Retreat to the Lakeside Cottage: Escape with this perfect feel-good and uplifting story of love, life and laughter! Paperback – 15 Aug. 2024

Another brilliant visit to Lakeside Cottage. Lots of fabulous characters to get to know with the added details about authors and writing.Lots of laugh out loud moments aswell as eyebrow raising twists and turns. Never fails to make me smile.Can't wait to visit Lakeside Cottage again soon. Thanks Erin

I loved this book, Erin Green books are always lovely page turners, but this one was something else. A really interesting story with a few snippets of the real Erin amongst the pages! I hope there will be a follow up one day to find out what happens to everyone next.

Romped through this read. Assorted characters on a writing retreat. Having been on several I was hooked but Ben if you haven’t you’ll love the comedy of it.Plus there is a dog to steal some scenes.Must have summer read. Go buy and enjoy!

Wonderful escapism, loved every minute of this page turner. Great insight into an authors life. Loved the ending, who’d have thought…

I did enjoy this book, although i wasn't sure part of the way through, it was a little long winded and drawn out at times, but I did like the different view points, I did wonder if Erin had experienced all this herself or this was a struggle for all authors, i really hope not, but in the end it was a good story and I did like the characters and the way they interacted, I would have liked a little bit more information on how it ended for all of them rather than the snippet we received.

Absolutely amazing. I read this whilst on holiday so it took me a little bit longer but there were times I was itching to pick my kindle up and find out what was happening at Lakeside Cottage with all the authors.What a colourful group of ladies, their personalities were so vibrant I felt like I was watching them on tv. I always wondered what happened at writing retreats, know I know! It was really interesting to learn about the different publishing experiences and how there is so much more to writing than simply just writing it!I have to say, the star of the book for me was Josie and Arthur. I’ve enjoyed Josie in previous books in this series but it was nice to learn more about her and from very early on I was rooting for Arthur to be her person. I bet he’s secretly pleased the authors retreat got moved to Lakeside as those woman really showed Josie how to be free and go after what you want and see what was right in front of your nose.Brilliant from start to finish, and I loved the little character twist with Rulas’ agent. I can’t wait for the next instalment.

Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for this ARC.This book is about a five day writers' retreat in a luxurious cottage near Beatrix Potter's Hill Top property in the Lake District. I've visited myself once and it's a lovely area which is well described in the book.The ladies taking part are Alice, Brontë, Daphne, Eve and Rula who's been organising it. Each of them has had some writing success apart from Brontë who is a complete novice. There is also a housekeeper, Josie, who looks after everyone and produces gorgeous food.We have three narrators in first person present: Brontë, Eve and Josie.This is a novel with not much action but a lot of talking, and when I say talking I mean mostly bitching about the others, in front of them and behind their backs, while guzzling a lot of wine. Seriously, the author is not doing her profession any favours - I never imagined authors to be so self-absorbed, unfocused and whiny about not being proper writers, their talent being underappreciated or having writer's block!When another writer called Cora gatecrashes the retreat, thebackstabbing and stealing each other's ideas starts in earnest. I've never heard the likes of it!I disliked badly behaved Alice, Daphne and Cora and sat on the fence on Rula. Eve is ok, Brontë is lovely and I like Josie best who just observes everything, shaking her head, then begins to write down her own stories. But to be honest, I didn't get a real sense for any of them because there isn't enough character background for me.This is billed as a romance but there is very little of it and only right at the end, barely worth mentioning. There is a little cute twist at the end and in the epilogue people mostly get what they deserve.If you like chaos and mayhem at a writers' retreat this is for you. It's an easy read showcasing what it's like to be a writer but also how you can trip yourself up if you think you're either an imposter or better than you are. I am afraid though that I had anticipated a different kind of book so I am left disappointed.

Brilliant.

While not a writer, I guess having been on similar retreats (actually travel agent fam trips), this story doesn't surprise me. There are always a few flakes in the mix, and they were definitely in this story. I guess at the beginning, I didn't understand why Bronte wanted to go to a retreat instead of going to a writing course. Yet this retreat sure helped her in ways a writing course would not. The characters on this retreat were without a doubt a mixed bag, and I suppose Eve was the one who surprised me the most in the end.

I really struggled with getting through this book. I was constantly on the verge of DNFing. The setting was lovely. The premise was fun, but the execution was very lacking.At the halfway mark, I realized I couldn't really describe a plot if asked. The plot of the book is basically, five women go on a writer's retreat. The first half of the book describes their day to day at the retreat. Scene transitions are very abrupt and the emotional reaction of the characters just doesn't flow logically.Without being spoilery, there is an unexpected guest who is extremely upsetting to one of the women on the retreat. She goes between being dramatically upset and not seeming to care at all. Same with the other guests. They ping pong back and forth between being worried or just being mundane.There are many scenes that don't amount to anything. I found myself wondering, 'what was the point of any of that?' An answer never came.Much of the character's internal thoughts are repetitive and banal. Some of the characters aren't really explored at all. Alice and Daphne are not characters we get into the heads of. They don't do much to set off the other characters either.Cora's character was absolutely bizarre, matched in weirdness only by how Rula, Eve, and Bronte reacted to her. None of them behaved naturally, so that impacted my enjoyment of the story. It was too difficult to identify with any of the characters because they read like an abrupt collection of actions to add words to the page.Overall, I kept reading to see if anything really interesting would develop, so for that, I can give it a couple stars. I think this book could have used a few more rounds of editing and attention to an actual plot to make it shine.