Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for allowing me to read You Are Fatally Invited in exchange for my honest opinion.

Six thriller authors are invited to a private island for a Clue like writing retreat and of course someone actually ends up dead. And that’s just the beginning.

I loved this locked room thriller so much! Being trapped on an island with an unknown killer is one of my favorite thriller tropes so I was immediately sucked in. While I did guess who was behind it all correctly early on in the book I was still on the edge of my seat to see how this would all play out. 4.5 stars round up

Thank you, NetGalley Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Bantam books for this free ebook for review. This was a fun debut thriller about a writing retreat hosted by an anonymous author at a private mansion. It’s all fun and games until a guest turns up dead and when everyone has secrets to hide or an axe to grind, the fun writing week turns into a deadly game of who will play the play and get off the island alive

There were some really interesting threads here and I wish the author would have just picked one rather than throwing a bunch of plot ideas and annoying people into a bowl and popping it under the stand mixer. Our main narrator, Mila, was just too much of a sad sack to really root for, especially since she seemed to have found a great and likely lucrative career in the wake of giving up writing but still acted like she had nothing else going on. Also, although I don't necessarily mind a bit of romance in a thriller if it's done well, adding her weirdly schoolgirl-esque crush on another character into the mix just made it lamer. Girl, focus.

So, basic middle of the road three stars for this one because I did like some elements - the setting was great, and I really appreciated feeling the atmosphere of a big spooky house on a private island, and the climactic scene in particular was super evocative and has stuck with me. I'll check out this author again in hopes that a little more experience will have filed down the rough edges of a debut work.

My thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for the ARC.

This book was INCREDIBLE. Ande Pliego has such a way with words, crafting atmosphere, and creating compelling characters. There were so many twists and turns, and I devoured this book! Can't wait to see what Ande does next!

It pains me to give You Are Fatally Invited a low rating, because I loved the concept so much. In this take on a locked-room mystery, six thriller writers travel to an island off the coast of Maine for a writing retreat hosted by renowned anonymous author J.R. Alastor. But they get more than they bargained for when they discover that Alastor knows secrets about each of them, and has set up a series of elaborate, trope-inspired games and riddles to call them out. But then of course, one of the writers turns up dead, and a storm cuts off the island, and then more people die…and you know how this goes.

It’s a story with good (and familiar) bones, and the fact that it’s a book about thriller writers offers some fun meta moments. But unfortunately, overall, I think Ande Pliego was a bit too ambitious and couldn’t quite execute the plot effectively. There were too many characters and not enough differentiation in their narrative voices (since the chapters alternate points-of-view), and the character development was lacking. The characters’ relationships with each other were so unnecessarily convoluted that I was just…lost. Pliego had all these big, fun ideas, but she didn’t tie the various threads of the plot together very cleanly, so it was all just…messy. By the end, I didn’t even really care if the big reveals made sense; I was just ready to be done with the mental gymnastics required to keep everything straight.

If you’re a fan of locked-room mysteries and metafiction, I’d still encourage you to give this one a try; not every book is for every reader, and this one wasn’t for me – but it may be for you. Thank you to Bantam for the complimentary reading opportunity.

This book really reminded of the game Clue. You got multiple perspectives but not so many that you were confused. This is a great locked room mystery and would highly recommend to those who like big twists and those who want to be a detective while reading. Good luck figuring out the who done it. :) Great read and already ordered my physical copy from Aardvark. So happy to see it as one of their March picks!! Thanks NetGalley.

You Are Fatally Invited is the And Then There Were None for a new millennium. Whip-smart, it will taunt you with clues, tease you into thinking you've figured things out. But debut author Ande Pliego sees your confidence and raises you with one twist after another until you finally concede the game, defeated. I already want to read it again!

You're an author who's been invited to an exclusive island writing retreat. Now, you must survive to the end. Oh, the beauty of a
locked room mystery that most tried and
true of all mystery tropes. I adored how perfectly Agatha Christie like this book was. It was a fantastic tribute to the murder mystery genre!

You Are Fatally Invited is a highly intriguing and compelling mystery. It held my attention from beginning to end. The story is told from the POV of each author and Mila, the event coordinator with snippets of the host author's newest book throughout. We find out early on that Mila has a secret and that she's there for revenge. This retreat is her chance.

