Definitely a must read! I started this with no expectations and found myself immediately taken in. I didn’t want to put it down. The varied characters and their individual life stories were all very intriguing. Rakie Bennett’s very effective use of descriptive writing techniques makes for a in a fast paced, bone chilling adventure. You won’t see the twists and turns coming.
4.5/5
Thank you to OneMoreChapter (HarperCollins), NetGalley and author, Rakie Bennett, for the opportunity to enjoy this ARC.
I’m anxious to read Bennett’s other books.

While the premise of this book was intriguing, I found it to be rather plodding and predictable. Things did pick up toward the end but I would have liked the loose threads tied up a bit better. Plus, the actual conclusion felt very abrupt. However, the excellent descriptions of the island and stormy weather were definite pluses. All in all, an uneven, easily solved mystery.

My copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.

I loved this story. It was captivating and full of twists and turns. This is one of those books that surprise you. I loved the writing and the characters. A definite recommend

Six friends arrive at a deserted island for a reunion they think will be filled with catching up and adventure. But when it turns deadly, they begin to quickly turn on one another.

Rakie Bennett's The Weekend Escape is a fast paced thrill ride filled with unsympathetic characters (though the narrator Lyndsey is quite likable) and peril at every turn. The setting and atmosphere are well fleshed out and you'll feel like you're part of the storm as you read. I finished it in a couple days because I found it really hard to put down. Though the plot is a fairly standard "deadly secrets from the past and someone wants revenge," Bennett sets it up well so that you're left wondering who the true suspect is until the very end. I'll be on the lookout for more from this author for sure.

Special thanks to HarperCollins UK/One More Chapter and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for a review.

A deserted island, a vicious storm, a murderer amongst friends… This alone sounds like the perfect read for autumn, right? The variety of characters was well done, the story didn't have too much filler content and flowed nicely. I enjoyed the mystery aspect of this book.

A classic scenario. Evil is lurking when a group of old school friends are stranded on an island with an imposing storm, no wifi, a creepy warden and a disused lighthouse. Spooky happenings and death. No one feels safe and everyone is suspicious.
I enjoyed how each ladies secrets slowly unravelled and how this impacted on the others.
An enjoyable read.

3.5

Shell Island is the location for Lindsay and five friends to enjoy (or is that endure?) a weekend of outdoor pursuits as they used to do years ago. Abseiling from the old lighthouse and climbing are on Juliet’s tight schedule. What could possibly go wrong? Ladies and gents we have us a locked island mystery! The story is told principally from Lindsay’s perspective, the question is how reliable a narrator is she?

The setting is really good, the small island is a short boat ride offshore, there’s a deserted lighthouse and a somewhat decrepit bunkhouse/bothy they’re booked into. Needless to say, we have the weather closing in despite it being late August, which adds to the atmosphere, as does the lack of means of communication when things go wrong. There’s a warden on the island whose strangeness adds to the building mystery and there’s a growing lack of trust between the group as things start to go wrong. The group dynamics is done well and this fluctuates as the tension grows. We all have the elements you expect in a mystery like this with accusations and fall outs as the danger escalates. There are twists and turns in the storytelling and suspense is elevated with a sense of claustrophobia and paranoia growing amongst them. The characterisation of all the women on the island is done well. The conclusion is quite good and the overall ending has a sort of enigmatic nature to it, leaving you with questions which I like.

However, the pace is a bit too slow for my liking but it does build towards the end. There’s a repetitive element to it as well especially about Lindsay’s precarious financial situation and the fact that some of the team have become strangers over the last few years. This kind of book follows a predictable formula of a tragedy, secrets and lies and so on so there’s a similarity to books of this genre. I do figure out the perpetrator pretty early on because it just had to be.

Overall, it’s an entertaining easy read in a good setting.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to HarperCollins UK / One More Chapter for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review

Great thriller with tons of twists. Kept me guessing until the end. Thanks to publisher and NetGalley for this read!

A deserted island, 6 friends, and a weekend escape … sounds like a recipe for disaster, doesn’t it?!

