This is a creepy story which does grip you in parts. I could imagine the cabin clearly in my mind and almost hear the creepy noises coming from the woods!
Thank you to Jennifer Moore and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

desert island style plot set in Swedish woodland

Bella, 38, film music composer and single mother to an 18year old son who just started college, is given the unwanted gift of a week’s stay in a Swedish wilderness retreat. The isolated premises are surrounded by endless sinister woodland, there is no WiFi signal and from the beginning, the atmosphere between the eight house guests is rather taxing and uneasy. That one of the guests is obsessed with writing his first thriller and monopolising every conversation with gory musings about grisly potential details of his future book does not help, neither does the arrival of Bella‘s former star violinist ex-tutor whom she had a one night stand with 18 years ago. From day two, very strange incidents start to happen…

I loved this book!

What a terrifying retreat! The creepy noises, the notes and all the spooky outgoings are so well written that I literally double checked my own doors and windows while reading this book.
Highly recommend!

Bell is moving onto the next stage of her life. Her only son is on his way to university so Bell needs to make a life for herself. A nice break in Sweden seems to be the answer until its not… Bell is mixing with a lot of new people and all are not as they first appear. An enticing story of suspicion and suspense.

Sounded good from the blurb but quite slow, whereas the final parts seemed very rushed. Shame as parts were good, however, not much in the way of thrills and way too many plot clichés, like the retreat being cut off by fallen trees.

Bella is devastated dropping son, Asher, at university. It’s been just the two of them since he was born. Thankfully she has a relaxing retreat in Sweden to look forward to courtesy of her sister. On arrival the stunning scenery out in the wilderness appears to be the antidote to her stresses but very quickly she starts to feel cut off without her confiscated phone and uneasy. Is everyone who they say they are?

I felt this book had so much potential and really enjoyed parts of it but ultimately I found it really repetitive and I found myself racing to get it finished. Not bad but not great for me.

I had no idea where this book was going and who to trust and who was a 'baddy'. The story unfolded with many twists and turns along the way and only started to reveal itself as the end and was unexpected.

Great story telling and kept you on the edge of your seat.

The premise of the novel sounded fantastic - Bella, a woman who's son has just left for university is gifted by him.and her sister a retreat break in Sweden for a week.
The problem is its very slow to start and we keep hearing about how much Bella misses Asher her son (we get it, and don't need to keep being told) the the surprise guest is a blast from the past that Bella could do without. When strange things begin happening Bella seems to be intent on blaming him, but is all as it seems? After all they are all strangers in the middle of nowhere, what do they really know about each other?Bella overreacted to most of the things which happen to her leading the others to become suspicious of her!
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read this book but unfortunately I won't be recommending. (Which is highly unusual for me)

After her son has left for university, Bella heads off to a retreat in Sweden where she will disconnect from technology and reconnect with nature. However soon things take a turn and Bella feels like she is going mad.
The blurb fascinated me but I just felt it was a little rushed.
Thank you to netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review

A holiday to a wilderness retreat in remote Sweden, paid for as a birthday present - Bella should feel happy and lucky. Instead, from the outset it is clear that she doesn't really want to be going. She's just dropped her son off at university, clearly doesn't want to let him go and we are constantly told of how grief-stricken she is. The repetition of the fact that Bella is missing her son so much that slightly annoyed me - and there were other aspects of Bella's character and behaviour (getting so drunk that she throws up on a woman's shoes) which seemed a bit out of sync with how Bella is otherwise described. This is one of the reasons that I gave this book a 4* rather than a 5* - the story otherwise was a good well-paced mystery, that slowly but steadily revealed who was behind the disturbing happenings at the retreat. Did I believe that the protagonist really could have achieved what she suggested in terms of getting Bella where she wanted her - not really.

A thriller set in a remote location sounds like the perfect read to me. I started the audio of this one and enjoyed the narrators voice but decided to DNF at 25%. I found myself getting irritated at Bella and her paranoia, if I had to hear one more time that she was worried about Asher then I was going to scream. This book felt like it was taking too long to get going and the switching back and forth felt too confusing. I think it is a case of this isn't for me right now. I have seen some lovely reviews for it so do not let me put you off.

I loved the main character in this book, having everything from her point of view you were never sure if she was a reliable source for information, a very atmospheric story which intensifies the mystery of the story.

