I have mixed feelings about this book.
It started out in an intriguing way. Alex, a young woman, trying to be a writer, is invited to a writing retreat, at the home of Roza Vallo, an award winning author. Only a select few women are invited, and Alex is thrilled to be in the presence of her favorite author, Roza.
After arriving at the mansion where Roza lives, and meeting the four other attendees, the story begins!
As the book unfolds, it begins to get very strange and creepy.
There are secret rooms in the mansion, food and drinks laced with drugs, hidden cameras, and bad weather that disables all electricity. The participants are completely isolated from the world!
I found the first half of the book interesting, however the second half was scattered with unreality. ( ghosts, deaths, betrayal).
Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the Arc, in return for my honest review.
3 stars for some entertainment, but overall disappointment.

After their friendship abruptly and violently ends, two writers, Wren and Alex, find themselves both accepted into their favorite author, Roza’s, writing retreat in her isolated manor house, Blackbrier. Seeing it as an unparalleled opportunity, they both accept, but will their witchy, mysterious benefactor drive them back together or rip them apart. As more and more odd occurrences occur on the estate, and a snowstorm traps them all together, they have to uncover what exactly Roza’s real intentions are. I’m on a roll with thrillers right now, and this one was so entertaining. I love a big spooky house, I love a locked door mystery. And I love queer characters! So obviously this was a big hit for me. I love books that examine how sexual repression can lead to madness, and how harmful to yourself and sometimes others not allowing yourself to accept your sexual identity can be. Which is what I personally think The Haunting of Hill House is about. But anyways, if you like atmospheric thrillers with complex female relationships you’ll love this. Such a solid mystery in this one and the pacing is just *chefs kiss*. I read this in one day, which is a rarity! Big recommend!

This review will be posted on my Instagram @boozehoundbookclub in April.

Without giving any spoilers, Bartz weaves an engrossing tale of writer’s block, meeting your idols (or maybe why you shouldn’t!) and the complexity and pain of the dissolution of friendships—all set it a lush countryside estate. This isolated-house suspense and mystery will be quickly devoured by fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware.

Ended up being too much like nine perfect strangers. It was all over the place. I don't even know what was going on in most of this book because of the same theme going through my brain.

I enjoyed this novel in the sense that I felt like I was reading about teenage girls! I do love a good teenage drama 🍿😂
I thought that it was a fun read. Other than the MC, I felt like everyone else could have been explored more, in order for us to truly connect.

This is a bold thriller with a lot of twists, and I very much appreciated the writing. I was hooked from the first page, and I thought the characters were very well-developed, especially for a debut author. It's a very fun locked room mystery with a gothic feel, and it reminds me a bit of books like The Plot and Who is Maud Dixon?, two other reads over the last year that I loved.

Thank you Atria for the ARC!

This was definitely different from what I expected going in. There was more of a supernatural element that is not hinted at in the blurb. None of the characters were very likable.

This one started off strong and I thought I was going to really enjoy it. Shortly after that, I felt like I was reading a narrative of a group of idiots playing Clue with pathetic back stories. There's some girl drama mixed with some writing competition that very slowly spirals into some other story all together in a basement. It's not hard to follow but just falls apart and seems desperately thrown together in the end.
My heartfelt thanks to Edelweiss and Simon and Schuster-Atria publishing and #NetGalley fir the Advanced Copy.

I did not finish this book. The cover and the description gave me high hopes. But I just never believed the characters. I read half of it, so I feel I gave it a fair shot.

A cozy comfy page turning mystery. Loved it from start to finish. Read it over the course of an evening and couldn’t believe I was done in one sitting.

The Writing Retreat came out of no where and pulled me out of a reading slump. I could not predict the ending which I love. It was well thought out and written. I thoroughly enjoyed this read and have already recommended this book to several people.

Soooo The Writing Retreat. What a wild ride! Honestly, nothing in this book was predictable or expected to me. It frankly felt off the wall. I loved the pacing and I was immediately hooked by the storyline and the somewhat unlikeable and untrustworthy characters (though based on others’ reviews, I may have been in the minority on that). Around the 2/3 mark, it got a little bonkers for me. Still stuck around because I was dying to find out what was going on. I was NOT disappointed by the ending! ⁣
—⁣
Ultimately, this wasn’t my fave but a really interesting and unique (read: bananas) thriller.

