This book was not what I was expecting, but not in a good way. I found the characters vapid and contrived, and there was very little growth to be found.

The plot itself was messy feeling and I struggled to finish this book.

The Ventura Hotel needs a major facelift. While recovering from her own personal setback Jane Duvall stays at a remote hotel during the off season. They are surrounded by immense forest and the Fraser River. Jane was nothing more than to bond with her new family, but she feels unsettled and cold by the owner of the hotel. When Jane starts asking questions Dom and Sienna grows more and more distant from Jane. Undeterred from everything Jane uncovers secrets that make her question who she is married too, including mysteries of people disappearing in the past. When theirs a rainstorm threatens to flood the banks at the river and claim the Ventura Hotel.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for sending me an ARC copy of this book. I loved this book so much. It was so creepy and so interesting. I don't know why the Goodreads rating is so low on this book I found it so interesting. I read this book during my vacation and honestly I think it was the perfect time to read this book. The first start of this book was a little slow, but then it ended up getting so much better. This is a very fast paced book/read and I always love that about a book. Sienna was an interesting character and I honestly didn't like her but then I know she missing her mom, but at the same time who would do that to their child. I also love how this book was set in the forest somewhere remote, because honestly the forest is pretty scary at times. I also love that this book was set in Canada is was probably one of my favourite things about the book. The character in this book weren't that likeable to be honest and usually I do like one character, but in this book these characters were something different. I don't know if the author meant for that or not but it happened. Honestly if this place was real I might want to visit it, it seems so cool, and I just love mysterious places and looking into them. This book is worth the read, ignore the Goodreads rating and just read the book, it's so worth it.

The first half of this book was great. I really tried to stick to the suggested reading schedule and it kept me on the edge of my seat. Until for some reason the writing got lazy and everything happened at once and then it ended. This had all the potential to be five stars but there were just too many questions left unanswered, too many holes to fill.

A fast-paced, twisty thriller set in a remote BC hotel during the off season when Jane, recovering from a work scandal, agrees to spend the off season with her husband and new stepdaughter where the odds of being cut off from the rest of civilization are very high and likely. Nothing could possibly go wrong with a set up like that right??

This was my first book by Amber Cowie and it kept me guessing right to the end! Entertaining, multi-layered and full of characters that will make you question who you think the ultimate bad guy really was. I read this as part of a Global Tandem Readalong and it was so fun!

Many thanks to NetGalley @simonschusterca for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review. I can't wait to read more by Canadian thriller writer Amber Cowie. This is a perfect book for fans of authors like Roz Nay, Robyn Harding or Gail Anderson-Dargatz's recent domestic thrillers.

This book was ok… lots of action and gaslighting. I think she was dumb to get married so fast, go somewhere so isolated being expected to cook and clean and mother a teenager, that she took so much crap from everyone. I think at the end she should have divested herself of it all and moved on.

This book was marketed for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware so I requested it from NetGalley. Unfortunately it was a disappointment for me.

What I liked
-it took place in BC and I could imagine exactly where they were

What I disliked
- the characters, Jane the MFC, marries a man she knows nothing about and enters into a pact with him not to google each other. Dom, the man she marries wants her to cook and clean for him while he renovates an old hotel in the off season. It’s 2024, can we please stop with this stereotype.
-I struggled with the whole concept for the story. It’s very unrealistic that someone wouldn’t google someone especially when they ask you not to.

This book just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

I was all over the place with my opinion of this book while reading. I was invested from the start and was eager to see what was going to happen. I hated the two main characters, simply because they got married after four months of knowing each other and I think that’s supremely stupid.

The one thing that stayed true to form throughout the book was the stupidity of the characters. Their conversations and their actions made me so angry, and I think that actually took away from the book for me a little bit. So much was hinging on the fact that Jane and Dom were willing to get married so quickly without knowing anything about each other.

I thought that the reveals were really clever, but I felt like it took way long to get there. The book was full of conversations that got nowhere and mysterious happenings that no one could figure out. I’m all for a slow burn, but there was so much to uncover, and I think the story would’ve benefitted from revealing things sooner.

Overall, a decent thriller but not my favourite. I still recommend you give it a try if it sounds like something you’d like (and the ominous atmosphere is brilliant, especially on a rainy day!).

Thank you so much to Tandem Collective Global and Simon & Schuster Canada for my gifted copy and for allowing me to be one of the Chilling Summer Thriller ambassadors! Can’t believe this was our last read.

Thank you to @simonschusterca and @netgalley for the Advanced Reader E-Copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Off Season is a destination thriller about a woman who accompanies her new husband and stepdaughter to a remote hotel during the off season to do renovations—and uncovers deadly secrets behind every door.

Ohhh I could not put this one down! The Off Season had me guessing right until the very end and boy! Was I shocked!
This is my first novel by Cowie and I enjoyed her writing style a lot. She did an amazing job at describing the atmosphere/scenery which brought you right into the mysterious Venatura Hotel.
The final two chapters ended a bit abruptly with an epilogue that left me with more questions but this one is definitely worth the read!

