Unpacking Krysten Ritter's 'Retreat': What Works and What Doesn't | #BuddyReads Book Chat - Shelf Addiction Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, booklovers, Welcome back to shelf Addiction, the podcast where
we dive deep into the pages of thriller and fantasy breeds.
I'm your host, Tamara, and today we are discussing our
May Buddy read, written by Kristin Ritter guest, the actress
her latest thriller Retreat. But first, quick heads up. If
you crave the full visual experience and you want to

(00:24):
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If you want even more bookish banter, join our community

(00:44):
over on the book Clubs app and don't forget to
subscribe and leave us a review wherever you are listening
and speaking of community, I am thrilled to welcome back
my fabulous thriller mystery co host and friend, Classy from
the Bookish Virtual Assistant. Welcome back, Classy.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Hi, that was a lovely introduction.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Thank you of course. So are you ready to talk
about today's book?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
I am ready. Yeah, I've sent you enough text messages.
I'm ready.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Okay, Okay, so before we dive into it, guys, the
links to find both of us on our socials are
in the show notes below, so click around. Do all
the things follow us show us the love. We appreciate
you for doing that. We have a lot to talk about,
so we're gonna just dive in. Today we are discussing
the book Retreat, written by Kristin Ritter. The audio book

(01:35):
is narrated by the author herself, published on March twenty fifth,
twenty twenty five, by Harper and Harper Audio. The hardcover
is two hundred and seventy two pages and the underbridge
audio is eight hours and forty one minutes. Classy, would
you kindly share the synopsis?

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Absolutely? Liz Dawson Lee's through a crowd with the ease
of a tropical breeze moving sea through elicit excuse me,
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

(02:16):
Beresford is strikingly beautiful, obscenely wealthy, and the new owner
of Casa Esmeralda, 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,

(02:39):
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 Isabel herself,
Liz can't help effortlessly slipping into the socialites identity. The
transition is so easeful it almost feels like fake. But

(03:00):
just who is Isabel bears Ford really? And why does
she seem to have abandoned the stunning life affairs. As
Liz insinuates herself deeper into the dazzling and deceptive world
of the Quantumita Ontameda 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

(03:24):
of her life, but the con that ends her life.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Mm hmm, okay, what'd you think?

Speaker 2 (03:33):
High level high level. I've read her her debut novel,
which was Bonfire. I felt like this was more suspenseful,
little more, you know, more psychological. I didn't feel like
it was as gripping and twisty as everyone else thought.

(03:58):
It was the identity or the Yeah, the stealing of
someone's identity was okay, but there were just a few
things in there that I just felt like there could
have been more to this story. It was two hundred
and I think seventy two pages, I believe, and I

(04:19):
felt like there's some things that could have been flushed out.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Okay, that's fair, a fair assessment, I agree with you.
I actually so okay. When I finished the book, I
think I was like, Okay, I get it. I get
what you're doing there. That was entertaining enough. But to

(04:43):
be honest, for a book that was so short, I
know this is unpopular opinion, but it wasn't that fast paced,
even though I got it done quickly, but it was
I felt the struggle a little bit. I felt like
I was struggle busting a little bit. Yes, and I
I don't like that feeling, especially with a book under
three hundred pages.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Right, Yeah, the struggle bus was real For me, I
found myself rewinding a lot because either I was like
phasing out or dozing, you know, it was kind of
like zoning out, excuse me zoning out, or there were
parts that didn't make sense, and I was just like,
did I hear something right or something wrong? I think

(05:25):
you had said you had kind of you weren't sure
about some of the characters, and you know, after reading
the book, I'm like, did she do that on purpose?
Because there were a few times where their stories did
it begin to blend? And I think that was one
of those literary elements that she was using, where she
was mirroring Liz and Isabelle and then and apparently Susan.

(05:54):
You know, all three of these people, their identity began
to blend and mirror and I would be listening and
I'm like, who, who's going are you talking about?

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Yes, on the audiobook, I would go and look to
see if the chapters had names on them, and they didn't.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
No, And it was not helpful because right because it
was hard to tell because with her taking someone else's identity,
you still weren't sure if it was Liz or if
it was Isabelle. And I mean we kind of could
tell it was Isabelle. I mean it was Liz because
Isabelle was supposedly dead. But you know, they did a
few flashbacks. She did a few flashbacks, and it was

(06:34):
sometimes it was hard to tell. Like one part that
really confused the hell out of me. Further on is
when Liz met someone in college and was it Becca
or somebody and she stole Becka's boyfriend or she took
somebody's boyfriend, and then Isabelle had gone back, and I

(06:55):
was like, did I hear this before? But it was
like Isabelle and Susan. I was just like, Okay, I'm
moving forward. I'm not rewinded. I'm not.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
So while this author tried to use that as a device,
I thought it was more trouble than it was worth
because Liz and Isabelle were so similar. So they looked alike,
they had the same tendency to con they had the

(07:27):
same voice literally and figuratively. The audio book, she didn't
even try to change her voice a little bit, So
I'm like, miss actress, get on it, what's going on.
Can't you change your inflect your voice or something. So
I felt like these two characters were too similar. So

(07:48):
I when you know, we first hopped on, hopped on,
I said, oh, this is like some what do you
call that single white female stuff? And the thing is though,
but with that movie, you could tell the difference between
the two characters. One character made herself look like the other.
But they look different, they act different, they sound different.

