A group of people in an isolated location are being killed off one by one and is presented as a mystery to be solved. But something did not click for me with this story. The beginning was also verrrrrryyyyyy slow and I struggled to get into it. I am not sure if this is because of the audiobook or the story itself. I also struggled to like most of the characters.

Five old friends meet for a weekend getaway at Owl Tree Halt Lodge on a remote Scottish Island. I love the description of the scenery, lush and green. You can get to the island by ferry or plane and knowing you can't just leave whenever you want really gives a locked room vibe!

"The Hunted" is perfect for readers who like a chilling island setting with a slow-burn intro to the characters. A calm before the storm.

As the ladies catch up on their lives, they share secrets over a game that turns out to be quite unpleasant and hurtful. It makes sense why they're spending this weekend together as someone is holding a grudge!

There are about a hundred pages of buildup for this story before we get to the juicy part. I may have DNF this if it weren't for a review copy. It was worthwhile to stay on for the rest of the story because it did pick up. Once the secrets start flowing, it wasn't difficult to guess who the culprit was. Although "The Hunted" didn't blow me away, it was quick and entertaining. The narrator, Paula Masterson's accent is pleasant to my ears.🥰🎧

It’s a familiar plot with a huge twist.
A group of friends are on the way for a reunion in a remote Scottish lodge in the deep of winter.
Leah and her friends, Toni, Debs, Mouse, and Shell head to the Scottish Highlands for a girl’s weekend away. It’s a reunion of their childhood group, known as The Owl Society.
It's been twenty years since they were all at school together and they're looking forward to relaxing, sharing updates on their lives, and reminiscing.

The furthest thing from their minds is murder.

Leah narrates, giving the reader insight into her personal struggles. She is married to John, who is a surgeon and they have a little boy named David. David is disabled due to an accident. For all this, Leah is a strong and courageous woman, yet this reunion has put her on edge. The group of friends are diverse, prone to clash, and at times callously remind each other of their faults and shortcomings. Then of course mixing that with alcohol, it’s a dangerous mix.
But even though they've known each other since high school, some of these women have secrets. Dark secrets that can ruin friendships, ruin marriages, and ruin lives.

There is a very real and unstable threat lurking in their midst. This dark and evil presence is watching their movements, hearing their conversations, and the friction building between them. The more they argue, and become divisive, the easier it will be to kill them one at a time. Why? The real question is who and if anyone will make it back home>

This is a slow burn, tense thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

The audio book narrator was great and really brought the book to life. The characters were not very likeable but this added to the story and can be true of friend that grow up together but grow apart. It fast paced and had me hooked even though the plot was abit predictable. I loved the setting and creepy vibe.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced audio copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The book:
Fairly common plot, group of people in an isolated area without reliable access to phones/internet and are being killed off one by one. I feel this book was elevated by allowing the reader to know who the killer is and their plans before the characters even know there is a threat. Helped keep me on the edge of my seat in suspense for all the chaos to break. The book started out a little slow after an explosive first chapter and picked up again a little over the halfway mark where the heartstopping action happened. I really loved that this one had more of a slaughterhouse horror feel than a typical thriller of the same plot line.
3.5 stars rounded to 4

The audio
Sadly I was not a big fan of the narrator for this one. While she showed more emotion than other audiobook narrators I’ve listened to she was borderline shrieking a lot of the time and I had to constantly adjust the volume.

The story of a group of women who are going on a remote getaway on Scottish island. They were excited to catch up with their school friends, but they have a secret and that secret will destroy their lives. I really enjoyed the book, but I did learn that I am grateful never to have gone to a UK boarding school. It seems like these stories always start with something that was done at boarding school.

A group of old school friends are invited to reunite as they go on a relaxing winter break, to a lodge on a remote isle of Scotland. One of their party - Shell does not arrive as planned, but with sparse phone signal they receive a text saying that she is held up and will be along shortly … this is where the trouble begins.



