Excellent twisty storyline.
Keeps you guessing right to the end.
Thoroughly enjoyable.
Thanks for the opportunity to read and review

I liked the two stories running in parallel and the way they connected near the end. A great twist at the end which took me by surprise. I will be looking forward to more by her.

I read this over the course of two days and really enjoyed it! I didn’t quite see where the book was going, and I couldn’t have guessed it either. A good thriller, definitely one of those ‘one more chapter’ books and I’d highly recommend it. A teeny bit creepy, but nothing to keep you up at night. I’ve already had a look for more books by Lisa and added them to my wish list!

The Gathering by Lisa Stone.

When this author brings out another book I look forward to reading it.
A friendly reunion…
After ten years, Sarah and her husband Roshan are looking forward to catching up with their closest school friends. So when one of them invites the group to spend a week in a beautiful converted church, they eagerly accept.
A vision of fear…
Very quickly though, Sarah becomes unsettled. She is frightened by the church’s creepy surroundings, and she thinks she might be seeing ghosts. Even more disturbing, a masked woman is committing armed robberies in the area – and the police can’t catch her.
The plot is set fairly quickly and you are soon engrossed in the book. However , on this occasion I could not find myself enamoured to the characters and for me I didn't feel they were very well created.
Still a good story mind with a few good twists and turns.

Turns Sinister…
A reunion in a converted church turns sinister between long term friends in this menacing tale of drama and suspense. If their surroundings were not enough to worry this group then the odd events that begin to occur certainly do. Genre crossing tale of intrigue.

I liked the premise and enjoyed it for what it was but i can't say it's been my favourite read. It's a bit predictable and not the most believable but hey, it's a fiction so well give that a pass. The writing style just didn't flow for me and I couldnt really get into it. As I said, it's an OK book if somewhat predictable and as long as you don't look too deep or really think about it logically then it's a decent enough read

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Sarah and Roshan are meeting up with old friends, Brandon, Megan and Austin, for a 10 year reunion week away together. They were all friends in school and uni. Austin has organised them to stay in a church for the week, complete with spooky graveyard. The first night goes well, but then things start to get weird. There’s also a serial armed robber committing crimes who has been dubbed Chanel Woman. Are these group of friends and these crimes linked?

This was a great read. The style of writing created a sense of unease and creepiness throughout. I was happy to see the police officer DC Beth Mayes back again, she brings some wit and slight humour to the story. I really disliked some of the characters, which fitted the storyline perfectly, as some of them were made to be awful. I look forward to the next instalment.

Slightly strange and predictable story, not quite what I was expecting. Could of been better. Thank you netgalley for the advanced copy

So predictable, a story that's been done before. Very disappointing and I struggled to finish it. My thanks to netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Having read and enjoyed every book by this author, I was so excited to read The Gathering, I was hughly disappointed and such a difficult book to get into.

This is a good read but a bit predictable.
A group of friends get together for a reunion organised by a school friend, Austin.
The place he’s chosen seems a bit odd but they all enjoy catching up on the first night.
Sarah then starts to see the ghost of her dead mother and Megan swears her room is over run with spiders.
Other strange things start to happen and starts to scare the group of friends.
Austin is a psychiatrist and tries to help but the group decide to leave early.
Alongside this story is that of a woman carrying out armed robberies and it soon becomes clear why.
A bit of strange book but quite enjoyable.
Thanks to Harper Collins and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I've read a book by this author before which I enjoyed this one not so much it was just a bit strange and unbelievable

Having not read any of Lisa Stones previous thrillers I wasn’t sure if I would like this but WOW I loved it. I will now be reading her other books. I loved the writing style and how it just flowed. This was a very fast paced, addictive thriller which I could not put down. I will definitely be recommending this to everyone. Thanks to netgallery and publisher for my advanced copy.

Rating: 1.2/5

Lisa Stone is no newcomer to writing with a significant number of books having been published either under that name, or under the pseudonym of Cathy Glass. I have only read one of Lisa Stone's novels previously, that being "The Cottage" which I enjoyed. As I result I had no hesitation in coming back to read this next offering too ... but, oh dear! Are you sure that "The Gathering" has really been written by the same author? It really is very poor - to the point of being puerile.