(08:08):
And this here was really difficult because they were too similar, right.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
It was almost to the point of twins. I mean,
the only difference was somebody was taller, I believe, and
we could know, yeah, just by the tailoring of the suit.
And one had a scar. And only way somebody would
know that scar was either when she was naked or
like in a swimming suit, which Braydon had. You know,
they had a relationship, so he kind of was like, hey,

(08:35):
where'd you get this scar? But other than that, like
I could tell the difference when she did Palmer's voice,
which was so odd, Like you know, when she did
other people's voices, I could kind of tell, you know,
that it was another actress or another character. But between
Isabelle and Liz or Isabelle and Tilly, it was hard.

(08:58):
Sometimes Tilly, Tilly had a little lilt to her.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
This is when you know I texted you that I
think I like missed something and I was confusing people.
And when Liz got into town and she started meeting
those women, I could not remember how she met Tilly.
I was trying to remember her first interaction with her,
and I was like, I think I'm confusing it with
one of the other women. Can you tell me the

(09:25):
first interaction she had with Sure, she was on the
resort and was walking.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
I don't know where she was walking to, but this
Tilly woman was like Isabelle, Isabelle, And she said she
kept walking because she was like, oh my god, who's
recognized me? Is Isabelle? And she tried to act like
she didn't know who she was. And the woman came
up to her and basically, and I'm not for sure,
she kind of tapped her. She's like, Isabelle, don't you

(09:54):
remember me? See she had to play it off because
she basically got in her face.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
So I didn't know that was Tilly. I thought that
was the woman from the plane. Remember the woman was
telling her to come over to the hotel.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yeah, and that was Nan or Nancy. Okay, but that
woman did after Isabelle because she's like, don't you remember
me from some event, and then now that the woman
is in her face, she's got to pretend like, oh god,
I am that was her okay, because why she's yeah,
and then while she's talking to Tilly, Nancy starts calling

(10:32):
her Liz, and now she has to pretend like so
she's like, yeah, let's go because now she yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
Okay, that was at the same time. So yeah, that
was confusing, okay, because I just knew I had experienced that,
but I could not remember. And I was like, I'm
not going back to figure this out, so I'm just
gonna ask classy. I'm not doing it. But yeah, Tilly

(10:59):
was weird. Tilly got weird fast, and I'm like, what's
this chick's problem? Like what is going on here?

Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah? Yeah, And I knew something was on because she
latched onto her too quick and she was like I
got you and we're good friends, and I'm like, m
this is really odd.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah. Not only that, like I knew, okay, So obviously
we talked spoilers here, y'all. So when she went when
Tilly and Liz slash Isabelle, she was pretending to be Isabelle.
They went for a little walk in a trail and
she's like, why are we doing all this crazy walk?
So anyway, she goes up there, she finds some dead bodies,

(11:43):
makes some assumptions about who it is, and she is right.
She comes back down stumbling, and then Tilly's like, oh,
I found your wallet. I'm like, set up, set up,
set up, like that is a set up? She a fine,
no wallet. The hilarious I'm laughing.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
I know. I'm like that was so obvious. I was like, well,
I just proved my point. Yeah, just proved my point.
So yeah, that was just so odd.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
Although the author did get me because I thought, well,
someone is working with Tilly to do this. That's why
I originally thought.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Yeah, yeah, I thought it was Abigail Read because you know,
she had conn Abigail and Abigail had given her the reference. Well,
according to Isabelle, she said Abigail referred her, So yeah,
I thought they were working together to catch her.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
Yeah, that's what I thought.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
I'm like, I got to catch a thief kind of thing.
So yeah, that's what I was thinking at first.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah, but then I was like, well, whoever knows knew
that she was not who she said she was and
gave her the wallet mm hmm. And then so I
kind of was thinking something was off that whole time,
but I couldn't quite pinpoint. And then when later the
body's found and we find out that that's actually his girlfriend.

(13:07):
So her husband Isabelle's husband and her his girlfriend were
the ones that were murdered. The minute that happened, I'm like, duh,
it's about alive. She walking around this bitch, she's alive,
which one is?

Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yeah? Who is she?

Speaker 1 (13:23):
And you know, Liz just like dahla la la la,
she didn't even think about that woman. Still, I'm like,
you are a dummy. This is so asked.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yeah, right, like you said, I knew that Tilly was her,
especially when she walked into that damn hidden room. I'm like, oh,
this is her.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
She knows you know this was here?

Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, oh you know, the maid said you were down
here getting wine, but there was a hidden panel, ma'am.
And she kept, you know, second guessing her stuff like
did I lock the door? Did I not? And I'm
just like, you're a con. You're a serial con according
to this synopsis, so you really do know, like you
make sure you are kind of double checking yourself, like

(14:08):
the way she hit her passport, and you know, there's
just certain things you don't get too lazy with. The
only reason why I could see her getting lazy is
when it came to Brayton because of her heart. You know,
she was beginning to really fall for him. But with Tilly,
you know, she would even say she felt like somebody
was watching her. She you know she.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
Was, she was in the house watching her. That's so
creepy mm hmm.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
Yeah. And then she would be like, you know, she
get mad when she didn't want to show up, and
she'd be like, man, she's kind of pissy because of
I don't remember, you know, agreeing to go to yoga
with her, and you know, she's like, well, we had
too many drinks and then the let's go, let's let's
sail away to Brazil or run away.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
And I'm like, I'm like, she found a crazy person.
I'm like, what is going on? There is something there
that is very very wrong other than her being extra cleaning.
I'm like, I don't, uh yeah, and how did and
no one else recognize Isabelle. It's like maybe I know

