I think this was not a bad idea with a secret women's group out right some corporate wrongs. Not what i expected but not bad either.

The writing was good and the book was well-executed, but this just wasn’t my cup of tea. I love thrilling mysteries, but I’m not a fan of the elite cult/ skull and bones trope. For fans of this type of story, it would be an excellent choice.

This was a really fun and addictive read, I really enjoyed my time reading it and I really struggled to put it down and go back to real life at time. I always enjoy a story with strong cult vibes and I think that McKenzie does a good job of making it a cult, without it really being called one. This was a really interesting read, one that I recommend you go into blind without knowing too much about the overall story. But just know that you're in for a wild ride, and for a great book you won't want to put down.

Written in dual timeline until they merge. It is interesting to see how the MC us unknowingly manipulated by the group. The writer kept me curious so I could not stop reading.

This was an addictive read. It was full of twists and turns, full of thrills and was fast-paced. Highly recommend you read this one.

Thank you to the publisher for my copy - all opinions are my own.

This was SUCH a fun book to read and SUCH perfect escapism reading at that. I love a story that centers around what is (essentially) a cult, and this had those cult vibes without really being EXACTLY a cult. Instead, a group of powerful women who claim to be a support group to lift up other women.... but at a cost.

Absolutely no spoilers for this one as you should read it relatively blind, but I will confirm that the pacing was on point, and you stay glued to the pages to find out to what lengths these women will go to get what they want, and who is going to come out on top in the game of matching wits and manipulation.

BRILLIANTLY crafted, a must for thriller readers!

On the brink of her law-career falling apart, Nicole receives an invitation from Panthera Leo, a prestigious women's networking club full of successful professionals. Her husband, Dan warns her that they sound like a cult, but Nicole wants to move her career along as quickly as possible. Once Nicole joins her "Pride" the perks come rolling in, until they start asking for favors, and Nicole realizes she may be in over her head.

The concept of this book was so intriguing to me, I love a good revenge plot, especially when it involves bad-ass ladies taking down entitled men. I did not want to put this story down once I started. This is told in alternating timelines of 'then' when Nicole is first invited to the group, and 'now' when Nicole is deep within the claws of this group. I enjoyed learning about each powerful member of the Panthera Leo and learning the motivations behind each character. My biggest complaint about the story was Momma's boy Dan, the husband... he kind of sucked and I wish Nicole kicked him the the curb for all of his children-talk bullshit after his mom came to visit. The story is definitely a slow-burn at the beginning, but I enjoyed trying to piece everything together alongside Nicole. It picked up pace pretty quickly by the end, with twists I didn't see coming. You couldn't help turning the pages trying to figure out how it was all connected in this giant web of lies. I listened to this on audio, which I think helped with the slower parts of the story.

Overall, I had so much fun reading this, and definitely recommend to all thriller lovers.

Not bad, not my favorite. This was a slower moving suspenseful read. I struggled with the pace at parts. Also I just didn't connect with really any character. It was a struggle but not a bad written book.

A wonderfully written thriller from a great Canadian author. Couldn't put this one down! Read it in one sitting and had to know what happened.

I shockingly only read my first Catherine McKenzie thriller last year, and I marked her down as an author I needed to read more from. So I was pleased to see she had a new one out this year.

Please Join Us is is a thriller that explores corporate wellness cults (think NXIVM.) Nicole has sacrificed many things in her life for her job and it's never paid off. Tired of being left behind, and skipped over for each promotion, she accepts an invitation to a women's only, phone free retreat, to connect to other business women. Think of it like a mentoring program. But the entry into this clique of women is you have to be willing to do anything for one another.

Immediately after she joins she starts to see the benefits, a gorgeous affordable apartment when she needs it, a case that's bound to get her promoted, and surprisingly a connection to the other women in her circle. The friends she didn't know she needed so badly.

So when Nicole gets a call from her mentor in the middle of the night. See's the body on the floor. She has to help hide it? Right?