A fun and relatable edge-of-your-seat thriller, some awful characters who we can all imagine being at school with. Silly spats, rivalries and secrets all lead to a frayed dynamic amongst the group, who must pull together for the sake of them all. P.R. Black does a great job of building tension mixed with classic horror aspects, leaving an atmosphere you could cut with a knife.


The narrator was really great and kept me thoroughly absorbed in the book, they made it easy to tell between each character.

CW: Graphic violence

The idea of being stuck on an island with my best friends sounds like a dream, but it can quickly turn into a nightmare as dark secrets are revealed and their secrets turn them against one another.

The Hunted is about mean girls who meet up with their worst nightmare as adults.

The first half of the story was boring, for lack of a better word. The second half of the book was on fire. The story was at 50 percent, when the author finally started letting the reader in on what the book was about. The author’s style of writing was inventive and quite descriptive. I listened to the audiobook, and the reader was awesome. She used difference voices or inflections for each of the characters which made it quite easy to follow along. I gave the book 3 stars for the first half and 5 stars for the second half, which gave me my 4 star rating.

My review is voluntary and all comments and opinions expressed are
my own.

Audiobook
The Hunted is a creepy story set in a remote area of Scotland. I love a vacation gone wrong, and this has the added Scottish flair! Paula Masterson narrates and her voice is spectacular - she has the fantastic ability to delineate between each character and read real emotion into the narration.

Via Masterson, we learn that a group of friends are gathering at a lodge for a weekend to catch up and reminisce. Some of the old high school rivalries and jealousies crop up rather quickly and the get together is less than relaxing.

It's not long before friends and loved ones are missing and it seems that someone is praying on theg group, separating them out one by one. Can they band together and save themselves? If you like a vacation gone wrong, an lyrical Scottish accent or just want a new murder thriller to hear, The Hunted on audiobook is for you!#SagaEdgemont

Like most reviewers this felt slow in the beginning while we get to know the characters (other than that one chapter....). But it felt necessary to get a feel for each of the characters. As the women get into their weekend shenanigans of drinking games we see that there are lots of secrets among this group of old friends. Some secrets that could destroy friendships & marriages. I felt like parts of this were quite scary; Specifically the whole being on a remote island in the woods at night while a madwoman hunts you; and that parts were high-thrill; Specifically the ending; but the book's title on Amazon: "The Hunted: A terrifying psychological thriller with a shocking twist" doesn't feel 100% valid. I spent majority of the last about 40% trying to figure out what this big SHOCKING twist would be... My mind went in twenty different directions, none of which happened. I will admit I found this good; with all the layers of secrets each friend had, who knew other's secrets and who didn't and if they'd find out; it kept me interested in the outcome.

I liked the narrator and thought it was a good reading. I do think it was tough to keep the women straight at first when readers were initially introduced to each one but it got easier when we learned more about each woman. There was good inflection and emotion at the right times too.

Thank you to the publisher via Netgalley for the audiobook to read and review.

The premise of this book is great. A group of old school friends get together for a weekend away, a chance to reconnect except all of them have secrets which start to come out during their time away.

I found the pace a little slow and there was a lot of characters to get to know which I sometimes find can be a bit of an issue but stick with it and the story will draw you in. Once it got going it interweaved all the stories together nicely.

This was my first book by P.R. Black, and I would happily read another book by this author.

“All of the accommodations, none of the substance. That’s you.”

As a disabled person, this is my new favorite insult.

This book was honestly so much fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end! In another story I may have been rooting for the demon tbh. But in this setting, heck no. We want (most) of the characters to live!

You’re probably not going to love a lot of the characters but that’s part of it. That’s how life is when people who were connected at one point are now completely different people with different lives and who would never be in each other’s lives otherwise.

I will def be reading from this author again!

The audio book narrator was absolutely 🤌🏻🤌🏻

Side note: this book gave me themed nightmares last night so you know it’s a good one! Probably my second favorite thriller/horror of the year!

This is my introduction to this UK author. I had the audiobook version of this psychological thriller narrated by Paula Masterton she dies a good job at distinct voices for the various female characters. She adds a good amount of tension and atmosphere too.