(15:14):
her husband had been there for months and months of
building that house, right, but I'm sure his you know,
that that husband that he was working with, right, he
was going to do a deal with that husband, And
I feel Neil, I'm sure he's seen Isabelle before, if
nothing else, in a photograph.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
Right hoping. But I don't know because, you know, because
he was kind of at there was at a point
where he wasn't liking her, the husband, you know, because
you found out she was creepy as fuck. She was like,
she killed the neighbor dog, and did she kill two
other people or she or something. She may have done
something to two other people in the neighborhood. So I'm

(15:55):
not sure she really had come to that island.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yeah, maybe not. Maybe she hadn't been and it was just,
you know, all the stars aligned, and we find out
the stars aligned for Liz to pull that kind because
Isabelle was in the background, pulling the strings. She's going
around talking to people like, oh, look that's Isabelle over there.

(16:19):
She's like helping her be more convincing as.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
Er exactly, but not getting invited to the parties, which
was probably really kissing her off. Oh that set off
her crazy. I won't call her crazy, but her anxiety.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
She's like, you're my toy, and you're not playing with.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
Me, little fox, Little Fox.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
Like, okay, girl, you've been off from the beginning, killing things,
putting them in jars, killing your friend and taking her identity.
You were a child and you did that. What is that?

Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah? And then to come to find out that Liz
and Isabelle both had gone to a mental facility at
some point in their life. So again that mirroring of
the characters which made this full identity that thing possible,

(17:24):
like where it kind of made it believable. But again,
like you, I feel like the devices didn't work. It
confused me as a reader more than anything, to the
point where you know, I'm rewinding, and I was like,
I got to you a point where it's like, would
this have been better read as a book? But I'm

(17:45):
not sure.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
I'm not sure either. I think I don't know. I
just did not like them being too similar, even though
it was by design, Like you know, poor I almost
want to say, poor Liz. But she got herself in
to the situation, so now she has to deal with it,
but she's trying to run her own con and then
Isabelle spots her across a crowded room and it's like, hey,

(18:11):
that woman looks very similar to me, and I hate
my damn husband and I think about killing him on
a regular so maybe she can help me out, maybe.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Right, she thought, I mean she came up with that
idea quick, yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
Very quick, followed her around the whole nine, figured out
who she was, and then had the balls to get
on the same plane as her. They're on the same
flight to Manco.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
Yeah, but I mean she watched her enough to know
that this woman would possibly want to steal her identity.
I mean, you know, because because like in the in
the synopsis, it's like when somebody mistakens her for Isabelle
or whatever, she just has to go And I'm like, wait,

(19:02):
you got your haircut like her. You figured out what
kind of style she had to you know, like you
were thinking about this as well.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
Even though she only thought she would be playing that
role for a week and she'd be gone before she
knew what she was doing. Because you know, Liz had
this like habit of always wanting more, like she couldn't stop.
It's like it was an addiction almost. You know, She's like,
I got this, I should I got this ring, I
should leave it. But no, I'm gonna grab these credit

(19:33):
cards too. I got this. You know, she just couldn't
help herself. So you know It'sabell laid the breadcrumbs and
Liz just ate them right up.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
Oh yeah. And she was just sitting in the cut,
you know, like she watched her. She saw she was
sleeping with other guys. She knew everything about her.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
Mm hmm. That was so wild. And every time she
when she comes back from having her little night out
with Braden or whatever, and till he catches her, she's like,
oh you will hear how and right basically like you
what's gone?

Speaker 2 (20:12):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (20:13):
Like wow, she diedn't really, I'm like, this woman is wild.
What is she doing?

Speaker 2 (20:18):
She's getting she was getting possessive, yes, you know she
was because she she did. She basically was like you're
my little pet. Yeah, you're I adopted you, like she
had kind of did with uh with Susan, she was well,
she was freaking Susan.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah. Well yeah, yes, Isabelle so Susanka. So the name
with Susan until you know, we found out that really
she switched stories. Susan was the one who was like
raised in foster families and stuff. Is well, Isabelle was right, Okay,

(20:56):
Isabelle was let me say it the right way. And
then she's like, oh, I'm gonna take her under my wing.
I'm gonna do all this stuff. I'm gonna go hang
out with her. We're gonna be best friends. And then
one day, you know, Isabelle feels like, I don't have
to do anything. I'm not promised to hang out with you.
You didn't really adopt me, you know, she's playing that

(21:18):
whole i'm adopting you bullshit.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
Yeah, but she had money, her family had money. She
was socially awkward, she did not have any friends. She
did not She basically found Isabelle to be the you know,
the man out. So now she's like, ooh, I can
kind of, you know, take her under my wing and

(21:41):
make her into what I want her to be. And
then Isabelle kind of was like, no, yeah, I'm my
own identity, you know, like I like hanging out with you.
But she realized, you know, hey, I'm not too bad looking,
I'm pretty. I can do this on my own.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
She gave her a taste and she's like, I don't
need you. Let me go talk to this little cute boy.
Over here, and Susan was like, it's about you're my
you're my property now, just how she is treating Liz
mm hmm. And you know she had like.