Documentary filmmaker, Jane, and her new husband, Dom, stay at a remote hotel during the offseason to assist with renovations. Dom's teenage daughter, Sienna, also accompanies them. The hotel is in a fairly remote area. Jane is excited to connect with her new family. But, as she learns about strange disappearances from the hotel, the documentary filmmaker in her comes out. As she starts asking questions, Dom grows distant and Sienna becomes even more hostile. As Jane starts digging, she finds out that there's more to this hotel than she was lead to believe. And what she finds out may directly affect her marriage.....

I was a little apprehensive to read this novel after reading some of the reviews. Unfortunately, despite its promising premise, reading the book did not change my mind.

Firstly, all of the characters were super annoying. I could not stand Dom and the way he treated Jane. He expected her to be a stereotypical woman. Dom's daughter was equally annoying. Teenagers can be difficult to write, but boy, this teen was a LOT. Jane was super clueless. SO much of what happened could have been easily prevented if she googled her husband.

Secondly, the plot twists were super predictable. I guessed the main plot twist quite early on. Whenever this happens, it takes away from the general enjoyment of any book.

Next, the ending was really rushed. Everything happened really quickly over not many pages. I felt like a lot more could have been done.

I will say that Amber Cowle is a talented writer, so I will try more of her books in the future. I also really liked the Canadian setting!

Thank you Simon & Schuster Canada | Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Jane joins her new husband and stepdaughter as caretakers of a remote hotel during its off season. The hope, at least for Jane, is that the time together will solidify their new family. However, Jane soon realizes that her husband has many dark secrets. I wanted to like this one as it was giving The Shining vibes, but I ultimately found it repetitive and a bit boring. Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC.

I liked that this was another Canadian book. It took place in British Columbia and was very descriptive. It also mentioned Toronto.
It reminded me a lot of The Shining.
The story itself was really interesting and I liked it.
However, the characters were insufferable. I liked Mickey and the cats. The rest were just unbearably annoying or evil. I understand Jane was trying to get to the bottom of everything, but boy, she was so annoying about it.
The fact that her and Dom rushed into marriage without knowing anything about each other and then realizing they didn't know the person they married was also very annoying, lol.
I almost couldn't finish because I couldn't stomach the characters, but I had to because i actually really liked the story. I had to figure out what happened!
If you want a Canadian based, true crime, mystery, I would recommend this!

Amber is true brilliance! I was hooked on her writing with her last book but this one officially sealed the deal for me. Thank you for always delivering!

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

“While recovering from a professional setback, documentary filmmaker Jane Duvall stays at a remote hotel during the off season with her new contractor husband, Dom, and his daughter, Sienna. Surrounded by an immense forest and the mighty Fraser River, Jane wants nothing more than to bond with her new family. But she's unsettled by the cold, quiet presence of the hotel's owner, Peter, who is overseeing Dom's renovations. When she starts asking questions, Dom grows distant and Sienna becomes belligerent. Undeterred, Jane uncovers secrets that make her question exactly who she married, including a series of strange disappearances at the hotel in previous seasons. When a rainstorm of epic proportions threatens to flood the banks of the river and claim the Ventura Hotel, Jane must solve these mysteries if she's to survive the off season.”


This book is very mysterious and suspenseful!! Some parts were a little cheesy, repetitive and predictable, but I was so curious as to what happened with the past at Ventura Hotel. I was on the edge of my seat towards the end, but unfortunately, it fell so flat. I felt like the last two chapters ended very abruptly. This book definitely had potential, it was so close to being a 4 ⭐️.

I would still recommend reading this, for a suspenseful, thriller read



Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for an eARC. The Off Season is available now.

I loved this book! It had everything, a gripping page-turner! The descriptions were wonderful. The setting was so creepy. And throw in a storm and a dysfunctional family - perfect. I couldn't put it down.

This book really surprised me a lot by the end of it! I didnt expect myself to love it as much as I did, but I’m glad I stuck around till the very end! Definitely an enjoyable experience with lots of twists and turns.

The Off Season had an interesting hook: documentary filmmaker Jane Duvall moves into a remote hotel during the off season with her new contractor husband, Dom, and his teenage daughter, Sienna. Dom is tasked with doing renovations at the hotel to prepare it for the next tourist season, and Jane is coming off a work-related scandal (the details of which we don't learn till much, much later than really necessary) and hoping the atmospheric hotel will give her material for her next film. Except odd things start happening at the hotel, and the more Jane digs into its history, the more she learns of mysterious deaths and disappearances linked to the place, most notably Dom's ex-wife and hotel owner Peter's son.

So far, so compelling. I love locked room mysteries and thrillers rooted in family secrets, and a remote hotel during the off-season is such a wonderfully atmospheric setting for such a tale. Unfortunately, this book didn't fully work for me. So much of the success of this kind of story lies in the setting and the main character, and neither really gripped my interest.

