Thanks to @Netgalley and @HQstories @harpercollins.co for a copy in return for an honest review

The blurb for this story had me hooked, A mysterious forest, and a wilderness retreat, it intrigued me with possibilities.
Whilst the premis was good, I'm sad to say that the story was a little disappointing. The pace was much too slow, several chapters where the information was being dripped out, and because of this, there was some predictability. The repetition of some facets made the story haltingly slow in progress and the multiple characters were at times hard to follow.
The times when dreams were clouding reality, made confusion in the readers mind and although I feel this is what the writer wanted to portray - that confusion the character was experiencing - it did make the story hard to follow.
On the whole, the idea behind the story was a strong one, the characters had that 'love them' or 'loathe them' instinctual pull, but I'm left wishing the book had a bit more 'punch' behind it.
I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either.

I found the first third of this book very slow paced and struggled to keep reading. The pace did pick up halfway through and it became more interesting. The characters were an unlikeable bunch with the exception of Asher, who seemed like a nice boy but he hardly featured in the book. The plot was very far fetched which rather spoiled the tension for me. There were a couple of twists towards the end but overall I didn’t find it lived up to the description of a thriller. And one thing I’d really like to know is did Belle ever get her blue jumper back?
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this book.

Bella is a film composer and a single mother of an 18-year old Asher who is away at uni. Her sister Rachel (with Asher’s help) bought her a holiday: a wilderness retreat in rural Sweden. Bella is suffering from the empty nest syndrome, as her and Asher were very close. She is hoping that the upcoming holiday will help her to deal with the new home situation.

The retreat is situated in Dödmanskoggen, which translates as ‘Dead Man’s Forest’, run by a married couple, Marie and Stuart. They only have spaces for few people at a time, so the visitors get that exclusive feel.

As it happens, there are eight guests, one of them ‘a special guest’, a VIP, which Bella seems to know…

At the beginning of their stay Marie asks the holidaymakers to give up their phones for the duration of their holiday, so they can truly switch off from the modern world. Bella is very reluctant to leave her phone behind – what if something happens to Asher and he needs her? However, she doesn’t want to be the odd-one-out and she leaves the phone in Marie’s capable hands.

Soon, Bella receives anonymous notes and threatening ‘gifts’. Who is leaving them? Is her life in danger?

I really enjoyed this tense locked-in thriller. I loved the location, the characters (who were an eclectic bunch), and how Bella’s past tied in with the story.

I found the scratching sounds that Bella heard very eerie and unsettling. Their description was so vivid and my imagination ran so wild that I could swear I heard them in my own bedroom!

I liked the fact that everyone had their secrets and you couldn’t trust anyone. At one stage, I wasn’t even trusting Bella, and she was the main character.

Overall, it is a gripping thriller that will send shivers down your spine.

Huge thanks to HQ Digital for approving my NetGalley request to read and review this title.

Excellent pace from the start of the book. Single mother Bella drops her son at university for the first time and to help her through the coming week her son Asher and Bella’s sister give her a surprise gift to go to the Wilderness Retreat in Sweden.
Bella almost immediately feels the tensions and starts hearing scratching, similar to fingernails nearby. She receives unsettling notes and her unwelcome university tutor from her past comes to the retreat.
What was supposed to be a lovely relaxing retreat turns out to be stressful, frightening and mainly an alarming situation throughout.

I could not put this book down.. A psychological thriller with so many twists embroiled Into it.. you are absorbed into the story completely..
an excellent read.

I’m struggling to think of what to rate this book. On one hand it really was gripping but on the other hand it felt very confusing and as I started reading, it really didn’t feel like it matched the synopsis I read. Thankfully it eventually starts to make sense or a bit more sense! Again I’m undecided as to say go read it or read something else!

A suspenseful thriller this was a well paced book that kept you guessing throughout.
The characters were well drawn and believable, although Bella comes over as rather an overprotective mother but that works for the story.
There were suspicions aplenty and various twists, I anticipated one but the main twist came as a complete surprise.
There was one very small plot hole that left me with a question but generally all was explained and even better there was an epilogue which neatly finished off the story.
Definitely worth a read!

There has always been Bella and her son, Asher and with Asher going off to university, Bella is getting 'empty nest' syndrome. Luckily Asher and Bella's sister have clubbed together to buy Bella a week away at a retreat in the wilds of Sweden. Belle is looking forward to it, hoping that it will ease the separation from her son and give her inspiration for her latest musical score.
Spooky, strange noises, notes under doors starts to play with Bella's mind and she begins to think that things are not all they seem.
At the end I discovered that the author wrote The Woman Before which I saw on TV and this has the same way of ranking up the suspense.

This was aterrifying story that had my pulse racing most bof the time. A week in an Idyllic retreats sounds lovely but all it not what it seems. The tension keeps on building until the final crescendo. A gripping story which carried the tension right to the end,, of what was great conclusion.

A very fast paced psychological thriller. I really enjoyed this roller coaster journey! Not top class literature perhaps, but definitely top class story! There is no let up of pace and intrigue throughout the whole novel. Ominous narrative and some chilling moments made this SCARY!
Thank you to the Publisher, Netgalley and the author for this opportunity to read the novel!

From the moment I started reading this book I was instantly interested in the journey and how it was going to pan out. I was kept in suspense, unable to see how the story was going to turn. I found there was a bit of a lull in the story, particularly hearing about the constant missing of Asher, which I got tired of at some points. All in all I found it a really easy read and will look out for more books by this author.

