Ok, so I loved this, it's a certain 5 star read for me. I am a sucker for a thriller trope and love when a novel leans right into it like this does! The premise had me gripped, the characters were a great mix of mysterious and unreliable, and the setting was just *chef's kiss*. The plot is brilliant and twisty, a perfect puzzle. If you're a fan of locked room mysteries, or Agatha Christie, this one is for you!

I loved so much about this book before I even started it… the title, the cover and the premise. It lived up to my expectations and I generally enjoyed this strong debut.

I did find the many changes of POV confusing all the way through. During most chapters I had to scroll back to remind myself who was ‘talking’ which interrupted the flow of the story and I realised was probably due to none of the characters being particularly distinctive, which was a shame as descriptions of the island and the house were bought alive by the creative writing.

I look forward to reading further books by Ande Pliego.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK for an eARC of this book.

Brilliant I really enjoyed this one! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchnage for an honest review. I have had it a few months and it's publication date is imminent.
Set on a small island off the coast of Maine and supposedly owned and habitated by an thriller writer.

There are many characters, The six invitees, the Host and the event planner not to mention other staff. They are all so poorly defined that at times they feel inseparable. None of them are open or honest and I certainly couldn't say that any one of them appealed to me more than the others

A mystery thriller (although the thrill was very low key) For me this book is an almost direct take off of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None but so badly done. The narrative wandered all over the place, characters were dead and then not - it really requires the writer to suspend belief.
I wanted to be done with this book from about 15% in but I do not like to give up on ARC's.

I can't pick out anything that i thought was more interesting or stood out from the banality of the rest

You Are Fatally Invited is a fantastic murder mystery that is likely to keep you up all night with its twists and turns! Mystery author J.R. Alastor, whose identity is unknown, invites six thriller writers to a murder mystery retreat, where deadly games begin to take place. Mila, J.R.’s assistant, has her own reasons for being a part of the games, but she soon realises that J.R. kept her in the dark about the true purpose of the retreat.

The build up of tension was perfectly executed and made You Are Fatally Invited extremely difficult to put down. Reveals throughout the book, particularly in respect of why each writer had been invited on the retreat, kept me on the edge of my seat. I was constantly left guessing as to who J.R. was and who would be the next victim.

Wow what an accomplished dubut novel, a locked room mystery that is full of pulse raising tension. Perfect for fans of Christe and complicated carefully plotted thrillers. I really enjoyed the way Pliego gives a nod to all the tropes of murder mystery novels in a tongue in cheek way and uses very inventive ways of despatching the novelists on the writing retreat. I was left feeling every character was not to be trusted or the narrator, a fantastic read that makes the reader jumping at their shadow imagining being stuck on such an awful island. I'm eager to see what Pliego writes next, definitely an author to watch.

You Are Fatally Invited is a fast paced 'locked room'-style read. A group of authors are invited to a retreat at a mansion off the coast of Maine, by the anonymous but incredibly successful crime writer J.R. Alastor. The event planner hired to organise the retreat, Mila, tries to keep everything under control as it becomes apparent that J.R Alastor has an ulterior motive for gathering this specific group of people together...

The plot has plenty of twists—sometimes it felt like too many crammed in—and the characters are quite entertaining, if not necessarily likeable (I do enjoy a book with flawed and unlikeable characters!).

Different chapters take us into the minds of some of the characters and an anonymous character too. I am usually a fan of multiple perspectives but I did find myself losing track at times, as the voices could feel quite similar to one another.

There are plenty of crime/ thriller tropes threaded through this novel, which fans of the genre will appreciate. The puzzles or 'games' set for the guests are clever but they felt a bit over the top by the end. It felt like the ending was a bit rushed and the book imparted a LOT of information. It just felt a bit hectic—but perhaps this was intentional to echo the panic of the characters.

I think fans of the genre will enjoy You Are Fatally Invited, and it felt like a good mix of fresh writing mixed with lots of nods to the classics, but just felt a bit too much at times. Still, I enjoyed it and would recommend for anyone looking for a fun, fast paced thriller.

Six thriller authors, one writing retreat.

When six authors are invited to a murder mystery retreat hosted by an acclaimed author they all admire they jump at the chance. When one guest is found murdered they soon regret that decision do the games they are presented have dire consequences?

