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Member Reviews
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This twisty thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat! J. R. Alastor invites you to a writer's workshop on a private island with your fellow top-notch mystery writers, the trip should be filled with collaboration, 5-star meals, and an exquisite time. Instead, you're on the menu, as each writer is systematically picked off for their past crimes and character. This one will keep you guessing until the very end!
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Holy WOW this is a great book! The story has you hooked right from the start. Just when you think, "Oh yea, I totally know who this is"...NOPE you sure don't! The plot was awesome and I loved the addition of the Clue game. I'm very impressed with the author that this is her debut title. The writing is superb. Will absolutely recommend to all my thriller loving friends!
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Think Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None or Ten Little Indians and you have the basis of this story. Mystery writers are invited to a writing retreat by famous author, JR Alastor, whose identity is not known. After arriving, writers begin to get killed one by one. The writers and even the staff all have secrets, secrets from their past, secrets about the relationships between each other, secrets about their writing careers. These secrets will be their undoing. Each day brings a new game from Alastor, which of the remaining writers will survive.
This is a well written story, even with the plot similar to Agatha Christies, the author makes this story all her own. The plot lines between the writers, their host and even the staff weaves and flows effortlessly. The characters capture your imagination, their secrets are revealed slowly, and little hints are sprinkled within the chapters. The way the death of a character is done in the same manner as in one of their books is genius. It’s eerie, creepy, and intriguing and engaging all at the same time. Well done!
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Darkly delicious, You Are Fatally Invited is a feast for thriller lovers looking for a clever twist on the locked-room mystery. This is definitely one writing retreat I’d happily skip (okay, I'd probably attend the retreat out of curiosity LOL)! The story pulls you into a whirlwind of surprises, and despite all the twists, it’s refreshingly easy to keep track of the characters. The author does a fantastic job of developing each one, giving the story an intimacy that lingers. Just when you think you have it figured out, another shocking twist has you rethinking everything. With so many layers to unravel, this book feels like a grown-up version of Clue. You Are Fatally Invited may just be one of my new favorite mysteries!
Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
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An intriguing mystery set on an isolated island during an exclusive invitation-only writer's retreat with a small group of authors. Each person holds a deadly secret. Told from multiple points of view, I felt the first few pages were off-putting and disjointed, due to the story structure; I tripped over the book within a book in the early pages. But then the story came together, and the ending was dramatic and satisfying.
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Suspenseful, gory, and thrilling, this mystery will keep you guessing till the very last page.
A mysterious, reclusive writers hosts an invitation-only writer's retreat on a private island. The guests are connected to one another in more ways than any of them suspect. As the corpses mount up, the sadistic games their host has set for them lead them toward self-awareness, confessions, and gruesome demise.
Will anyone leave the island alive? And who exactly is this mysterious host of theirs? Revelations just keep coming. The story is well-written, tightly plotted, and gripping.
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Spooky writing retreats are cool! and this book is so BADASS in vibes, so twisty and such interesting people with such interesting plotlines. 5 stars. would recommend.
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What an awesome debut novel! I loved this locked room mystery and the confusion I felt with the alternating chapters and the use of pronouns rather than names in those chapters-kept me guessing who was being talked about by whom. I can’t wait to see what Ms Pliego crafts for her sophomore efforts!
Thanks to #netgalley, #bantambooks and the author for this arc ebook to read. All opinions are my own.
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Great debut from this author. I loved everything about this book!
It ticked all the boxes, mystery, suspense, who done it? Even the ending wrapped up well!
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Holy crap.
If you like mystery-thriller-horrors (with a fair amount of blood/gore, you've been warned) and books about books, then this is the book for you. I'm not kidding, read it (when it comes out February 11, 2025).
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC of this book.
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This book follows a handful of thriller mystery novelists on a writers retreat on an island hosted by a famous anonymous writer in the genre. During their visit things don’t go as planned. Overall I liked this book. It had me on the edge of my seat. I couldn’t wait to read to find out what was going to happen. I felt very connected to Milly and wanted to see how her story would end. Although I didn’t love the ending I still would recommend this book.
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Effective immediately, whenever you look up the definition of "dynamic debut" you'll see a picture of the You Are Fatally Invited cover. Wow. Talk about a book you literally can't put down. If you love twisty thrillers, this is the book for you. There are so many twists and turns it should come with a warning to strap yourself down before you start reading. Ande Pliego has masterfully crafted a winning addition to the locked room mystery genre. It's entertaining. It's fun. It's brilliant. Pliego deftly switches viewpoints between the different characters to produce a book which will deserve to be on the "Best Of 2025" lists. Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Bantam, and NetGalley for the advance reading copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
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This is such a clever book. There are so many twists and turns. It was a wild ride reading this book! It’s a very twisted story. The author kept me guessing. It wasn’t until the very end of the book that I finally understood what was happening. It was very different and kept me engrossed the whole time. The writing is clever and fresh. I highly recommend this book. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced free copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley.
