In Lisa Unger’s 20th novel, three couples go on a weekend getaway to a remote luxury cabin in the woods. All are related in some way – siblings, in-laws, and friends. And every one of them has a secret to hide from the others. The cabin has a gruesome history and an owner who’s a little too attentive. Throw in some impending bad weather and someone looking for revenge and it all adds up to a perfect storm.

This fast-paced, action-packed locked-room thriller is a great read! On top of being plenty twisty and turny, it’s also incredibly thought provoking. The use of DNA testing (like 23andMe or Ancestry) as a thriller plot device was really clever and serves as a stark warning that those tests might deliver more than you’ve bargained for. The moral ambiguity of DNA ancestry testing and what happens to your data are interesting and timely topics, tying into themes of what makes a family and the age-old nature-vs-nurture debate. The story also considers women’s role in enabling bad men and whether darkness is genetic. Food for thought and a dark thriller all in one!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Legend Press for providing me an advance copy of this book.

This is so much a cabin, more a luxury three storey architect’s dream but it is secluded! However, this is one trip these couples will never forget. Hannah’s generous, wealthy tech company owner brother Mako (Michael, yes, go figure how we get Mako out of that!) rents the cabin in Georgia for her and her husband Bruce and invites another couple to join them and his wife Liza. The intention is they all disconnect from the pressures of every day life and have a relaxing time with plenty of good food and wine. Right from the start things aren’t what they seem. The owner of the cabin, Bracken (?!) seems unable to appreciate where boundaries lie, the personal chef and server are distinctly odd and the chef tells a disturbing story which unsettles some of them. This latest locked room style psychological thriller from Lisa Unger takes a mysterious, meandering path and encompasses themes such as DNA and is told from several points of view.

From the very start of the book there are odd vibes between characters and some distinctly strange behaviour which deepens as the novel progresses. This ranges from the downright weird to the distinctly dangerous. The dynamics between them are all very well done on your suspicion antenna twitches in multiple directions as the tension becomes more and more taut.

The atmosphere the author creates especially at the cabin combines the beauty of the area with creeping menace which sends chilling tingles down the neck and spine. This is heightened by the isolation, there’s an approaching serious storm, an additional ghostly element which increases the sense of claustrophobia with a growing understanding there’s a real threat approaching.

The plot is undoubtedly convoluted, you need to concentrate which is no bad thing. There are multiple twists and turns especially as the dynamics between the characters keeps constantly changing which is very intriguing as you try to work out who to trust.

However there are a lot of points of view and one you can’t connect until the end and there are couple of things which I feel go unanswered.
There’s one perspective towards the end which I’m not keen on at all as it feels so unrealistic!

All that being said this is a very entertaining read although it’s not my favourite Lisa Unger novel. I do like the message overall message that you CAN choose your family.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Legend Press for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

I firstly would like to thank Legend Press and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book!

Hannah and Bruce are happily married, and plan on going on a short vacation with Hannah’s brother Mako and his wife Liza. Cricket, Hannah’s best friend will also be joining them together with her new boyfriend. A trip full of fun quickly turns ugly when one of them is murdered.

I’ve read one Lisa Unger book before and thoroughly enjoyed it so when I saw this book that featured a cabin in the middle of the woods I knew I wanted to read it. I wasn’t disappointed since this was a fast-paced story, that kept me up all night. The multiple Povs and different timelines only added to the narrative. All the characters were quite interesting and I suspected each one of them of foul play at some point.

This book reminded me of The guest list and the hunting party by Lucy Foley so if any of them are up your alley I’d definitely suggest checking this out.

4.5 stars

This is an excellent locked room thriller although it was a little slow at first it took me no time to get into and then I could not turn the pages fast enough!!!! I loved the setting and the side story of Henry kept me captivated!!!! Lisa Unger is an excellent writer and in my opinion this is her best book yet!!!! I highly recommend this book to all thriller lovers!!!!

