#Titanuary #BookReview ‘The Retreat’ by Sherri Smith

For today’s #Titanuary spotlight, I am focussing on this brilliant psychological thriller which Titan published last year.

I was lucky enough to be a part of the blogtour and I think shouting about this book bears repeating!

Watch out for an incoming review of the first of her novels, ‘Follow Me Down’ as Titanuary continues…don’t forget, tell me about your favourite Titan series or titles, let’s get spreading some love for their genre output!

About the book..

Sherri Smith illuminates the dark side of the self-care and wellness industry in a thrilling ride of revenge perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty’s ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’.

Katie Manning was a beloved child star until her mid-teens when her manager attacked and permanently scarred her face, effectively ending her career and sending her on a path of all-too-familiar post-Hollywood self-destruction.

Now twenty-seven, Katie wants a better answer to those clickbait “Where Are They Now?” articles that float around online. An answer she hopes to find when her brother’s too-good-to-be-true fiancee invites her to a wellness retreat upstate.

Together with Katie’s two best friends-one struggling with crippling debt and family obligations, one running away from a failed job and relationship-Katie will try to find the inner peace promised at the tranquil retreat. But finding oneself just might drudge up more memories than Katie is prepared to deal with.

Each woman has come to the retreat for different reasons.

Each has her secrets to hide.

And at the end of this weekend, only one will be left standing.

‘The Retreat’ by Sherri Smith is published by Titan Books in paperback and is available now. My thanks to the Titan team for my gifted paperback copy!

It’s brilliant, what can I say? This is the kind of book that gets bent out of shape and massively stained-apologies to the writer-because you want to find out how it ends, just who will be the last one left standing?

Combining all the best elements of a horror movie(cabin in the woods, dubious ‘cult’ type activities, missing people, blood stains etc etc) with a gripping narrative on the dark side of celebrity, this is a fine examination of toxic female friendship.

The suspense is gripping, each chapter ending exactly at the right point so that it feeds into the next one-not a totally stupid thing to say, after reading books this year with no chapters, no breaks or way too many, this kept the tension nice and taut as it flipped between forgottten child star Kate, her soon to be sister-in-law Ellie and friends Carmen and Ariel. Ariel has done something horrible which gets revealed over the course of the retreat, Carmen is exhasuted from taking care of her 4 siblings, resentful of having given up a career in medicine to become a carer and Ellie …Ellie is a bit of a wild card. She seems too god to be true and with a vested interest in meeting, and trapping, Kate’s brother Nate, what is she really up to?

And Kate…well Kate is, quite frankly , a mess. Alcoholic, almost penniless and only ever remembered for being that annoying kid in that show you used to watch, she is on her last chance and this retreat is an attempt by Nate and Ellie to put her back on track.

But when one of the fellow campers goes missing, Kate wakes up next to a blood stained knife with no recollection of what has happened and Dr Dave and Naomi, the owners of the retreat, are suspiciously too good to be true…yiou have a perfectly volatile mix of intrigue. You know from the cover that only one person survives the break, and the entire book is full of bait and switches, trying to get you to throw your sympathy and empathy behind this person, then that, until you are not really sure who is an entirely good or bad guy.

How it is ends is entirely satisfying-well, depending on who you were rooting for-and I immediately looked up and read about Sherri’s other book, ‘Follow Me Down’. That’s me off to the library with another great big list of reserve requests then!

The problem with a retreat is that when you do move backwards, you need to be sure what is behind you and sometimes it can be a brick wall…and this is what some of the people looking to escape the daily grind and ‘find’ themselves can encounter. A brick wall, and perhaps a murderer…

Highly recommended for lovers of thrillers and suspense!

About the author…

Sherri Smith spends time with her family and two rescue dogs, and restores vintage furniture that would otherwise be destined for the dump. She lives in Winnipeg, Canada, where the long, cold winters nurture her dark side. ‘Follow Me Down’ is her first thriller, which has been described as “an engrossing page turner” by Diane Chamberlain, bestselling author of ‘The Silent Sister’.

Links-https://www.sherri-smith.com/

Twitter @SLSmith

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