I loved the premise, and ended up enjoying the book but it was a bit convoluted at times. Hard to picture the first murder especially taking place.

I immediately got vibes of “And Then There Were None” at the start of this novel. A bunch of authors, a secluded island and home.. all the makings of a great thriller. Highly recommend!

I had a strong feeling going in that this would be a book I would love, and it didn’t disappoint. Locked room mysteries are one of my favorites and this one was a wild ride.

This is the sort of book that I knew I would love going into it and it did not disappoint. I love the whole invitation to something sinister trope.

Wow!!!!!! FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELT, you are about to go on one hell of a ride. I was surprised to read this is a debut novel, Ande Pliego is an incredibly talented author and gifted story teller. She delivers this story with sophistication, style, twists, suspense, revenge, planning, plotting, it is an edge of your seat thriller. Not my typical genre and I was absolutely hooked. I’ll definitely be looking for the movie if one materializes as well as anything else she may write. I’m blown away by this book, what a creative mind she has and her writing and storytelling exquisite. Soli Deo gloria

The story is told in the voices of the many different authors attending the retreat. Each with their own agenda, secrets, and perspectives. It definitely keeps you guessing, I needed the end for full closure or I wouldn’t have put it all together. Trust me, you won’t be figuring this one out.

I am not going to recreate the synopsis, many other reviewers have already done that for you. I’m just going to say don’t miss this one. Get your copy. Solid five stars, I’d rate is six or seven if I could.

Many thanks to the author, NetGalley and the publisher Penguin Random House LLC for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A thrilling writers' retreat on a secluded island takes a dark turn when one of the authors is found dead. Organized by a famous novelist and a former hopeful writer, the gathering features six thriller authors skilled in the art of deception and chaos. As a fierce storm cuts off access to the island and the number of victims increases, the remaining participants must outwit a murderer who knows all their tricks. If you love a Clue-like atmosphere and the tension of being stranded on a remote island, this book is for you. You're Fatally Invited keeps you guessing until the very end, with a brilliantly crafted plot that wraps up in a way that left me completely satisfied, answering all the questions I had along the way.

Thank You NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Bantam for allowing me to review this ARC.

Six thriller authors are invited to a retreat on the private island of J.R. Alastor. But one by one, the authors are being murdered. They need to find the killer, but time is running out...
I really enjoyed this book. The writing was crisp and the characters well defined. I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next. I did guess a couple of the plot twists, but it in no way interfered with my enjoyment of this book. And this was a very twisty book. Highly recommended.

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley, in return for an unbiased and honest review.

This was a fairly good debut mystery but there was just too much going on. The characters and their backstories were hard to keep track of. It would be helpful to have a description of each character at the beginning of the book. But it was a good mystery with some surprising twists. Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for providing a free e-arc of this book.


This book is about 6 authors who are invited to a writing retreat by a famous author who no one has actually seen, J.R. Alastar and his employee Mila del Angel, a former writer, devise various creepy games and thrills for the attendees that become a little intense. However, Mila actually has an issue with one of the writers at the retreat and is planning out their murder...until the wrong author ends up dead leaving Mila to figure out who the killer is to put a stop to it and ensure the safety of the innocent on the island.

While the characters weren't necessarily a big draw for me in this story (most were lacking in personality minus Mila), the murders and anticipation of finding out the identity of the killer left me turning every page. The twists and turns throughout the story were great, and I really was not able to guess the ending, which I'm usually able to come at least close in mystery/thrillers.

This book is coming out in mid-February next year, and I definitely recommend picking it up!

This book was absolutely amazing. The mood throughout the book was heavy and mysterious and kept you right there in the middle of the action. The author does an amazing job of giving just enough details to keep you guessing as to what’s happening without giving everything away all the way throughout the story. I loved how every single narrator was completely unreliable and that there were so many twists and turns, it was impossible to try to guess what was actually going on. I was shocked all the way up until the end. I will definitely be recommending this to others. It was one of my favorite reads of the year.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for- Ballantine for this ARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine via NetGalley.

Six bestselling thriller authors receive exclusive invitations to a mysterious island retreat hosted by legendary author J. R. Alastor, a reclusive figure who has never revealed his true identity. Alastor’s invitation promises a week of murder mystery games and writerly camaraderie, but the thrill quickly turns deadly when one guest is found murdered. Suddenly, these authors must use their storytelling skills to outwit a killer who knows every trope in the book.

The story is a page-turner, filled with suspense, unexpected twists, and characters who feel multi-dimensional. Each of the six authors brings their strengths, weaknesses, and secrets, adding layers to the mystery that kept me guessing.

While the plot is compelling, the writing style might not be everyone’s favorite, there are frequent shifts in perspective among unreliable narrators, which creates a level of confusion. One minor flaw is the heavy foreshadowing early in the book, with background information delivered in chunks rather than slowly unfolding.

Standout characters like Mila bring depth to the narrative; her journey becomes especially engaging. Ultimately, this book rewards patience and close reading, making readers want to go back and catch all the hints they may have missed the first time. For fans of locked-room mysteries, this book offers an entertaining ride.

“You Are Fatally Invited” is a very clever and very twisted book. J.R. Alastor, an author whose identity has been a closely guarded secret, has invited a group of writers to his private island for a special writing retreat. The event has been meticulously planned by Alastor and Mila, the event coordinator. Mila has a grievance with one particular invited guest and intends to get her revenge during the retreat. Alastor has set up a series of games focusing on fear, horror and secrets. Each of the guests has secrets they don’t want revealed but which Alastor intends to expose. However, the games take an unexpectedly violent turn the first night, and Mila quickly realizes that Alastor has changed the plan. The guests will have to confess their sins if they hope to survive the retreat.