This was such a fun book! I absolutely loved the creative murders and the creepy island setting and would joyfully read more books by this author.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I really enjoyed Ande Pliego’s debut novel You Are Fatally Invited. It was an interesting premise made all the more interesting with a convoluted plot. There’s the locked room factor (i.e. isolation on an island in a sumptuous house), a varied cast of characters, and twists galore. Not to mention lots of secrets (so many secrets) – including the identity of the host for the by-invitation-only mystery writers retreat. This was a combination that hooked me from the very beginning.

The story is told from various points of view. Some more revealing than others. This is probably what I found the most challenging. If I didn’t pay attention to the chapter title, it was sometimes easy to mistake the identity of the narrator. I found myself reading rather slowly in order to keep all the characters and events straight.

The writing is quite well done and the plot was impressive in how it was planned and executed. This is definitely a book that I would read a second time and that’s something I don’t do very often (except for a few classic books). I know there are plot points I missed and I think a second reading would make this book even more enjoyable. Fans of locked room mysteries will find this book a worthy addition to the genre. NetGalley provided an advance reader copy.

My Jan/Feb reading slump was REAL but thanks for all my driving for work and volunteering I was able to get some audiobooks in and claw myself out of my slump. I loved this one audio with its chaotic cast of characters and twists at every turn. The narrators did an amazing jobs and I loved the distinctive voices and accents for each character.

A writing retreat on a private island in an elusive author’s giant mansion - what could go wrong?! This one felt like an Agatha Christie novel with all of its twists and turns, but also specifically reminded me a bit of The Hitchcock Hotel from last year as well.

I loved how this one felt like a puzzle and that it gave me the urge to take notes to figure everything out along the way. Very well put together and I will definitely be looking out for this author moving forward! Check this one out if you enjoy locked room thrillers, writing and books, and a little bit of chaos!

**Thank you to NetGalley and Bantam Books for the eARC of this title!**

Solid 4 stars for this "locked room" mystery set on an island in the middle of a storm over several days.

Reclusive author J.R. Alastor invites several famous people to his "writing retreat"... but it's obviously going to be something totally different! Told by the perspective of the guests, as well as by Mila, the hostess, secrets are uncovered and retribution is made.

But who is J.R. Alastor? And what are his motives? Definitely full of gore, but surprisingly NO sex or language, this is a solid entry in the locked room genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for an ARC #sponsored

I am truly just such a sucker for a locked room mystery and this one delivers. Though very clearly pulling inspiration from Christie, the novel has modern update - like the inclusion of horror movie references - and a few bonus twists to keep it interesting.

**1.5-stars rounded up**

You Are Fatally Invited features a classic-Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None, set-up. Usually, an easy win for me. Additionally, it's set on a island off the coast of Maine. As an island resident myself, and having grown-up on the coast of Maine, both of these things should also have been wins.

What else? Oh, yes. The story also features a full cast of characters who are writers. Also a thing that I love, following author characters, getting insights on their processes. However, even with all of these incredible items being ticked off my personal checklist, this didn't work for me. It makes me sad, but I have to be honest about my experience.

From the very start, the writing style had me off-kilter. It just didn't mesh with me. There was one character whose perspective was 2nd-person, and that's not typically something I enjoy. Every time I got to that character's perspective it would jar me out of the story. Some people may assume that it's the fact that this whole cast is unlikable, but I assure you, that's not it. I love a cast of unlikable characters.

There were many times when I contemplated DNFing, but I felt like the least I could do was make it all the way through to the end. I owed it that, and it could have come around for me. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. It's pretty rare for me to actively-dislike a book the whole way through. I can almost always find some aspects to point out that I can compliment.

Unfortunately, I actively-disliked this throughout. I switched to the audiobook at around 35% to see if that would help. For a minute, I thought it would. Sadly, that notion disappeared as quickly as a free pizza in a workplace lunchroom.

I had been so excited for it too, based upon the points listed above, but it just wasn't the right story for me. We hated each other. I'm sure this book hated my eye-rolling, huffing-and-puffing ass very much by the end as well. I'm glad we can now go our separate ways. To me, it felt like the author was more in love with their own words than the plot, or the characters, of this story. I'm not saying this is true, it's just what reading this story made me feel. It's the taste I walked away with.

