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.

The Van Ness family's weekend retreat to celebrate the 35th birthday of twins Harper and Richard takes an unexpectedly sour turn, filled with vindictiveness, hatred, unresolved past issues, bottled-up resentments, and emotional breakdowns. Initially, I anticipated reading a claustrophobic whodunit mystery, as the news column in the beginning suggested. You know the formula: a group of people who are related to each other find themselves trapped in a place where the electricity suddenly goes out, a terrible hurricane or some equally sinister natural disaster prevents them from leaving, and an unknown intruder lurks, sending creepy messages. Eventually, as the pressure mounts, people become more agitated, leading to vengeance and murders. While 'Weekend Retreat' follows this standard trapped-in-place formula, the execution of increasing tension and the mystery surrounding the perpetrator are somewhat overshadowed by the family drama and the deep-seated hatred they hold for each other. Unfortunately, none of the book's characters are as they initially appear. They all wear multiple masks and harbor many secrets, as the author aptly summarizes: 'In the end, you are who you make yourself out to be.'

When you delve into the Van Ness family's past and learn about the dynamics of their unhealthy, extremely dysfunctional family, you may understand why three siblings have turned into ruthless, opportunistic individuals.

Harper, Richard, and their younger brother Zach are heirs to the copper fortune of a wine empire inherited from their late mother, Katrina Van Ness. Katrina was a smart businesswoman but also a manipulative, dictating mother who may have left a lasting, irreparable imprint on her children's souls.

They return to the family estate to celebrate Harper and Richard's joint birthday, organized by Richard's wife, Elle, who acts as if she were Katrina's real daughter due to their long-standing, close relationship, which even Harper's daughter has never had the privilege of experiencing. Zach also brings his new girlfriend, Lauren, to the estate, unaware of what she's getting into.

Let's delve deeper into the characters:

Harper may be the most selfish, arrogant, and narcissistic character in the book. She oversees an empire of beauty products and is married to Lucas, the owner of a tech startup with his own share of secrets. He feels like an outsider in the family due to their condescending, noble attitude, seeing themselves as above the rest of the world.

Richard is a direct, power-oriented, and realistic man who likes to control his family members, while Elle acts as the family's mother figure, trying to bring everyone together. Despite her sincere efforts, her long-standing feud with Harper can push her to the brink, causing her to lose her temper.

Zach may come across as the spoiled baby of the family, living in an optimistic bubble to distract himself from the harsh realities of the world. He's also dealing with financial troubles, and his girlfriend, Lauren, a kind and naive small-town girl aspiring to be a writer, holds her own set of secrets.

Three couples who genuinely despise each other are forced to spend three days together, with a tragedy looming on the horizon. In this book, what's more important than the identity of the perpetrator is the ugly secrets that family members are hiding.

Overall, the identity of the secret guest is predictable, and the slow burn tension can be frustrating because the characters spend most of their time bickering and fighting. Not much earth-shattering occurs in this book, and the characters are largely unlikable. However, I did enjoy the ending, which, while not entirely fair, is undeniably realistic and clever. The setting at the wine estate with its gothic vibes and secret doors intrigued me enough to round up my 3.5 stars to 4. Nevertheless, I wished for more heightened tension and mystery in the book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing/Graydon House for providing me with this digital review copy in exchange for my honest opinions.

This book had me torn between it was ok and I liked it. I thought it was pretty well written and intriguing but the characters were annoying a lot of the times. Maybe there were supposed to be. I don't know but I like to at least feel like I'm rooting for someone in a book. I settled on 3 stars, Iliked it. It was intriguing enough to keep my interest.

I LOVED this book!! It was so atmospheric, claustrophobic, creepy, etc. I really enjoyed the character's dynamics with each other as well. The entire time I was reading, I felt like I couldn't trust anyone. I will definitely be recommending this book to everyone!

3.75 stars out of 5.

This was a slow burn for me but I was immediately drawn into the story. All of the characters were really unlikable and kind of annoying, especially Harper. I did not expect the twist at the ending at all! I liked how we did not know who died in the beginning of the book and that kept me guessing until the end.

The Van Ness siblings, Richard, Harper, and Zach, bring their significant others to their families estate for Richard's and Harper's birthday party. Elle, Richards wife, has planned an extravagant party but a huge storm comes in, causing the party to be cancelled. With all the siblings in one place, there is tension and secrets which turned deadly.

Fans of mystery/thrillers will definitely enjoy this book.

Thank you Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing, Graydon House for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 stars. As pointed out by my sister, none of the characters were particularly likeable, but there were surprises and enough suspense to keep me reading.

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book!

The Weekend Retreat was slow to start for me but once we had all these characters in the same room, the story picked up tremendously! Nearly every character was unlikable in some way - their catty behavior towards each other stressed me out the entire time. Especially Harper . . . She is quite literally the worst. But in the best way - her character added that much needed tension and drama to every scene.

And that twist at the end! Whoa. Didn't see that coming!

This one was a slow burn for me. I was waiting for the crazy. It was enjoyable but not my favorite book. Fast easy read.