The Alpine Retreat by Sarah Goodwin

Relax. Recharge. Run for your life.

High in the secluded Swiss Alps, Élan Peak Wellness Retreat promises luxury, rejuvenation, and exclusivity — an influencer’s paradise. A select group of celebrities, corporate bosses and social media stars arrive, eager to detox, meditate, and document their curated journey to enlightenment.

But when they arrive and have their technology confiscated, they're horrified. To make matters worse, an avalanche traps them in the remote lodge overnight. When they awake in the morning, one of their own has vanished, and the idyllic retreat turns into a nightmare. With the dangers of mother nature to contend with, wolves waiting outside and the only ski lift down the mountain broken, tensions are high. As paranoia sets in and dark secrets unravel, they realize the retreat isn’t what it seems.

Someone is watching. Someone is hunting. And not everyone will make it out alive.

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Luxury wellness. Snowy peaks. Wolves. Things get… complicated.

Pre-Reading Thoughts:
I expected a tense, closed-room mystery, but I wasn’t prepared for just how darkly twisted it would get - or how often I’d chuckle at the narrator’s sharp, wry observations. Influencers losing their minds in a tech-free alpine retreat? Absolute gold.

Post-Reading:
As I thought...
The pacing is perfect. Just enough people to keep suspects distinct, but few enough that paranoia can fester. The isolation, avalanche, and predatory wolves outside are expertly layered with tension, keeping the suspense taut from first snowflake to last.

It surprised me by...
Going darker than I anticipated - yes, there’s murder, and yes, at least one person meets a very wolfy end - but the narrator’s wit keeps the story from collapsing under its own dread. You can feel both the terror and the absurdity of privileged people suddenly confronted with real danger.

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🎧 MUSIC PAIRING
🎵 “Bury a Friend” – Billie Eilish
🎶 Horror Soundtrack Essentials – eerie tension, heartbeat percussion
🎧 Radiohead - strange, tense, and a little funny in the right moments

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🌌 VIBE CHECK
🎨 Colour Palette: snow-white, slate gray, and muted evergreen.
🎬 Soundtrack: wind whipping through the pines, distant howls, muted panicked footsteps.
🍂 Season: winter - frozen, sharp, and unforgiving.
😶‍🌫️ Mood: tense, darkly comic, slightly surreal.
🌾 Scent: pine, cold metal, and hot cocoa spilt in panic.

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🃏 TAROT PULL – 8 of Swords (Mindscapes Tarot)
Eight snowy mountain peaks, cold and imposing, perfectly echoing the retreat guests’ isolation. Trapped, tense, unsure which way is safe - and yet, amid the peaks, the absurdity of their privileged panic is somehow visible. Like the story itself, danger and dark humour coexist on every slope.

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For fans of:
📚 The Hunting Party – Lucy Foley
🎬 The Lodge / Knives Out

Disclaimer:
The Alpine Retreat publishes on the 15th of January, 2026. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.