When 39-year-old lawyer Nichole gets a mysterious invitation to the women's networking group Panthera Leo, it couldn't come at a better time. She's hit a plateau at work and finds it difficult to break through the barriers placed there by the men. On top of this, her personal life is a bit of a mess.
Invited to a retreat in Colorado, Nicole decides to attend. It's tough at first but she builds a bond with the women there - her Pride. They're all successful, self-assured professionals and seem to have benefited from the strong networking of women. Once home, Nichole begins to find her groove - exercising, spending time with her Pride and all the things that seemed wrong in her life have somehow resolved with the help of her Pride and the contacts they've made.
Nichole's never been happier - for a while anyway. Things begin to go south when she's called on to return a few favours and it isn't long before she realizes that things aren't quite what they seem.

What I Liked:
- Lots of female power vibes. Not just one or two characters, but nearly every important character is a successful woman.
- It places women in places of power - business executives, lawyers, Wall Street moguls, etc. It was a pleasure to see representation in those areas.
- It was well-paced and revealed enough as it went to keep you engaged. Definitely binge-worthy.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for sending a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love Catherine McKenzie's books, and am so happy I got to read this one! It is a great thriller with plenty of twists.

Please Join Us by Catherine McKenzie explores the darker potentials of playing the game of networking in a man’s world. With an interesting premise and synopsis, I was excited to read this new release. This is not my typical read (or watch for that matter), but I figured I’d branch out. Unfortunately, I was not the biggest fan. Please keep reading to get my view on this book.

Plot
Please Join Us certainly had a mystery thriller element to it. As a reader, I felt the immediacy of the dangers and complications that the main character confronted. I was also unsure of how the mounting problems would be resolved (if at all) by the end of the book. In the end, I thought too many of the plot twists were… not great. This leads me to my second set of points on the plot.

I think this idea of a too-good-to-be-true networking cult was very interesting and what drew me in. What could have been a fascinating exploration into the power of culty groups turned into something less engaging. It read as a negative depiction of driven women in the workplace seeking to be successful, portraying them as conniving and underhanded to the nth degree.

Characters
I do not think any of the characters felt very real to me. Motivations did not seem very consistent and this is aside from the twists and turns that the book took. The relationships between the main character and all others, even her husband, were not very convincing. I think what we got in Please Join Us was this trope of what strong career-driven women should act like (i.e. confident, take no prisoners, etc.) but add in some similarly stereotypical ideas of women’s inner anxieties (i.e. weight, diet, appearance, etc.).

Overall
While I wanted to try out Please Join Us‘s corporate/professional cult mystery and like it, it didn’t actually pan out that way. McKenzie did a good job in the beginning and middle of the book setting up the induction into the organization and some of the perks, but it didn’t really grow from there. The characters were not developed enough for my tastes, either. The final twists and revelations at the end felt a bit much. The resolution seemed to be a result of too much manipulation and (successfully) being one step ahead of someone else. This felt too far-fetched in terms of the ability for these actions to actually be carried out.

This author is like none I have read before. She is so good at the characters and the twist and turns. Every book I have read by her I could not put down. Highly Recommend. So so so so good

This is a novel that focuses on the sense of belonging that most people have, making it a relatable, thrilling story. It presents the dilemma of wanting to find a community of people, and even upon being warned, going against suggestions and gut instinct because of the need to find a group to belong to. It seems too good to be true, and often it always is.

An email arrives in Nicole Mueller’s inbox. It is an application to join a women's networking group that promises to help women succeed. Panthera Leo may just be what Nicole needs to get her career back on track. So, why not?

She joins and goes off to the corporate team-building retreat. I could tell right away, that this group was up to no good. They are demanding and things turn pretty complicated and tangled. I had a hard time believing that Nicole would let herself be sucked into such promises. Her husband, Dan seemed to have a better sense of how things might turn out.

I found this to be more of a mystery than a thriller. There was quite a bit of build-up and team building where the women and their motivations start to become clear. I found much of the first half to be slow and a bit mundane, at 55%, I was still wondering if anything surprising would happen.

Then, yes, a nice surprise twist near the end, but the way it played out was so unimaginative. I was hoping the book would make a turn at that point (and save the book), but instead of using the twist to take off, it fell a bit flat and predictable.

Thanks to NG and the publisher for my early review copy. OUT May 24, 2022

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC! So obviously you had me at possible cult. And then give it a feminist spin? Yes please. Were the signs there that Nicole was joining a cult? Yes, even her husband saw the signs. But the level of deception and planning this women's group put in was a whole other level. This book honestly got wild and parts of the ending I did not see coming.

Natalie has been working her butt off for years at her law firm only to have everything she’s worked for pulled out from under her thanks to the Boys club mentality. Shortly after she is robbed of what is hers because of a skewed point system she is contacted by an organization promising to help women like her beat men at their own game.

Intrigued by this offer Natlaie joins the secretive group that promises to make her even more successful with other successful women helping one another. What starts out as an amazing support system soon feels like a cult.

Now Natalie must extricate herself from the group before she loses those things she holds dearest to her.

My thoughts

I really liked the premise of this book about women fighting the patriarchy. Unfortunately they turned out to be ruthless women doing more harm to fight against the patriarchy than good. I did like that was somewhat rectified in the resolution of the book. There was a lot of mention of the Me Too movement and how there is still a lot that needs to be done for reall progress. Otherwise I really enjoyed this story! I would definitely read another book by this author.

