BRTD Book Club - December 2025🎄🎁 | "No Exit" by Taylor Adams

Hello and, as always, a warm welcome to all our new BRTD members!👋🏼

Our next meeting will take place on Saturday, December 6th at 5:30PM at Le Parc Cafe inside the Coral Gables Country Club (997 N Greenway Dr, Coral Gables, FL 33134).

***This will be our holiday event as well and will include a White Elephant game and a dessert swap! Participation in the holiday portion is not mandatory, but the more people who participate, the better. Please fully read through the guidelines for participation if you plan to participate. Guidelines are below, after the book synopsis. If you do not wish to participate, you may leave after the book discussion portion of the meeting is done.***

How It Works:
A month(ish) prior to the next meetup, I will create the next event and announce the book we will be reading.📖 These will generally be in the mystery and thriller genre, of course. If anyone has suggestions or a book they've been wanting to read or that they read and loved that they feel would be good for this group, please don't hesitate to let me know!

For those of you who haven't joined us before:
We order drinks/food, I will have some questions for you (love hearing your thoughts!), and the rest is a free-flowing discussion.

This month's read is "No Exit" by Taylor Adams.

Now a Hulu original film: a fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat thriller about a determined young woman who struggles to save a kidnapped child while trapped in a blizzard—and who must unmask and outwit a deviously twisted psychopath before it’s too late.

A kidnapped little girl locked in a stranger’s van. No help for miles. What would you do?

"On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado. With the roads impassable, she’s forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop. Inside are some vending machines, a coffee maker, and four complete strangers.

Desperate to find a signal to call home, Darby goes back out into the storm . . . and makes a horrifying discovery. In the back of the van parked next to her car, a little girl is locked in an animal crate.
Who is the child? Why has she been taken? And how can Darby save her?

There is no cell phone reception, no telephone, and no way out. One of her fellow travelers is a kidnapper. But which one?

Trapped in an increasingly dangerous situation, with a child’s life and her own on the line, Darby must find a way to break the girl out of the van and escape.

But who can she trust?"

White Elephant Gift Exchange Guidelines 🎁 (Participation Optional)
This is a fun, optional gift exchange game! Members can join in if they wish, and the goal is to exchange gifts in a playful way. The gift should be a maximum $20 value and could be book-themed or something fun and unique.
How to Play:
1) Bring a Wrapped Gift: If you’d like to join, bring one wrapped gift (no name tags) valued at no more than $20.
2) Draw Numbers: Each participant draws a number to determine the order of play.
3) Choose a Gift:

• The person with #1 chooses and opens a gift first.
• The person with #2 can either "steal" that gift or pick an unopened one.
• If someone’s gift is stolen, they pick another unopened gift or steal from someone else (except the gift that was just taken).

**Limit on Steals: Each gift can only be “stolen” twice, and after that, it’s “frozen” and can’t be taken again.
4) Continue Around the Circle: Play continues until everyone has a gift. The game wraps up when the last gift is opened.
Dessert Swap Guidelines🍰🍪🍨 (Participation Optional)
Bring a favorite treat to share with the group, and enjoy tasting some festive sweets.
Here’s how it works:
1) Bring Enough to Share: Make sure your dessert has enough servings for everyone to try. This could mean individual pieces, bite-sized treats, or a larger dessert that’s easy to divide.
2) Label Your Ingredients: If your dessert is homemade, please include a list of ingredients. If store-bought, please make sure there is a list of ingredients somewhere on the packaging. This helps those with allergies or dietary preferences make safe choices. For homemade treats, simply write out the ingredients on a small card or sticky note and place it with your dessert.
3) Bring Containers for Leftovers: If you’d like to take home any extra treats from others, feel free to bring a container. (Optional but highly recommended!)

December Event
WHEN: Saturday, December 6th
WHERE: Le Parc Cafe (Coral Gables Country Club)
TIME: 5:30PM

As always, I look forward to seeing you all at our next meeting. I hope you all enjoy the book but if not, at least we'll have a great time discussing it!

Bring your holiday cheer and share your favorite sweet treat with the group!