The premise is okay - not particularly original, but a tried and trusted one that has formed the basis of several perfectly enjoyable novels I have read over the years.. There are two strands to the the story: one centres around a reunion of former school friends in a somewhat eerie location and a second thread relates to a series of robberies being carried out by a female perpetrator, who has been dubbed "Chanel Woman". As is always the case with these dual thread scenarios, the reader knows that that are going to be connected at some point - because that is the convention and is just how these things work. In this instance it is very obvious, very quickly how the two strands are going to be linked. Unless you have spent your entire life living under a rock, you will have soon identified the connection. If only that were the biggest shortcoming of "The Gathering" ... but it isn't - not by a long chalk!

The narrative style is painfully stilted and simplistic. If it weren't for the fact that certain references are only suitable for an adult audience, this book reads as though it could have been aimed at a significantly younger audience - perhaps more the age range that you might expect to find reading the adventures of Enid Blyton's "Famous Five". The dialogue is excruciatingly unnatural and the characters so wooden that I almost felt the need tl check my hands for splinters. The storyline and the various plot developments as events unfold is ludicrously contrived and lacks any sense of credibility. If you were penning a screenplay for a Scooby-Doo mystery to be solved by "those meddling kids" then it would be perfectly acceptable - but in a novel that is supposed to be a genuine mystery thriller for an adult audience, it falls woefully short of the required standard.

Read this if you absolutely must, I would suggest that your time and money would be far better spent choosing something else.

As ever, I would still like to convey my thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review. It is a pity I was not in a position to pass more favourable comment on this occasion.

Sarah and her husband Roshan attend a 10 year reunion with their old school friends at a converted church. At first everyone is excited to catch up, but soon odd things start to happen and the creepy graveyard surrounding them doesn't help. Meanwhile, a masked woman is carrying out robberies and has managed to evade the police. Just what has everyone got themselves into? A thrilling and tense read that keeps you turning the pages until the shocking ending. Brilliant, loved it!

Sarah and her husband Roshan are meeting up with some old school friends 10 years after they left school. It was something they had all agreed to do when they went their separate ways and everyone apart from Austin had forgotten.

With Austin having organised this break in a converted church everyone seems excited to reunite and see each other again. However soon Sarah’s excitement turns to fear she is terrified of staying in the middle of a graveyard and as someone who believes in ghosts she soon becomes very frightened.

On the first night of their stay Sarah finds her nightmares have returned and she wakes to find herself in the graveyard in the middle of the night with Roshan and some of the others looking for her in a state of panic.

Soon other strange things start happening. Megan’s fear of spiders goes from bad to worse and like Sarah she starts waking up with nightmares. Brandon is the same allergic to wasp stings he starts to fear he is being followed by a nest of wasps.

Austin tries to help his friends control their phobias but the become convinced the church is haunted and the week away in the current surroundings is making things seem much worse, all the group are on edge, their friendship hasn’t hit off the same way it did 10 years ago and something strange seems to be going on and no one seems able to trust each other.

To make matters even worse in a near by local village masked armed robberies are taking place, the police are having little luck catching their victim who they have given the name Chanel woman due to her distinctive perfume.

I thought it was very clever the way the weekly holiday and the armed robbery case last were linked. I did guess some of the plot and some of the connections but for me this didn’t spoil a thing. I like being proved right as much as I do wrong and there were plenty of other twists and turns that I didn’t see coming, especially the one at the end. That was very clever indeed. I also loved that this thriller has an element of spooky in it which I haven’t found in any others and I quite liked it.

Having read one of Lisa Stones previous thrillers and now I’ve read the gathering I think I’ll be going back and reading a few more as I loved her style of writing. The gathering was fast paced, addictive, easy to read and kept you guessing right to the very end. Everything I love in a book.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an advance copy of this book in exchange for this review. If I could give more than five stars I think I would.