Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six

This is one of the authors that got me into thrillers, but it just didn't do it for me. Way too many one dimensional characters to keep track of and some did not fit into the story at all. I know it would have all come together, but it couldn't keep me reading. Loved the premise, just messily executed. 

Throughly enjoyed this book!! Maybe my favorite read so far this year. I stayed up to finish reading this book, fighting sleep, which isn't something I do often. If you're looking for a thriller that's pretty character driven, this is the one. I saw some people say that there were too many characters, but I didn't think so. I never felt like it was hard to keep up with what was going on with each character and whose POV we were in.

All in all, 4 secluded cabins out of 5.

Enjoyable read, certainly not a game changer. Someone else called it “messy but enjoyable” and I think that sums it up really well.

A group of 6 head to a getaway at a secluded cabin where unsettling things start happening pretty much upon arrival. Intertwined with this storyline are two other characters who you learn about but can't connect until far later in the book.

My biggest criticism with this book were the number of characters and perspectives to keep track of. Not only are you reading about the crew of 6 at the cabin from swapping perspectives, you're getting two other unknown perspectives and their history as well. Hannah, Bruce, Mako/ Michael, Liza, Cricket, Cat, Henry, Bracken... it's so much to keep track of!

I also didn't love how deeply flawed each character was. In part, everyone having dark secrets helps lend to the feeling of not knowing what was going to happen or who to trust, but on the other hand it feels like a bunch of psychopaths are meeting up under the facade of normal people. It felt a bit stretched for me.

Aside from having to Google characters throughout this book to keep up and rolling my eyes at some of the secrets being unveiled, it was an enjoyable, thrilling book.

Again not a game changer but if you're looking for something enjoyable that grips you, this is a good option!

Clumsy, convoluted, and ultimately just plain boring.

I love the isolated, trapped, terrible weather plot line and this one did not disappoint. I appreciated the first 50 pages of getting to know Hannah, the main character and by far the most likable of the group. This helped me to easily keep these characters straight. I also enjoyed the Georgia setting. The family comes up from Florida to enjoy a weekend of unplugging in the Georgia mountains. Every thriller reader knows how dangerous that is. This book did a solid job of weaving in a DNA/Ancestry dot com subplot that, in my opinion, really worked. This one kept me guessing and kept me interested. Good read for domestic thriller lovers.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ — Eye catching cover on this book

Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six by Lisa Unger is a thrilling locked-room mystery that follows three couples who rent a luxury cabin for a weekend getaway. What is supposed to be a relaxing weekend turns into a nightmare as a deadly storm approaches, the rental host behaves strangely, and secrets from their past come back to haunt them.

Despite the convoluted (at times) plot and too many points of view that seem unnecessary, I found this book to be highly entertaining. From the start, it had me hooked into the story. The DNA angle was cleverly done and the characters were well developed and intriguing. Additionally, the fast-paced writing style made it an enjoyable read overall.

Overall, Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six is an engrossing thriller that will keep you on edge until the very end. While it has its hiccups, the book is well written and definitely worth reading if you enjoy mysteries with plenty of twists and turns.

ARC Via NetGalley

this was like a very big bowl of plot twist soup but in a bad and disappointing way

Excellent surprise! Interesting characters and storyline.

I loved the premise for this book and was very excited to get a copy. I've not read anything by Lisa Unger before, so had no expectations getting in. The first chapters introduce a family: Hannah (the sister), Mako (the brother), their parents, Bruce (Hannah's husband) and Liza (Mako's wife) at a family holiday gathering. Hannah is a new mom dealing with the anxieties that come with being a new parent, Bruce is a workaholic programmer, Mako is a successful tech entrepreneur and Liza is a yoga influencer. The evening ends on ominous note when they all receive an unexpected Christmas gift: DNA tests.

Hannah, Bruce, Mako and Liza then go off an a fancy weekend holiday, all expenses paid by Mako's insistence. They are joined by Cricket, Hannah's party-girl friend/ex-girlfriend of Mako and her mysterious new boyfriend Joshua. The house is an impressive cabin, so secluded they are unable to receive cell signal. When the storm arrives, things start going wrong very quickly.

This had all the ingredients of what I typically enjoy in a thriller. However, I found it hard to get through as there were so many different character perspectives, several of them taking the reader away from what was going on in the cabin, and some flashbacks which I'm not sure were all really necessary to help propel the story. The ending tidied everything up okay with a vague message about family and what we inherit. While I was very intrigued at the start, the middle and the ending were somewhat underwhelming. Overall though, I enjoyed the atmospheric setting most, and the characters (their lack of depth with exception of Hannah) the least.

Thanks Netgalley for a copy of this read in exchange for my honest review.

This was definitely an entertaining read. I have been looking for a good slasher and I feel like with this I am definitely getting closer to finding it.

I found the jumping of point of views a bit confusing and unnecessary at times. The moments that were set in Henry's point of view had me double checking to make sure I was still reading the same story since it didn't make sense until much later on. There were definitely characters I wanted to root for and characters I most certainly didn't.

I do have a lot of questions about Bracken, the owner of the cabin with what his motives were and what would happen with him. I felt like his part of the story possibly could've been left out altogether.

However, I loved the thriller aspect of it and actually would've loved for the action and eeriness of not knowing what's lurking in the dark whilst being stranded in a cabin in the middle of nowhere to be dragged out further.

I enjoyed how the main plots of the story were tied together at the end of the story. I would read this again.

Thank you to NetGalley and Legend Press for providing me this arc!
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

1 star. I didn't enjoy this book at all and parts of it made me angry. Not the fun, popcorn thriller I was expecting to read. Very unpleasant.

I hated how the thematic content was incorporated into the story and repeated over and over again. Family, parents and children, pregnancies, rape and victim blaming. None of these were well handled and I was surprised that this was even what the book was about! The blurb gave the impression of a story about three couples and their friendships. This is not that book. A strange importance was put upon blood relations and children being a vital part of a complete and happy life. I didn't enjoy that at all. And everyone had either tragically lost their parents or couldn't connect with them. Everyone.

I also hated all of the characters and disliked spending time with them. They were all miserable. The gender dynamics weren't great either, with all the men obsessed with work and all the women only caring about family and children. And those are the only character traits they possess.

A large part of the book deals with the results of DNA testing kits. Which isn't even hinted at in the description. Not a word about ancestry research, even though it is a topic that's brought up in the very first chapter!

On top of all of that, it takes forever for anything to happen once they've reached the cabin. Some characters are off on their own for large sections of the book and because they don't have a POV, they disappear until they are needed again for the story to progress. While other characters, whose POVs we are reading from, are completely inconsequential to the story. It's incredibly clunky and the book overall is very boring for a thriller. And so repetitive!

This is the second book by the author that I have read (“Confessions on the 7:45” being the other and 4 stars) and both have a strange subtext of disliking social media and technology without reason. It's very odd.

I had been looking forward to reading this book a lot, but was sadly very disappointed.