This book had all the ingredients for me to instantly request it on @netgalley, locked room, great setting and a mystery to solve but unfortunately it just didn’t work for me. I found I simply read it…I wasn’t invested, I just read the words. I found it hard going and persevered just to find out “who did it”. I’m sure it will be a huge success though and find people who will love it.

⭐️⭐️

Publication Date - 13/02/2025

#YouAreFatallyInvited
#AndePliego

Such a great mystery, immediately I was hooked. It kept it fun and suspenseful right to the very end.

This is a brilliant killer game of Cluedo.

Our six players, I mean writers, receive an exclusive invitation to the Wolf Harbour estate where they will attend a writer's retreat for seven days.

“You will have a killer time, I assure you”


Everyone is wondering who the real J. R. Alastor really is. Some claim to have met him, still, they know nothing about the retreat.

They are shown around the house and to their rooms before attending their first mystery dinner the first night, and it is all fun and games until the first body is found.

All of our characters have secrets, even Mila, the event planner, who tries not to panic when she discovers that things are happening beyond her control. Who has the juiciest secrets? Who is able to get around in the dark?

I can assure you, it is not the butler this time.😉

Our writers are trying to figure out what is happening, searching for clues where they can. They are solving riddles when they must. What is going on here?

It is time to leave the island...

Whi knows better how to give a novel thrills than adding a bunch of characters who infact write said thrills. This books is very clever. It weaves twist and turns amongst a bunch of characters who are suspicious and clever in their very nature just from the job they do. You'd think they would predict some of the "plot" though haha!
I often see my favorite authors go on writers retreats together. All be it not thriller authors. And they always go to amazing places and look like they all like eqchother and bounce so well off eachother. So to see a thriller based crew do it was a great spin for me.
A good book full of clever ideas.

3 stars

I picked this one up because it gave me Glass Onion vibes but with writer's retreat and although it was a fun read with a lot of twists and turns, it didn't live up to my expectations.
I didn't really like the characters or even care about them and at times they felt like carbon copies of each so I had to restart chapters because I forgot who was talking now and let me tell you when a book becomes a chore it stops being fun.
Still, I feel like the audiobook, if done right, is going to be amazing. This is a book that I feel should be a great film, but in just book form, it lacks character.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was sadly a DNF for me. The writing was truly stunning but I just couldn’t get on with the characters or the pacing on the book. I got about 30% in and was honestly just bored and have no want to actually find out more.

OK, the cynical among you might be thinking this sounds awfully like a certain book by a certain Empress of Crime (I’ve promoted her, she’s so much better than the other three). But you’d be wrong. There are only nine people on the island for a start…
This is a debut novel for Ande Pliego and it’s full of clever ideas. I’ll be honest, I did spend a little time trying to work out of her name was actually a clue in anagram form – it’s not, by the way. Similarly, the review e-copy I had was one of those (other reviewers will know what I’m talking about) where the book titles keeps randomly appearing in the text, along with some odd numbers and dates. So I thought these might be clues as well – and again, they’re not.
One of the problems that our band of… heroes? No, that’s definitely not the right word. Let’s just call them victims. One of the problems that our band of victims has to solve is matching up the names of the people on the island to a list of past crimes. Thief, Liar, Child Killer… but just to add some tension, one of the past crimes is “Serial Killer”, so there’s that to deal with too.
The point of view keeps flipping from character to character – sometimes the chapter in question is only titled by their past crime, so that adds a little something for the reader to try and puzzle out who they’re currently reading about. But in case you’re worried that the book is a giant-sized logic problem, it’s not. It’s a gripping mystery-thriller that goes like the clappers and leaves the reader breathless.
If it’s got a fault, I thought the reveal about Alastor was obvious – I’d have been genuinely surprised if it had been anything other than what it was – but by the end of the book, and having been hoodwinked on some other stuff, I didn’t particularly mind.
All in all, this is a very entertaining read. Not convinced how well clued it is, but it’s a lot of fun and has some good surprises in it, so it’s well worth your time.

Absolutely loved this one.

What a breath of fresh air for the murder mystery/crime & thriller genre.

All the characters were well developed and executed with a wide variation in character, character flaws and general overall semantics.