Speaker 2 (22:14):
Everything I've done for you. Yeah, And I really called
on to her when she sold that picture.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
She's like.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah, because I was like, oh, this is the painting
that she was supposed to put in the villa, that
was one of those curated Yeah, and I was like, oh,
I think I I was like bingo ding ding ding
ding ding. Yeah, And at first I felt like knowing
all that was gonna like really ruin it, but it
didn't because it didn't really get better.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, because I'm like, Okay, why does she feel so
emotional about this painting? And then Liz was like I
don't even remember her really saying anything about the painting.
And then the author just glazed on, you know, like
kind of just said something and just kept going. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
I'm like, she said she liked it, but she can
say she was would buy it. She just said, oh
I really liked that painting, right, Yeah, So.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
She did buy it, and she bought it because it
was supposed to be symbolic of them becoming one person.
What do you think about that.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
Just crazy, just the just the and I hate saying crazy,
you know, and I'm not even saying crazy, like her
mental stay. I was just like it was just a
crazy concept, you know, like the idea. But now after
reading the story, is like her mental state, that was
what she saw, Yeah, and I mean because she felt
like at one point she wanted to kill her. We

(23:39):
found out in the story that when they had went
on that hiking trail, she was going to push her off. Yeah,
but she didn't like some kind of hiker came up
and ruined it or whatever. So then she finds out,
you know what, I kind of liked this girl. It
comes my storm.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
I can hear him. Was he like pushing chairs around
or something?

Speaker 2 (24:00):
No, that's a storm.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
Oh that's a storm.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
Oh my yeah, we possibly might get a tornado, so
hopefully I don't lose power. But but she was supposed
to kill her. Then she was like, I kind of
like her, you know, like basically kind of like how
she did Isabelle aka or Susan And I just lost
my train of thought. The storm just made me lose

(24:24):
my train of thought. But you know, she did she
she liked her. And then she changed her mind and
she you know, wanted to have her go to Brazil
with her, and she had picked this dress out, like
in those last chapters, She's like, this is the dress,
this red dress that I'm me and Isabelle or Liz

(24:44):
are going to run away to Brazil. Second, I'm like,
is this a love?

Speaker 1 (24:52):
I'm like, is she like loved like she? It's very
strange the type of attachment she had, because at first,
I'm like, is she in love with her? What do
you mean? Like you think someone's just gonna run off
with you? I don't quite understand.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
Yeah, And I thought that too when she saved her
from being attacked by Neil, where her husband, when she
was looking at the phone and she got her home
and she set up close to her, and you know,
Isabelle was like, it's cozy, but it's weird, like you know,
cause she was I was like, oh, maybe she likes her,

(25:29):
you know, like hey, I want to date you. But
you know, when she kind of pushed her off, and
I was like, okay, so maybe it's not. Maybe she
was just trying to comfort her.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
I don't know. Whatever it was was very very odd
and was giving me strange vibes, I'm like, well, I
don't know.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah, and then we see at the end by the
vibes are strange because she does. She has this attachment
kind of dissociative that's what they called it when she
had gone, when she was to a facility, she had
some kind of dissociative disorder.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
So look, that is a red flag. If you meet
a new friend and they have attached themselves like glue
very quickly.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
Right, and we become best friends asap. You want me
to do everything with you?

Speaker 1 (26:21):
Yeah, run run for the hills or even.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
Like to the point where she wasn't even she made
her believe she had agreed to something, didn't I be like,
I know, for what, for a fact, I don't like hiking.
I know I'm not getting up at ass krack of
dawn to do yoga with I would, but you know
what I mean, like other people, you kind of know
yourself right, Like.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
I wouldn't agree to that.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
No, but then my other now thats say it out loud. Well,
even if she was Isabelle, it didn't matter. This girl
was like, no, you agreed last night, like I know,
they was drinking tequila like crazy.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
Damn listen that much drink. She was not that drunk.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
Yeah, she was pacing herself because she knew because she
was trying to find out information from others, right, but
oh girl, all that damn tequila I was And then
they had drunk some of that and haho oh that's
some of the most discussed. That's just my opinion. I
was listening to like, Oh my god, you guys are raking.
It's me so ill over here with all that tequila.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
M that's what you're doing Mexico tequila tequila. I mean,
they were trying to party it apart. I yeah, I
don't know Liz. I didn't really like her. And that's
the thing about these kind of books, and I think

(27:46):
it's acceptable because you know, I've said before on the podcast,
I don't have to like all the characters, but they
were all like really awful people at the root of it.
So I didn't really feel bad for anybody.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
No, because that was I think that was one of
the points too of the story, was the greed that
all these people had, you know, from Palmer and her
husband Neil, you know, like once you got back that,
you know, Isabelle said, I think they're broke or somebody
was broke. Then all of a sudden they throw this
lavish party and everybody had to look the part. And

(28:26):
in that effort to look the part, they were they
I mean, and not to say in the effort to
look the part they were they were just nasty. But
even one of the other people was like, well, you know,
she's a lightweight. You know, it was just a liquor
because she's a light Wait, no, no, she's an asshole.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
Yeah I t yeah, with or without liquor, exactly.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
Actually, I want to dive more into Palmer and Neil,
but we're gonna take a quick break. Okay, you got
to check out these commercials by listening to those, you
are supporting the podcast, and we'll be right back. Welcome back, guys.
So let's talk about Palmer. She is the biggest b
and the whole time, she instantly did not like Liz

