For her birthday, Hannah’s brother, Mako, has rented a beautiful, isolated vacation home where he and his wife, Liza, plan to host Hannah and her husband, Bruce, along with friends Cricket and Josh. When a vicious storm blows in, the three couples find themselves stuck as tensions begin to rise and past relationships, including a former fling between Cricket and Mako, begin to make things uncomfortable. Add to this an ever-watchful rental host on the property and a murderer lying in wait, and you have the setup for Lisa Unger’s Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six.

The guests have secrets that they are keeping from each other, making the weekend stay—and the story—even more intense as resentments build. Through alternating chapters featuring different characters’ points of view, the reader learns more about what each person is hiding, and how they truly feel about one another.

While on the surface this novel is an exciting thriller, it delves far more deeply into the complicated relationships between people related by blood and familial bonds, and the choices that we make to protect those whom we love. One’s loyalty to family—both the family one comes from and the family one chooses—is a major theme throughout the story, as is the concept of nature vs. nurture. And as is the case with most family dynamics, the answers don’t come easy. Whether or not the family at the center of this story will remain intact—or even alive—will keep the reader on edge until this nerve-wracking reunion ends.