Book Club Monday: Retreat

Author: Krysten Ritter Title: Retreat Publisher: Harper Date Published: 03/25/2025

Read Dates: 05/09/2026- 05/10/2026
Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was my family book club pick for May.

Retreat is a thriller broken into three parts that follows a con-woman named Liz who is given an opportunity to spend a week at a villa in Mexico at the perfect time when she needs to skip town! Liz is determined to simply lie low, hide out in Mexico for a week and figure out where she is going to go for her next stop, no "working" on her vacation! But a simple case of mistaken identity proves to be an opportunity that is too good to pass up, and before she knows it, Liz is impersonating Isabelle, the woman who hired her. Unfortunately, it looks like it's not a safe time to be Liz OR Isabelle, and she's not sure who to trust or where to turn to make her exit from the complicated situation she has stumbled into!

This was a quick read and a fast-paced thriller, I really enjoyed it! I was kept guessing throughout, and had a lot of suspicions and theories about who was pulling the strings and why! I loved the ending and can't wait for our book club meeting to see what everyone thought!

 Liz Dawson weaves through a crowd with the ease of a tropical breeze, moving seamlessly through elite circles, sparking instant connections and making every new acquaintance feel like an intimate friend. She’s clever, smooth, and confident—qualities that make her a brilliant serial con artist.

Isabelle Beresford is strikingly beautiful, obscenely wealthy, and the new owner of Casa Esmerelda, a fabulous villa on the Mexican coast—attributes that make her the perfect mark. When she offers Liz a job handling the installation of a piece of art in her otherwise vacant home, Liz can’t resist the allure of a beach retreat. She longs for a reset, a chance to finally shed the grip of her addiction to the conning game.

But when Liz, with her lush dark hair and intense green eyes, is mistaken for Isabelle herself, Liz can’t help effortlessly slipping into the socialite’s identity. The transition is so easeful, it almost feels like fate. But just who is Isabelle Beresford really, and why does she seem to have abandoned this stunning life of hers?

As Liz insinuates herself deeper into the dazzling—and deceptive—world of the Punta Mita resort community, she draws closer to the dangers surrounding the real Isabelle. Dangers that may have already ensnared Liz, too. This might not be the con of her life—but the con that ends it.