When Bella’s son Asher goes off to University she is not sure that she is really up to going to the Wilderness retreat that he and her sister booked for her. She thinks it is her kind of hell and a week trying to relax in a remote location with a group of strangers is a bad idea. When she gets there she does have to admit that the location is stunning but any chance of being able to chill out goes out the window when she realises that not only will she have to hand over her mobile phone, cutting her off from any communication with her son, but someone from her past will be there and this is someone she had hoped never to see again.
I have to admit that to begin with Bella did get on my nerves a bit. She came across as an over clingy, overprotective mom who seemed to have no real life outside her son. As the book progressed though I did find other characters that I could sympathise with Bella over her dread of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with as if it had been me I probably would have punched them so her patience is clearly much better than mine. There is clearly someone out to get Bella, with mysterious things happening that lead her to wonder about her sanity but who or why is not quickly evident and like Bella you find yourself flitting around eyeing up the various suspects thanks to all the different clues and red herrings.
The chapters that allude to events in Bella’s past give us an insight into why she hates one of the residents and as the book comes to its conclusion other things finally fall into place. There were quite a few characters to keep track of with some playing a bigger part in events than others but none of them felt like they were surplus to requirements. The descriptions of the lodge and the surrounding forest had me wishing I could be there away from it all and then the events that took place would just as quickly have me feeling glad that I was not there too.
This is quite a quick read even though the pace of it felt quite slow, but if you love psychological thrillers then this may be the book for you. All I know is that I was left with the certain feeling that being away from everything with no access to things such as the Internet may not be all its cracked up to be.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review this book. I was intrigued from the start, rampaged through it and thoroughly enjoyed the plot twists.

I really enjoyed this book. Bella drops her son at university for the first time. She is devastated but has a week at a retreat in Sweden as a present from her sister to take her mind off it. However, when she arrives she learns that someone from her past is going to be a special guest, someone she really doesn't want to meet. Then an anonymous note is pushed under her door saying they know what she has done. This is a real page turner which will keep you guessing to the end. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

Enjoyed this book. Kept me on the edge of my seat. Great characters and plot. Would recommend to anyone who likes this genre.

Although I found this a bit slow to start with I'm glad I stuck with it the rest of the book was fast paced and exciting.
Towards the end I couldn't put this book down.
I will be looking forward to reading more by Jennifer Moore

I struggled a little with this book. Felt like a lot of characters that overcrowded the story.

The culprit was fairly obvious to me and was not a shocking reveal. I found the book very repetitive. I was really excited to read this book but overall ending up feeling disappointed.

Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for the opportunity to read and review the book.

The tension is definitely built by the narrator throughout and I did keep going back to it to listen more. However the story itself was very predictable and the ending was a bit lack lustre, it was all over and done with too quickly.
OK but definitely not the best thriller I’ve listened to.

The Wilderness Retreat was everything I hoped it would be. It was fast-paced, mysterious and gripping. I really liked the character of Belle and I wanted her to work out what on earth was going on, and quickly, because I was hooked!! I also did not see that ending coming, which is exactly what I look for in a thriller! I cannot wait to see what Jennifer Moore does next!

This is a gripping thriller that engrossed me from start to finish. The storytelling and the characterisation are very compelling. Definitely recommended.

My thanks to the author, Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read and review it.

#NetGalley #TheWildernessRetreat

With thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy

A psychological thriller with a lot to offer. Not anything that will break the mould or really potentially stick with you for reasons other than it was a darn canny read!

Built around the premise of a single mother in need of some R&R sent on a trip to a Swedish retreat by her sister, leaving behind her son as he embarks on his first week at university. Via flashbacks and adept dialogue exchanges amongst the characters who form the residents on retreat with Bella [or Izzy depending on which part of the timeline we are in...], Moore drip feeds the events of the past that lead to the status quo at the novel's start. Bella then embarks on a week-long retreat experience that is peppered with mysterious characters, flawed behaviour, motherly guilt at not being at home for her son; all culminating in a slowly burned climb to the climax wherein she is the target of dangerous and inexplicable behaviour of another resident. But who? Readers are kept on tenterhooks for the majority of the book - Moore is quite expert in keeping us guessing throughout, never quite certain about who the perpetrator is!

