Rating: 4 / 5

I received an uncorrected digital galley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge Books and Netgalley for the chance to read and review!

THE RETREAT by Sherri Smith follows four women attending a wellness retreat. They are meant to clear their minds, drink the psychoactive tea and emerge from the retreat completely renewed and refreshed.

Katie is a former child star, down on her luck after too much partying and a drunken text that alienated many of her remaining fans. She is invited to the retreat by her soon-to-be sister-in-law Ellie as a bonding experience. Unsure about spending time along with Ellie, Katie invites along a couple friends, Carmen and Ariel as a buffer. Each woman has her own difficulties in life and her own reasons for attending the retreat.

The book opens with a very strong hook, with one of the women attesting that the retreat did indeed transform her... into a killer. The prologue actually opens mid-murder, throwing the reader right into the middle of the action, though not entirely clear as to what is going on. From there, we are jumped back to three days prior as Ellie and Katie are preparing to leave home and head for the retreat.

Each character in this book is full of secrets, from the main four to the background characters. No one is really who they at first seem to be. The novel is written in third person, with sections alternating between the perspectives of Katie, Ellie, Carmen and Ariel. Over time, the characters reveal more about why they are here and what messes they left behind in the real world. None of these characters is exactly lovable, and they all make some very bad choices, but each is built to be very complex with good and bad qualities.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. I thought the author handled the different voices well. With narratives that bounce around from multiple perspectives, sometimes I feel drawn to some voices more than others, but here I thought it was kept very balanced and there was no confusion for me as to who the POV belonged to at any given time.

In terms of drawbacks, I felt that the pacing could have been tightened up at times. Friday is largely about getting to the retreat, meeting the characters and such, most of which is essential build up. We know from the beginning that they will drink the tea on Sunday and that the murder will happen on Sunday, but a lot of time is spent on Saturday that wasn't critical to the plot.

I had mixed feelings on the ending. I think it was fairly easy to start predicting who the culprit was partway through, but the motives and what ultimately would happen remained a mystery. Some of the twists that Smith throws in were definitely surprises which I enjoyed. I felt like I wanted a little more resolution in terms of some of the characters' backstories, but the main plot was wrapped up well.

If you are looking for a good suspense story, THE RETREAT is one you'll want to check out when it is released on August 13, 2019! I will absolutely look to read more by Sherri Smith!

This review will be posted as follows (links to be provided once posts go live):

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Amazon & Barnes&Noble reviews will be posted upon publication.

This was fun and I raced through it – though to say it's popcorn-y is to make popcorn seem too nutritious. It's pure Hollywood joy-trash (not that that's necessarily a bad thing). The writing was so clunky cringe-making at times but that might be because it's an ARC, and it might be cleaned up a bit in the final version. I enjoyed it. I've basically already forgotten it. That's about all I can say.

I was a bit miffed to find so many loose ends, though: **SPOILERS**

What's going to happen with Carmen’s family? Did Ariel actually kill the wife? Why did they bring the drugs there – what was their plan? Were the suspicious retreat people actually up to something?

This is the first book I have read by Sherri Smith and I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. The plot was interesting and well thought out. Unfortunately, however, as an avid crime reader of over 30 years I did pick the bad guy early on, but to other less read crime readers it would have been a great surprise. Well done, 7 stars!

This book is really hard to rate because the writing was snarky funny and the premise was SO good. I appreciate the way Smith writes and will absolutely read her again. Every single character was horrible and outrageous in ways that made this book really entertaining to read.

For me, however, it was clear far too early in the book which character was probably behind the intriguing events that happen in the first few pages. I was hoping it was a red herring but alas. So, I knew "who" way too early and just hoped for a great "why". But when I got there it was silly nonsense.

Thank you to Sherrie Smith, Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Forge Books and NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

I was very intrigued by the idea of book taking place at a wellness retreat. I was hooked from beginning to end. It was a fast paced read and had an unpredictable ending. Yay!! I can’t wait to pick up more books by this author.

I feel like I just read this book with Nine Perfect Strangers. I just wasn’t a fan of this one. I didn’t want to DNF it, so I pushed through, but I wish the author didn’t make it so Hollywood.