Lyndsey, Amanda, Val, Juliet, Sonia and Bobbie are six high school girls whose friendship was cemented in their love of adventure. They’ve planned a remote getaway to rekindle their friendship and spend time together doing the things they used to love. Before even unpacking and settling in, the girls head to the lighthouse to rappel and reignite the sense of adventure that drew them together as friends. Things start to go awry immediately and then ramp up quickly as the girls realize their accommodations aren’t as promised. Buried teenage angst and long forgotten petty insinuations start to rise to the surface and, fueled by the present situation, ignite as desperation grows. Before long, it’s a fight for survival instead of a relaxing escape! Is there someone else on the island?

It’s often said that setting is the backbone of a good mystery and Bennett has made sure to foster the right atmosphere so that it plays a significant role in her plot. Based on a little island off the coast of her Isle of Man home, Shell Island is a deserted island a couple of miles off the coast of northwest England. The Irish Sea is foreboding and the mists that develop here add to the spooky setting. With a storm brewing, the island provides little protection from the power of nature. Bennett’s vivid descriptions allow readers to immediately place themselves in the action.

Bennet has written a tight thriller with perfect pacing; she knows just when to release more information about the girls' past relationship to keep readers propelled forward. The star of the novel is the opening! It jolts the reader into paying attention and to asking further questions. Although I was able to solve the mystery early on, I needed to keep reading until Bennet provided me with clues to determine why. I felt like I was on a whodunnit obstacle course because of the unreliable narration and because Bennett is a master at misdirection.

Publishes October 8, 2021.

I was gifted this advance copy by Rachel Bennet, Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Friends go on vacation together to celebrate their friendship. When one of them dies, everyone is a suspect. This book kept me guessing.

The Weekend Escape was a quick read and a pleasant surprise.

In the tradition of Agatha Christie, six women go to a deserted island for a friends' reunion. But one by one, they are injured (or worse), in what at first appear to be accidents. But as our narrator, Lyndsay begins to investigate, it's looking less and less accidental, and more intentional.

The only other person on the island is the bird warden, who much prefers her privacy to that of her troublesome guests. And what motivation would she have to cause harm? That only leaves one of them as the perpetrator.... unless.... they aren't the only ones there.

And can we just talk about the descriptions of the island and weather? Bennett completely captures the cold, wet, dangerously rocky and cliffy landscape so well, that even in 78-degree weather I wanted to get out my cozy winter blanket and fluffy socks and curl up with a hot tea!

Thanks to NetGalley and One More Chapter for this great debut novel!

Six friends who were part of a climbing group at school decide to get together after 10 years a part. When the 7th member tragically died the other members drifted apart. The six arrive to the desolate island of Shell Island and as soon as they get there, things start to fall apart. They decide to abseil down from the roof of the lighthouse and one of the girls fall. When they check the ropes. They see that one of them have been cut. As they try and call for help, they realise that their phones don’t work. Which causes tension between them. So, when they contact the warden on the island to see if she has a radio to call or help. Only to find out that it’s broken and what makes matters worse is there is a bad storm closing in on the girls and there is no way off the island.
Thank you Harper Collins One more chapter for a copy of The Weekend escape by Rakie Bennet. The story draws you in the very first page and is very entertaining read. It has great well-developed characters and premise. I kind of guessed who was behind it all two thirds into the book but that didn’t spoil my enjoyment. 5 stars from me.

This book will have you in its grip from the first chapter and won’t let you go. Lots of twists will keep you guessing until the end and beyond. A group of friends go away on a climbing weekend to an uninhabited island. Unexplainable events start happening shortly after they arrive which leave you wondering who is responsible. The characters are great although a little more background on each of them would have been nice. The author did a good job of describing the location as I could hear the wind whistling through the cracks and I could imagine the cold and the dampness. The story is told through the eyes of one character and the storyline is similar to the “ locked room” storyline. This book is one you won’t want to put down. It is action packed and evolves quickly and smoothly from one chapter to the next.

I thank One Moe Chapter and NetGalley for the invitation to read this ARC.

I love, love, love myself a locked room mystery and this gave me ALL of the Agatha feels!

Six adventuresome old friends reunite on a creepfest island for a Girl's Weekend. The problem is there were originally seven friends...

Warning: I started this book at 9:00PM on a weeknight and lost the better part of the night to it because I COULD NOT put it down.

Thank you to the publisher for gifting me an early copy. It is my pleasure to write an honest review.

