Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an advanced electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Alex has had a bad case of writer's block for the last year. When she is unexpectedly accepted into an exclusive writing retreat with her favorite author, she doesn't know how she's going to write anything new, but she can't miss this opportunity. Except... there's a catch. Each participant must meet the word count daily, 3000 words, and at the end of the month, they'll choose a winner to be published with a 7-figure book deal. But that isn't so straightforward either...

This book has thriller elements that you don't expect based on the synopsis, and I don't want to give any away either, but definitely don't make assumptions based on that alone. The characters are both likeable and not, and nothing is as clear as it appears to be.

I had a lot of "what the heck is going on" moments while reading, and I definitely did not expect any of the second half. This was a great debut and a good read for lovers of psychological thrillers!

CW: gaslighting, violence, blood, drug use, murder, death, imprisonment, sexual content

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz.

Alex is a writer that has writers block and has been invited to a writing retreat where her ex BFF will also be attending. Once they are there, it is revealed that the attendees must write an entire book in a month and the winner will receive a life changing amount of money.

I love this book. It had me from the first sentence. I was surprised to see that this was a debut. I loved all the characters in the book and I could never guess what was going to happen next. I would have completed this book in one sitting, but I started it at 10:30 at night. I writing really flowed and all the characters were extremely fleshed out. I can’t wait to read more books by Julia Bartz!

For the first 20% of this book I felt like it was a fairly stereotypical thriller - catty girls, insecure narrator, etc, but DANG did things spiral, and in the best way!

This felt like reading a fever dream, with so much confusion and so many blurred lines. None of it was ever overwhelming, but there is a lot happening and it escalates really quickly.

After disliking our protagonist Alex at the beginning, I really grew to love her and related to her desperation to be liked LOL. I also loved the themes of female friendsihp and how they were resolved.

I will be adding this one to my shelves!!

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review of this book.

Alex has always been a fan of the famous author, Roza Vallo since the time she read Roza's first book at the age of 13 years old. So when Alex gets an opportunity to attend a month long writer's retreat in Roza's haunting mansion in the mountains, it is like a dream come true. There are a total of 5 girls who will be attending this sought after retreat and one just happens to be Wren, Alex's former best friend whom she had a falling out with and they have not spoken to each since. Alex does not let this dampen her excitement and looks forward to going to the retreat. Once there, the girls have one on one sessions with Roza and they are all tasked with writing a brand new book of their own and must submit their writings to Roza each night.

I really enjoyed the story and it kept me intrigued to see what would happen especially after the twist was revealed. After that it got a bit out there but I had to continue on as I needed to know what was going to happen. Overall it was good but I did find myself getting a little lost and confused when reading the portions of Alex's book throughout the story. Good thriller and good mystery hope you like it. Enjoy!!

I was excited to start The Writing Retreat after reading the summary but quickly found that it was more dark than I’d anticipated….This book wasn’t for me.
Thank You Simon & Schuster Canada / Atria and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview this ARC.

A group of aspiring writers have been accepted to the exclusive and highly secretive retreat at Roza’s. After lavish gifts and taste of life in their icon’s reclusive home, the girls are introduced to a competitive game where the prize is more than just having their book published with Roza’s elite backing. It could be everything.Or, it could be something else entirely

The Writing Retreat sounded so full of promise and interest but the graphic sapphic nature and unnecessary and frequent foul language was so distracting it was impossible for me to become engaged and invested. Therefore it was a DNF for me.

Sadly, I cannot recommend this novel.