We are told at the beginning of this novel that there has been a crime committed. I’ve read other books where the crime was committed at the beginning and we had to read the book to find out the who, how, when etc. but after meeting these characters, I was hooked. There’s Katie the former child star who now spends her days and nights mostly drinking. Her sister-in-law to be, Ellie with her English accent and just too good to be true credentials, and Katie’s best friends from college Ariel and Carmen each of whom had her own baggage. Ellie persuaded Katie to go to a weekend Wellness Retreat as a sort of bonding for them but unbeknown to her, Katie invited her two buddies along for the ride.
The weekend was indeed interesting (cocaine, missing girl/murder) and Dr. Dave off with one of the girls - not to mention that wacky tea.
I enjoyed the author’s writing style. I liked the way she had the story told by the four women and I like her witty sense of humour. I think Ms Smith dealt with what happened to Katie as a child star in a way to make us think and be aware that the dangers are sometimes not always “out there” but can be much closer to home.
In my opinion this isn’t a psychological thriller. I would recommend it as a good suspense novel.
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

Thank you to Forge Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The premise was intriguing, but I found this book hard going. Absolutely all of the characters were completely unlikeable, the writing was rather wooden and rote, and the arc of the story felt off to me - I did finish it because I wanted to know how things ended, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Four women attend a retreat to decompress from stress and work on their friendships. A guest leaves early - but does she? As two women work to solve this mystery, the other women struggle with their inner demons. There were some good twists.

I've definitely read the whole 'holistic healing retreat weekend gone horribly wrong' thing before, but I've never enjoyed it as much as I did with The Retreat. This book is crazy in the best way! You start off with a brief prologue chapter that sets the mood -- like, yay, murder! Mayhem! Sociopathy! And then halfway through Chapter 1 I completely forgot what I was reading because I got caught up in the sometimes fun and cute, sometimes dramatic relationships of the main characters. And then, Katie wakes up covered in blood one morning and I was like, oh yeah yay, murder! Mayhem! Sociopathy! Back on track!

Before I go on, a brief synopsis:

The Retreat focuses on Katie, a former child star who has gone the way of the Lohan: substance abuse, way too much partying, social media scandals galore. She's on a downward spiral to nowhere fast. She hears about a holistic health retreat a few hours away and promptly books two rooms for the weekend: for her and her two college besties, and also for her future sister in law Ellie. Katie sees retreat as a way to possibly get on the path to repairing her damaged image, also as a way to bond with Ellie (they don't quite see eye to eye). Plus, the whole weekend is centered around an ayuhuasca ceremony where they will all trip balls and achieve mental clarity. She's mostly just in it for the tripping part though. All seems well until the first morning, when Katie wakes up clutching a bloody knife and has no recollection of how she got it. Then shit starts hitting the fan.

I can't say much more because basically everything after this point is a spoiler, but I will say that I was completely shocked with how everything turned out. Pretty much every character is unlikable and seems to be hiding something. Including Katie herself, only she doesn't quite know it yet.

I devoured this book in a few hours. Once it starts it just doesn't stop until the bonkers ending. 4 stars!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for my honest review. This review will be published on my instagram page (instagram.com/donnamartinreads) and my Goodreads (www.goodreads.com/user/show/88726389-elizabeth-donnamartinreads) the week before the book comes out.

This book was a very entertaining read. The author did a magnificent job of keeping the reader on their toes as far as figuring out the “ who done it” portion.
Katie is a washed up child tv star that has hit rock bottom more than once. She begrudgingly decides to attend a Wellness retreat with her soon to be sister in law, who is quite the opposite of Katie. Katie invites her two closest friends and together the embark on this adventure with the promise of a hallucinogenic tea drinking ceremony.
As suspected for this genre there are twists, red herrings, and a little bit of shock throughout. The author really keeps the reader guessing, especially because the story is told from the four perspectives of each of the characters.
Overall I enjoyed this book a lot. I found myself reading it very quickly to try and finish, so that I could reveal the ending!! Enjoyable read! Thanks @sherrismithwrites, @macmillanusa and @netgalley for the opportunity to review this manuscript in exchange for my honest review!

First- Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan for allowing me to read and review this book in exchange for my opinions. I liked this book but I did find it overly wordy.the gist of the story is about a washed up child star who goes to a retreat with her brother’s fiancée and other friends. Almost every character was hateful in one way or another. Very hard to like anyone or even understand the different relationships.

So I started this book well over a week ago and I have only just finished, to say I have been off work that is a long time.
The two main characters names feel quite similar and at the start at times I had to re-read paragraphs to check who it was regarding....
The book jumps from person to person and again this is quite confusing...
The plot develops nicely but I do feel there are to many attempts to keep the reader 'guessing'.
The book is good but not brilliant.
Sorry...

