This slow building, suspenseful, and twist filled read kept my interest all the way through. The action inside the house was mirrored by the storm outside. I really liked that the house had such a storied history. Very well done.

🤍Thank you so much to @htpbooks for the gifted book!

Title: The Weekend Retreat
Author: Tara Laskowski
Pub date: TODAY (12/26)

🤍What could be more fun than a book about 3 siblings and their significant others going to their fancy pants resort after their mother's death only to encounter secrets, mysterious gifts, a storm that traps them all there (obviously) and some deaths sprinkled in? Maybe a celebrity gossip blog you say, well we've got that, too!

🤍The story is told from the perspectives of the 3 women : Lauren, Harper and Elle and then my FAVORITE THING is that there's a perspective from an unknown person just described as "the party guest"! I was over-analyzing who the mystery guest was the whole time and I still didn't guess correctly!

🤍This book has SO much going on and I wasn't bored for a second! The ending was crazy and creative and overall the book gave me the same feelings as the last book by Tara that I read, The Mother Next Door (highly recommend)!

🤍Tara's books, to me, are the perfect mix of drama and thriller! The Mother Next Door is neighborhood drama and The Weekend Retreat is sibling/family drama, two of my favorite kinds of books!

Zach Van Ness’s girlfriend, Lauren, is looking forward to meeting his siblings at a family get-together. It’s a birthday party for Zach’s twin siblings, Harper and Richard, who are turning 35. It’s to be held at the family’s Van Ness Winery and estate. Their mother passed away not too long ago. The estate is huge and the family is wealthy.

Bill and his wife, Linnet, are caretakers for the estate. Richard is married to Elle who looks upon herself as the next matriarch of the family. Richard is busy running the business. Harper is married to Lucas. She is an influencer with self-care products. However, an argument showing her temper with some employees has gone viral and she is now being harassed on social media. There has always been tension in the family and they’re hoping for a weekend without arguments.

Elle has planned a huge outdoor dinner party with other guests complete with fireworks. However, a storm is heading their way and they are hoping it will hold off until after the party.

As the wine flows so does the animosity among some of the family members. Some are hiding secrets but little do they know a really big secret is about to be revealed.

This is a book filled with tension and backbiting characters. The wine flows and blood is about to follow. Whew. Can’t say I really cared for any of the characters because all of them are flawed in some way. However, this is a scary story and one you will want to read with the lights on. Enjoy!

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Five Reasons to Read The Weekend Retreat by Tara Laskowski:

https://www.novellives.com/2023/11/27/the-weekend-retreat-by-tara-laskowski-review/

The Van Ness siblings are coming together at their estate in the luscious wine country. It is a birthday celebration for the twins of the Van Ness clan. But it soon becomes clear, there is more going on than a big party. And it may include murder!

Let me just say, I did not like a single character in this book. And usually that means I will DNF it. But there was something about this book that kept me reading. The tensions, the secrets, the lies….all come together to make a pretty, dad-blame good read. And the ending…well you need to read this to find out!

Need a good family drama with a kick…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

Oh the Van Ness family has a lot going on! They’ve got drama, lies, secrets, betrayals, and so much more. Gathered at their family estate to celebrate the twins’ birthday, they are in for a weekend they’ll never forget! A great read with lots of twists.

This book was a slow starter for me, but the last third was hard to put down! I really loved the atmosphere of a secluded winery estate, where the Van Ness family gathered for the weekend to celebrate Harper and Richard's 35th birthday. Of course, there had to be a storm, but that just added to the whole vibe.

I will say that all of the characters were pretty unlikable, but I did enjoy having the four POV's to muddle out the truth behind what was happening. I also really liked the short chapters.

The plot wasn't anything super unique, but I didn't see the end coming, so I was pleasantly surprised. It was a slow build-up, and I prefer thrillers to be fast paced from the start. But the end was definitely worth it! I also like when books tell you what's going to happen at the beginning without revealing any key details. In this case, we know from page one that 2 people die, but we don't know who and we don't know how. It's fun getting to try to puzzle it out!

