This book was ok. I enjoyed reading it but the ending was lacking. It was quite predictable. There were some interesting characters

Firstly, I would like to thank Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book.

The story of Bella, who is heartbroken having just left her son Asher at University. This is the first time they have been appart since his birth. She is uplifted a bit by the fact that he, and her sister, have booked a retreat holiday in Sweden for her.

The place is in the middle of a forest which she finds a bit intimidating. However, she is determined to enjoy it. There is a special guest due to arrive and she is horrified to discover that he is someone from her days at University. Various things happen which unnerve her and she wonders if she will get out alive.

Bella is an enjoyable character and the book is worth reading.

The Wilderness Retreat is the first book I've read by Jennifer, but it will not be the last. I always enjoy a fast-paced thriller, that's full of twists and turns, alongside the element of feeling unable to trust the characters or work out who is good and who isn't. The Wilderness Retreat delivered on all these and was also beautifully written. Would highly recommend.

This was the first book I’d read by Jennifer Moore and I was hooked! Quite literally couldn’t turn the pages fast enough, it’s such a fantastic book!

Really enjoyed this book from start to finish and liked the style of writing too. Would definitely read another book from this author and would recommend. Thanks to NetGalley for the free copy for my honest review. #NetGalley

Whilst this would ordinarily be the kind of book I enjoyed for some thrilling escapist fun I just couldn't get into The Wilderness Retreat, everything about it was off-putting - the setting, the characters, the storyline, the supposed red herrings, the motives and denouement.

Bella's continuous internal monologue was repetitive and annoying, her constant questions pointless rather than insightful and whilst the author tried to point her (and us) into thrilling diversions to put us off the scent they were even more pointless (rather than the twists and turns I imagine she'd hoped we'd experience).

Worse was Bella's blinding obsession with her adult son, the constant references to him were almost abnormal leading me to believe that actually the story was going to be about Bella's descent into actual madness - which may have been a bit more interesting than the pretend breakdown engineered by the retreat's hostess to pay Bella back for a teenage mistake in a really silly and convoluted villainous plot.

Sorry but think this book may sound the death knell for these suddenly popular 'trapped in isolation with a killer' novels.

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Bella has just dropped her son off at University and is in her way to the airport to go to a retreat in Sweden bought for her by her son and sister as a treat. She meets a fellow retreat guest at the airport.

When she gets to the retreat she finds that everyone has to hand over their mobile phones which is hard as obviously she wants to know how her son is getting on, but she goes with it, especially as there is very little service at the location anyway.

Then a disturbing note is left for her and other guests and a person from her past joins the retreat, another guest disappears. How will it all end?

What can I say about this book ?
There are a lot of this kind of book around at the moment, however I really did enjoy this book.
Lots of twists and turns and it kept me guessing right till the end.
4⭐️’s

I was disappointed by this book, it was very gar fetched and the main character so frustrating and not likeable at all. What was meant to come across as protective parent, came across instead as overbearing and needy. The indecisive nature of the character was also very frustrating, not a book i could recommend unfortunately

Would really highly recommend this book as a superbly brilliant read. I just loved it, the story , characters and the way each chapter and the story unfolded, so well written. At the end of each chapter you were left shocked, intrigued and couldn’t wait to read the next. Really is a must read.

Having dropped her only child, Asher, at uni Bella sets off on her own adventure at an isoalted retreat in Sweden. The problem is she can't seem to let go of Asher. The fact that she misses him is rammed home almost every other sentence. We get it Bella! You're a single mum, Asher is all you have, but pleeease....enough already.

So, there she is, enjoying a quiet moment - missing Asher, of course - at the airport awaiting her flight, when a rather odd man in a Christmas sweater sits down at her table. She groans but is polite enough while he makes silly jokes about his name Oscar Wildman (yes, really) and eats a smelly egg sandwich. Surely this strange creature can't be on the same flight? Yes of course he is. Surely he can't be going to the same retreat? Absolutelyhe is.... welllll, I never saw that oine coming..

This is so awful I cannot go on any longer. I already hate these two people. I would rather stick knoitting needles in my eyes than spend any more time in their company......I think you get the drift.

