This is a locked room mystery with Clue vibes. A group of authors are invited to a secluded island for a writing retreat. The host doesn't show up and people start dying like the murders in their books. They all have something unethical or criminal that they have done and someone wants revenge. I felt like this was rather drawn out and definitely a slow burn. I guessed pretty early on who the "host" was but wasn't sure about their reasoning behind it all. The reveal wasn't really that shocking and the ending felt flat to me. It was a pretty good read but very similar to other "locked door" mysteries I have read.

Thank you NetGalley, Random House Publishing, & Ande Pliego for an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. #NetGalley #YouAreFatallyInvited

This is a slow burn, locked room mystery that I did enjoy. There were some good reveals along the way. It is defiantly an Agatha Christie retelling. It was a fun read and I would read from this author again.
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Bantam and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 Stars

This was alright, didn't have as much hook as I wanted and was a bit to meta. The characters never charmed me enough to care what was happening. Was fine.

I sometimes feel like I have to kiss a lot of frogs to get a prince when reading suspense. This book was not prince-level but was at least a minor baron. I’m not sure how much justice I can do to the byzantine plot, but I’ll start by saying that this is a riff on And Then There Were None, which is my favorite Agatha Christie novel (confession – I think I’ve only read three Agatha Christie novels? I should work on that).

A group of mystery writers are invited to an island retreat by a famous, and famously private, author. Some of the attendees claim to “know” J.R. Alastor but in reality none of them have actually seen him, and they are all intrigued enough to attend. Alastor of course does not make himself available in person but communicates through an event planner, Mia, with whom he has secret plans (and Mia herself has plans that Alastor doesn’t know about). As with And Then There Were None, the guests all have some nasty secrets themselves.

What follows is incredibly convoluted and often overwritten, but somehow…fun to read? It definitely held my interest, which is all I really ask. My main complaint was the characters occasionally not being as smart as I’d expect them to be. Still, Mia was a sympathetic protagonist, which also goes a long way for me. I gave this a B+ and will look for the author’s works in the future.

I'm such a sucker for a locked-anything mystery (locked room, locked boat, locked...car, anything I will read it). The writer's retreat was an interesting set up, too, and I liked how them being writers actually tied into the plot/murders and wasn't just a convenient way to get them all together. I hated some of the characters, as I think I was supposed to, but I was still sitting on the edge of my seat to see how it all played out--the mark of a truly good book, haha. I had a great time with this and I know our mystery lovers here at the branch will too!

This was an interesting and twisty locked room mystery with the added fun that all the characters were thriller writers themselves. I liked the concept of them on a writers retreat and each of them dying how they had written a murder in one of their books. As the tension built and the twists kept coming, I especially enjoyed learning how all the characters were tied together - what a terrible group of people they were! Despite this, I was fully vested in the story and anxious to see how it all played out.

I thoroughly enjoyed the wild ride of reading this, and would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

🥰Thank you so much to @randomhouse for the gifted book!

📖Title: You Are Fatally Invited
✍️Author: Ande Pliego
📅Pub Date: February 11, 2025

💨Quick thoughts : this one was fun and way twistier that I originally expected it to be! I think this will be a hit for all mystery readers.

🏝️This was a blend of THE WRITING RETREAT by Julia Bartz, EVERYONE ON THIS TRAIN IS A SUSPECT by Benjamin Stevenson, and AND THEN THERE WERE NONE by Agatha Cristi! So if you've enjoyed any of those, you'll probably enjoy this one!

✉️I am always hesitant to read thrillers with a wide range of POVs trapped somewhere (esp an island) because I am usually disappointed over the copy/paste plot of them, but this had so many original elements!

🏝️The story revolves around a group of thriller writers gathered by a famous author on a private island for a retreat. I'll say this, I love you thriller authors, but you wouldn't catch me on a private island with you all 👀👀 okay, maybe you would.

✉️I love how she leaned into and even slightly teased all the thriller tropes. It gave me some Netflix's THE WOMAN IN HOUSE ACROSS THE STREET awareness and I loved that element!

You Are Fatally Invited by Ande Pliego is a tense locked room mystery filled with classic thriller tropes and unexpected twists. When a writing retreat turns deadly, host Mila del Angél must outsmart a killer among a group of deception experts. The atmospheric setting and fast paced plot keep the suspense high, though the characters can be difficult to distinguish. A solid read for mystery fans.

Ok Ande Pliego, now you gave me some mystery that kept me on my toes. This writer’s retreat hosted by a bestselling author whose actual identity known by none was where it was at. I mean when you put all sorts of authors that had tendency to create murder and mayhem in their books, this could only be fitting.

J.R. Alastor was that mystery author shaking up the bestsellers list. He hired Mila del Angel to plan for a week long writer’s retreat for select authors that may or may not be murdered as part of this duo’s revenge plan. We knew this was going to happen but how and why were what kept me in my seat (or bed) reading this book until my eyes were screaming at me. Mila was in for a single murder but there were more that one bodies they need to hide on this island they were “stranded” by Mila and Alastor’s plan but multiple bodies were not her jam.

You could tell Mila stopped writing because someone took her idea and ran with it but you could not guess who was the culprit. You could not guess on the first time who Alastor was and why this murder spree was too important.

Thank you @penguinrandomhouse @andepliegowrites and @netgalley for my gifted ebook. You Are Fatally Invited is out now!