Much thanks to #netgalley and #LegendPress for allowing me to read and review this ARC
All thoughts and opinions are my own

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this. Like some other reviewers, I found this to be a slow story, with a lot of characters that never really build into a thriller. There’s a lot going on and the POV changes are kind of confusing. As a fan of Lisa Unger, I am sad to say I did not care for this book.

Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot. Most of the characters were pretty likeable- Hannah, Cricket, Bruce, Henry. It wasn’t hard to figure out that Mako was a pompous a**, but we love our families, so it makes sense that he was loved and accepted by his.

I liked the multiple POVs, including the jumping around from present to past. It did get a but confusing, but not in a bad way… more in a putting a puzzle together way.

What I liked most about this book was the idea of family. While I can’t say too much without spoiling the story, it does a good job of touching on what family means and how we can make the most of our situations.

Lisa unger always delivers fast-paced suspenseful thrillers. Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six is the tale of three interconnected couples all going away for a long weekend in none other than a luxurious secluded cabin. The cabin provides the atmosphere for what will become tension and claustrophobia as the novel surges forward. The pairs are brought together all with secrets and interconnected pasts, but unbeknown to them, they are being watched and this watcher will make them pay for the past. As if that wasn’t plenty of plot to unpack, unger takes it to another level adding on supernatural elements and a gruesome history of the past owners of the cabin. Unger continues to surprise, as the plot moves into a direction very different from what I was expecting. The plot is fast moving and I found myself turning quickly to see what was going to turn. The secrets come out slowly leaving the reader wanting to keep going to see what is really going on. My one complaint is the formatting of the arc wasn’t conducive to the structure of the novel. The novel is told in multiple timelines from multiple characters and the published hard copy will undoubtedly have chapter breaks to delineate who is narrating and in what timeline. In the arc, it all runs together so it can be very confusing as to whose pov we are in and what time period. All in all, another enjoyable winner for unger.

(Arc provided by publisher via Goodreads in exchange for unbiased review).

This is my first Lisa Unger read, and her 20th book! It's not an uncommon premise, 6 people trapped in a cabin while a thunderstorm reigns down upon them. How well do you really think you know your brother, husband, and friend? Not so well in this case.
Some of this was predictable, but the DNA testing was very interesting and timely. As we all know, it's possible now via sites like 23andme, and ancestry to trace your lineage back several generations. This comes to play here as several characters realize they all have the same sperm donor. And he's not such a nice guy.
There are few likeable characters here. Mainly Henry, Bruce, and maybe Hannah. Most don't have a moral compass and are enabled by the people around them to do bad things. I found the motive for the killer a bit implausible. How did they become this way? There was really no back story for this person.
A+ for creepy setting, creepier AirBnB host, and suspense. Most of the loose ends were wrapped up at the end but I think it would have been more interesting to explore why most of the characters condoned bad behavior and said nothing (fear of reprisal); as well as more character development around the killer's background.
All in all an ok thriller, just not that thrilling.

Hannah and Mako are brother and sister. Hannah's husband has his own company but is also working for Mako.

There are a number of characters to keep up with in this book and then one storyline that doesn't seem to mesh with the others but comes together at the end.

I really enjoyed the story and it kept me reading. I thought it was an interesting twist on ancestry. The end seemed to take a little longer than necessary but I liked it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.

This novel was my first Lisa Unger novel.

It was somewhat of a "closed door", trying to determine all of the secrets of each of the 6 people that are staying at a rural, elegant cabin.

It was kind of like the guest list, but also included some storyline about a DNA company (like 23 and me).

Honestly, the first 75% were good and really kept me intrigued, but the ending was hurried and seemed like an afterthought. Some details were kind of very quickly thrown in there to resolve some side stories that had been detailed throughout.

3.5✨ for me

Beneath the surface, who are we? Are we who we thought we were? Are we who we were raised to be? Or is it all a lie? We all have our secrets, but some are more deadly than others. Hannah spends a long overdue vacation with her husband, her brother and his wife, and her best friend and her new boyfriend a secluded cabin off the grid in Georgia. Hannah’s husband and brother are both in the technology world and spend more hours working than sleeping. So when Hannah’s brother, Mako, rents a gorgeous but isolated cabin for a trip, Hannah has a reluctance to go and it’s more than leaving her young child for the long weekend.

