Six old school friends set out for a weekend retreat to a remote island. They are seeking a reunion, a chance to reconnect through the passions that first brought them together in school - rock climbing, abseiling, and adventure. Shell Island seemed like the perfect location. Abandoned, save for a single keeper for the bird sanctuary, and reluctant host. They quickly realise the weekend is not going to be the idyllic retreat they envisioned. From their first adventure when one of their group gets badly injured, to their accommodation being less than ideal, and their host seeming incredibly resentful of their presence.

Things quickly start to fall apart, and as their group dynamic breaks down, they all turn against one another. Any mistrust and hurt that has lingered over the years comes out, and deep secrets begin to come to the surface. However, when one of their group goes missing, things really take the most sinister turn, and the pieces unravel at an even more frantic pace.

This book surprised me. I thought it was going to be a fun read about a girls weekend, with a little drama. How wrong was I?! The author did a fantastic job of setting the scene, and building the characters to the right point, and working in just enough backstory to get us to the real grit of the tale. So when things start to rapidly fall apart we feel we have gotten to know the people involved, so are all the more shocked when secrets are revealed. The twists in this tale are fantastic. The group of friends were frantically running around the island trying to escape, to survive, to figure out what was happening. I felt like I was just as madly dashing trying to keep up with them, turning pages, desperate to know, just who dunnit?? A wonderful read, and all the more welcomed because I had not expected it.

*Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this book for review, but all opinions are my own.

Fabulous! A group of friends spend a weekend on a remote island in terrible weather. It seems someone is out to harm them. This is a real page turner and it’s impossible to put down. There’s are real sense of menace running through the book. You may guess the identity of the culprit but you really won’t see the final twist!

Loved it. Lyndsey and five friends take a reunion adventure to a deserted island. Their first act is to repel the old lighthouse. Amanda is the last one down. On her way the rope breaks and she is injured. Once they discover the rope have been cut, things start to call apart.
The park ranger who is there to tag a.few birds has the only radio and it's not working. As the weather turns bad and everyone is stuck in the cabin, Bobbie starts to believe someone is outside watching them thru the windows. Tempers start to rise and they start to turn on each other. Who will make it out alive, and who is causing all the issues? Thanks netgalley for.a great read.

A tense story about a reunion o0f school friends which takes place on a remote island. Do they really know each other? Do they still like each other? Can they trust each other? Accidents start happening or are they? A gripping and exciting read which held me enthralled until the last word.

A remote cabin or any isolated setting is one of my favorites in the thriller genre; add in unexpected weather and a series of mysterious events <gasp> you’ve just written my favorite thriller subgenre!

I really enjoyed the atmosphere of The Weekend Escape, the action starts almost immediately with a dodgy accident that sets the characters on edge – giving the main character a chance to delve into each character’s past and present lives – as far as she knows about them, anyway. The only real issue I had was the number of characters and getting to know each one through the main characters eyes. While the women were close friends at one time, it’s clear that there are sour grapes between a few of them and things have changed since their school days. As the story moves forward, it’s clear that almost every woman on the island has a secret and someone on the island knows this.

This is a great atmospheric thriller that had great pacing and a twisty plot. Highly recommend this intriguing thriller and I’ll be looking for more from this author.

My thanks to Harper Collins UK and One More Chapter for this gifted DRC in exchange for my review.

This is a really enjoyable fast paced thriller, the descriptive nature really enables you to picture the setting.

There are some edge of your seats parts…. Lynsey in the water 😨 I was nearly shout at the others to help her faster.

The relationship between the characters was interesting, I preferred the building up throughout the book, compared to the ending. This is still a fantastic thriller though which I would recommend.

Thank you too @onemorechapterhc and @netgalley for my advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

Seven woman are trapped on a deserted island in the middle of a storm, and one by one they are targeted. One is severely injured, one dies. What will happen to the rest of them? You will turn pages quickly and fervently in a quest to know more details and to solve the puzzle.

The premise of the locked room whodunnit is old, but the flow of the book is really nice and the writing is fluent. The descriptions of the island and the storm are very atmospheric and the characters are nicely drawn. They all have just enough differences to easily identify them. And I was really trying to read fast to know the conclusion. Who did it and most importantly, why? I was thrown off from the beginning, making a assumption I shouldn't have made. At the end, everything wrapped up nicely, but then those last few sentences threw everything overboard and made me rethink the solution.

Maybe the perpetrator isn't who you think it is and will get away with it, pretending to be a victim. Give it a go, and see for yourself if you got it right.

A sincere thanks to NetGalley, One More Chapter, HarperCollins Publishers and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC of The Weekend Escape from NetGalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was a pretty decent "locked room" thriller, set on a tiny island with essentially one inhabitant. A group of friends reconnect for a weekend of outdoor adventures. But when one of the group falls from a lighthouse when the rope they are using for climbing snaps, the terror begins.

The pacing was good and there were enough red herrings to keep me guessing but it was pretty easy to figure out who the bad guy was.