What a great book. I literally couldn't put it down and read it late into the night.
Great plot, lots of suspense.

This had more twists and turns than a corkscrew ! I kept thinking that I knew where it was going but then bang... I was wrong again. This has to be one of the most exciting book of the year. And one of my favourites.

3 stars is generous. This was not a book that I enjoyed very much and it felt like an awful slog to get through it - I only persevered because I had received it for free.

Possibly I was partly at fault because I expected something along the lines of a killer on the loose in a wilderness retreat, picking people off one by one and everyone turning on one another but the book is not like that at. It starts off OK but becomes very slow and repetitive and drags very much in the middle, nothing exciting even begins to happen until chapter 21 which is more than half way through and even that peters out.

On a positive note the other characters were fairly well drawn and you didnt get them mixed up and the dialogue seemed generally true to life. It might make a good film.

Our main character Bella is a very annoying woman who is obsessed with her son who has just left home (no doubt with a sigh of relief) to go uni. Everything and I mean everything reminds Bella of Asher - she sees an apple and it reminds her of his packed lunches; she speaks sharply to someone and it reminds her of Asher; she sees a colour and it reminds her of Asher. This becomes very wearing. You would think Bella was a very young woman and Asher was her boyfriend.

Also, for me, there were far too many coincidences - I found the explanation for the sister choosing the retreat for Bella's holiday unconvincing; how come Bella didnt know that her old flame had died given that she continued to live in the same town?; why did she not recognise the baddie, when she had known her son very well and had spent a lot of time at his house?; how neatly everything went the baddie's way as they carried out their plan; how convenient that the baddie kept a notebook outlining their plan; why did Bella continually refuse to see the truth of things which were, literally, right in front of her eyes? These are just a short list of things I've have issues with. I won't bother going through a list of cliches , suffice to say that there are wood which are deep and threatening, a storm which blocks off the road etc.

Bella embarks on a trip to a wellness retreat set in a secluded forest in Sweden to help her recover from ‘empty nest syndrome’. She’s one of eight guests, including a mystery one. All is not as it seems as she starts to receive peculiar notes slipped under her door and hears strange noises during the night from the empty room next to hers. Is Bella imagining things or has someone got murder on their mind?

I rather enjoyed this book. I loved the setting, I thought it was atmospheric. However, if you like your thrillers littered with dead bodies you may well be disappointed by this one. It’s quite a slow burner and somewhat insidious, the characters not particularly likeable. It’s very much what I would call a psychological mystery, it plays with the mind. The sense of paranoia is intense, the suspense building up nicely to a satisfying finish.

All in all, I found it an entertaining and gripping read.

As a seasoned thriller I knew when I read the synopsis for this one I needed to request immediately.

It didn't disappoint.

I love more than anything unreliable narrators in books, multiple POVs, short snappy chapters and lots of suspense and distrust of every single character. This book had it in bucket loads.

I didn't see the twist coming at all and I am usually very good at guessing what's happening so that's a huge plus for this author and the writing style.

Wonderful would highly recommend.

5 stars

This reminded me a lot of the Prime series where they go and take psychedelics at a retreat - it was a bit twisty and turn-y but I really loved her relationship with her son at the beginning and it was set up to be such a page turner. I didn’t feel much of it was particularly believable though, unfortunately. It was interesting the connection between the characters but it lacked depth in terms of a believable back-story. It was an interesting read and could hold my interest all the way through. I liked the description of the location and the hideout but wasn’t quite sure the collection of characters would have connected in the way that it came across.

After dropping her son off at university, Bella heads to Sweden for a week in the wilderness at a retreat booked for her by her sister. However, it is not the escape Bella had hoped for as unsettling things start to happen and she comes face to face with an important figure from her past.

I didn’t find this the easiest read as it was very slow paced and I struggled to connect with any of the characters. I especially found the main character Bella difficult to like throughout most of the book. Although the storyline was gripping and full of suspense, I had worked out what was happening about 60% of the way through.

However, I think the author did really well with the psychological aspect of the book. It left me questioning what was real and what Bella was dreaming or hallucinating. The setting and the characters were also described really well meaning it was really easy to picture what was happening throughout and was a really atmospheric read.

Overall, The Wilderness Retreat was not my favourite thriller but was still enjoyable in parts.

Thank you to Jennifer Moore, HQ Stories, Harper Collins UK and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Hmmm ... I've got to admit that I struggled with this book. I finished it but only just and only with a bit of skim reading along the way.

What I liked about it: the setting and the general creepiness.

What I didn't like about it: the main character ... well, actually, most of the characters if I'm honest, the repetitive nature of some of the story, the dream sequences, lack of anything much happening most of the time and whilst the "mystery" was intriguing in the beginning, the twist was, for me, pretty obvious.

I'm sorry I didn't enjoy this as much as I was hoping but I guess you can't please everyone all of the time and there are plenty of very positive reviews for this book so if it sounds like your kind of story, give it a go.

Thank you to HQ and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of The Wilderness Retreat.

Not quite what I expected. In a nutshell, it's a slow moving story of a witless and paranoid woman overly obsessed with her son who has left for university. I found it difficult to connect with any character in this book. Whilst the writing style was good the storyline was a little thin for me and the plot was transparent very early on in the book. Thank you for NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.