Holy cow, this Agatha Christie like book was a wild ride! Six thriller writers are invited to a remote manor in coastal Maine for a writing retreat hosted by a reclusive author. The host has hired an aspiring writer, Mila to help facilitate the retreat on his behalf. However, it goes off the rails very quickly when soon after, each of the guests are killed one by one using ways the characters in their books died. The host keeps the other writers guessing with clues each day they survive. Mila is left in the dark when the host goes astray of their plan.

The book has several points of view, which really works with this locked door mystery. Each of the authors has done some shady things and has different reasons for their behavior. As a storm rolls in, their only way off the island and all of their communication is cut off. Who will survive, if any one? Will the mysterious JR Alastor reveal themselves?

I love the style of this book and especially the POVs, but it was a lot to keep straight sometimes. Each of their back stories was a lot. But I’m really looking forward to reading more from Ande!

An event coordinator with a secret axe to grind is hired by an infamously anonymous author to orchestrate a writers' retreat for the thriller genre's best and brightest. But once the guests have all arrived, she finds she's being set up to take the fall for worse crimes than she imagined.

I know the writer's retreat gone wrong trope is done to death -- pun intended -- but this self-aware version executes it so well!

Debut author Ande Pliego's voice grabbed me from the first chapter, which is one of many musings on why we love to read and write about fear.

There's a little edge of First Lie Wins in here with a morally questionable protagonist trying to outsmart an anonymous puppetmaster.

It's not a straight banger. The author was a little weird about bilingual characters' use of Spanish. (It's not that big a deal to say nada, is it?) The revenge subplot is on the weaker side and some twists are quite foreseeable. But others genuinely took me by surprise and I eagerly tore my way through every chapter.

CW: death of children, obviously lots of murder and violence

Such a fun plot! I had a few things figured out but never the biggest reveal! I can’t believe this is only a debut! I’ll definitely keep an eye out for future books!

Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine for the advanced copy!

You Are Fatally Invited: A Novel by Ande Pliego is a delightful cocktail of all my favorite things. This quick read masterfully blends murder mysteries, a deep dive into the lives of authors and writers, and the enigmatic charm of old mansions. The atmosphere is reminiscent of the classic board game Clue, but with a modern twist that keeps the narrative fresh and engaging. If you love a clever, suspenseful story that transports you into a world of secrets and intrigue, this book is an absolute must-read.

Several writers are invited to a weekend by reclusive author J.R. Alastor. No one knows the author - and they come excited.

What starts happening... is the stuff of their worst nightmares. I liked the mousetrap twists and turns. Multiple perspectives, you never know who to trust, it's an interesting premise!

Thank you Random House Publishing Group / Ballantine and Netgalley for an ARC.

As I was reading this I was channeling Agatha Christie and her most beloved novel “And Then There Were None” to the definite detriment of my open mindedness to this book. Pliego’s debut foray into this murder mystery “locked room” genre was admirable, but well Agatha Christie and all. There weren’t many characters to like here and I am going to be smug in admitting that I had a solid hook into what had happened and what was coming so maybe that is enough to explain my “get to it already” attitude.

Although I found the pace too slow and the characters confusing and the often repeated “I have to find who killed my husband” annoying, this was a solid debut and I am sure I would have enjoyed it more if I had never read Agatha Christie. Thanks to Bantam Books and NetGalley for a copy.

Thank you to Lauren from Book Huddle and NetGalley for providing this ARC! This book was a part of the Los Poblanos Inn (New Mexico) Reading Retreat hosted by Book Huddle, where you got to choose between 4 books to read prior to the event and enjoy a weekend of reading discussions with your own Huddle group. I sadly didn't get a chance to finish this until after the retreat, but GOLLY was it worth the time! Highly recommend this book if you like the board game Clue, murder mysteries, and a full cast of sneaky characters. This left me guessing until literally the last page. 5 STARS!

Love a good locked room mystery and it’s been a while since I’ve read a good one. This book totally filled that void.
A writers retreat goes wrong. Or does it? This twisty game hosted by J.R. Alastor will leave you flying through pages, and playing a mental who done it, much like Clue, to solve the mystery.
Loved this. Would totally recommend. Thank you Random House for publishing such an amazing book and Andre Pliego for writing it!

While the synopsis was what drew me into this book, the execution fell a bit flat for me. I liked the idea of there being a mystery that they had to solve and I think the author would have had a really good opportunity to create some interesting dialogue regarding tropes and expectations when the characters are solving puzzles themselves. I think the vengeance plot overttakes the original premise of puzzles, which in themselves could have been a way to eliminate the guests but that ended up not being the case until the very end. The killings come across as random and it took quite a while for us to get any plot twist or reveals until the last bit of the book when everything is explained to the reader. I did enjoy that excerpts of the all the authors' works and how it ties into what is going on in the book. The chapters that are excerpts from Alastor's book was probably my favorite of them. I think this was a good premise and I'll certainly read Pliego again in the future to see what else they attempt.

I absolutely love a locked room mystery and this did not disappoint! This had red herrings, plot twists, and plenty of suspense. So good!

I loved this one! It payed a clear homage to one of my all time favorite books; And Then There Were None. And THERE WAS NO AFFAIRS OR CHEATING! Don't get me wrong... there were certain parts that had me chanting: 'Please don't be cheating." Loved how the different parts of the book were designated by tropes. And how one of the MC's was half Asian? YES!