I didn't really understand why Jane was so fascinated by the Venaventura Hotel; apart from her being stuck there for a few months. She was really drawn into the history of the hotel, but from an outsider's perspective, I didn't really find the hotel super mysterious beyond Jane's assertions that it was.

I also didn't really understand why she was so into Dom at all. There were a couple of steamy scenes, but mostly he seemed like a bit of a jerk, and his secrecy about his wife's death was such a giant red flag that I wondered why on earth Jane even married him in the first place. His daughter Sienna is a total brat, and honestly, I just felt Jane should leave and both Dom and Sienna should go into family therapy to deal with unresolved feelings over Dom's ex-wife.

A lot of the issue comes from the fact that Jane has only known Dom for a few short weeks (I think?). So when Dom starts acting shady, and Sienna starts doing cruel things, and Jane literally thinks she's in danger from one or the other, or both of them, I don't understand why she still keeps wanting to make it work. I may have understood more if the goings-on at the hotel made her want to escape, and the story turns into a race against time to leave while she still can. But instead, she keeps flip-flopping between wanting to run away and wanting to make things work with Dom and Sienna, and that just gets really frustrating to read after a while.

In terms of thrills, there's a lot going on: mysterious mean notes scrawled on mirrors, potshots taken at Jane, a trip wire designed to cause serious injury, and a lot of stuff that is unclear if they're signs of danger or mere coincidences (for example, Jane's phone falling into a sink full of water so she can no longer use it). There are also elements to enhance the atmosphere of danger, such as the bridge becoming damaged and a storm coming in. And of course, all the mysterious deaths and disappearances.

But to me, these are all elements of a thriller that don't quite have a compelling enough emotional core to make me care. I see the danger, and I want Jane and the stray cats she took in to be safe. (Good news: the cats remain alive and unharmed till the end.) But since I don't really understand why Jane cares so much about Dom, Sienna, and their new family in the first place, then whenever something new and dangerous happens, I just wanted her to break up with Dom and take herself and the cats away.

All to say, this book didn't work for me. But at least the cats survive, and also to the author's credit, I didn't guess the big reveals.

+

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada for an e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4.5⭐️ wow that was a rollercoaster ride. I had no idea where the story was going in the best of ways and had so many questions about what was going on. The ending was getting a bit complicated for me as it was going back and forth as to what happened but it all came together in the end.

I was extremely excited to receive an arc of The Off Season by Amber Cowie and had such high hopes for this book. While there were some great moments in this book, I found it to be very underwhelming. But I digress, let’s start off with the positive.

What drew me to The Off Season initially was the cover of the book. It gives off major thriller vibes. And after reading the synopsis I new this was a book I wanted to read. The setting was atmospheric, perfect for a thriller. An old hotel, closed down for the off season for renovations. The Ventura Hotel was extremely isolated as it was situated on a little island two hours east of Vancouver, surrounded by the Fraser River. Where winter brings wet, snowy, stormy weather, flooding and power outages. I also loved that the story takes place on the west coast of Canada, where I live, as I was so familiar with many of the locations mentioned in the story. I have also experienced the crazy west coast winter weather that is discussed throughout the story.

My favourite thing about The Off Season was the last 10 chapters of the book. They were phenomenal. Like edge-of-your-seat, can’t turn the pages fast enough, anxiety provoking phenomenal! This was what I was waiting for. The first 43 chapters dragged on and felt redundant. I also felt that it took way too long for the secrets and connections to be revealed.
Another issue I had was that the storyline seemed unrealistic and I was not able to connect with any of the characters. Jane, the MC, was pushy, naive and annoying. Her new husband was a chauvinist and her stepdaughter was a spoilt narcissist. In fact the only character in the book I enjoyed was the scrappy stray cat called Fraser. As for the pacing of the story it was very slow burning. I kept waiting for the pace to pick up and things to happen but that didn’t happen until the last 10 chapters (there are 53 chapters in total).

I’m really sad I didn’t enjoy The Off Season but I’m very happy to have been able to chat with @princessitasbooks about the story as she encouraged me to push on. Thank you so much Simon & Schuster for my gifted eARC of The Off Season in exchange for my honest feedback.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️

A creepy domestic thriller in an isolated location during a storm is a good start for any book. I did generally like this read, it had some creepy moments and some genuine twists. A few things that just were not for me was some of the twists and revelations seemed unnecessary, especially near the end. I also found it very unrealistic how the plot of the documentary came so close to the events at the hotel later and that she as a true crime documentary film maker would have even found herself in that hotel with those people without so much as a Google first.

Thank you to NetGalley, Amber Cowie and Simon & Schuster Canada for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Cowie is one of my favourite Canadian thriller authors out there! This was a very atmospheric novel with amazing twists and an action packed ending! This one kept me guessing who was guilty and I didn’t see the ending coming.