The Retreat

By: Karen King

Many thanks to Bookouture for the ARC of this book and allowing me a stop on the book tour.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The sunlight dances on the turquoise pool as I wait for our first guests. But my blood turns to ice when I recognise one of them as an old friend and a flood of guilt and fear comes rushing back. Is she here to ruin my life for a second time?

‘It’s been so long’, Saskia says as she hugs me. I plaster the smile back on my face, my hands shaking as I usher our guests into the traditional Spanish farmhouse we’ve spent years renovating to perfection. Saskia and I had been so close, until she betrayed me.

Now I’ve started a new life here in Spain. I met José and fell in love with his deep brown eyes, and together we opened our own retreat nestled high in the mountains. But José has no idea about the real me – I know he wouldn’t be able to look me in the eye if he ever found out that I have blood on my hands.

Then I discover our beautiful water fountain stained a deep red. My heart pounds with fear because it feels like a warning. And all my worst nightmares are confirmed when I find a note in my bedroom, revealing my terrible secret.

I was with Saskia all day, so I know it can’t be her. Which means that someone else at the retreat knows the truth about me – and they’re here for revenge.

But this perfect new life means everything to me. And I’ll do anything to protect it…

MY REVIEW

This was a good book. The prologue and chapter 1 really draw you in to the story. From there, King will keep you guessing as to who is out for revenge. Slowly, she gives everyone a reason to want to seek revenge, but it’s all so mysterious. It’s really easy to root for Eva and Jose. However, since I suspected all the other characters, I didn’t root for them at all.

The retreat location sounded absolutely beautiful. I would love to go there to relax and destress! To be surrounded by such beauty and a mountain to hike is something that I would love to do. Especially at half off! And in Spain! I couldn’t imagine a better location.

I will say, sometimes the book felt a little slow for me. There is a lot of description and inner monologue and I wanted to to move along a little faster. But that didn’t take away from the mystery.

If you’d like to try this book, you can do so here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karen King was born in Birmingham and has always enjoyed reading and writing. She’s been published for over thirty years, in a variety of genres for both children and adults. She loves writing about the complexities of relationships. Her first three books for Bookouture were romances where relationships came right, she has now turned to the darker side of relationships, writing two psychological thrillers about relationships that go badly wrong. Karen now lives in Spain where she loves to spend her non-writing time exploring the quaint local towns with her husband, Dave, when she isn’t sunbathing or swimming in the pool, that is.