This was an interesting book to read, I didn't realise it until I'd finished. OK so let me clarify, to understand the ending you need to remember the prologue. The ending is clear but I decided to re-read the prologue and everything started to make sense.
I turned every page knowing that this party of friends were going to die.
That doesn't give any spoilers away, you really have to read this book to know the outcome.
It kept me gripped, had me guessing, admittedly I did guess right about halfway through, I could visualise the characters and felt sad for one in particular.
This is my first encounter with Rakie Bennett's writing, it definitely left me wanting to read more of their books

This one hooked me from the beginning and didn't let me go! I never wanted to put it down. And when I would be reading at night I would get spooked. It was so good! I really enjoyed the characters because they were making decisions I would also make, I was never frustrated because they were missing something really obvious or making a really bad mistake. And the very end! Would love to get a full explanation of that, but alas. I definitely definitely recommend this.

Wow! Loved this. An incredible setting, relatable characters, gripping mystery - this has the lot. Read this with plenty of time to spare as you won't want to put it down - I stayed up until 2am to finish!

Six friends meet for a weekend getaway on a deserted island, what could possibly go wrong? Everything.

This was a great easy read thriller that kept me guessing throughout the entire book until the end. The characters were a little hard to follow throughout, but by halfway through I felt like I was keeping up!

Thank you NetGalley & Harper Collins for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is another book that takes the "locked-room" mystery and develops it so rather than being in a room, the 6 friends are on a small island just off the coast of the north west of the UK accessed only by boat, no phone to the outside world and dodgy weather approaching. What could possibly go wrong?

Things start to go awry from the beginning and gradually get worse. The sense of claustrophobia and of being within touching distance of the mainland when you might as well be on the moon was excellently portrayed.

The characters were well developed - I don't think any of them are particularly likeable or memorable but it works for the story. The pacing is steady and the build up of tension palpable. The reveal was, for me, not much of a surprise as I had already guessed it but getting there was quite good fun.

Although not the most unique story, it was enjoyable nevertheless and my thanks must go to HarperCollinsUK / One More Chapter via NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest, unbiased and unedited review.

I had just read a few sweet stories so I was looking forward to a thriller to grip me while on vacation (much as And Then There Were None did) so I started The Weekend Escape.

Ooph.

I really, really, really wanted to like it but once a certain reveal was made I immediately figured everything out and sadly was right.

The author does an amazing job describing the landscape, the island felt VERY real to me and I could easily picture it in my mind. What they didn't do was make the voices distinct enough so that I was so confused on who most people were for 99% of the book.

It took me a while to power through this book sadly. It just was easily put down.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC copy of this novel in exchange for my honest reivew.

The title and cover interested me. I read the blurb that tells you six women are going to spend time on an island,, and that sucked me in. However, within the first couple chapters, I was having a problem keeping track of who was who. The characters weren't distinct enough for me to keep them straight. I have read books like this in the past, and don't mind looking back to see who is who and what their relationships were. This book didn't describe them distinctly enough to make it worth doing this. The story was okay, and I like the writer's writing, but this book just did not do it for me. I skimmed to get through it.
I think this book will appeal to many, so take my review with a grain of salt.

Six friends decide to travel on a deserted island for a weekend to reconnect and relive their past adventures. But everyone is being weird with each other because none of them properly know each other anymore.

Soon they find themselves in a great danger and the storm isolates them from the land and the rescue. Friends begin to turn against one another, deep old grudges resurface and they have to admit that one of them is a murderer.

Gripping, fast paced and atmospheric novel. From my perspective just too predictable.

Of course with a title like this, and a blurb that tells you six women are going to spend time on an island, you know what you will get. The idea is not new; the fun is then in reading the story and see whether the author does it better than the original.
The Weekend Escape, with six women who used to be friends, isn't better than the original, I'm sorry to say. I must start with saying that I'm impressed by the nice flowing writing style, and the way the author describes the desolate landscape and the horrible weather. But for the women? After a couple of chapters I completely lost track of who did what and why and when, because they all seemed so alike. From the beginning it is clear there should have been a seventh woman, and she's not with them because something terrible happened. What happened here is part of the solution to the mystery.
My mind kept wandering with questions while reading the book, because I really wanted to get to know the six women but I just got lost. Eventually I finished the book but I'm sorry I cannot give it more than two stars.

Thanks to NetGalley for this review copy.

This book is a kind of a whodunnit – or did anyone do anything – or was it all bad luck?? A group of ‘best friends’ go away for a weekend of abseiling and climbing and it all goes spectacularly wrong. Is someone in the group or someone from outside the group or is it just some bad luck that’s causing things to happen….

Gripping, twisty turney – a good read!!

https://mams.ie/forums/topic/the-weekend-escape/

I’d seen this book come across my radar and was super excited when I was gifted an ARC to read it early. The description was right up my alley and I couldn’t wait to dive in. No pun intended being this was based all on an island. Unfortunately this story just wasn’t for me. I do appreciate the ARC from NetGalley and HarperCollins Uk, One More Chapter, thank you.

Six friends are off to a remote island complete with a lighthouse for an adventure weekend. And adventurous it was. Just not maybe in the way they had planned.
The "adventures" begin when one of the women falls while abseiling down the lighthouse. Things only get more dangerous after that and don't really stop until nearly the end.
Little was told about the characters in the beginning except that most of them had reservations about going on the trip for one reason or another. Perhaps I would have connected to the characters more if I had know some background information about them earlier in the book. A good read but not outstanding.

Thanks to netgalley and One More Chapter for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.