This book started off great and kinda fell flat then in a few places, it’s about two sisters who lead
two very different lives …

I found this to be a strange book. There were times I was struggling to read and times I was racing through the pages. There were times it was far fetched and unrealistic and times where it was completely believable. The characters weren’t particularly likeable and some were just odd. The end seemed to just stop suddenly. It wasn’t what I expected but in a bizarre way I did enjoy it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion.

This book is good but you need to bear with it and you will be rewarded with a thoroughly good book. I was one reviewer that really enjoyed it. It does pay out but stuck with it.

I am really sorry to say that this book didn't work for me .I thought it was great to start with, but then it slowed down, and I lost interest. Not a great read for me.

I find the idea of cults fascinating, the idea behind a charismatic leader slowly getting under people’s skin and changing the way they act is such a great premise and can lead to a really powerful read. I liked that This Might Hurt plays with narration and perspective, the chapters alternate, initially between Natalie in the present, trying to find out what has happened to her sister and a flashback of an unknown person’s perspective. I like how vaguely this perspective is written and it is quite a while into the book that the reveal is made as to who it is. This perspective is also much more interesting than the present-day narrative which is a somewhat of a shame. As the story progresses, we then get flashbacks from sister Kit about how she enrolled on the course and what she has experienced and this keeps drip-feeding the reader information of what has happened on the island. I really enjoyed how all of this kept the pace high, however I found the present-day chapters featuring Natalie dragged in comparison to what was happening in the flashbacks.

That said, although the flashback chapters about Madame Fearless and her magic routines were shocking, I didn’t think the actual storyline was that intriguing. Most outcomes were guessed easily, and I didn’t feel that the stakes were raised high enough to have me racing through the pages to find out what was going to happen next. The ending in particular was a little odd, although I enjoyed the twist it didn’t feel very realistic, and I finished the book with a lot of questions left unanswered (and not in a good way!) I think that although we get the chapters from the perspective of both Kit and Natalie they aren’t very relatable or likeable which means their fates did not bother me too much as a reader.

Overall, This Might Hurt is an interesting tale about a cult but needed some better characterisation to make for a more compelling and tense read. Thank you to NetGalley & Penguin – Michael Joseph for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The start of this book was totally absorbing, couldn’t leave it alone. Really liked the POV of the different characters. Unfortunately for me when it reached the retreat part of the book it couldn’t hold my interest. The plot line became slow and laboured, and at times very confusing. I would say that the last 20% of the book became a chore, and the ending was poor in comparison with the start of the book which I really enjoyed.

Thank you NetGalley.

An incredibly tense piece of writing from start to finish, following two main threads of life today for Natalie and her sister and the occupants of Wisewood but also following the older time line of another pair of young sisters with a manipulative and frightening father.
The threads interweave and finally come together, revealing the similarities between the two pairs of sisters and their stories. At times the book is very slow paced but on the whole this works in its favour as it helps with the tension building.
I did find the book confusing at times as it was difficult to pinpoint whose viewpoint you were reading, not helped by the difficulty with an e-book to riffle back through pages to pick up a lost thread.

Wasn't sure about this one to start with. I stuck with it though and was rewarded. Great plot and characters. The book really taps into our fear and explores them well.

Natalie is a pragmatic and driven business woman whose sister Kit has moved to a longterm retreat to face some of her demons. Natalie gets a mysterious email saying that she has to confess what she has done to Kit - what is the secret that she has been keeping hidden for so long? Alongside their storyline is that of a pair of young sisters whose sadistic father rules with a rod of iron, making them perform to his standards every day.
The two stories are interwoven and come together in an unmasking of all that is hidden.
A page turning read, I was desperate to find out what happened next.

I love Wrobel's writing! I was a fan of Rose Gold and this book is another beautifully written, tense piece of work.

I really enjoyed reading about how the personality of the cult leader developed, and found it interesting to see how Kit got entangled with it. The dynamic between leader and followers is a topic I've always been interested in, so it was a very enjoyable read for me.

What kept me from giving 5 stars is the fact that the pace is really slow, and at the beginning it was a bit confusing to understand who was who since some chapters did not say whose POV it was... I understand this is intentional, but I found it a bit weird.

Overall, however, this is a very good book and I recommend it.

Thank you NetGallery and Penguin Michael Joseph UK for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

There's a handful of stories in both past and present weaving their way around to become one neat and tidy ending. I'm dying to know what happened next too!

I did get a little confused with the characters, keeping track but I think I made an assumption and then couldn't talk myself out of it. I think the moral of this story is not to underestimate what people can do.

This was an interesting story but I found it a little confusing.
When the book referred back to the sisters and their totally narcissistic father I thought the
girls were Kit and Natalie. A little slow in places but a good read.

I was totally gripped but this book, Natalie’s sister Kit is away at a self improvement retreat when she gets a sinister email from them, she decides to visit and explore Wisewood and bring her sister home. When Natalie arrives at Wisewood she realises not everything is as it seems and she’s clearly not welcome by this cult-like retreat.