It’s another book about a group of women (Debs,Toni, Leah, Shell, Beatrice/mouse,) who are supposed to be friends but are totally unlikeable and bitchy taking a weekend break on an isolated Scottish Island. Of course there’s the predictable lack of phone signal etc. I can never understand why people who don’t like each other feel the need to have expensive reunions.

We know from the outset that there’s another arrival who doesn’t mean for the weekend break to end well.

Non of the characters are likeable, in-fact they are unpleasant individuals. The revelations and their reactions in spin the bottle were eye opening on their personality traits. Things take a darker turn as the bitchiness ramps up. This section I felt was too drawn out and slow until the action started in the final section. I wasn’t invested in the characters so I didn’t really care who died and who survived. Think Leah was the best of the bunch for me.
The action section was interesting and enjoyable.

It’s an easy enjoyable enough listen. I think the audiobook added to my enjoyment significantly. It’s one for you if you enjoy bitchy squabbling women. But not different enough to the many similar themed books to wow me.

I love books set in isolated destinations so this audiobook set on a Scottish island was a draw for me. The story is set around a group of old school girlfriends who book a weekend away in a remote lodge however do any of them have any idea of the terror that is in store for them?? As the story unfolds the reader begins to feel slightly unsettled as the group of women start to feel that somebody might be watching them. As things unfold further it turns out the women have dark secrets amongst them and the suspense starts to build up. The story becomes a very creepy thriller sometimes verging on a gorey horror as murders begin to happen! Ones things for sure this book kept me gripped until the very end which is a sign of an excellent book! Well narrated by Paula Masterson

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
This audiobook flip flopped back and forth for me. It started off good. Then it was a bit boring. Then it got better again.
All around not bad. Narrator was good though it might have done better if the narrator changed voice a bit for different characters. There was a large cast of characters in this one which made it a little difficult to distinguish.

3.5 stars

Oh my, this book was twisted and I love the borderline horror aspect. I was rooting for this book to keep going dark, but it slowed down on that vibe. I definitely would have loved to see it go that way. It really started ti feel like a Friday the 13th movie.

I’m not sure if the big ah-ha moment was supposed to be a huge surprise, but it was super obvious on who the killer was. I still found the book interesting even though the twists were pretty obvious.

I am still undecided on how I feel when I read a book with no true protagonist. I’m curious if this was the plan for this book or not, but I really didn’t like anyone.

Thanks NetGalley and publisher for the digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

I read a physical galley of this and wanted to test out the audiobook narrator and I have to say the narrator does a great job of giving off that thriller ambiance.

The premise of this novel was very promising, a girl's weekend away on a remote scottish isle gone wrong.. but it fell a bit flat for me.

The first half of the novel, explaining why the girls are being hunted, left some to be desired. I liked that it gave us a backstory, but it didn't seem to be an appropriate act to set off such chaos. And there was a lot of killing, like spouses, that didn't make sense to me. It felt like it went from medium paced to very fast paced, but I couldn't really place why these crimes were happening.

The narration of the audiobook was good, however I did find it hard to identify between the large cast of women as they were talking, as they all sounded very similar.

I will admit that the first fifty percent of the book was a slog. Then in the second half, things took off in a heart stopping moments.

Although,this trope of former friends meeting again on a secluded island has been used a few times, the author did make this much used trope somewhat exciting. The former friends decide to play a game where they had to fess up the worst things they had ever done. From this game issues a recipe for murder as the ladies reminiscence and catch up on life.Unfortunately, it turned into a recipe for death as the friends wonder is it one of their group who is out to get them?

Some twists and of course ladies running for their lives on a deserted island always is a fun experience (at least for us who just read about it.)

I listened to the audio rendition of this story which was delivered with the appropriate amount of suspense and I will admit I loved the voice of the killer.

Thank you to P.R. Black (my first book by this author), Paula Matterson (narrator) and NetGalley for a copy of this story due out October of 2022.