A solid four star review for this thriller/mystery of four women who are on spa retreat, all with different reasons, and of course, all with secrets. Suddenly a murder happens and all the women there could have done it and all could be next. We are given clues, red herrings, flawed characters and a completely unexpected ending.

2.5 stars
Well I finally finished this book. It was very slow and not that great. I hated all the characters and was kinda hoping they would all die. I’m not sure what she could have done different. I liked the way it was written but that’s about it. Not a very good intro to the author.

Thanks to Netgalley and MacMillan-Tor/Forge for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

27 year old washed up former child star Katie goes to a health retreat with her brother’s fiancée, Ellie. Katie brings along a couple of friends from her short lived college days who are not without issues themselves. In the prologue we find out 8 people are dead at this retreat and spend the rest of the book finding out what happened.

I really enjoyed this author’s previous novel Follow You Down. This one just wasn’t as good. It started out pretty well. I was interested in the misfit characters, but then it just started dragging for me. I had a pretty good idea of who the murderer was, I just didn’t know why and when I did find out, it wasn’t that interesting to me. I will still look forward to this author’s next book because I liked her first one so much.

A masterful mystery, full of intrigue and red herrings which kept my mind buzzing with possible perpetrators throughout. All of the characters had major flaws which indicated they could have been the murderer depicted at the beginning of the book and I constantly swayed from one to the other as I endeavored to “soooolve the case” before it was revealed who-done-it! My only criticism is that the ending felt rushed but it didn’t affect my enjoyment.

The Retreat is desperate for a good round of editing. Stubborn determination and an eventual stirring of curiosity were the only reasons I continued turning pages.

The writing is stilted with a lot of nothing-words, for example 'it was like it was outfitted with camouflage'. I found the words 'had' and 'was' severely overused, yet interestingly in the first few chapters both words were omitted on several occasions when they really were necessary, leaving sentences incomplete. Almost as if someone had begun to screen the book for these words and chopped them out of places they were actually needed?
In fact in every chapter of The Retreat there are frequent instances of missing words. The writing made enough sense for my mind to subconsciously fill in the gaps but I couldn't read it as fluently as I'd expect.

There are so many metaphors and similes packed into every description I felt like I was reading my own attempts at storytelling back in secondary school!
I wouldn't have minded as much if they weren't so clumsy.. like a vampire kitty.. alarm as if a gun had gone off - quote first chapter.

I forced myself through this book to allow myself an honest review. It wasn't until 70% in that I realised I did want to finish it. By this point I was curious at what the characters were hiding. I can't tell you I cared about their thoughts, fate or feelings, but I did wonder if my persistence would be rewarded with any juicy revelations.

The ending did redeem a lot of my earlier issues with this book. I think with some very heavy editing it could be good but honestly? Right now it's a total mess.

The positives: It's a really interesting premise! An isolated retreat in the woods, run by a creepy couple who clearly seem to be hiding a few secrets of their own. I liked being introduced to the other participants at the retreat (apart from the four main characters), although it was difficult to keep everyone straight at first. I was excited to see how the weekend unfolded! I also liked the fact that the main character was a former child star. I don't think I've read any other books recently focused on a former child star, and I think the author did an excellent job of creating a fictional character and TV world that a lot of kids who grew up in the 80's and 90's could relate to. The characters were all unlikeable in their own ways, especially the main character, and I had trouble rooting for any of them. However, I still found myself invested in their individual journeys.

The only real negative for me was all of the unnecessary sexual stuff. Ultimately, I did not finish the book because of those scenes. They offer nothing to the story and only serve to alienate readers who just want a good "whodunit" mystery. After one particularly off-putting scene, I said to myself, "Okay. Hopefully that's it. But if there's one more graphic scene, I'm done." And, sure enough, there was another one in the next chapter. Some people don't mind all of the sex. I get that. But a lot of people do. So, if it's not absolutely essential to the plot, just leave it out of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a good mystery story. What starts as a weekend at a retreat for four ladies turns into a weekend of murder and mayhem. Each of these ladies are hiding secrets from each other. And with these secrets each one does some crazy things. The story keeps your attention wanting to know what the secrets are and what they will do to rectify their actions. The ending is a wild ride that keeps you glued to the final page. Thank you to NetGalley and Forge Books for the ARC!