Well this turned out to be a very creepy read. I thought most of the book was just going to be Bellas dark thoughts and I was beginning to think the goings on were all in her head too. But everything seemed to happen in the last 15% of the book and I guess I was waiting for more murders and a bit more action.

Really enjoyed this slow burn mystery, great build up with the use of unrealable character. Will pick up more from Jennifer Moore, this was the first book i have read by this Author, looking forward to see what she does next.
Bella was a character that easy to read from and always has you rooting for her to stay safe and hoping she gets an happy ending after completing misjudging her past.

A 5* read. I couldn’t put it down especially the last one hundred pages. It was fast pacing, adrenaline rushing and an absolutely brilliant novel. I would recommend this to everyone who enjoys a good psychological thriller.

Emptiness syndrome is real. As children fly the nest many mums feel lost. The main character Bella is dreading the day she leaves her son at University. Her sister and Asher, her son, surprises her with a present of a retreat in Sweden. She promises to go and also stay the week.

Set in Sweden on the edge of a forest, named Dead Man’s Forest Bella believes that she is becoming paranoid. Is she hallucinating? Are the things happening real? Is she hearing things? Are people who they say they are? Follow Bella’s story to find out what is real and what isn’t as your heart races and shouting to yourself.

Praise for Jennifer Moore who put pen to paper to give her reader’s an exhausting read. It is extremely well written and the characteristics are fantastic and believable.

Thank you to Pigeonhole and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this in exchange for a truthful review.

I chose to read and review a free eARC of The Wilderness Retreat but that has in no way influenced my review.

I do love a locked room mystery. The claustrophobic, isolated setting, the cast of untrustworthy, unreliable characters and the often palpable sense of tension heavily laced with a hefty dose of suspicion. They’re an unsettling joy to read and I cannot get enough of them at the moment. Which is why, when The Wilderness Retreat by Jennifer Moore, landed on my radar I jumped at the chance to read it!

The day Bella has been dreading has finally arrived. It’s time to drop her son, Asher, off at university for his first term. It’s the first time Asher has spent any real time away from home and single mum, Bella, is full of worry. How will be cope? Will he be OK? And how will SHE cope, Asher is everything to her. But Bella’s sister and Asher have planned a surprise treat for her – a week long wellness retreat in a Swedish forest. It’s the start of a new phase in Bella’s life and she’s going to ensure she makes the most of it. But on arrival, things start to go wrong. Bella receives a threatening note which immediately makes her question her fellow guests. And when a surprise special guest makes an appearance, Bella’s world is thrown upside down. A week in Dead Man’s Forest may not be the relaxing start to a new phase in her life after all. It may be the death of her…

The Wilderness Retreat is an unsettling, well-written tale which I enjoyed from the first word to the last. Bella is a woman with a lot on her plate. Having had a baby on her own at a young age. Having raised him single-handedly, regularly battling with whether she made the right decision to keep his paternity a secret. Having spent every waking moment putting Asher first and her own needs second, she’s now arrived at a new phase in her life and she’s really not handling it well at all. I felt as though Bella was grieving the loss of her relationship with Asher from the moment they part at the university, which is understandable. Things aren’t going to be the same. He’s off into the big wide world, tasked with looking after himself. He doesn’t need his mum anymore, which we all know won’t be the case but that’s how Bella feels. Although my children are years away from going to university I can empathise. But it did feel a little extreme. For me, Bella was almost consumed with worry over her adult son. This is a plot thread which runs throughout the book and the more Bella fretted over Asher, probably having the time of his life at some party, the more I grew to dislike the character. But you don’t have to like a character to enjoy a book! And often in psychological thrillers the characters are designed to be unlikeable. Which is what the author has achieved with her supporting cast. They’re an odd bunch but they all bring something to the story and being marooned in the woods with them made me feel uneasy and on edge. You certainly don’t feel you can trust any of them, that’s for sure!

Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. If you’re looking for a well-written, slow burn, locked room mystery with lashings of psychological suspense then make sure you get yourself a copy of The Wilderness Retreat. I loved the setting which was beautifully atmospheric and isolated. The characters are multi-layered and each individual really brings something to the story. And the plot was full of suspense and well-pitched tension. I was able to guess whodunit from fairly early on AND their reasons for doing so, but that did not spoil my enjoyment of the novel. Overall, I enjoyed The Wilderness Retreat and would recommend to all fans of the genre.

I chose to read and review a free eARC of The Wilderness Retreat. The above review is my own unbiased opinion.

This book has a lot of promise, but ultimately didn't hit the mark for me.
I found it rather repetitive and became very far fetched once the pace was suddenly ramped up in the final few chapters.

Unfortunately, I found this book lacking in excitement. Set in a retreat in Sweden the story had too many characters none of whom I bonded with. The book was promising to begin with but I quickly lost interest in the plot.

Bella is spending a week at a luxury wilderness retreat in the depths of a Swedish forest. However she soon worries about what she has got herself into when she receives notes under her bedroom door and she recognises someone at the retreat from her past. Worse still, another guest goes missing without a trace...

A superb psychological thriller full of twists and turns.

One of my favourite things about this book was the setting and how perfectly it fitted the story. Jennifer Moore has painted an incredible picture of the lodge and the forest. The descriptions were spot on, in fact it made me want to book a cosy cabin break - despite the dangerous things happening at this one!