This was my first book by Catherine McKenzie and a women's thriller type genre I don't typically read. And I guess I know why.

Thank you to net galley and the publisher for a copy of this book. Unfortunately it just wasn't for me. I was not drawn to the main character Nicole. I found her behaviour unbelievable and inconsistent (wishy washy to start and then an unexpected backbone) and her character lacked depth. The other characters, for the most part, were one dimensional. And the plot itself was kind of unbelievable. Sorry for the negativity, I probably should not have chosen this book.

I have seen many good reviews so I think it's a matter of being careful about knowing what books and genres you like, and what you don't.

Thank you to NetGalley, Catherine McKenzie and Atria for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

I usually read McKenzie’s thrillers when I feel like a popcorn thriller. This one was no different. I found myself going quickly through the first and last quarter of the novel but the middle was just okay for me. Some of the twists were quite surprising so I enjoyed that. I will continue to read what she writes because I do enjoy the way she writes.

I loved the synopsis for this one and it sounded right up my alley. It ended up being an okay thriller. Definitely something I would reccomended to those looking for a quick read!

Catherine McKenzie usually writes a book that will knock your socks off. This one was very good but a fell just a bit short for me.
It had all the ups and downs that I like. Somewhat likable people. A beginning that drew me in although a little slow. A plot that sounded fantastic. The ending was quite good. But there was something about it that just didn’t keep my interest going as fast as I like. It took me several times to finish this book. I read then put it down. Then picked it back up again. It just didn’t grab me and hold on. But it was well written and still had some good plots going on. I just don’t like the cult feel involved. It could have been that I was not in the mood for it yet.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC. This is my thoughts about this book.

3.75 stars

Catherine McKenzie writes terrific books that pull you in and won't let go until the last page. Terrific story and characters. I'm late to the party but I loved it.

I decided to pick up this book after reading Six Weeks Left to Live. We meet this lawyer, Nicole whose both work and home life seem to be struggling. All of a sudden she receives this invite from a super exclusive women's networking group and figures it wouldn't hurt to join and recharge her career. The whole group is suspect from the start but Nicole's desperation for change clouds her judgement into the things already happening around her. From there is a story of manipulation, controls, and lies. I'll admit the story was slow for me in the beginning but it was all for a reason and it was exciting to see all of the pieces come together. Some parts I saw coming but over all the factors were there for a solid thriller story.

Lawyer, Nicole Mueller can’t get no satisfaction with her boss holding her back, but then when a life-changing invitation pops up, she joins…them.

I’m a frivolous thriller reader with particular tastes. Most of my thriller reads are buddy read or book club initiated. But at one point long ago, I was just in the mood. So I hoped on the netgalley machine, spied this aesthetically pleasing cover (it’s my fave color dreamscape) and clicked request. I read it & voilà here we are months after it’s release cause writing reviews for books I don’t care for is definitely not my fave.

Like me, Nicole signs up for something that isn’t quite what it seems. She accepts an invitation to join an all women’s retreat that promises to provide opportunities to help her achieve her goals. The group’s main philosophy—they’re a girl’s club in a boy’s club world. When she returns home from the trip and her life immediately changes for the better, Nicole can’t believe her luck. But when things seem too good to be true…she begins to think that maybe joining Panthera Leo is the biggest mistake of her life.

Honestly, I usually enjoy going into books without having read the synopsis, but sometimes I wish I had. I probably wouldn’t have picked this book if I read it. Please Join Us includes some quasi-cultish vibes, sexual harassment and #metoo, a weird housing subplot, and revenge. I’m not big on revenge plots.
I really enjoyed reading about the actual retreat which included some really whacked out group games, but the rest of the book really dragged and the twist was a non-event for me. One other thing to note is that while I really enjoy making lists, I don’t like them in my literature. Here, the author used quite a bit of lists in order to rush the plot forward, which just seemed like pre-edited notes that never got written into sentences.

Have you ever regretted not reading the synopsis?

Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book. It wasn’t a win for me, but it just might be for some thriller fans.

I was so intrigued by the synopsis of this one and it turned out to be a fun thriller! I felt like I was sucked in and couldn’t stop reading! I love that the author is a lawyer-turned-writer. It brought a realistic element to the main character who is a lawyer herself. Recomend!

This was my first read by author Catherine McKenzie, and it just wasn't my favorite. It felt slow and didn't grip me the way a solid thriller does. The build up felt a bit anti-climatic. While I did like the double twist at the end, it lacked luster. The author did grab my attention enough to hold on through the storyline to find out how deep the lies went and to figure out what in the world was going on. People aren't always who you think they are, and main character, Nicole, is asking herself this question, but also wondering if she is who she thinks she is.
Only time will tell.

Thank you to Atria Books and the author for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Review being posted to Amazon and B&N (awaiting approval) and my bookstagram account.

The benefits of professional networking, until they provide too much and ask too much in return. This is a page turner! Enjoyed the characters and the premise of this story so much..

This book was a page turner! It kept me on edge the entire time wondering what was about to happen and I couldn’t get enough.

I really could not get into this book. It felt, redundant in a way. Like I'd heard this story before? It felt like a character study more than any kind of thriller. It's a good example of how an incredibly gullible person could get sucked into a cult but this wasn't meant to be a gullible person. This really seems like a caricature of a cult. Very much not for me.

**Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the eARC**