Also involved in this story is the second storyline of Henry who has no true identity - no birth certificate, the social security number of a deceased person, and when his mother is mysterious killed after years moving place to place, he has more questions than answers. How is his story connected to the cabin and it’s guests? There’s also the owner of the cabin who watches his guests on security cabins and knows more about them than the guests realize. How does he play into the real reason that haunts the cabin and it’s ground?

So many characters playing a main part of the story could become a jumbled mess of cables behind the television, but in Unger’s capable hands, the plot lines come together smoothly, without confusion, for an explosive conclusion. Fans of Unger’s books will not be disappointed by this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Legend Press for the advanced copy. Opinions expressed are my own. This book is set for publication on February 15, 2023. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

#netgalley #arc #secludedcabinsleepssix #lisaunger #legendpress

here were a lot of moving parts and characters introduced early on in this book which made it hard to get into it at the beginning. Once you get familiarized with the characters the story is engaging. I would never have guessed that the book would have ended the way it did. There was a lot of action and build-up and I felt that the ending came somewhat abruptly. The premise of this book wasn’t unique but the conclusion didn’t fit the way I expected. In all, the theme of the book was a good one and it kept my interest throughout. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

* I received an ARC of this book from Net Galley. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this book. All thoughts are my own.

I was excited to read this book based on the description of a family staying at a remote cabin for a few days because that is usually a great place for a thriller! Unfortunately, I couldn’t find much about this one that I liked. You can tell from the very beginning that Mako straight up sucks and has no redeeming qualities and everyone else is relatively fine. I was intrigued to learn about the history of the cabin and thought the book would really tie in with the previous murders and it really didn’t. I could have done without the whole Trina/Henry backstory and drama because it really didn’t add much too the book. It felt like a separate book on its own. Also, Bracken really didn’t add anything to the story so I felt that his POV was unnecessary.

Nothing happens until about halfway through the book which was boring for me because I prefer when thrillers ramp up around 30-35%. I’m also unsure as to why this story is set in 2018?

I would not recommend this book.

In this new suspense novel by Lisa Unger, everyone seems to have something to hide. This is a book sure to make your own family drama look tame. When someone mysteriously slips DNA test kits under the Christmas tree, the pieces needed for family upheaval are set in motion. The rest of Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six is a stormy thunderbolt of action. I was hooked on this book to the very last page. A great binge read, especially for those who consume a lot of crime documentaries.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an early copy of this book. All reviews are my own.

I’m afraid I had to DNF this title. I have read Lisa Unger before and have really enjoyed her books, so I was excited to get approved. This title just didn’t work for me, however. I found this very confusing, and hard to keep track of all the different characters and their relationships with each other. I also found it just unbelievable. I hate I didn’t love this one, but I would still pick up another by Lisa Unger.

i stayed up way too late and finished this ARC of secluded cabin sleeps six by lisa unger from @netgalley last night. i read this pretty quickly, but i felt like this was only an ok read for me. i liked the multiple POV & the story itself was pretty unique, but it simply didn’t work for me. i might even say it was a bit random at times and hard to follow or figure out if something was important to the story. this is a 2 ⭐️ read for me.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. I enjoy a book that keeps me guessing and on the edge of my seat and this book did that. Would recommend to anyone that likes a good storyline of the characters being stuck in one spot due to a storm and then chaos ensues.

I tried reading this but I couldn’t get into it. The storyline is too slow. I found all the characters unlikable

This book!! It kept me on the absolute edge of my seat. The characters were unlikeable but in a messed up people doing messed up things type of way! The way everything was tied up in the end left me speechless. Secluded cabin, 6 shady people, one hell of a storm, what could go wrong? Secrets and lies come slithering out from all over. This wild ride is one you don’t want to miss’

This book felt like it was moving without a strong purpose and wasn’t terribly enjoyable, unfortunately I chose to DNF this book at 60%.