The Hike by Lucy Clarke

Four friends go on a vacation together every year. This year, it will be an end of season hike in Norway. Each going for a different reason. Liz, the one with the seemingly picture perfect marriage, is burnt out and this trip marks the beginning of her and her husband's trial separation. Helena, who revels in the life of a single woman, fears that she might be pregnant. Joni is a rock star who is losing control. Maggie ... looks like a young woman who disappeared from the town where their hike is to begin. 

The hike starts well enough but the second day, they lose the path. Then secrets start to come out and their complicated relationships start to become even more so. And that's before they find the caves that will ensure that not all of them are leaving the mountain alive.

If you like Clarke's books, this book will hit the spot. I didn't always see all of the voices as distinct so it did get complicated to listen to but was overall an okay book.

Three stars

This book came out April 27, 2023

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz

I read this book in October which is usually the time of year I try to branch out into thrillers (not usually a genre I pick up naturally) and this book certainly fit the bill. 

This is something of a locked room mystery as five aspiring writers are invited to a famously reclusive author's home. There is no cell reception, no WiFi, and the closest building is a nunnery miles away. Of course, as they approach, there is a snowstorm.

But who cares? Though our first person narrator, Alex, is somewhat thrown off, some of that might be due to the fact that her former best friend, Wren, who has also been invited. Something happened between the two of them; actually, two somethings that caused their friendship to fracture. That is unpacked as they spend time at Roza Valo's house. 

This is not the spa-type of retreat though. Roza's methods for helping these writers to write are... unorthodox. If you've read "Nine Perfect Strangers," you may be able to draw some comparisons between her and Masha in terms of pushing boundaries. Like that book, some of the characters are not who they seem and that may cause some further issues.    

Three and a half stars

This book came out February 21, 2023

Borrowed as hard copy from library

Opinions are my own

The Legacies by Jessica Goodman

I saw that a friend of mine had read this books and reviewed it highly so I thought I'd give it a chance. It didn't capture my attention as much as it did her but it was an interesting book.

If you get into the Legacy Club, you are pretty much guaranteed that you are set for the rest of life. This year, there are three young people whose entree is pretty much ensured, Bernie, Isobel, and Skylar. They each of something which might prevent them from getting in but all three also want to make it through the week of hazing to capture a seat in the club. Who or what could possibly stop them? Not even Tori, the nominee from some no-known family in Queens. Will all four make it to the end of the week and be able to celebrate at the Legacy ball?

Three stars

This book came out July 25, 2023

Ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

The Cloisters by Katy Hays

Ann Stillwell is delighted to leave Washington, leave behind her grieving mother and the memories of her father. When she gets to New York however, all of her dreams are dashed. The man she was supposed to work under has left the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the summer. Luckily, even as her heart is falling from the news she's just gotten from the Director of Human Resources, hope springs. Patrick Roland, the curator at The Cloisters, needs help and, well, Ann is available. While slightly disappointed that the job isn't going to be what she expected, at least she has a job.

It's this job that introduces her to not only Patrick but Rachel and Leo as well as a handful of other people but those are the two that are going to affect her the most deeply as she is dragged into theories of 15th-century fortune telling. Could a deck of cards really tell the future? Especially a particular set of cards? And what does it have to do with her father's work? And her mentor's?

When their work leads to someone dying, Ann suddenly has to decide what she believes in and how much fate really does play a hand in our lives. 

I am not usually a reader of darker books like this but around the Halloween season, I often turn towards these and this was a perfect book for this time of year. 

Four stars

This book comes out November 1, 2022

ARC kindly provided by Atria Books and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

A lovely homage to "And Then There Were None." This book was tightly written with enough clues (and enough ties to the Christie book) that I was able to guess two-thirds of the ending of this book and was pretty sure about the third but was not disappointed in the knowing. It did get a little too twee for me at the end but otherwise a wonderful book.

For the first time in a long time, Daisy Darker's family is going to be in one place. Her father is a world-traveling orchestra conductor, her mother is a fading beauty. Oldest sister Rose is a veterinarian who seems sad all the time while middle sister Lily doesn't much seem to want to mother her daughter Trixie. Youngest daughter Daisy was born with a broken heart and the stress of caring for her exposed a lot of cracks in the family leading to her grandmother writing a bestselling book with Daisy's name in the title. Now, on her grandmother's eightieth birthday, they will all be together (along with one other) on an island. The causeway floods for eight hours and that will be a problem once the bodies start piling up.

Four stars

This book came out August 30, 2022

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own

The Perfect Escape by Leah Konen

I like thrillers that have lots of hints so you could go back to the beginning and see the seeds of the story; this book doesn't have that. It's a perfectly fine book about three friends that are on a trip and one suddenly vanishes. And more secrets are unraveled as the book goes on but, again, the secrets are just kind of plopped into the story rather than woven in more smoothly. I did like the fact that we got to see two of the three people's experiences.

Three and a half stars

This book came out January 4th, 2022

Borrowed as ebook from Libb

Opinions are my own

The Lion's Den by Katherine St. John

While Belle isn't an unreliable narrator in the fact that she doesn't lie to the reader. she definitely withholds information as she flips back and forth from the beginning of a trip with her friend's megarich boyfriend and the beginning of their friendship. We go along with her as she is invited on and attends an all-inclusive trip with Summer. Another friend, Wendy as well as an acquaintance, Cindy, are along as are Summer's mother and sister and friend of the sister. The last is someone who was not approved by Summer and she is initially not going to let her come along but she is persuaded to allow her to come along.

The women fly across the ocean and get on the yacht where they immediately have to surrender their passports. Belle is nervous but does so. The trip only gets weirder from there and not everyone is going to make it back home.

Fast, fun, and uber-fluffy but still a nice diversion on an autumn evening.

Four stars

This book came out May 19th, 2020

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

Harriet "Hal" Westaway is at the end of her rope. Her mother died three years ago and she is barely hanging on to her apartment and her lease at the pier where she tells fortunes. There is a loan shark after her and she is frightened. When a letter comes from a lawyer telling her that she has an inheritance, she is delighted. And then defeated. The letter obviously isn't meant for her but for someone else. She decides to spend the last of her money anyway and go to the funeral for Mrs. Westaway. 
It is there she meets the Westaway clan. They have a past like any other family but theirs seems especially dark and Hal is going to have to think quick to make it out alive.
I didn't like this book at first; it was sort of slow going. But then I got sucked in and enjoyed the story.

Three and a half stars

This book came out May 19th, 2019

Hard copy I didn't keep

Opinions are my own