Of it's own accord this technique then ignites both the mystery and parameters of the thriller that follows. True to the psychological twisty tale promised, Bella's story is her experience of the retreat. As the plot progresses, old faces appear, new bonds are formed and broken, and the protagonist is left constantly questioning her own actions, reactions, experiences and memories in a cycle of constantly changing trajectories. The book works cleanly on this level, with readers never quite knowing what to trust and how much of the experience through Bella's eyes is to be trusted, and then how much is misremembered.
Much of this continual suspense and engagement is further supported by the genre-typical tropes of drugs, alcohol, sleepiness and nightmares, sickness and good old fashioned gas lighting behaviour from more than one character.
The appeal and succinct narrative flow mean this is suspenseful and gripping throughout. Where this stays put in the realm of 3+ stars is the meandering and repetitive nature of how we get from point A to Point B - at many points Bella repeats herself, or we experience the same motions and actions on multiple occasions across the different days of the week-long retreat. Movement seems to flourish and then stagnate over and over again, becoming predictable yet not actually adding to the action or outcomes of the story. What perhaps is intended to mirror the claustrophobia of routine and repetition of the retreat lifestyle leaves chunks of the novel somewhat stale...
Similarly the tropes that negate a more sophisticated direction of story structure tarnish the unpredictability of the tale told. For example phones being handed in at the very start, no WiFi and hence no outside communication available. A little bit 'on the nose' shall we say...

This is a great and thrilling book which kept me hooked all the way through. What more can you ask from this type of book?!

Loved the premise of this book and the real thing didn’t disappoint!! Thanks to netgalley for an advanced copy of this, really interesting plot.

I’m struggling to review this book. I loved the location and the mood but felt something was missing for me. I really struggled to get through this book. The storyline was quite predictable.

I really liked the description of this book and was looking forward to it but just didn’t connect to the characters and it fell short for me unfortunately.

Wow, I honestly thought I losing my mind along with Bella as I was reading this.

It's claustrophobic, clever and I would never have guessed the majority of it.

It's so well done, and the setting is sheer perfection. It's so wild and isolated and I wasn't really sure what to make of the whole retreat.

I enjoyed getting to know everyone on the retreat and seeing how some secrets were uncovered.

But I also feared for Bella, as it is clear something was really nor quite right. And that sense of creepiness just kept occurring more and more.

I was gripped from the start to the end and found this to be a fabulous book.

Thank you to HQ Digital for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

I love a good thriller but sadly this didn't grip me as I hoped it would. I found the storyline easy to follow but it was also easy to see what was going to happen before it did. I don't feel this book is anything new and I must admit to speed reading it just to get it finished .

I read an awful lot of thrillers as it’s my go to genre so I think although this was enjoyable, I found it a little bit slow. I think it just took a while for the plot to get going and me to become completely invested in it. I liked the doubt cast on Bella and how we don’t know if she’s simply going a bit mad which makes it different from stereotypical body count thrillers as too! I think overall it would be a 3.5

#TheWildernessRetreat #NetGalley
Awesome.
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…
Thanks to NetGalley and HQ for giving me an advance copy.

This was an edgy thriller with great charaters

A Swedish retreat and a group of characters all with something to hide and all somehow connected to at least one of the other characters. Some parts were easily unwound but the author manages to keep other events cloaked throughout.

A book I read in one sitting and an author i would revisit

Bella has been gifted a week at a Wilderness Retreat in Sweden by her sister; a perfect gift to take her mind off the fact that she's just dropped her only child off at university and is panicking over being alone.
It starts out well enough, ok, some of the other guests are a bit strange but what do you expect at this sort of place? What is alarming is she knows one of them from her past, someone she'd rather forget. Luckily, they don't seem to remember her.
When she starts to hear and see things that no one else does, she knows somethings wrong, but why has she been singled out?
A good story, with well written characters, and plotline.
I worked out (guessed) some of it, but not all!!