(29:14):
aka Isabelle. Immediately she's questioning her schooling, she's questioning all
these other things. You're like, what's her problem? What's her
damn problem? Then later we find out, oh, you didn't
got buddy buddy with my husband and his mistress, y'all
hanging out mm hm.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
Which makes you think did she know he had a
wife or not? Or did she just never thought she
would run across paths with her because for you to
question her schooling, well, that's possible if you've never met her.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
She was mean girling her. I think everyone knew he
was married, right because she was gonna come there, right,
they would meet her.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
Oh that's right because right eventually yeah, with.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
The hot mm hmm. So I just I was like, dang,
that's wild, because what kind of person? Because I can
think back to my youth when I had a boyfriend
who had a brother who was cheating on his girlfriend,
and he wanted to come by me with the other girl,
and I said, no, no, I'm not got a part

(30:26):
of that on my watch. Yeah, no, I don't participate
in a hot garbage, So don't because then you.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
Have to participate in that light and color and make
sure you're saying the right thing. M yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
So that's why I'm like, Okay, what kind of woman
is cool with that? Mm yeah, I don't know, Palmer,
you trash.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yeah. And then she gets you know, gets busted basically
because she spines the pictures in her phone. Because Neil
and Palmer are at dinner. It's real obvious. But she
never did confront Palmer, but she did confront Neil. But
you know, Neil probably said something she probably realized.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
Well at the time, Palmer was so drunk, you know,
she would got her head in the toilet. So it's like,
at that point, because Neil had kind of got all
aggressive on her, she just had to get out of there.
She couldn't even worry about Palmer at that point, and
things got so crazy after that she really couldn't come
back around to it. I guess things just went off
the rails pretty quickly.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
Yeah, yeah, and then she tried to like butter up
and try and be nicey nice with her, and it's
like it's too late that that's that ship at sale,
but you know, everything, it was so funny with that.
Every time Tillie would show up and she's like, you're
not invite really that who in fighted her and she

(31:52):
always came to the rescue, that ship, Tillie to the rescue.
She show up in that damn golf cart and I.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
Comes, honestly makes that ship so comical, like wandering around
on all right.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
I envisioned her like just showing up to the seed.
I was like, how the heck did she come into
their bedroom?

Speaker 1 (32:21):
Right? She just walked in? Yeah, just knew where to go.
Like that kind of thing doesn't really make sense. You
haven't been to their house before, so you're just gonna
roll up on someone's estate property in a golf cart,
hop eye, bust into their party, and go straight for
the bedroom.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
Yeah what Yeah, those were some of those things that
was just like, oh, that's not add no. But AnyWho,
back to the regular story.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
She saved her, Like, it's just like, Chilli, what are
you doing?

Speaker 2 (32:54):
I thought she's a fucking superhero.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
Chill exactly like that.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
So it's like, yeah, that's exactly how I felt. But yeah,
it was those little moments there, and there was another
moment she saved her, and I was like, this is
really odd because you really would have to be It
was creepy. It was like you'd have to be watching
me twenty four to seven to know or at least
you know my whereabouts.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
I was wondering if she had a tracker on her
or you know, like or she just purely stalking her.
I'm like, how does she know exactly where she is?
All the time. Yeah, does she not sleep too? Right?

Speaker 2 (33:36):
But she had to?

Speaker 1 (33:38):
Yeah, she did to. I think I did not really
love the whole insertion of the mob situation or the
drug people that he was dealing with for business.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
Yeah, I'm like, okay, it seemed like a it seemed
like a little cliche.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
Yeah, a little extra something that didn't really lead to anything.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
No, No, just trying to throw us off with who
possibly killed the two people.

Speaker 1 (34:11):
Any reader of this genre would know it wasn't THEMB. Yeah,
this random guy is looking so one guy was looking
for her, supposedly looking for Liz and he shows up dead.
And that's another thing. Who's going around anytime someone comes
looking for Liz, like they're stopped?

Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
So yeah, but all these things are not coincidence and
not at all. Did Liz stop and think.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
What?

Speaker 1 (34:42):
Instead? She just throws poor Brandon under the bus. He left,
throw him under the bus. He must have killed him?

Speaker 2 (34:51):
No, well, I mean it was kind of and he
was a good scapegoat. I mean he became the sole
beneficiary if her brother, if her husband was gone. So emmy,
it was easy. It was a nice little red herring.
But yeah, yeah, I didn't I didn't care for the mob.
They should have just stuck to the copper people or Neil.

(35:12):
I mean it was a bad investment. You owe me
freaking money.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know. You know, honestly, I kept
waiting for Brandon to jump up and to hear the
stuff going on in the kitchen between Liz and Susan.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
Girl. That copper went to his head. He was not
getting up, was.

Speaker 1 (35:37):
Knock getting up. I'm like, get up, man, get up.
He did knock get up. I'm like, oh, well, I was. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
I was like, ooh, it was a copper piece. Mm copper.
Copper people were the ones they were investing with whatever.
I was like, okay, I'm done with y'all, with all
of these literary elements or whatever the heck she was
shying to do.

Speaker 1 (36:03):
I'm like, I'm on, look a little PSA to the
men in the world and the women too. If someone
is screaming at you to let them go, you let
them go before they pop you upside your head with
something they find laying by them. If they say let
go of me, you let go immediately.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
Yeah, Like no means no, Like no means let.

