WOW WOW WOW, this was a propulsive page turner and the HYPE IS REAL! I loved this one SO much! 5 STARS

This one sounded so interesting, I couldn't wait to read it. I like the aspect of working in a law firm and trying to get ahead while also having a life. There were some slow parts, but I also found the part about the retreat interesting as well. The last quarter of the book really ramped up with what was going on and there was a lot. Many things were "figured out" and it got a little hectic with all the characters and revelations. The ending was ok, but predictable. This was the first book I have tried by this author and I do look forward to trying another one by her.

Please Join Us is the latest thriller novel by Catherine McKenzie. I'll admit that it was initially the vibrant cover that caught my attention, though the plot kept me invested enough to see the story through.

Nicole Mueller feels like her life is falling apart. In a desperate move to save her career, Nicole signs up for exclusive membership in a networking group. This networking group may or may not be a cult – but their offer is too good to pass up.

At first, the whole organization seems almost too good to be true. Her new connections quickly began providing her career with the needed boost. But then Nicole learned the meaning behind the phrase 'too good to be true.'

Okay, I'll admit that the premise of Please Join Us immediately caught my attention. An organization of women designed explicitly to uplift others? On the surface, that sounds great, right? Only, even without much thought, one could quickly see how such an organization would be highly dependent on the people running it and the rules they create for themselves.

I'm rambling; sorry about that. What I'm trying to say is the potential of this organization caught my imagination. It has the potential for good – and the potential for abuse. In the case of Please Join Us, you can probably guess which way it goes.

There are a lot of twists and turns in Please Join Us. Honestly, I went into this book expecting a few good twists. Instead, I got lots and lots of twisty surprises. That enhanced the story, making it all the more unpredictable.

I did have a few problems with this book, which kept me from loving it. Mainly, I didn't love some of the tropes Please Join Us leaned on (such as the inability to trust women). Overall, I would say that it was a solid read worth checking out, especially if the blurb caught your attention.

Review coming soon. Fell behind due to illness, amd working on all of the old ones now.

This one will not be forgotten. I love all of her novels and was so grateful to read this:
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC; opinions are mine.


Pub Date was August 23, 2022
#PleaseJoinUs #CatherineMcKenzie #NetGalley

This book will hook you from the first page. I very much enjoyed the story line. I thought the ending was rushed and didn’t leave the punch that was anticipated.

Characters that you will love to hate. Who will you trust?

Narrator was hard to follow at first, but after the first hour her voice and tone grew on me.

Please Join Us is about Nicole Mueller it is a character driven book with High profile women who’ve claimed top positions that men once held. This is an informative read. This is a well plotted and well thought out concept. It’s so carefully orchestrated that it took my brain some time to process all the information.
I enjoyed this fresh new take on women taking over a man’s world. Catherine paved a solid path explaining the way the group works and how it benefits women. The story alternates between the past and present with relevant information.

Nicole seems to be hitting bottom. On the partner track in her law firm, she’s suddenly on the outs when she loses a big account. The apartment she and her husband have been counting on to buy is suddenly in jeopardy and she’s out of sorts. When she receives an invitation to join an elite group of women called Panthera Leo, she is quickly folded in and becomes a member of a pride. With hoops to jump through, she takes it all in stride and soon her career is once again taking off. The only catch is there is going to be a “test” at some point. Will she be up for it when it comes? When the test comes, it’s way more than she’s bargained for and she wants out! Can she extricate herself from the group or has she made the biggest mistake of her life? McKenzie has written a unique page turner, filled with a tangled web of lies and deception. Some people will stop and nothing to get what they want, but who will be the victor in the end? Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Thank you to Atria, Catherine, and Netgalley for an advance copy of Please Join Us.

Nicole’s at a crossroads in life. She’s floundering in her job, she’s about to lose her dream apartment to her sister-in-law, and her and her husband may not be on the same page about everything as she previously thought. It’s time for a change. So when she receives an invitation to a women’s secret society of sorts that promises to get her career back on track and thriving, she takes the opportunity without much of a second thought despite her husband’s hesitations.

At her first meeting (which is a getaway to a remote ranch) she meets four other fierce, independent, and very successful women who will support her, guide her, and advance her career. What Nicole does not understand is that this kind of support comes with a price. Soon she is expected to do immoral and sometimes illegal things in order to help enhance her group’s placement in life.

It’s a man’s world, but what will women do to make sure they’re in charge?

This was a fun toxic friends thriller that also crossed over a bit into the currently popular social thriller genre. It touches on a subject that any woman in a male-dominated industry can relate to - we work harder, we work longer, and in turn we tend to get less credit, less pay, and less respect than our male counterparts.

While I believe this is a feminist novel at heart, it does beg the question of whether some women aren’t just as big of a problem as men in their own ways. We can be awfully toxic creatures to people we call friends, which I found to be the most dominant theme of Please Join Us.

Nicole wasn’t a character that I loved, but I saw a lot of myself in her…specifically the traits that I don’t really care for. However, that made for a more enjoyable and relatable book overall, so I don’t mind seeing my ugly parts played out in print once in awhile!

The twist on this one was definitely not something that I saw coming. It felt like I was unraveling a braid, I’d get one twist undone and then there’d be another, and another, and then one more.