Upon reading the blurb, I thought that this sounded exactly like my kind of book. But sadly it just never lived up to those expectations or the promise that a story like this could have.
In terms of pacing, it takes quite a while for it to really get going.
Unfortunately parts were really repetitive too.
The biggest issue for me though was Bella wasn't particularly likeable and in a book where you're meant to be rooting for them to discover what's happening/survive, that immediately puts a distance between the reader and the main character.
The action did ramp up in the last 20% but at that point I was rather bored by this book and ultimately underwhelmed.
Sadly, this just wasn't for me.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When Bella drops her son at University, she heads to a retreat centre in Scandinavia, a treat paid for by her sister and the perfect opportunity to reset and think about her new life and future. The centre is beautiful, although remote. She is introduced to the other people she'll spend the week with when she arrives.

However, strange things start to happen, including notes under her door and weird scratching in the walls. Bella grows suspicious about whether someone is deliberately targeting her. She shrugs it off, but as the week progresses, things get worse when a guest speaker invited to the centre turns out to be someone from Bella's past whom she never wanted to meet again. Add to this stormy weather and fallen trees, and we have an Agatha Christie style mystery where no one can leave the centre, and everyone falls under suspicion. Bella grows ever fearful of the other guests and which of them may wish to harm her and why. Bella's credibility is tested, and she becomes isolated and ostracised.

I won't say any more for fear of spoiling the story. It played out well, and I enjoyed the final reveal.

This moves along at a good pace, and I found it very entertaining.

I had such high hopes for this. It had such promise - I was expecting a creepy thriller. But I felt so underwhelmed. I found that I didn't really care about any of the characters, nor did I like the slow burn pacing. Normally, I like a slow burn, but you can only do that well if the reader cares about the characters and, seeing as I didn't, I found the slowness painful.

Now, I am certain this is a case of "It's not you, it's me". Plus, I bet if I try to read this again in the future, I would devour it. But this book wasn't for me.

A good solid murder mystery with twists and and suspicion at every turn.
The main character did bug me a little, she seemed needy and a bit wheedling but other than that, I found the characters to be well described, the setting calm but eerie and plot paranoid and edge of your seat.
The pace of the story was decent, kept me interested upto the grand finale.
Definitely worth a read.

When Bella drops her son at university she realises that it has always just been the two of them. The only thing keeping her going is an upcoming week-long retreat in the Swedish wilderness.

This turns out to not be the restful retreat she had expected.

I was, initially, a little disappointed with this book as I found the characters two-dimensional and wooden. Plus, I didn't like any of them. Even Isabelle, the main protagonist, I felt was pathetic. As I read it I couldn't decide if it was a horror story or a murder mystery. But, the further I got into it the more I began to become engaged with it. It went from 2 Stars to 3 Stars as the plot unraveled. Although I found it repetitive in places it was a good and easy book to read.

The Wilderness Retreat had so much promise but unfortunately I felt as though it was lacking something throughout. It felt as though the story took forever to get going with no real progress in the plot line until the last chapter where everything happened all at once. To me, the ending felt rushed which was a huge shame because I genuinely believed that the story itself had so much promise.

Bella drops her son off at university ready to start the next phase of his life, and Bella makes her way off to the Swedish wilderness on a retreat - a gift from her sister and her son for her birthday.
Everything seems so idyllic and bliss, but things begin to get a little bit odd and uncertain. There's a strange feeling Bella seems to have of her being watched by someone or something the entire time she's there.

We get off to a rocky start, as one of the other guests there was an aspiring writer who was writing his own murder mystery and starts to drop hints as though something sinister will go down whilst they're all there.

A lot of other reviewers are mentioning an Agatha Christie feel, and I would absolutely agree.
For me, this was absolutely a page turner that was tricky to put down, but I feel it truly was a bit of a slow burn. It felt like we were waiting forever for some action to eventually happen, whilst the rest of the book was very much on a basis of keeping you intrigued and gripped, whilst not really reaching any kind of climax.

I liked the story as we followed Bella and her curiosity, but also the setting was described perfectly for the Swedish wilderness. It was eerie and perfect with the added aspect of mystery

I found this to be an OK read. Bella is finding it difficult to let go of her son as he starts Uni and she embarks on her own adventure, paid for by her sister. I was interested by the premise of this storyline, but, for me it didn't really deliver. I found it repetitive and the lead character of Bella, so obsessed with her son, irritating. However, there are elements of suspense and a good mix of characters.

It's not a bad read, just, not one for me.

Thanks to HQ digital for the opportunity to preview.