Speaker 1 (36:28):
Go, yes immediately, because you might end up dead because
she thought she she thought he was gonna kill her,
so she was reacting like she was gonna have to
fight for her life and she didn't, but that's how
she reacted because he just would not release her. She
was freaking out.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
Yeah, And I mean it was mentioned several times within
the book how big this guy was compared to her,
So I mean it was a possibility.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
Yeah, we didn't know at that point if he had
involvement because I think, you know, like I mentioned earlier,
I think I had pretty much figured out that it
was Isabelle that was alive early, right, I knew she was.
I kind of had a feeling, but I didn't know
that she was actually Susan. And I couldn't figure out

(37:20):
if Bryden was involved or not. Like it was like
he could be but not because I'm like, is he
with Isabelle and he is a setup and he just can't.

Speaker 2 (37:30):
I know, Because they did have a relationship, I thought that, yeah, hey,
they could be like, oh this bitch, she thinks she's slick,
we'll get.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
Rid of her real and that would make sense for
her to have the stuff shifted to the brother. Shifted
to the brother, and then you know, we can do
our thing and take these fools out together.

Speaker 2 (37:52):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
So I'm like, well that would amaze Shinse.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
Yeah. Yeah, because usually, like they said, if a wife
dies or if a husband dies, usually the you know,
vice versa. The wife is killed, the husband is usually suspect,
and if the husband is killed, the wife is usually
a suspect. But but you know, with Brayton being you
know in the US, when the brother was killed. Yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
Susan aka Isabelle was thinking about this for a while
and when she figured out what she was gonna do,
she like shifted money. She had transferred money, a lot
of money to a company that was owned by Liz.
So I'm like, is she gonna take Liz's identity? I'm like,
she gonna take her identity, kill her or take hers.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
The ultimate Oh my god, yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
The irony that you go take my identity, I'll take yours.
I'll kill you.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
The peace out and now I'm you Yeah yeah, And
we never did know you all with this the way
this book ended, we don't know who was killed.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
Well, I feel like Susan was killed because you know
how Liz was saying she couldn't let things go you know,
she wants all the things, and she talked about leaving
that ring behind. So from that point of view, and
only that because we know how greedy she is, I
think that Liz was the one that surved.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
I did too best, like the way it was kind
of like that that dual kind of like you know,
just that that tussle, like we're not sure because you know,
the mirror broke and some other things broke. And I
was like, but I felt like Susan was the one
who who who died? Right? Wait, you said Liz died

(39:48):
d right. I felt like that too, But I was like,
she can you know, she could kind of leave it
up to others to make that choice. But you know,
after because I rewound that those last couple of minutes too,
just to kind of listen to see what is she
really saying in this end, because Liz really had, I believe,

(40:15):
had more to live for and survived that survival spirit
than Susan. Did you know that tenacity? Granted, you know,
Susan mentally was a little unstable, but Liz had that
tenacity to be like, I just want to fuck out of.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
Here, that's all she was thinking.

Speaker 2 (40:42):
Yeah, And then once she found out, I think too,
finding out that you're the money was transferred over to
your name, like I can get the fuck Scott free
and stopped Connie and stop this. Yeah, that's I felt
like that too, Like she was like, I found a
way out.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
Yeah, because she felt like an extreme urgency to get out.
But then she stopped again her greed, you know, her
sticky finger. She's like, but I want all the things.
I want this, I want all of it. And she's
I'm like, girl, you are about to get yourself murdered
because you don't know how to run when it's time
to run.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
You don't know when to know when to fold them.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
Right, my girl, you greedy, You gre gonna get you killed.

Speaker 2 (41:24):
Yeah, and you just killed somebody. And that was something
else too. I think they said like and I think
that was something else that was mentioned that when I
think they said something about like once you killed or something,
and I was like, wait a minute, Liz Diden killed
Anny and I was like, oh, but she did.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
She killed Brayton, she did kill him.

Speaker 2 (41:45):
Yeah, Okay.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
She thought she was so in love with this guy.
After a couple of days, I'm like, he must have
had it, you know, what like golden, golden.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
That sucker was gold tipped.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
Yeah, because like I love you, I'm like, what the
hell coming out your mouth right now?

Speaker 2 (42:05):
Some major daddy issues because.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
They ain't no way, no, you just met him.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
I mean Susan said he had magic fingers, but there
are magic hands, but that's no way I'm in love
with you because magic hands.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
No, And he says he loves her, but she had
to like almost remind herself that I'm not Isabelle. You
don't love me.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
Then he's like, but I know who you are.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
Now. I do think that he could tell that probably
after he slept with her, he knew something was off
because we know that he actually was with Susan a
couple of times before she married her husband.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
Yeah, but that was twenty that was decades ago.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
It was a long time ago. But there must have
been something that gave him the clue because he went investigating. Yeah, yeah,
so something gave her away and we don't know what
exactly that was, what the trigger was that made him
go looking, but he did look for answers, and that's
why wouldn't you know that confrontation happened between them. He's like,

(43:17):
you know I know who you are. But I guess
he should have said, I know you're not Isabelle. That's
what he should have said, because then he called her
Isabelle several times after because he didn't did he didn't
know what her name was yet, he didn't know, right.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
Right, Yeah, because I felt like that too, and I
was like, oh, yeah, but he knew she had a passport,
and I was like, who moved a passport? Moved a little?

Speaker 1 (43:40):
I think Susan moved the passport because she went looking
for it because she creeps around at night in that
house and she was gonna be her, so she went
looking for it. Okay, that's what I think. Okay, yeah, yeah,
I'm like, well, but instead, you know, Liz burned the
place sitting.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
Good way to go.

