Three woman go away for a weekend that was supposed to include their spouses but for some reason all of the men are occupied and unreachable the entire time. A murder takes place and the reader is in the dark about the victim and killer for a large part of the book. Eventually all is reveled and the story starts to fall apart. Tons of plot holes and disjointed storytelling.

I am grateful that I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this book, However, I don't think I will finish it. I am almost half way and I find that it isn't grabbing my attention. This book sounded so good from the blurb but it disappointed me. Also, I don't like the lack of chapters at all, it really threw me off unfortunately.

I was on a roll this year reading only books I deemed to be 4 stars. This was going to be another one. And then it wasn't. The set up was perfect and unique. I fell in to the premise easily. But then, as many authors seem to do as of late, it was one twist or new revelation after another at break neck speed. Pair this with very little demarcation between narrators. Fun at first, to realize the character you thought was sharing their story, really turns out to be another. Then it just become exhausting and overdone. By 80% I just wanted it to be over. I've read this author before. It was the main reason I wanted to get my hands on this one. I'll try future Macmillan books. I just can't recommend this one. Thank you to Netgalley/William Morrow and Company for the ARC. I do appreciate it.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow Custom House for an ARC of The Long Weekend by Gilly Macmillan in exchange for an honest review. While many people loved this book unfortunately it is just not my style. I found the book to be going nowhere, I can’t relate at all to the characters and it all seems like nonsense to me. There are not any chapters and no clear end to talking about one person and moving to the next person. The writing style was very confusing.

I was truly given a gift when I received an ARC of #TheLongWeekend by Gilly Macmillan from #NetGalley.
Macmillan artfully navigates the use of multiple narrators in the book, crafting what could easily become a dizzying switch back and forth into a seamless, entrancing, and intriguing narrative. Having the points of view of various characters to unfold the multiple facets of the gripping tale carries the reader along on an absolutely thrilling ride that is all the more complex thanks to the different points of view. Add to that, she skillfully manipulates the readers' preconceptions and automatic assumptions with one particular point of view, drawing them in and subsequently providing a powerful moment, where I personally muttered 'Whoa!" out loud, momentarily stupefied at the revelation within the pages.
This is a powerful book that examines themes of secrets, communication and lack thereof, and the choices people make. The twist and turns keep you on your toes throughout, making this one of the best page-turners I've read in a long time.
Bravo!

This book was literally SUCH A WILD RIDE. Even though Macmillan's books have been on my TBR, this is the first of her works that I have been able to enjoy.

The story follows MANY perspectives. The perspective changes are not clearly labelled, and occasionally you need the context clues to figure out who is speaking. But I did love being able to see the story unfold from so many points of view.

I read this SO fast. There is twist after twist, and always a constant question of 'whodunnit'. Because of all of the twists and perspectives, it can feel a bit over the top at times, but overall I loved this reading experience and would definitely read more from Gilly Macmillan.

DNF @ 35%

This one started out interestingly enough, but began to lose me as I just can't connect to the characters or the setting. I've struggled with the author's last couple of books and will probably just accept that I'm not the right reader for them anymore. Definitely hoping this book gets into the right readers' hands!

3.5 stars
Here’s my quick take review…

What I Liked🌿

✨It was atmospheric and disquieting throughout.
✨It had plenty of twists and turns with a difficult to predict ending.

What Could Be Better🌿

✨The characters felt undefined and tended to blend together. I found myself having to disentangle who was who and who was doing what which lessened the enjoyment for me personally.
✨There were no chapter breaks which make the plot really difficult for me to follow.

I’ll still read the next offering by this author because I have enjoyed her previous works.

My thanks to @netgalley and @williammorrowbooks for the opportunity to read this book before its March 29 publication date.

