Fun, twisty thriller about a wealthy family with a whole lot of secrets, set at a secluded mansion. I almost wished there were more twists, turns and secrets but it ultimately it was an enjoyable read.

I enjoyed the story but, man, I hated these characters. I wasn’t rooting for anyone and while the story was easy enough to want to read, I also wanted it to be over. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A typical mystery-thriller involving the VanNess family of siblings, twins Harper and Richard and younger brother Zach a wealthy (natch) brood who inherited their family’s winery and have returned to celebrate the twins’ birthday weekend with spouses and significant others. The “action” in narrated by the female members of the group, Harper, Elle, Richard’s wife and Lauren, Zach’s girlfriend who is meeting the family for the first time, along with an unnamed “party guest” who clearly means the family harm.

This book didn’t work for me. It was too long by half, the male characters were pretty much cyphers (it took me a hundred pages to figure out which was Richard and which was Lucas) and the mystery and its solution just seemed uninteresting to me. I was really just ready for the whole thing to be over if I’m being honest. The writer seems to have some talent but it was not used to its best advantage here.

🍷The Van Nesses are one big mess of a family. That being said, I was anxiously awaiting the scoop on them! We find out so many little mysteries along the way. I really like Tara Laskowski’s writing style. The chapters flow so smoothly. She tells a story that has very few, if any, slow spots.

🏘️The Van Ness family share a weekend at the old Van Ness mansion and each sibling has their significant other with them. There is a set of twins and one other sibling. It is the twin’s birthday and it turns to murder. Everyone has a chip on their shoulder from the beginning. The jealousies and lies are rampant in that house.

🍂What I really liked was the description of the old mansion. We get a good picture of it throughout but toward the end there is a major development and something happens that is eerie and suspenseful. I wasn’t expecting it and was pleasantly surprised! Things aren’t always what they seem and it reminds us that most families have their own secrets. They just aren’t as deadly as the Van Ness’s.

👀Tara Laskowski has become one of my favorite thriller authors. This book reminds me of Ruth Ware and Agatha Christie stories that contain a bit of mystery, thrill, suspense and good old-fashioned (put a bunch of people in a room and one of them is a killer) covert operations going on behind the scenes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Graydon House Publishing for the ARC of this book.

Surprising and readable enough, but also too slow and shallow at times. The story was full of characters that were frustrating and terrible, and not in a good, well-written way; it just felt lazy. I could recommend this to those who look for a book with a similar premise to this, though. I would give the author another chance in the future too.

Every family has secrets and this one has plenty of them! The story is torn from multiple viewpoints, including a mystery party guest revealed at the end. You won’t see the ending coming.

The Van Ness family proves that secrets are murder in The Weekend Retreat!

The family is holding a weekend birthday celebration for the oldest siblings, twins Harper and Richard. We have three narrators, Harper, Richard’s wife Elle, and youngest brother Zach’s girlfriend, Lauren. These three women each have secrets that they are hiding from the rest of the family. Intermixed within their narrations are the news reports of a murder that occurs at the home during their celebration weekend. (This is not a spoiler – the news reports happen first, and then the narration catches up to the news reports.) A fourth narrator, “the party guest” helps create the tension for what will come.

Although we start out knowing that a murder will be occurring on the day of the party, the story is a little slow to get to that point. However, the pace never feels slow. The drama between these spoiled rich siblings is so much fun. That drama keeps the reader invested as the mystery slowly is revealed.

I love how this book takes our typical “whodunit” and turns it upside down. We are not only reading to find out who the murderer is, but who is murdered! I also love mysteries that take place in creepy old secluded houses and the house in this story does not disappoint. There are secret passageways, tunnels, and hidden doorways.

Although I would have preferred to have had more suspense in the story, this was a very fun, quick read. It felt like a soap opera, and gave me vibes of the CW’s Dynasty (Harper is every bit the spoiled rich girl that Fallon is.) Mystery lovers will enjoy this one and I rate it 4 stars out of 5.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this advance review copy. All opinions are my own.

I love a good “hate all these characters” book! The Weekend Retreat was exactly that. The Van Nesses are awful people and I truly enjoyed their torment.

Harper, Richard, and Zach Van Ness come together with their partners for a weekend celebration of twins Harper and Richard’s birthday at their family vineyard.

Elle, Richard’s wife, has prepared an elaborate, lavish party along with other traditional family activities for the family to take part in, despite a terrible storm being forecast.