Speaker 1 (44:04):
That's the best way to cover up. Burn the place
to the ground. They'll find two bodies. They'll find her
ring on probably on that body, and assume it's Isabelle
slash Susan.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
End of story.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
Yeah, I don't know. It was so, you know, talking
about it, it was fun, right, it was fun talking
about the things that were going on, But during the
process of reading it, it was not. It was not
so that's an odd combination of things. It was not

(44:42):
fun when I was reading it, but it's kind of
funny talking about some of the stuff after.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
The yeah yeah, yeah, because the more you know, like
like you said, talking about it. And then when we
do these these book reviews, we also do it in
a way like would I reckon I made this? You
know those are and that was something I was telling
you about, like with this story when I was done
with it, because I think I had even text you

(45:09):
and I was like, oh, like this, I don't like the
way she made me feel, you know, with this story,
I just didn't like it, and I kind of sept
with it and I was like, like you said, I
see what you're doing. I see what you're selling. I'm
not really buying it, but I can see what you're selling, right,
And when we do these podcasts, it's, you know, we're like,

(45:33):
do we recommend? How did we like it?

Speaker 1 (45:35):
And I wouldn't me neither. I wouldn't either, And not
only that, I really think I don't know if Kristen
didn't have anything on her plate so she said hey,
I'm free to narrate, or if they were being cheap,
I don't know. What was going on, but she needed
someone else to read her book. Yeah, just because you're

(45:56):
an actor does not mean you're a good audio book narrator.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
Nope, nope. So she needed something, and I think she
did the damn cover because it looks like her.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
It does, doesn't it.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
Yeah. I was like, okay, I mean even the description
of Isabelle and Liz is like her, you know, the
pale skin and the dark hair. But yeah, I agree,
they should have did another narrator who could really change
their voice, right, But no, I wouldn't. I wouldn't recommend this.

(46:31):
It was fun to talk about, you know, the odd
things that happened, but it was not an enjoyable read.
It was confusing as hell. There's no way that I
have to rewind so many times to understand.

Speaker 1 (46:44):
The story, honestly from just the audiobook perspective. So it
took something that was eight hours and forty one minutes
to something that was probably well over nine hours by
the time I kept rewinding things. I did that at
a couple different places, and then like I literally, you know,
I usually play games on my tablet, or I do

(47:05):
some kind of activity, or you know, I'm doing stuff
to keep my mind, like, keep me from falling asleep.
She will say that. But I'm sitting on my bed
playing a little game on my tablet, listening to this audiobook.
I fall asleep the tablet.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
I just say, good, you better to be because I
fell asleep.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
The tablet was like on a stand, so that didn't drop,
but the stylist in my hand was on the floor.

Speaker 2 (47:32):
Or I had these headphones on and was listed.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
I was like, ah, I woke up. The game is stuck.
See like, shoot, how much do I have to go
back and see?

Speaker 2 (47:46):
The only thing helps to me is like, I know
there's certain points when I'm listening to audiobooks, and this
is just a little tip for you. Audiobook I bookmark.
I usually hit a bookmark, so I know, like if
I do fall asleep or something happens, I can at
least go to that bookmark and be like, Okay, So
I was around here and I could kind of fast forward,

(48:07):
but yeah, I was asleep several times.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
Oh my god. Well, you know, I was really glad
that I found this one on Spotify because I have
Spotify Premium, so I had some hours to burn up,
so I'm like, I didn't have to buy this, Thank goodness,
because I would have been really disappointed there.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
I got it on my ever rand, did you well,
we have to talk about that another time.

Speaker 1 (48:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:32):
Yeah, but I did get it on ever Ran, so.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
Okay, I didn't even look there. I was like, I
need to burn up these hours on Spotify.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
So yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 (48:41):
So what else should we go ahead and recommend?

Speaker 2 (48:45):
Yeah, let's rate it.

Speaker 1 (48:47):
Okay, I'll let you go first. You can go too.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
Oh okay, wow, yeah, I know I was thinking at three.

Speaker 1 (48:57):
But okay, I'm a little kinder, I'm a little softer
on this one. I did put three, and I did.
I put it on my little apps and I'm like,
I don't know. If I could do two and a half,
I would, but we don't do halves. So I was like,
I'm gonna just be generous. And it falls into that

(49:17):
kind of black hole of threes. You know, the threes
over here on shelf addiction means it was quote unquote fine. Right,
it wasn't spectacular, it wasn't the worst thing I ever read.
It's fine, It's not recommendation worthy. I don't recommend threes,
but right, right, So yeah, it went into the black

(49:37):
hole of threes, so many threes.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
I could have did a two point five and movement.

Speaker 1 (49:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
Yeah, the more I talked about.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
Like now, and I know you said you liked the
other book you've read by her, but I kind of
feel like, maybe she's not for me. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
No. Yeah, And it was her debut, and you know
a lot of times when you get a debut author
and not always you know, it's just like their first
time is something you're like, oh my god, look this
is good and blah blah blah. I was excited, and
you know, I won't say I was excited, but I
thought it was a pretty decent book. I think I
may have getten it.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
Well, you know what the industry says, everyone has one book,
one book mm hm.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
And I had, you know, kind of looked at a
few reviews about this and they were like, oh, I
thought her sophomore slump. She was gonna have a sophomore slump.
And you know, in the acknowledgements we find out she
has a co writer.