Will definitely be reading more Catherine McKenzie in the future.

This fast-paced and exciting thriller had me guessing all the way through. I love the overarching theme of female empowerment and the author does a great job of pulling readers into the world of secret societies and cults.

This story has more of a legal thriller vibe than McKenzie’s previous novels, but she still managed to shock me with a few twists I definitely didn’t see coming. Overall, a great read.

My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

3.5 stars

Please Join Us by Catherine McKenzie is an enjoyable read which started slowly but ended up being a well-paced and suspenseful story with some underlying serious themes.
Nicole, the protagonist and narrator, is a lawyer struggling in her career at a large legal firm. She is invited to join a women’s networking group, Panthera Leo, and, after surviving the “training,” finds it a supportive group who helps her with her career and in other ways. As she tells her husband Dan, “They are the most benign group of women….they take on the world….but in a good way.”
No spoilers here—the rest of Nicole’s association with the cult-like PL involves the actions of oddball leader Karma, covering up a murder, and exposing the insidious reach of the PL, culminating in a suspenseful, cleverly constructed conclusion.
The author is an experienced attorney and can provide great details about Nicole’s profession and the legal intrigue in the story. I especially liked the larger, more serious issues the book touched upon—what is Friendship? Trust? Justice? Punishment? Revenge?
Read it and see what you think!

Thank you to Atria Books/Simon & Schuster/NetGalley for the ARC. This is my unbiased review.

This book was so incredibly good, and a very fast read! I got into it immediately, and couldn’t put it down. Will absolutely be recommending it to others!

Please Join Us by Catherine McKenzie is a FANTASTIC exciting fast paced thriller.

I absolutely love this author. Her characters are so well written.

The twists really kept me guessing. A well written thriller.

✔️unique, fast paced storyline with lots of twists and turns - I read it in a day
✔️lot of powerful, smart female characters
✔️ lies, deception, gaslighting, revenge, a cult like atmosphere
What more could you want ?

3.5 Stars
Please Join Us by Catherine McKenzie takes the good ole boys network that has worked for Centuries and turns it on its ear with the cunning and smarts of women.

At first, I got the flavor of the movie from the 80s, The Star Chamber starring Michael Douglas. In this movie, a group of judges feels like their hands are tied by the law allowing those they feel are guilty, off. Michael Douglas is a young judge that is approached by this group of judges to join them.

This book involves the legal system and the need for career women to stick together like men for a common good, them. To be part of this group means so many doors opening and could be the answer to a woman's prayers.

What happens once part of it, may become a nightmare.

This was an easy, fast-paced legal thriller(ish). I absolutely adored this book, I love the premise of a women's club linking up to exact revenge. The end took me completely by surprise, which is a great thing and it made sense so it wasn't a blind side just to blind side you. Not all the characters are likable, which is true to real life so I enjoyed that aspect as well.

This started off really interesting and then I quickly realized it was going to be a "legal cult" thriller. This was my first experience reading one so I didn't know what to expect going in, but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. That's not to say it's the best cult thriller book I've read but it did have an interesting take on the whole concept. The whole women empowerment idea was very unique and I always like reading from a lawyer's point of view. I would suggest picking this one up if you are a fan of legal thrillers.

At the start of this novel, main character Nicole is a partner in a NYC law firm who gets an invitation to join a secretive women’s only networking/empowerment group which aims to counteract the old boys’ club nature of the world, and since she has just received some less than favorable news at work, decides to give it a try. Is the group more sinister than it appears? Well, this is a psychological suspense/thriller, so what do you think? 😉 And that’s not a spoiler as there are scenes intercut in the book from months later where we can see that something has definitely gone wrong.

I’m a long time fan of Catherine McKenzie, both of her earlier books that are more contemporary women’s fiction through her evolution to suspense and thrillers, though I still have a few of her early books to catch up on. I must admit that her book last year, Six Weeks to Live, disappointed me, so I’m happy to say she’s back in too form with this one! Perhaps not everything that happened in this book was entirely believable, but it was a super-entertaining and suspenseful book that I couldn’t put down.

Though as a former NYC lawyer, I have a small quibble with some of the terminology used (at least in my ARC) that might be accurate elsewhere but definitely not in NYC - it’s “Trusts and Estates” not “Wills & Estates” and a litigator would never refer to a matter they were working on as a “file” but instead would call it a “case.” I know these are super minor details but while they did not detract from my reading enjoyment, they did distract me. But descriptions of law firm life and law practice were good though!

If you were a fan of Chandler Baker’s The Husbands or Allison Gaylin’s The Collective, I think you would like this one too - slightly similar vibe but in the corporate world.

I loved to concept, the long game and the players. Nicole was behind the 8 ball for most of the book but found a way to turn the tables and come out on top. Well written!!

This one kept me on my toes! I loved the secret society/secret cult angle. My feelings about the Pride changed throughout, each chapter dropping more into the story. I think this was perfectly paced to keep interest building.

I received an advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

"As fate would have it"...I LOVED this book! The twists and turns in this book just kept coming. I stayed up waaaay too late desperately turning the pages of this amazingly plotted thriller! Seriously loved this all-female club. Nicole was definitely my fave. This is one wild ride you don't want to miss out on!

Highly recommend!