I really enjoyed this suspenseful debut! It took me a couple tries to really focus….and then I blew through it in one sitting, left with the chills at 3 am. Plot lines with snowed-in isolated homes often make me claustrophobic, so it’s a testament to the author’s writing that I wasn’t rushing to get to the end. It was pretty hot too, not something I was expecting based on the description! I didn’t love Alex, but she was an effective heroine and was pretty relatable. Her tension with Wren was palpable, and she interacted well with the other girls. Keira is the one you want to be your ride or die though, and I wish we could’ve gotten to know her better. I didn’t love Alex’s writing excerpts, but I understand why they were necessary. No plot thread is left hanging and the villains are legitimately scary.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

The Writing Retreat
By Julia Bartz
Review and Rating 4 ⭐️

The Writing Retreat is a twisty and brilliant thriller, and I loved it! The story follows Alex, who has a last minute opportunity to attend a month long writing retreat with her favorite author, the horror writer Roza Vallo. Alex jumps at the chance even though it means running in to her former best friend, Wren, who is also attending, and will be her competition.
Roza soon reveals the attendees must complete a novel from start to finish in a month and the winner will receive a seven figure publishing deal at the end. Alex is determined to win despite the strange happenings at the estate, possible haunting of the mansion itself, and the increasingly erratic behavior of Roza herself.
When one of the writers disappears in a snowstorm, and with time running out to write the perfect novel, Alex is left to figure out what this retreat is really all about.
I just loved the writing, the plot, the atmosphere of this book. I can’t believe this was Julia Bartz debut novel. She really knows how to write about toxic female relationships and I also really like how well developed her characters are. This novel does contains some graphic and adult themes, and these may not be for everyone. If you like an atmospheric psychological thriller, I highly recommend you give it a try!
I want to thank Julia Bartz, Atria Books, and NetGalley for providing an eARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.





Book Rating Key
⭐️ Not Recommended
⭐️⭐️ Readable Book
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Good Book
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Excellent Book
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Near Perfect Book
***Note*** I seldom give ⭐️or ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ratings. If I feel a book is a ⭐️sometimes I just prefer to not finish reading it and not rate it. As for 5 ⭐️books, I think of those as books I would want to take with me to a deserted island 🏝️, and this means I read a whole lot of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️star books. Happy Reading

“Where did one’s power lie in a world that stripped it from you, over and over again? How could we reclaim it when the dominant forces dangled it above our heads, shouting: Only the strong survive?”
OK I loved this and I thought it was a ton of fun!! Reminded me of Night Film with some toxic friendship added in. Kooky author locked door mysteries forever.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was just not my type of story. I didn't connect with any of the characters. The story didn't move at a pace that I like. I finished it. Not sure I liked the ending. Just an okay read for me.

**FYI there are a couple of graphic sex scenes. If you don't like books with that, this is not for you.

Where to start with this debut thriller?! Twists that will shock you, characters you don’t know if you should root for, and spookiness and o keep you up at night.

The Writing Retreat follows aspiring writer, Alex as she gets the opportunity of a lifetime to meet her idol Roza Vallo. Alex, along with four other aspiring writer’s are invited to Roza’s remote home to learn from her and possibly get a book published. Ex-best friends, creepy employees, a secluded and mysterious home are some of the things that Alex encounters while on the retreat. Thinking she has a special opportunity for her writing quickly turns into a scary examination of her life and then goes even further into madness when people start to go missing.

An exciting and crazy ride!

This book was wild. Alex gets invited to a writing retreat held by her favorite author after someone drops out of the retreat. The problem comes because there are only supposed to be four women participants, but since someone dropped out, the famous author, Roza Vallo, decides to quickly add another person. Somehow one of Alex's friends is acquainted with someone who is acquainted with Roza and gives her one of Alex's stories. Alex's story isn't the only one she passed along to Roza; she also passed along one by Alex's former best friend, Wren. Wren also ends up selected for the retreat which leaves Alex upset and worried about sharing a space for a month with her former best friend.

The other three women, Keira, Taylor, and Poppy are just as excited as Alex and Wren to stay at Roza's secluded home and write a novel for the chance to win a huge book deal. As the women work on their books, excitement turns to fear as they question whether their writing aspirations are worth more than their lives.

For the most part, each character contributed to push the plot forward. The true horror of their situation did not appear until about halfway through the novel. Many of the characters aren't what they seem, especially Roza, which is easy to pick up on early in the novel. There were many plot points that set up later reveals, some were obvious while others weren't so obvious. At the beginning, I liked all the women of the retreat, even Wren, and surprisingly Roza. By the second half of the book my opinion changed on some of the characters, and I was shocked at the complete change because I didn't expect one of the characters to turn into the person she turned into.

While Alex and Wren got the resolution they needed after the end of their friendship, it took a back seat to everything else that occurred though the conflict between them was a major plot point for much of the novel. There was also some shocking information about Roza, that the novel sets up early on to portray her as a fierce advocate for writers which later turns out not to be the case. Overall, I found the ending to be as satisfying as it could be under the circumstances despite all the sad moments in the second half.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars. This one started out strong for me. I was interested in the story and liked the writing retreat set up. As I got into it further, the characters just kind of ruined the enjoyment of the book. They were whiny, immature, and just annoying. There was a lot of action toward the end, which did make things more interesting.

This was a really crazy one so obviously I loved it. Great premise, great twists, great characters. Can't wait to read what she does next.