Thanks to Harper Collins, William Morrow and Custom House and NetGalley for providing me a digital ARC of this book. The opinions are my own and freely given.
An annual weekend trip for 4 couples goes awry. One of the men died in a drowning earlier that year and his widow chose not to go away. Then the 3 remaining men back out one by one and send the women up on Friday with the promise to arrive together on Saturday before lunch. When the women get to Dark Fell Barn, a beautifully wrapped present with a note is waiting for them. The note basically says you didn't want me on you trip, enjoy and I will kill one of your husbands while you're gone. Signed simply "E". E is Edie the widow. Emily immediately starts to worry and wants to call her husband Paul. Jayne tries to tell her that Edie is a prankster, and the note is a hoax. She never worries about her husband Mark. Ruth flip flops so much, she seems to care more about her son Alfie, then her husband Toby. Jayne is ex-military and tries to be strong and take control of all the situations presented to them. Emily, the youngest and newest member of the group is not comfortable with these women and seems a little bit immature. I did not like Ruth. She is a new mother, has too many doubts about her husband's fidelity, is an alcoholic and on the verge of losing her job as a doctor. Due to the location of the Barn, there is no cell service. A storm picks up and Emily attempts to go to the farmhouse to call home. 1 of the husbands show up on Saturday clueless as to the events that have transpired. He hasn't been able to get in touch with the other husbands either.
Everything that happens is for no reason at all, because of one character's delusion. So many different lives were ruined. I could have done without the storyline of John Elliott (the Owner of the Barn).
It's a good book that kept me guessing who and why, but super long.
3 1/2 stars because of the length and unnecessary storyline of John.

This book met all of my expectations! Great characters, story line and a quick read! Love Macmillan and can't wait for her next book.
High fives for this one.

The Long Weekend by Gilly Macmillan was amazing. Twist and turns will have you guessing till the very end! It’s not your ordinary girls weekend getaway. Lies, Secrets and Betrayal will not only destroy friendships but lives too.. Great read !!!

When Jayne, Ruth, and Emily arrive at the extremely isolated retreat at Dark Fell Barn for their weekend away, they are shocked to discover a note from their friend, Edie, who hasn't joined them because her husband unexpectedly died in an accident a year before. The note says one of the women's husbands will be murdered, and the women are desperate to get in touch with them, even if it means long-buried secrets will be revealed.

There are so many "remote location + people in peril + murdery business" books that they all start to run together a bit for me. This one was good, however, and had some unique aspects that I enjoyed (no spoilers) -- and I loved that I was guessing until the end, thanks to some really well-executed red herrings. I've somehow managed to not read a Gilly Macmillan book until now (what?), so her books are all going on my TBR.

Convoluted in a way that never ended up making sense. It seemed like the author tried to take two different stories and settings and put them together into something that didn't work. 2.5 because the writing was good.

This was my first novel by Gilly Macmillan. Now, I understand what all the hype is about her writing. I loved it! The only thing that I have to "complain" about is that there were so many characters in this, and it honestly got pretty hard to follow at times. I also did not like the fact that the book was not broken into chapters. I typically don't like that with any book. Nevertheless, the creepy atmospheric setting was spot on, and I really enjoyed that. I give this 3.5 stars, knocking it from a 4 because of what I stated above with the chapters/characters. The twists still make this book definitely worth reading, and I still highly recommend it.

Twisted, creeping thriller that starts with a bang and never lets up. My kindle copy was oddly formatted so I had difficulty figuring out which character was thinking/speaking but frankly, that heightened the drama. THE LONG WEEKEND places a small group of women away for a weekend and then tells them one of their husbands will be dead by the end. All manner of weirdness follows. It’s near impossible to put this book down. The ending is worth the reading. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Oh. I wanted to like this book more than I did. The constant character viewpoint shifts were really hard to keep up with. Maybe it is an ARC issue that will be fixed in the final printing but there were times it didn't seem like there was any indication that we had switched to another character. Otherwise, I loved the characters and the plot kept me on my toes. So many shifting ideas as to who is behind the entire weekend's terror. I especially liked the cute older couple who runs the little BnB. Overall a solid book that could do with some formatting help. I liked this book and I will keep my eye out for more Gilly Macmillan books in the future.

A relaxing long weekend away for three couples goes horribly wrong, becoming instead the weekend from hell. Very absorbing...he Long Weekend is psychological suspense, a gorgeous thriller about obsession and dark secrets that threaten to destroy a group of close friends who all have an awful lot to hide. thank you netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for a review.

Once upon a time there were four couples: Rob and Edie, Mark and Jayne, Toby and Ruth, and eventually Paul and Emily. Edie was the woman the men orbited around until she chose Rob, and then one by one, the others married. For some time, all four couples have had The Long Weekend at various escapes. But this weekend in Northumbria takes a different turn as Gilly Macmillan pens her latest thriller about three women, their husbands, and one vindictive widow who plans to murder one of the remaining husbands.