I found this one to be a complete page turner, I really enjoyed the pacing and storyline, and even though I guessed a few of the twists there was a lot to enjoy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an ARC of this title.
3.5 stars rounded up

First off, this is Catherine Mckenzie's 13th book, so bravo to her for that! She is a new-to-me author though, and I found her writing to be quite engaging. I thought this was going to end up being just your run of the mill cult book, but it ended up being so much more than that.

The first part of the book with the retreat reminded me a lot of Nine Perfect Strangers. I will say that the middle did drag a little for me until everything came together at the end. There was one part that I easily predicated about a 1/4th of the way in, but there were a couple of other twists and turns that I hadn't seen coming. Overall, an entertaining slow-burn novel of suspense that focuses on female empowerment and revenge.

Thank you to Simon&Schuster Canada via Netgalley for a copy of Please Join Us in exchange for an honest review.

This was a doozy. I would classify Please Join Us as a psychological thriller because of the extent of psychological manipulation happening to both the reader and the heroine, Nicole.

Read the full review at www.litandleta.ca!

This was a lot of fun! It's been a couple months since I read the book, but the set up and slight culty vibes have stuck with me.

This one wasn't for me. I don't know if I was just struggling with the subject matter, or if it was the unlikable heroine, but i had a really hard time getting into it. I read 30% (which literally took a month) and just decided that it wasn't worth my time and wasn't the story for me.

Powerful women helping each other; what could go wrong? I liked the characters and the plot. I had a hard time putting the story down. I could so see this happening.

I received a copy of this book from Net Galley. A lawyer didn’t receive the promotion track to partner she was hoping for received an invite to an elite club for women. The club however had other plans for her. Book is more of mystery than a thriller. The book has a good plot but at times toward the end of the book things were slow because all plot twists were revealed. Would recommend the book

This was a compelling and fast paced thriller of a book. This author never disappoints...just wish I could've been right about my prediction for the end of the book.

I’ve enjoyed several books by Catherine McKenzie before; I loved I'll Never Tell and thought You Can't Catch Me was a good thriller too. So I was eager to read her new one, and was very thankful for the opportunity to read it through Netgalley.

Please Join Us has an interesting premise : a strange networking group, a retreat in a remote location with no access to communication with the outside world, a intriguing set of characters. I will say, Catherine McKenzie knows how to write a page turner! Through the story, we get snippets of “now”, and I was always eager to go back to the “before” to discover what happened in between.

That being said though, I thought there was something a bit off with the pacing. It took a while for the tension to really build. There were strange goings-on, yes, but a lot of it just made me feel more baffled than anything else. In parts, Nicole’s reactions confused me. She did question the group some, but she was easily deterred from finding out more. It was hard, then, to take her seriously as a lawyer too.

I really liked how everything tied up together in the end though. The last third of the book was definitely the most satisfying for me. You could tell the author had put a lot of thought into building her story, and it was much less straightforward than I had expected (without being overly complicated).

All in all, I enjoyed this one. Not my favourite from the author, but still one I would recommand to readers looking for a good thriller with a slightly different premise.

I was enjoying the book a lot until the ending and the reveal of everything. I thought it was too "mundane" and not exciting, my reaction was just "oh, okay". I was hoping for another reveal after that but there was nothing. So I thought it had more potential than it delivered. And I kept mixing up the characters, I couldn't differentiate the women in the group.

I have read many of this author’s books and was really impressed with all of them and this might be her best yet. Nicole is a lawyer and finds out her law firm is unhappy with the lack of clients and billable hours she is bringing to the firm. A lot of Nicole’s self worth is in her career so she is distressed to feel she is not on an upward trend. Just after this happens she learns of a self empowerment retreat for women. After attending the retreat things start to escalate in Nicole’s life. As Nicole tries to fulfill favours for the women in her ‘Pride’ group, from the retreat, she becomes increasingly uneasy. When some of these requests become unethical and illegal Nicole has to try and figure out how to exit this cult she has unknowingly gotten into. The suspense is palpable and the variety of characters is entertaining. This is a book that was hard to put down. I found it fast paced and the plot is layered and complex. I was very invested to see how all the moving pieces fit together in the end. The book is about empowerment of women and it definitively shows how much more needs to change before women are treated equally in the work place and society. I highly recommend this as the next book you should read.