Overall, I did end up really enjoying this and I do think it's worth sticking it out through the slow build up! Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Family tension, secrets, drama, backstabbing, and a weekend not everyone will survive.

This was a nice easy read that really picked up in suspense after meeting all the characters. The story is told through 4 POVs: Harper (Van Ness heiress), Elle (a Van Ness by marriage), Lauren (girlfriend of a Van Ness) and a mystery character that is lurking in the shadows ready to pounce when the time is right.

At times, especially in the beginning, it felt similar to many other books (a weekend getaway, family drama, suspense of an eventual murder), but it kept my attention and I really enjoyed when everything started to be revealed.

Thank you NetGalley, Tara Laskowski, and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this ARC opportunity.

Pub Date 26 Dec 2023

Zack and Lauren are going to a birthday day party for his twin brother and sister, Harper and Richard. When they arrive at the gothic vineyard estate troubles arise and tensions in the air.
This was a great creepy read that kept me on the edge of my seat. Thanks NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this ARC that will be released December 26, 2023!

A big family retreat/celebration at the Van Ness family estate turned sinister - I was definitely interested in the premise from the beginning but it did have a slower build up. Be patient as the action picks up after the 50% mark. Lots of tension and drama between the characters, plenty of twists and turns, lots of mysterious characters and secrets. Easy to read, easy to binge. Definitely had me asking "who dunnit" through the whole book. Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Books for this eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC (Advance Reader Copy of The Weekend Retreat. This book was enjoyable but it did have a tendency to drag through parts when the siblings were bickering with one another constantly throughout the book. I rounded up my stars to 4 but really giving it a 3.5 rating. It was quite predictable but still a good read.

The Weekend Retreat had all of the back stabbing, twists, and turns required to make a raining day of reading and drinking tea. I wouldn’t call it a cozy mystery. I was just able to sit and be cozy and read it. It was much like a guilty pleasure. Like reading one of the soap opera-like thrillers I binge watched during the pandemic.

There are a lot of characters to dislike without losing interest in what they do. Everyone was doing something wrong, but I didn’t necessarily want them to pay any price for it. I wanted to see what they would do as mutual destruction seemed more and more likely,

Who doesn’t love watching the rich try to destroy themselves?

I'm a fan of locked door mysteries, so I had high hopes for this, but it missed the mark for me. The pace was too slow to keep me actively engaged until the final third of the book. I did enjoy the multiple POVs, though it wasn't always to keep straight who was who. I'd expected more of a thriller angle to it than I found. It was a bit predictable with unlikeable characters. If you enjoy slow burn family dramas, this may be one to check out.

This classic locked-room thriller started off strong, hooking me with its fast POV swaps, and intriguing relationships. The author kept me on my toes by inserting small bits of intrigue and dropping clues before swapping POVs, which ensured I continued flipping pages.

3 POVs are told from the 3 women in the Van Ness family, each one hiding a big secret from their partner, and each one wholy unlikable (in a great way!). The 4th POV is told from the perspective of "The Party Guest", an unknown character who is plotting against the Van Ness family throughout the novel. This is where it loses its intrigue for me. The addition of this character made for a pretty predictable reveal, and took me right out of a lot of the suspense. I also felt the pacing was off as it took too long to get to any action, and when it did finally arrive, I blinked and it was over.

While I did enjoy the read and had fun discovering everyone's secrets and lies, I do feel this story has been told before. I think this is perfect for those who have not read a lot of mystery/thrillers and enjoy a fast-paced family drama story. However, if you're well versed in the genre there's not much here for you that you haven't already read elsewhere.

If you're looking for a December 26 release to fuel your post-holiday travels, this is a decent pick. It's fairly fast moving, and does include bad rich people, a trope I'm only rarely tired by. It isn't necessarily a stand out, but it does the job.