A great premise which drew me into the suspense immediately. As Bella goes on a retreat with the promise of improving wellbeing and relaxation, gifted to her from her son and sister, she thinks it is just what she needs. However, this quickly starts to unravel when she realises the surprise guest at the retreat is an unwelcome blast from the past. When things start to go wrong, Bella cannot figure out if someone is out to get her or if she is imagining things. I really enjoyed the build up and suspense created throughout the book and was looking forward to finding out what on earth was going on. Unfortunately, I did find storyline became a little repetitive and slower in the second half of the book and I felt the ending was a little far fetched. I liked the style of writing but did feel a little underwhelmed once I had finished.

This is a locked-room mystery with a difference – because it is not set in a locked room at all but in the wide-open spaces of Sweden. It is here in a luxury wilderness retreat for stressed individuals that film composer Bella arrives to recharge her batteries. A single parent, she is struggling with her son Asher leaving home to go to university, so is feeling a little vulnerable. Little does Bella know that among her fellow guests lurks someone who will conjure up long-buried memories from two decades ago. Intuitively, Bella knows something is wrong. When guests are asked to surrender their mobile phones and a heavy storm threatens the retreat, it looks as if her intuition was right all along.

At atmospheric thriller, this tense work really grew on me even though there are some passages that could be cut and perhaps slightly too many characters, although each individual one is well-drawn. I would recommend this novel as it perfectly complements some of the seemingly never-ending winter nights we have recently had. Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the free ARC that enabled me to read this novel and to publish this review.

I was so looking forward to be drawn into this book as the synopsis given was so interesting and thrilling but unfortunately it didn't deliver for me. Such a slow moving story that failed to pick up pace in time for me to become immersed in the storyline.

The Wilderness Retreat by Jennifer Moore

The cover and synopsis of this book drew me in, and I was really excited to see how this murder-mystery/thriller would turn out. I was, however, a little disappointed.

Firstly, the action was too slow-paced. The author did a great job of setting the scene to be a creepy, isolated cabin in the woods scenario. However, too much time was spent on descriptions of settings and dialogue that had no purpose to the plot, so the action took a back seat. It was way past half-way through before I felt the action actually kicked off. I really enjoyed the last third of this book, and found it gripping so it's only a shame we had to wait so long to feel that effect.

Furthermore, I found the characters to be a bit strange. Usually, the protagonist would be a flawed yet still likeable character who the readers can get behind. However, Bella was an odd choice of protagonist as she appeared rude and overly cautious of everyone/everything. Yes, the author may have been using her suspicion to highlight the mystery element, but it was not necessary and I found myself become frustrated by Bella's personality. I felt that a lot of the mysterioys events that happened didn't warrant the large, dramatic reactions which Bella had.

There was very little escalation in the seriousness of the unfolding events in this book, so the plot became a bit stale and I found myself becoming bored. I think the inciting incident should have occurred earlier, rather than the author waiting until the last 100 or so pages to reveal the main incident. This would have kept me gripped all the way through rather than my interest waning after the first 100 pages.

Overall, this is an okay book if you're jusg looking for a quick read to pass the time. The authors writing style seems to have real potential, and her descriptive vocabulary is great, so it's just a shame that the pacing and character choices let her down.

I rated this 3 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and Jennifer Moore for the ARC.

I was really looking forward to reading this book but I have to say it didn’t live up to the hype. It was very repetitive and a ten year old could have worked out the denouement. None of the characters were likeable so the reader couldn’t even hope that their favourite character wasn’t the baddie and would survive. I’ve read far better locked room genre and if it wasn’t because I was on holiday and had the time, I would have given up and not finished it.

I was drawn to the cover of this book and thought it sounded interesting.

I did enjoy it it was a slow start but did pick up.

I liked the plot idea of being stuck in the middle of knowwhere where things happen.

Gripping

I loved the sound of this book - an isolated setting with a group of people whoo don't know each other plus secrets and lies thrown into the mix - but unfortunately I just didn't really connect with it. I thought the set up was good and I loved the setting - it felt both beautiful and claustrophobic which was perfect. However I just didn't believe in any of the characters, they just didn't feel real to me so I found it really hard to connect with the story. I will look out for other books by the author in the future but sadly this one just wasn't really for me.

Really descriptive and atmospheric. I liked the setting and it had some really interesting characters. Recommended.