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Thank you to the author and Netgalley for the ARC of this. Unfortunately, it was just okay for me. I requested it because the plot sounded really good to me and the locked room-one-by-one is one of my favorite sub-genres. For some reason I just didn't connect all that much and it took me awhile to get through. I do plan on reading more from the author and giving it another go. Again, thank you for the arc.
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I love a good locked room thriller, and a remote island murder mystery is even better. Ande Pliego's You Are Fatally Invited takes us to a writer's retreat where the guests are all guilty of one horrific crime or another, and the game is to figure out which sins were committed by which author. Sound twisty enough? Just wait...
As the participants are killed off one by one, the race to find the well-known-but-never-seen writer Alastor intensifies. Who is the mastermind author with a vendetta against every guest? And will anyone survive?
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this dark, unpredictable thrill ride.
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I have such admiration for anyone who is able to have a book published, and I wish Ande many congratulations on this achievement, however, this book was just not a good read for me. It dragged on for too long, could have been cut by at least 50 pages, and just didn’t evoke a “read in one sitting,” or “couldn’t put down” feeling. Thank you Ande Pliego and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advanced copy.
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I'm an absolute sucker for a locked room mystery, and boy does this deliver! I loved the character- driven story, but could've used a bit faster pacing.
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Review of Advance Reader’s Copy
Reclusive author J. R. Alastor invites six thriller writers to his home on Wolf Harbor Island for a writing retreat. Little do they know that they will soon find themselves enmeshed in a deadly game.
Will they all survive?
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Told from several points of view, the unfolding story has bits and pieces of J. R. Alastor’s book on writing sprinkled throughout the telling of the tale. Alastor has invited half a dozen thriller writers to Wolf Harbor Island for a week-long writing retreat. However, everyone holds a secret or two and more than one person has murder on their minds.
Isolated in the mansion on the island . . . think Clue . . . the narrative gives readers insights into each of the guests, provides commentary on crime writing tropes, and provides much food for thought as the plot twists and the possibilities keep readers guessing. Although there are no particularly likeable characters, each is well-developed and believable.
Complex, intriguing, and captivating, the evolving story slowly reveals everyone’s secrets. A perfect read for those who enjoy creepy tales filled with murder, mayhem, and dark humor.
Highly recommended.
I received a free copy of this eBook from Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine / Bantam and NetGalley
#YouAreFatallyInvited #NetGalley
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"You Are Fatally Invited" is an enjoyable, character-driven mystery story. The writing is a bit proper which made it seem standoffish, and the pace is slower than what I like in a suspense novel, but if you enjoy characters, mysteries, and writing tropes, you will love this! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Pub Date: Feb 11th, 2025.
#YouAreFatallyInvited
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A deliciously thrilling Clue-like murder mystery, perfectly set with a backdrop of a four story colonial manor on a foggy private island during autumn. The setting could not be more perfect for a book like this and this is the perfect autumnal read. Lovers of autumn and murder mysteries (and I am both) will eat this one up because the vibes of this are so autumnal.
First off, this is very, very well written. But it does take a while to get into. This is more of a me problem but I think my brain may have been too ADHD to appreciate this book because this one of those types of books you have read very carefully and pay a lot of attention to. It’s written in first person from the POV of a different character for every chapter without any pattern, so it can get a bit confusing because I often would forget who is even narrating the story and have to go back to the start of the chapter. It is really cleverly written, but it was too confusing with the switching POVs for every chapter.
This was really well written, just wasn’t as compulsively readable as some of the other thrillers I’ve read. What I count as a good thriller is a book that I can’t wait to pick up, where the time flies by, and I’m flipping the pages because I want to know how it ends so badly. This unfortunately was not one of those, and as a murder mystery with an immaculate setting, I was hoping that it would be. It kind of was a slog to get through and it took me forever to finish because I never had the motivation to pick it back up. It wasn’t a bad read at all, the author is clearly talented, it just wasn’t interesting enough for me to get more into it. I think the right reader that matches with this type of book would appreciate this though. I’m just more of the kind of reader that is more plot driven than anything, and I would take unimpressive writing and a fantastic plot over a really well written book that is kind of boring. I’ve rated some really mediocrely written books 4-5 stars because I could not put it down. Not everyone would agree with that though, so I do think this book would be a good fit for a certain type of reader!
Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin for sending me an advanced copy in return for my honest review.