I loved how fast paced and entertaining the plot was, with some twists and turns that I did not expect at all. And the overall story line was something I’ve never read before.

Overall this was sensational especially for a debut! Will look forward to Andes next book

This was a solid solid read! Wow, I didn’t expect it to be. Then again, I’m not sure what I expected. This was so full of twists I didn’t expect and the pacing was great!

I loved the characters which is what kept me plodding on to finish I think, otherwise maybe wouldn’t have enjoyed as much. I did get confused at time when all the characters came into it because I couldn’t keep up but generally after a while I got into it and throughly enjoyed!!

Would definitely recommend!!

The writing was engaging and kept me on my toes. I had to concentrate hard on what was happening as there were lots of little bits of information being drip fed throughout the story. At the same time lots of things were also being held back to keep you in the dark.

The book was split into chapters made up of different character points of view and excerpts from a book (written by one of the characters). It was always clear whose point of view you were reading from, with one character view per chapter, but it very cleverly only showed you what the character wanted you to know.

The chapters were fairly short so you moved quickly through each character's point of view. The pace of the book was interesting. Whilst each chapter was short, there was a lot for you to take in so you took time to digest what was happening, resulting in a slower overall pace.

There was a good flow to the book, with an excerpt from the book written by a character followed by a character point of view, that ran neatly from one character to the next. All the bits of information that were added in bit by bit flowed together nicely and tied up well at the end.

The characters were excellent. Everyone was suspicious and everyone had something to hide. Both you as the reader and each individual character was kept in the dark until the very end. It was a rollercoaster of emotions, mainly dark ones. The whole book was morally grey.

Lastly the settings. The description was wonderful. The words used to describe the surroundings really emphasised the darkness and the danger that the characters were in. Nothing was pretty. The settings were like additional characters, adding a darker layer to an already dark story.

Overall a dark, twisty read that I thoroughly enjoyed.

At this point I suppose it’s fair to say I’m addicted to locked room mysteries. There is just something about them that I can’t resist. 'You Are Fatally Invited' undoubtedly looked to have pretty much everything I like in a story. Maybe it was that level of expectation that meant I ended up feeling somewhat disappointed.

At its heart, this is a story of revenge plotted by a reclusive author and an event organiser called Mila. Their actions are very much inspired by various tropes that are often found in crime fiction stories. While I initially liked that idea, it unfortunately also meant that I far too early realised who the mysterious author pulling the strings was. Their motive was a lot harder to unravel, though. However, I had a hard time with Mila’s reason for being at the retreat. It felt slightly flimsy to me.

Naturally, bodies start to drop and there is no way off the island. I couldn’t at all figure out how this tale would conclude, or even if anyone would still be left standing at the end of it. At first, I couldn’t wait to see where things would lead but at some point, I found myself rather confused. I often caught myself swiping back to the start of the chapter to see which character was actually talking, and I wasn’t entirely sure if things were still making sense. Then when the reveal came, which wasn’t a surprise to me as I mentioned earlier, it was almost as if the story just wouldn’t end. Those final few chapters dragged on so much that I nearly gave up on them.

That said, this dark and disturbing plot was pretty ambitious for a debut novel. I particularly liked the “writing tips” from the unknown author, and the references to items from well-known films and tv shows. Not a particularly likeable cast of characters, but then they do all have dirty secrets they’d like to keep hidden and obviously, once the first murder has occurred, they'd quite like to stay alive and so what if you're not coming across as a particularly nice person after that. Right?

There were parts I liked and enjoyed, but as a whole 'You Are Fatally Invited' didn't quite work for me as well as I thought it would. All in all, an okay read but I personally find there are way better locked room mysteries out there.

⭐️⭐️💫
I'm afraid I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. On paper, it's my dream story but I was so confused! I did t connect or like any characters and I had no idea what was going on. It was very confusing.

Six thriller writers are invited to an island writing retreat by the reclusive author J.R Alastor who has planned lots of games and surprises with the help of his event coordinator Mila which take a deadly turn. Can the writers make it off the island alive?

This is a locked room mystery with lots of twists and turns. The use of multiple POV’s help to add to the intrigue although are a little bit confusing at times.
The plot is fast paced and kept me gripped whilst I read on to find out who J.R Alastor was.

Really enjoyed the Agatha Christie like mystery.