A family get together a few months after the death of their mother is the setting for this closed room thriller. This is not your all American family but one filled with secrets. Each character gets a chance to tell their POV including an uninvited guest. The story is fast paced and kept me on my toes. I found the characters to be very relatable and enjoyed getting into their stories. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves locked room stories and devious families.

Intriguing Tale With Multiple (And Rapidly Switching) Character POVs. This is one of those tales with a lot of moving parts and a lot of different character POVs that can throw some people off. So if that is you, know up front that this is the style Ms. Laskowski has chosen to tell this particular tale in. Specifically, we have three couples - each of the surviving children of a now deceased former matron of the family + their significant others, as well as a seventh person - an unannounced and unplanned guest. (The final central character is another, planned, guest.) The tale uses the perspectives of each of the three females + the unplanned guest as our narrative device, and ultimately it tells a strong tale of family secrets, petty grudges, and everything else that makes a family so complex at times. Here, the book truly shines - and yes, it is helped by its stormy, near gothic mansion (complete with hidden passages and rooms!) setting. The prologue is particularly strong, drawing the reader in and urging them to find out what exactly happened on this eventful weekend among siblings (and their partners), and the overall mysteries are much deeper than are originally thought, adding to the depth and complexity of the tale.

Overall Ms. Laskowski did a truly great job telling this story in this particular format, even as confusing as the frequent perspective jumps can be at times - she also used them to great effect to propel the reader forward in an "I've GOT to see what happens next!" manner. Yes, after an admittedly somewhat slow start, this will eventually become one of those that you're going to want to stay up later than you probably should to finish the book.

Those looking to end 2023 with a bang would do well to pick this book up, as it releases just in time to be many peoples' final book of 2023. Very much recommended.

The Van Ness siblings, heirs to a copper fortune, are all congregating at the family's secluded winery estate for a joint birthday celebration. It is supposed to be a weekend of lavish comforts, gorgeous scenery, and indulgent drinking, but first a major storm hits the area, cancelling the party they had planned. Then, the longer the 3 couples remain couped up together the more tensions begin to rise, and the more secrets begin to spill out, threatening every relationship there. The question is - will their secrets destroy them, or will they destroy each other first? And who’s been watching them from beyond the vineyard gates?

This was a perfect blend of rich people behaving badly, mystery, and suspense. The characters were like something out of a soap opera or off of a Bravo show, and none of them were particularly likeable. Normally that is a deal-breaker for me, but in this instance it worked. The mystery kept me guessing until almost the very end, and the suspense had me on edge for most of the book, waiting to see what was going to happen next. If you are a fan of psychological thrillers, mysteries, or just suspense in general, you should definitely check this one out.

The Weekend Retreat
By Tara Laskowski
Publish Date: December 26th 2023

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The Van Ness children reunite one weekend at their recently deceased Mother's winery estate to celebrate the birthdays of twin siblings' Richard and Harper.

This family is stressed and this weekend is already tough but little do they know, an unexpected party guest is watching them in the estate and they want revenge. There's a big storm coming and this will be the perfect time.

This book started a little slow but did have a lot of character development and you really start to see the family lies and secrets unfold.

Written with multiple POV, which is I loved, the book kept me intrigued the whole time and had plenty of twists I was not expecting at the end.


Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for granting me access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Weekend Retreat
By Tara Laskowski

Graydon House, NetGalley

The Weekend Retreat hooked me and kept me on the line. I love a good family or strangers stranded at an isolated, sinister locale trope and this one delivers. The author reveals information and holds back at a perfect pace. The who and why is not too tricky to guess in my opinion but it serves the story because the characters and the how as it unfolds makes it so good. There is not a self-less character in the bunch but their motivations tract and are reasonable in their minds. We see characters through other characters points of view, bias and blind spots. Are they playing a part or lying? Read “The Weekend Retreat and decide for yourself. I look forward to reading more from Tara Laskowski and thank Graydon House and NetGalley for the advanced copy..