diff --git a/src/amplitude_experiment/client.py b/src/amplitude_experiment/client.py
index 93b0235..db4d322 100644
--- a/src/amplitude_experiment/client.py
+++ b/src/amplitude_experiment/client.py
@@ -110,18 +110,20 @@ def __do_fetch(self, user):
             self.logger.warning(f"[Experiment] encoded user object length ${len(body)} "
                                 f"cannot be cached by CDN; must be < 8KB")
         self.logger.debug(f"[Experiment] Fetch variants for user: {str(user_context)}")
-        response = conn.request('POST', '/sdk/vardata', body, headers)
-        self._connection_pool.release(conn)
-        elapsed = '%.3f' % ((time.time() - start) * 1000)
-        self.logger.debug(f"[Experiment] Fetch complete in {elapsed} ms")
-        json_response = json.loads(response.read().decode("utf8"))
-        variants = self.__parse_json_variants(json_response)
-        self.logger.debug(f"[Experiment] Fetched variants: {json.dumps(variants, default=str)}")
-        return variants
+        try:
+            response = conn.request('POST', '/sdk/vardata', body, headers)
+            elapsed = '%.3f' % ((time.time() - start) * 1000)
+            self.logger.debug(f"[Experiment] Fetch complete in {elapsed} ms")
+            json_response = json.loads(response.read().decode("utf8"))
+            variants = self.__parse_json_variants(json_response)
+            self.logger.debug(f"[Experiment] Fetched variants: {json.dumps(variants, default=str)}")
+            return variants
+        finally:
+            self._connection_pool.release(conn)
 
     def __setup_connection_pool(self):
         scheme, _, host = self.config.server_url.split('/', 3)
-        timeout = int(self.config.fetch_timeout_millis / 1000)
+        timeout = self.config.fetch_timeout_millis / 1000
         self._connection_pool = HTTPConnectionPool(host, max_size=1, idle_timeout=30,
                                                    read_timeout=timeout, scheme=scheme)
 
diff --git a/src/amplitude_experiment/connection_pool.py b/src/amplitude_experiment/connection_pool.py
index 4ddb72c..753fd8b 100644
--- a/src/amplitude_experiment/connection_pool.py
+++ b/src/amplitude_experiment/connection_pool.py
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ def close(self) -> None:
 class HTTPConnectionPool:
 
     def __init__(self, host: str, port: int = None, max_size: int = None, idle_timeout: int = None,
-                 read_timeout: int = None, scheme: str = 'https') -> None:
+                 read_timeout: float = None, scheme: str = 'https') -> None:
         """
         A simple connection pool to reuse the http connections
         :param host: pass
diff --git a/tests/client_test.py b/tests/client_test.py
index 72af54f..b07efd8 100644
--- a/tests/client_test.py
+++ b/tests/client_test.py
@@ -35,6 +35,12 @@ def test_fetch_async(self):
         user = User(user_id='test_user')
         self.client.fetch_async(user, self.callback_for_async)
 
+    def test_fetch_failed_with_retry(self):
+        with Client(API_KEY, Config(debug=False, fetch_retries=1, fetch_timeout_millis=1)) as client:
+            user = User(user_id='test_user')
+            variants = client.fetch(user)
+            self.assertEqual({}, variants)
+
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()