the age of four until she became too old, Katie played Shelby Spade, Kid Detective. Katie finds Ellie rather dull, so invites college friends along for the weekend - loyal but desperate Ariel and determined but poverty-stricken Carmen. They arrive for a long weekend at the Sanctuary, meeting dominant and exuberant, wellbeing guru Dr Dave, and hippy yoga-loving wife Naomi. It turns out one of the four has plans for this weekend that will see only one of them survive, but who and why?

Told from the perspectives of all four friends (Katie, Ellie, Ariel and Carmen), this is a mystery and a thriller focusing on their friendship and the secrets they are hiding from the world and one another. Whilst none of the characters are hugely likeable, none were truly horrible either and their narratives are all strong. They all live different lives and want different results from the retreat, but all want to make a big change in their lives. Some rather unbelievable storylines, but this results in an explosive finale. Entertaining, humourous and full of suspense.

The Retreat by Sherri Smith had a great start. You just wanted to wrap up in a blanket on a rainy night and binge read.

Katie, a former childhood star, is attending a wellness retreat with her soon to be sister in law Ellie. Unbeknown to Ellie, Katie has invited two of her college friends, Ariel and Carmen, to come along. We know from the prologue that things go horribly wrong and end in murder.

I'll be honest and say that all of the characters were very unlikable and I had a hard time connecting with them. They all had "secrets" and "issues" and I found them all pretty pathetic.

This is not to say that I didn't like the book, it just took me a little longer to read as I felt somewhat indifferent at times.

Overall, I did enjoy the story and the writing as well as the occasional humour thrown in. The ending was good and entertaining. Scaling it up to 4*

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for this opportunity to read and review this book.

** 2 Stars **
Publication Date: August 13, 2019

Unfortunately this one just didn't work for me. Being portrayed as a mystery type thriller, I just didn't connect. The Retreat begins with four women who attend a wellness retreat for the weekend. There was a lot of drama and secrets but I just didn't find any of characters likable. I lost interested pretty early on and couldn't hook myself in therefore this was a struggle for me to finish. Seems that I have an unpopular opinion when reading other reviews. Having said that, I did enjoy Sherri Smith's writing style and would consider reading another story by her in the future.

Special Thanks to NetGalley and Forge for allowing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.