My only complaint is at times it felt slow and I was confused with the timelines. Overall I really enjoyed the writing style and the storyline! Thanks to NetGalley and Stephanie Wrobel for giving me the opportunity to read this!

Loved the premise and it was good pacey grippy read that kept me up late two nights. The dual narrative worked really well.

💭 ᴍʏ ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜᴛꜱ:
This was a bit of a slow burn, while building up the characters. The first bit of the book was really intriguing and got me in, but it slowed down quite a bit after that. The story was interesting and unique, but somehow couldn’t quite grip me. The multiple POVs, which I normally like, felt a bit confusing. I do think that it has a unique storyline and character built which other people will really love, but it just wasn’t for me.
⭐️⭐️⭐️

🤓 ʀᴇᴀᴅ ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪᴋᴇ:
Short Chapters
Multiple POVs
Slow burn
Character built
Cult stories

ꜱʏɴᴏᴘꜱɪꜱ:
𝘒𝘪𝘵 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦.
𝘚𝘰 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘞𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥, 𝘢 𝘴𝘪𝘹 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘦, 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥, 𝘒𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘴 𝘶𝘱. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥.

𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘦:
𝘞𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘪𝘥. 𝘞𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 - 𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘸𝘦?
𝘈𝘴 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘦 𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘒𝘪𝘵, 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘯 𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳.

Natalie Collins is very successful with a firm plan in life, her sister Kit less so.

Kit disappeared into Wisewood a self help community off the Maine coast which eschews modern communications but promises you will leave a better person.

Then, after six months of silence, she receives an email from Wisewood:

Would you like to come tell your sister what you did - or should we?

Who has found out Nat's secret?

She decides to go to the island to find out and soon finds its sinister secrets

Kit has given up her job and life to go to some sort of retreat in Maine and her sister Natalie receives a worrying email that sends her to look for Kit. There are two stories running parallel and it’s a bit twisty with who is who in both timelines. I thought this was really gripping and I flew through it in a day!

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Michael Joseph UK for this Advanced Review Copy.

I haven't read this author before, but the book description pulled me right in. The start of the book was great and pulled me right in. Until about a third of way in, this promised to be a five star read, and then it all seemed to fall apart.

The story is told in what the reader thinks are two POVs, but at some point, you realise that there is an 'other' who is written in such a way you believe her to be Kit, but she isn't. The switches between the sisters, Natalie and Kit, are named, but a third POV is left anonymous. By the end of the book, I could see no good reason for this. And it would have been easier not to name 'Teacher' later on, which would have allowed 'Rebecca' to be named earlier without giving anything away.

The plot jumps back and forth in time as well as between POVs, which--as mentioned above--aren't always identified. This made the read unnecessarily convoluted. While there were some twists, there were no shockers or surprises for me. The first two thirds of the book were slow, and even when it sped up in the latter part, it didn't lead anywhere thrilling.

The ending fizzled out like a wet firework and felt way too vague. Most of the threads were left hanging loose. Having spent a few hours reading this novel, I finished it feeling as though I had needlessly wasted a chunk of my life for no real entertainment or good reason. I really wanted to like this book. It had such promise. But it simply did not work for me.

***

NOTE ON RATINGS: I consider a 3-star rating a positive review. Picky about which books I give 5 stars to, I reserve this highest rating for the stories I find stunning and which moved me.

5 STARS: IT WAS AMAZING! I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! — Highly Recommended.
4 STARS: I WOULD PULL AN ALL-NIGHTER — Go read this book.
3 STARS: IT WAS GOOD! — An okay read. Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it.
2 STARS: I MAY HAVE LIKED A FEW THINGS —Lacking in some areas: writing, characterisation, and/or problematic plot lines.
1 STAR: NOT MY CUP OF TEA —Lots of issues with this book.

A cult-like retreat set on a remote island, where attendees are not allowed any contact with their families or loved ones back at home - always a good setting for a thriller. The book follows Natalie, whose troubled sister Kit has been on the island for months. After receiving a threatening email from someone else at the retreat, Natalie makes her way to the island to try and convince her sister to come home. She's met with resistance and sabotage, with other members of the retreat seemingly trying to keep her away from Kit - and the mysterious leader, known only as Teacher.

There's a dual narrative telling the story of a young girl with a sister and an abusive father, and the lengths she goes to to try and escape his grip. I found this narrative the more compelling of the two, and got really engrossed in it while Natalie was flapping ineffectually around the island trying to find Kit. But I found the resolution quite confusing - almost as if we were supposed to think the second narrator was someone else - so it lost a little momentum for me at that point. But I did really enjoy it, and it's a treat for anyone interested in feats of endurance or Derren Brown-style mind-over-matter performances.

This had a lot of promise which it didn't quite live up to. I really enjoyed the thread narrated by the daughter of Sir throughout, but the other half of the story should have been the emotional heart of the novel, and for some reason it never hit home.

It's possible that this is just one too many 'wellness retreat that's actually a cult' stories (particularly after the success of <i>Nine Perfect Strangers</i>) - maybe this would hit better a few years down the line.

My thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph and NetGalley for the ARC.