From the time Jayne, Ruth, and Emily arrive at Dark Fell Barn, an isolated retreat that only their hosts can drive them to, things go terribly wrong. They are already in the dumps because for various reasons, their husbands are delayed until the next day. Emily is the newest addition to the group, and she uneasy among them without her husband. The situation goes from bad to worse when the women discover a package left for them in the barn that details that one of them will lose their husband over this long weekend.

Being isolated from the world in their out-of-the-way destination, the women cannot reach their husbands to check on them and tell them about the threatening letter in the package. Ruth gets drunk, Edie decides to hike back to the farmhouse where the hosts live, and Jayne tries to first go after Edie then babysit Ruth. Before morning comes, Edie will have broken her ankle, Ruth will have disappeared, and none of the husbands have shown up as planned.

But nothing is really as it seems, and when the women get back to their homes, their lives will become completely undone in this can't-stop-until-you-finish-it novel.

Gilly Macmillan’s first novel, What She Knew, was an Edgar award nominee. With a background in art history from her studies at Bristol University and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, Macmillan lives in Bristol, UK, with her family and writes full time.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting January 22, 2022.

I would like to thank William Morrow, Custom House, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

No slow burn here, the author grabs you right from the start! What is going on? Just imagining yourself in the shoes of one of the group is an eerie thought. Author does a good job of keeping the reader in the “what would I do ?” mindset. Haven’t we all let our imaginations get away from us? But you can be sure lots of bad stuff is about to go down.

As the story unfolds, you really begin to look suspiciously at the group of friends and their friendship. Motives and underlying feelings are questioned. I enjoyed the way the author reveals the history between the friends.
I found myself being confused at times as to was speaking. Wait, is Ruth talking now? Emily? Oh no, that’s Jayne. Huh? Wait, who goes with who? Hard to keep straight.

By the time you get to the hot chocolate scene, I was beyond creeped out. Yikes. In fact, all the Imogen scenes are heartbreaking. Too heartbreaking maybe? Poor Imogen.

You realize all these characters serious issues. Every single one of them. Is that the point? Is the author trying to make us realize that underneath it all, we all do, just to varying degrees? How well do you really know your “closest” friends? At the same time, I had trouble rooting for any of the characters except maybe one or 2 in the entire book.

The last quarter of the book is super twisty and such a page turner. Overall, a satisfying conclusion!

A big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Incredibly engrossing - I pretty much read this one straight through. From the totally gripping introduction, through the twists and turns that fooled me (not once, but twice!), all the way to the climactic and satisfying ending, this is a great read that will see you through an afternoon, or a weekend (one that will seem, ironically, impossibly short!)

Jayne, Ruth and Emily, three women married to husbands who are lifelong best friends, travel to a remote rental for a long weekend, - the first evening of which will be spent without their mates. The rental, Dark Fell Barn, perched on the remotest of the black moorlands of Northumbria, is straight out of Wuthering Heights, with a gothically sinister atmosphere aided by the colossal wind and rainstorm they find themselves entrenched in at the tail end of their journey.

Without giving anymore than the book jacket version of the plot away (no spoilers here), the weekend takes an unexpectedly terrifying turn when the women are presented with an anonymous letter - a taunting missile vowing that the weekend’s activities will include the murder of one of the husbands. Missing from the group, the queen-bee widow of a recently deceased fourth buddy, is the instant suspect - a woman who not only has each of the men completely bedazzled and wrapped around her fingers, but may be as fiendishly machiavellian as she is enchanting.

An almost crazy kaleidoscope of suspense is quickly set off, peppering the storyline (and it’s horrified protagonists) with events, threats, clues and red-herrings that take no time at all to build to a compulsively readable crescendo, that quite frankly, never lets up.

I loved this book, and this strange and perhaps unhealthily-close-knit group it is populated with - “a group too dysfunctional to know the meaning of friendship” - and wonderfully difficult to pick apart. If you are at all like this reader, (and I would venture to guess you are!), unpacking this group of friends, trying to get to the bottom of the personalities, motivations, and secrets they each hold, was such great fun that I had an impossible time putting the book down.

A wonderful read, this is book highly recommended for anyone who enjoys suspense, a devilishly clever plot, and characters so deviously drawn that it will take your best efforts to get inside them.

A great big thank you to @Harpercollinsca for an ARC of this #BooksofHCC. All thoughts presented are my own.

#TheLongWeekend @GillyMacmillan
#Bookreview #booklove

*** This title will be released on March 29, 2022