However, not everyone is there to celebrate, as a “party guest” lurks around the property setting up their plan to make the Van Nesses pay for their transgressions and exact revenge.

The Van Nesses all realize that while they have their own secrets, there are still much more to be uncovered, and they’ll all come to light this weekend, like it or not.

This was a very slow burn, but it was done well in the sense that you were kept rapt at attention wondering who the murders at the beginning were, why the “party guest” wants revenge, what secrets the individual family members are hiding, and how the late matriarch of the family plays into everything despite having passed. I would have asked for a bit more of the ending, as the Van Nesses were truly terrible people who deserved more, but all in all I enjoyed this book!

Thank you to NetGalley, Graydon House, and the author for this ARC.
Publication date 12/26/2023

Overall a good thriller! The pacing was great and the end very twisty (although a little predictable - but I read a lot of thrillers haha). The only thing I couldn’t get into was how unlikeable the characters were. I got pretty annoyed with some, but I know that also was the point! I’d definitely recommend this read to fans of suspense and thriller genres!

Great ending with things I didn’t see coming! Slow start to the book because of all the characters’ points of views (took me awhile to keep track of who was who). Once I got a grasp on who the characters were, their points of view really added to the story, and it became a fast read. When the storm hit the Van Ness house I couldn’t put the book down!!

A retreat is not what the Van Ness family had when they returned to their mother's home for a birthday celebration. The siblings and their spouses are all hiding their own secrets. Stuck together during a horrible storm and a secret guest who arrives ready to bring all the Van Ness secrets to light. What can they keep buried?

A great story about family and all the drama within it. I loved the book and the multiple character views and telling.

This was really good!! So spooky and perfect heading into this season. I really enjoyed the characters and their depth.

Very entertaining mystery set in a sprawling winery estate. Love the family drama with six unlikeable characters squabbling amongst themselves. Good twists and secrets uncovered. A fun read!

Who doesn't love a thriller about an obnoxiously rich family getting murdered? Couple that with a raging storm and you have the perfect setting. This story kept my interest and I enjoyed it.

I reallywamted to like this book. The story was up and down for me. What I mean is that it would get interesting then it would drag rhen get interesting then drag again. It just got to the point where I would just skim pages and I just wanted it to end. The charcters were all annoying anf unlikeable. Tre ending was interesting but it kind of felt like a soap opera story.line then a psych thriller.

A not-so-happy family gets together for a birthday celebration that ends in death. It’s an interesting story about family dysfunction and secrets. I felt the ending came together a little too perfectly, but enjoyed reading it!

The premise sounded like something I would really love. I love a good domestic/family suspense with secrets, lies, and drama. I did like that it was multiple POV and we got to see deeper into several of the main players in the story. All of the siblings and their relationships felt distinct with their own agendas. I also really loved the atmosphere of the creepy house that seemed to be a character in itself. But all in all it was just an average read for me. It didn’t have anything new or fresh to bring to this thriller trope. I lost interest several times. It was very predictable. I mean I had everything guessed way before it was revealed. I didn’t particularly like any of the characters, and not because they were supposed to be unlikeable, but because they just didn’t interest me. I just wasn’t invested in anything like I wanted to be. The plot was rather slow-build, which isn’t my favorite. The mystery guest wasn’t all that mysterious to me. It just felt like I was reading something I’ve read before many times. It was okay and I’d still recommend it to readers who just really like this type of thriller. But I was not particularly blown away nor excited by it.

A fast-paced thriller centering messy family dynamics and rich people getting into trouble! Fans of Succession will love this mystery in which three siblings and their partners reunite at the family estate for a weekend of celebration-turned-murder. Great for lovers of the genre and would be a decent fit for YA readers transitioning to adult books as well.

This story is about three siblings and their significant others who gather in their old family home for the first time after the death of their mother. I thought my family was dramatic, but this one should win an award for the grudges being held. Secrets come out and lead to a deadly evening.

The Weekend Retreat by Tara Laskowski was a delectable sinful treat to read! I devoured this book in two days. The premise is simple… the adult Van Ness children are meeting up with their significant others at their childhood family home to celebrate the twins, Harper and Richard’s, birthday on a weekend retreat during what ends up being a huge storm. They are isolated and due to the storm, they have no power. What happens when no one is really who you think and all have a secret to keep? At the end of the weekend, two people are dead… but who? And why? I throughly enjoyed this book.