With this being said, I want to be CLEAR, this is just my PERSONAL EXPERIENCE with this book. If you look at the current reviews, I am in the minority opinion on this one. I would urge absolutely every Reader who is captivated by the synopsis, to go ahead and give this book a shot. It's certainly worth a read and you can come to your own conclusion on it.

Also, as I have pointed out in many of my other reviews, I never write an author off after one try. Even though this exact story wasn't quite to my liking, I would totally be down to picking up this author's next work.

Thank you, Bantam, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I appreciate it very much and I know that this novel is going to find a wide audience who loves it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishing company for this Advanced Readers Copy of You Are Fatally Invited by Ande Pliego!

I really enjoyed this! This is brilliantly executed and a standout! This gives a fresh take on locked room mysteries and is one I would highly recommend! Special Thank You to Ande Pliego, Random House Publishing - Ballantine and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was an absolute blast—a twisted and thrilling adventure! It completely nailed the locked-room murder mystery vibe (a favorite of mine), and it had me guessing until the very end. The setup was great: a secluded private island, a writing retreat, and a mystery unfolding before your eyes. I liked the clue-like elements—secret passages, riddles, and a cast of characters, each harboring their own secrets. The pacing was perfect, drawing me in and keeping me hooked.

The ending wasn’t quite what I had envisioned. I expected a slightly different resolution, but even though it wasn’t flawless, but the twists were fun.

For a debut, this book did so many things right! The multiple perspectives were engaging. I found myself completely immersed, flipping through the pages like I couldn’t get enough. An addictively fun read!

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and Netgalley for this ARC!

I loved the way the author played with the different horror tropes in this book. I also love locked room mysteries like this book. However, things just felt all over the place and I guessed the big twist early on so it felt anticlimactic.

This has several really good elements in the setup: A reclusive mystery author invites 6 other mystery authors to his private island for mystery retreat. Someone on the staff may not be quite who they appear to be, in fact, they may have an axe to grind.

There were also some great references to other thrillers, including props that would go missing from time to time, and show up in the most shocking places.

Then, suddenly a guest goes missing, the island is cut off from outside communication and there is a big storm brewing. While these elements an build atmosphere and anticipation, I feel like they have been done a billion times. If you are an Agatha Christie fan, this will remind you of one of her more famous novels.

There are plenty of twists and turns as the story progresses but it takes a long time to catch it's stride.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the eArc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Mila del Angel is hired by renowned author J. R. Alastor to organize a writer’s retreat at his manor home in Maine. Nobody, including Mila, knows J.R. Alastor’s true identity. Mila is excited to plan the event, which includes mystery games each night. Mila has her own agenda for wanting to participate – she has an old score to settle with one of the guests. However, when a guest dies, Mila realizes that Alastor also has an agenda, and it looks like she might be a pawn in a different kind of game, and she and the other guests are in danger.

This book has a fun premise with writers gathering in a remote location, reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. There is a bit of Clue thrown in there with secret passages and mystery games. The games are created around different tropes of horror novels, such as “Dinner Party” and “Survive the Night.” There are also excerpts of Alastor’s newest book on writing, which may just include some hidden meanings.

What could have been an outstanding book was brought down by the slow pace and often confusing plot. The book is told through multiple points of view, giving us a glimpse of each of the characters, but often opening up more questions instead of providing answers. Also, it was hard to distinguish between the characters, and I would often have to backtrack to remind myself who was narrating that particular chapter. The action picks up near the end, and many plot points come together for a dramatic and satisfying ending. The strong finish and clever premise bring this up to four stars for me. This is the author’s debut novel, so I look forward to reading more of her books in the future.

~ Christine

3.5 stars for me.

I have read a few locked room thrillers… I was apprehensive about this one because it dealt with authors as main characters, but I decided to give it a try!
It was really slow. My attention kept going in and out. Mila was a character I couldn’t identify with so it was meh. The ending was entertaining but overall, it missed this book mark for me.
I did enjoy the clue board type map and plot line!