Lyndsey, Bobbi, Val, Sonia, Amanda and Juliet all meet up for an adventure weekend arranged by Juliet on a deserted island. From the moment they arrived on the island, things began to go wrong, when one falls whilst abseiling and one goes missing. With nobody else around on the Island except the warden, the girls soon start distrusting each other. A very tense and gripping read with a brilliant ending. I read this in double quick time!!

Twisted Threads, Deceive And Destroy…
Six friends, a remote island, a storm and so many twisted lies and threads to tangle, deceive and destroy. Jumping straight into action, which doesn’t let up until the finale, we meet the credible cast and the reader is taken on a breathless, edge of seat ride as their weekend descends into utter abject horror. Wholly entertaining, one sitting read.

It was supposed to be a fun weekend. Six women, best friends in high school, reuniting. But time changes everyone, and everyone has secrets. Lyndsay soon realizes she doesn’t know the woman her old friends have become quite as well as she used to. The weekend seems to be going great until a freak climbing accident…and from there, little by little, things begin to spiral out of control.
The Weekend Escape is a tight thriller. Author Rakie Bennett does a wonderful job of slowly introducing us to our cast of adventures, hinting at the secrets each of them keeps, slowly revealing past events that have shaped them and brought them to where they are now…trapped on an nearly-deserted island where someone seems intent on killing them all. Bennett’s pacing, her slow trickle of information, kept me guessing as to what was going on and who was behind it all. I enjoyed the heck of the story and think it would make a fantastic mini-series for Netflix.
I’d like to thank HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC of The Weekend Escape. (4.5 stars rounded up to 5)

First, thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollins UK One More Chapter, and Rakie Bennett for the chance to read this before it comes out on October 8th, 2021.

The Weekend Escape follows the six remaining members of the "adventure club" (a group formed in high school dedicated to climbing, abseiling (or what I call rappelling), hiking, etc.) as they reunite for a climbing trip. Although the weekend was meant to bring the group back together after slowly drifting apart over the years, tragedy after tragedy strikes, making the group question if they truly know who they are bunking with...

There was a lot that I liked in The Weekend Escape. First, the setting and atmosphere were beautifully captured and really heightened the suspense of the novel. It reminded me a lot of The Guest List by Lucy Foley with a little more emphasis on the actual terrain. I also liked the pacing of the novel. The events take place over approximately 48 hours, which I was worried would either feel too fast or slow. Instead, each chapter was quite action-packed or spooky so I devoured it in a single sitting.

Here's why my rating is a bit lower (I'd likely put it at a 3.5 if I could): While this kept me fully engaged throughout, it was quite predictable. I figured out what was going on within about 20% of reading. I don't necessarily think it takes away from the suspense of the book, but it was a bit disappointing when the big reveal finally came around. Additionally, while I thought Bennett captured the complexities of high school friends as you age, the relationships between them all were hard to figure out. In this case, we were continually told they didn't really know each other anymore yet also were told of the many times they ran into each other or hung out. It became confusing to figure out the extent of their actual relationship.

All in all, I'm glad I picked this up and would recommend it to people looking for a similar vibe to The Guest List by Lucy Foley or The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager.

📚Book Review📚
The Weekend Escape by Rakie Bennett
Thank you for the ARC @netgalley and @harpercollinsuk in exchange for an honest review. This book is VERY atmospheric. The girls are on an adventure weekend on a remote island off the coast of England and things start going wrong immediately. The details of the environment were excellent and I felt like I was there! The story is told from one characters POV, Lindsey, as she reconnects with a group of friends who all have secrets that come out over the weekend and a bond through a past tragedy. While the killer reveal was not a surprise to me after about the halfway point of the book-there were other elements of the story that kept me invested in the ending and I wanted to see who would make it off the island and if anyone else was involved. I enjoyed this authors writing style and enjoyed Lindsey's narration. 4/5 stars

I like the idea of this book and the premises. It is a great, spooky atmosphere on the island the old group of friends end up at for a weekend getaway. They have not been together as the whole group for years. One is missing, Cherry, who died during a drunken night with the group a long time ago.

A storm is brewing, the shed they are staying at is basic, and strange things start to happen. One of them dies. She has been murdered. The only ones on the island is the group of girls, and one employee.

The book is well-written, it's an easy read, but sadly I figured out whodunnit very early on, as well as why, a bit later. This spoiled the fun of reading the book, because I constantly felt like I was a step ahead of the book at all times.