Speaker 1 (50:31):
Yeah, she did not herself.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
Mm hm. So you wonder and not to say you
know that the co writer is why it's bad, but
maybe that's why it's not a sophomore slump, but there
were some you know, a lot of imagery and just
you know, like she's set up. She set up you know,
this beautiful island against all this drama in a suspense

(51:00):
and I was like, I don't think I remember that
being done in Bonfire. But you know, who's this say?
She could have evolved as an author, but sounds like.

Speaker 1 (51:09):
Sop Bonfire came out in twenty seventeen, so it's been
quite a while. It's took quite a long time to
get this book done. And of course, you know, she's
an actor, so she's also doing you know, Defenders stuff
or whatever the name of that group is that she
did those Netflix shows or you know whatever. But I

(51:33):
I don't think I want to read more from her,
especially knowing that she had a person. If you guys
feel like looking up Lindsey Jamison, you will find on
her website that she does sell services as a collaborator
and a ghostwriter. So that's like her business. Yeah, and

(51:54):
I guess it does have on the bottom of this
cover art now see I didn't see it, but it
might beyond there. It might have her name and little
print at the bottom, like it might say with Lindsey
Jamison on the bottom. I'm seeing it on the audible
cover work, yep, yep. And yeah, so I didn't notice

(52:14):
that before.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
Yeah I didn't either, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
But it's there. She's got like four point font at
the bottom. M h uh.

Speaker 2 (52:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:25):
And again, the book's so short, I'm like that she
couldn't get this done on her own. So that just
kind of backed up. I don't know if she's for me.
I think I'm going to stop there with her.

Speaker 2 (52:34):
Yeah, and that may I know that contributed to my
two star too, that here you have this book that's
under three hundred pages and you still there was so
many things I felt that was missing in the story,
some things that just you know, a lot, I don't
say a lot, a few little plot holes, a few

(52:57):
little like Kwinkie dinks, you know, like there was certain
like like Chilly. I felt like that was some damn
Scooby Doo shit a few times, you know, and I.

Speaker 1 (53:09):
Was like m mm hmmm. So eh. Yeah, So that's
that on that front. So I'm curious to see what
the book club thought. I know one person flew through
this book very quickly, and they posted on Discord that
they were done with it already. Oh okay, So I'm like, okay,

(53:30):
so I'm curious to see if she likes it or not.
You know, she really didn't indicate if she did or didn't.
She just said she finished it done. Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
because I don't know, I feel like we are doing
a win. I feel like we haven't had that many wins.
We've had some successes, some that were pretty good, but
last months, uh, the God of the Woods wasn't really

(53:52):
a hit. This one wasn't really a hit. I'm holding
out hope that Alex Finlay can do it for us
next month. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:01):
I mean, we've been trying to diversify our picks. You know,
we pick you know, like Kristin Ritter. I've read her
stuff before, but we've never read Kristin. We did read
you know, Liz before. But yeah, we've been trying to
been trying to get some new authors in there.

Speaker 1 (54:20):
Yeah. So up next for the month of June. I
can't believe it's going to be June. That's so crazy.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
So up next we're gonna do Parents Weekend by Alex Finlay,
and that just came out May sixth, so it's a
new release and we'll see what that holds for us.
We've read I've read a couple of things by him.
We've read The Night Shift, at least I did. I
don't know if you did. Did you read the Night Shift?

Speaker 2 (54:52):
I did?

Speaker 1 (54:52):
Okay, Yeah, we've read If Something Happens to Me by him.
Maybe I just did that. Yeah, I think it was
last year. I think so both of those I gave
four stars. So I feel like it's a possibility that
Parents Weekend will do something positive.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
Yeah, yeah, I do remember. Yeah, I've read those two
as one. Yeah, so yeah, I think I gave the
first one I should maybe a three, and the other
one was a four. But yeah, I do write Alex.

Speaker 1 (55:22):
So yeah, so yay, Parents Weekend, cross our fingers, please
give us give us a win. We earned it, we due.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
Way through the year.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
Yeah. And also, so if you guys, we're I'm gonna
do a quick li announcement. We are. We're gonna do
a Patreon choice soon. We have a slot at the
end of the year we haven't filled. And if you
are on Patreon, this is your chance. If you're a
Patreon paid member, you can pick a thriller and then

(55:57):
we'll vote on it. Yay, So you will be the
ones making the submissions this time. Last time we did
a book club choice, and I think we'll do another
book club choice next maybe first quarter next year, second
quarter of next year where they can submit. But right
now I want the Patreon and family to have a chance.
And actually, if you are on Spreaker, if you're a

(56:18):
spreaker supporter as well, I'll have a little submission form
for you too, so you can participate, and then we'll
have the book club vote on it. I guess maybe
we'll do that so we'll have more people voting.

Speaker 2 (56:30):
Sounds interesting.

Speaker 1 (56:31):
Yeah, I'm like, we have one more space we haven't
filled yet. Want to give one to the people that
support us. So all right, I think we're done. What
do you think ye for me? Okay, So this has
been a great conversation. If you have read this book,
or if you plan to, or if you no longer
plan to because bus, please feel free to hit us
up on socials, make a comment on Spotify or YouTube

(56:53):
or wherever you're listening. We'd love to hear from you
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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Unpacking Krysten Ritter's 'Retreat': What Works and What Doesn't | #BuddyReads Book Chat