Bella is a brilliant character. I loved how she questioned her own actions and thought processes when she didn't know what to believe. I found it really touching that she had recently seen her only son go off to university, the emotions that she felt came across so strongly especially in the isolated location of the retreat.

The plot was incredibly well-written and continually kept surprising me with where the story led, which made for such an exciting reading experience.

I was completely addicted to this book and simply couldn't put it down!

Thank you NetGalley and HQ for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Set in a Swedish wellness retreat lodge in an isolated forest, Bella arrives having dropped her son off at his first day at university. She's anxious about him but knows she has promised to make the most of this week away. But things change when the guests have their phones taken away and she comes face to face with a figure from her past. Add in the strange noises, anonymous notes and odd occurences and you can understand why Bella may not be relaxing as she should. Is someone targeting her or is it all in her imagination?

Told largely in the present from Bella's point of view at the retreat, but there with some narrative from Izzy as she begins her life at university, this slow-paced locked room murder mystery is tense!

The characters were well fleshed out and I think I suspected them all at one point or another throughout the book. Full of suspense the slow pace brought the tension and claustrophobia you can only imagine that Bella felt.

A very good read full of intrigue, secrets and lies. Gripping, creepy and with a satisfying ending. A brilliant psychological thriller.

I found this book a bit of a slow starter and quite repetitive for probably the first 75% of it. Then everything was packed in to the last bit. I didn't really connect with the characters or see the point of some of them. All in all an I felt this was an ok read but not amazing.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

“As Bella drops her son off at university, she’s devastated. It’s been the two of them ever since Asher was born. The only thing helping her through is an upcoming week-long wilderness retreat in Sweden, a surprise gift from her sister and Asher.
The lodge is modern and luxurious – but the surrounding forest is foreboding. Named Dead Man’s Forest after the legend of a local bandit left to die inside a wooden coffin, there are rumours that, on quiet nights, you can still hear the scratching of his fingernails against the lid.
When someone begins leaving unsettling notes, and a figure from her past comes back to haunt her, Bella’s unease grows. This certainly isn't the restful retreat she signed up for. And when another guest suddenly disappears, Bella fears she might not make it home alive…”

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an electronic version of this book which I read on the Pigeonhole app, one stave per day over ten days, commenting along with other readers. I enjoyed the isolated forest setting which become much darker as the novel progressed. Overall an enjoyable read.

Bella is a single mum to her only son Asher. When Asher starts University her sister pays for her to spend a week at a Wellness Retreat in Sweden. When the hosts of the Retreat announce the special guest is a man Bella had a one night stand with at University, she is naturally concerned that he will discover that Asher is his son. As strange things start to happen, notes pushed under her door, scratching sounds coming from next door etc she becomes increasingly paranoid.

Although the premise of the book appealed to me I thought it was too slow for most of the way through with a lot of repetition. I didn't really care for Bella, her constant worrying about whether Asher had settled in at University was rather annoying.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this book.

I found this book an enjoyable read, it intrigued me from the start as to how the story was going to pan out. I thought the characters feelings were relatable and that it was well written. I didn’t guess the ending and was happy with the way it all turned out. Thank you for letting me read this advanced copy.

This was an enjoyable read. Full of mystery and intrigue.
There were a lot of characters in the book but I soon got used to who was who.

A picturesque Swedish setting, right up my street. Bella is struggling with her son flying the nest, but hopes to remedy some of the angst with a weeks stay at a wilderness retreat. peace and tranquility quickly turn in to something more sinister.

3.5 stars
I did enjoy this story, I can certainly empathise with how Bella felt when her son, Asher, went to university. I didn’t guess who was behind it all, always a plus for me! It was quite an atmospheric setting and the story moved along at a steady pace apart from the ending. That all seemed a bit rushed and was over before I knew it. I received a copy and have voluntarily reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I wanted to like this book, the premise, the setting and the life stage of the main character are ideal. I love a good psychological thriller and with the melting pot of people who met on the retreat and the location I settled in for a rollercoaster ride, but I just didn't enjoy it. For me, this wasn't the page turner I had hoped for.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

empty nest syndrome
son going to uni
a weeks vacation away

what more could a girl want but things start going wrong at the retreat right away, not only are they a captive audience the storms have cut them off from people and with no access to phones they can only make the best of their time there

have to admit that i thought i would like this story as it sounded so creepy and just up my street...but the storyline seemed to be all over the place and some of it could have been cut out to condense it more...i found it not as fluid

Brilliant Book and the ending was a surprise. The book is a page turner and have recommend it to our library to purchase. Well written.

While I feel this book had an interesting start and an ok end the middle just felt too slow and unprogressive. There was no relationship built up between the characters and the reader, they just seemed to be there. Even the main character didn’t come across as having any real personality to her or any ways of connecting with her on a reading level.

It was a difficult read as it felt a bit like Groundhog Day. Very repetitive, over-detailed and unnecessarily wordy.

I feel the thinking behind this story was a good one, but was executed poorly

Really enjoyed the start of this thriller about Bella and her Swedish well being retreat. Full of interesting characters and uneasy feelings. Bella misses her son who has just started university and struggling with being separated from her phone, she starts to hear strange noises, receive odd messages and there is an unwelcome special guest. However too much alcohol and a feeling of not knowing what is real and what is not took a long time to reach its rather far fetched conclusion.