A great premise, but the tension never quite checked in.
I received an advanced copy of Please Enjoy Your Stay by Tara Goedjen, and I found myself with mixed feelings by the time I finished.
First, I have to mention the title and cover. Please Enjoy Your Stay is such a wonderfully creepy title, and paired with the cover, it immediately gave me thriller vibes. I went in expecting something tense, unsettling, and hard to put down, and the premise absolutely supports that expectation.
When Mia was young, she witnessed her cousin Tristan’s murder. Her testimony helped convict the killer (or so she believed). Years later, the case is reopened when the convicted man claims innocence, forcing Mia to revisit the past she’s tried to leave behind. She returns to the castle where the murder took place to help her aunt Iris, a true crime writer, uncover what really happened that night.
This is a fantastic premise. A childhood eyewitness, a reopened case, and a remote castle setting all feel like the ingredients for a tense, atmospheric thriller. And to its credit, the castle setting was atmospheric. There was a lingering sense of unease and mystery, and I kept thinking how much potential there was for this to build into something truly suspenseful.
Unfortunately, the pacing felt slow, and the tension never quite developed. The story alternates between present-day events and Iris’s notes, along with podcast elements sprinkled throughout. While these additions were interesting, they sometimes disrupted the momentum. I found myself wishing the podcast pieces had been grouped together like newspaper articles, rather than scattered, and that some of the backstory elements, including other crimes connected to the castle, had been more fully explored instead of briefly mentioned. There were several intriguing ideas introduced, but they didn’t feel fully developed.
Mia herself felt reliable, but I struggled to connect with her. I didn’t feel like I really got to know her, and because of that, the emotional stakes never fully landed. Her decision to return to the castle also felt unlikely to me. If I had been in her shoes, I would have stayed far, far away. A stronger motivation for her return might have helped deepen both her character and the tension.
There were elements I enjoyed. Matteo, the gardener, added warmth to the story and was one of the more engaging characters. I also appreciated that I didn’t guess the reveal. However, when the truth came out, my reaction was more “Ah, okay. Makes sense,” rather than a shocking twist. The resolution worked logically, but it lacked the emotional impact I was hoping for.
Overall, this felt more like a quiet mystery than a thriller. The story was there, but it didn’t feel fully developed. It kept me mildly interested, but it never grabbed me in a way that made it hard to put down, and that’s a shame, because the premise, title, and setting all suggested something much more suspenseful.
I think readers who enjoy slower-paced mysteries or cozy-style suspense may appreciate this more than readers looking for high tension or fast-paced thrills.
Content warnings: Murder (including past child murder), grief, discussion of violence.
My final rating is 3 stars. It has an atmospheric setting and strong concept, but the execution didn’t quite deliver the tension I was hoping for.
Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