The story will keep the reader guessing. Some of the characters’ sins are easy to figure out but others are more difficult. The reader will think they know who the serial killer or the thief is, etc., only to be surprised when it turns out to be someone else. The way the characters are connected is interesting and somewhat unexpected with respect to certain characters. The details of some of the sins are surprising. The intricacies of the revenge plot are impressive.

Wow! This is one locked room thriller that is action packed and full of secrets, twists and mayhem that is brilliant! J. R. Alastor is a famous writer but has never done personal appearances or book tours so their real identity is unknown. He invites 6 authors to a writing retreat at his private island. Each author jumps on this opportunity to meet the author and learn the true identity.

Alastor hires Mila to help them pull off this weekend as they hatched a plan to scare the writers and get them to confess their secrets.

One by one the bodies start to pile up as they try and figure out who Alastor is and how they know what they have done. Who will be left standing after this retreat?

Masterfully crafted and executed that it is hard to believe this is a debut novel. There are so many layers to this who done it and will keep you guessing until the end.

I was scared of one book in middle school. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie and when I saw the synopsis of this book I was ready to be scared again. I was and still am a little bit. The whole story is engrossing and I couldn’t put it down until I reached THE END. I hope to read more from this debut author very soon.

I would like to start off by thanking Random House Ballantine | Bantam and Ande Pliego for allowing me to read this book, You Are Fatally Invited, via Netgalley. All opinions following are my own.

This book is FULL of twists and turns. At times, it can be difficult to follow because there are multiple points of view, and, sometimes, the character speaking is a mystery. However, if the reader sticks it out to the end, it all comes together and is definitely worth it!

The book takes place on an island, where the elusive and anonymous J. R. Alastor and his host for the weekend, Mila, have invited six thriller authors for a writing retreat and to meet Mr. Alastor. It soon becomes obvious, though, that all these authors are withholding deadly secrets, and someone intends to make them pay... maybe with their lives.

I went back and forth on whether or not to give this book four or five stars because, as mentioned previously, it could be hard to follow at times. Ultimately, I went with ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, though, because it met all my criteria for a five-star book. Also, it came together in the end. I hope to read more from #andepliego in the future!

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The premise of this book sounded great to me, so I was happy to get the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. The author wrote a clever mystery with lots of red herrings. Unfortunately, the book didn't really work for me. I found it hard to keep track of all the (unlikeable) characters, and the multiple points of view were also confusing for me. The book was also gorier than I would have liked. I wish the author good luck with her future novels.

Bring together a group of mystery writers to a secluded island and watch what happens. The very private author, J.R. Alastor, invites a group of authors to his home to solve puzzles, and gather some writing inspiration. What they do not realize is that their invitations are motivated by secrets and will lead to murder. As the body count rises, the question is why these people are being targeted. Who will live to figure out the clues? No spoilers, but I did not guess the why until almost the reveal. An enjoyable and puzzling read.

This story reminded me so much of another author's work I had read before. I actually stopped to make sure I wasn't reading their work again. I like the idea of writers gathering together for retreats and how they react to one another. The author had a good mix of interesting characters, so the book moved along at a nice pace. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

This was so much fun! And really reminded me of Clue (so I would highly recommend this to fans of Clue).

I really don't want to spoil this at all (it especially seems like the kind of thriller that you should go in knowing as little as possible), so this review may be very vague and basically a mini summary.

This follows a group of writers as they go on a sort of retreat to another famous and successful author's secluded home. Things are vaguely creepy just because of the location for this group, but things get really crazy and intense when things go missing and when people end up dead or missing.

I had a lot of fun with this and the vibes were so perfect for this type of mystery (and, again, very Clue-esque).

And I really liked the excerpts that were sprinkled throughout along with the pages of classic mystery trope explanations/definitions. That was just a fun little touch that was relevant to what was going on in the story at the time.

And I sped through this (it's also pretty short, so it was easy to speed through in a lazy, grey-skyed day).

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of the book in exchange for my honest review! My Goodreads review is up and my TikTok (Zoe_Lipman) review will be up at the end of the month with my monthly reading wrap-up.

“You Are Fatally Invited” is a murder mystery thriller debut novel by Ande Pliego. An author, J. R. Alastor invites six thriller mystery writers to his private island for a writing retreat. His host, Mila, is a former aspiring writer - and both Alastor and Mila have axes to grind with the writers. This book is a classic locked room mystery, so if you enjoy those you may very well enjoy this book. For me, this book started off pretty strongly - there’s a map, there’s meeting the authors, the host, and the staff. But, it also felt like the writer was trying to be really really carefully clever - and I found myself paying more attention to minute things opposed to, well, enjoying the story. I did get a chuckle out of two TV show references (if you don’t get them, it doesn’t matter to the story, but they were nice mentions). The pacing is a bit uneven and I found myself having to return to the beginning of the chapter to remind myself whose POV I was reading. Mila’s POV with the second-person I found a bit off-putting, though I kept wondering (especially toward the end) if the build-up was really necessary. I did feel like the author hit a number of murder/mystery tropes which should have been expected by the six authors (and the reader). Overall, this wasn’t quite the book I was expecting, though I will say that the author is a talented writer and it shows.