A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall Genres: Adult, Mystery/Thriller
Published by Flatiron Books on February 4, 2025
Format: Audio/Physical (320 pages) • Source: Book of the Month, Spotify Audiobooks
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A woman invited to her wealthy fiance’s family retreat realizes they are hiding a terrible secret—and that she’s been there before, by the bestselling author of What Lies in the Woods.
A whirlwind romance.
When Theodora Scott met Connor—wealthy, charming, and a member of the powerful Dalton family—she fell in love in an instant. Six months later, he’s brought her to Idlewood, his family’s isolated winter retreat, to win over his skeptical relatives.Stay away from Connor Dalton.
Theo has tried to ignore the threatening messages on her phone, but she can’t ignore the footprints in the snow outside the cabin window or the strange sense of familiarity she has about this place. Then, in a disused cabin, Theo finds something impossible: a photo of herself as a child. A photo taken at Idlewood.I’ve been here before.
Theo has almost no recollection of her earliest years, but now she begins to piece together the fragments of her memories. Someone here has a shocking secret that they will do anything to keep hidden, and Theo is in terrible danger. Because the Daltons do not lose, and discovering what happened at Idlewood may cost Theo everything.
I’ve been saying for years that I need to read a Kate Alice Marshall book and I’m glad I finally did! Apparently it just took me getting it in my BOTM. (By the way, I am getting much better at reading those…)
The book follows Theo as she heads to her new fiance’s remote cabin in the woods to meet his family for the first time in their whirlwind romance. The mysterious, uber-wealthy family has spent years of summers and Christmases at their compound with cabins up in Vermont. When she finds a photo of herself in the abandoned cabin, memories of her childhood slowly come back. Is it possible she’s somehow been there before?
I really loved this one and read the majority of it in a day. I found myself continually turning the pages to see what happened next. I was suspicious of the entire family at different points in the book and it really wasn’t what I expected to be honest. I think the majority of things I could discuss would be spoilery so I’ll just say that the atmosphere of this book was really well-done and perfect to read on a snowy weekend like I did!
Some things were a little convenient (fate? IYKYK) and didn’t seem realistic at all. There were a couple of explanations for those things but do think the reader needs to suspend their disbelief to really buy into it. I ended up really liking the end of the book and the resolution to everything – I thought it was a “nice” ending despite all of the circumstances lol. Overall I thought the reveals and twists were really good! This is the perfect book to read while it’s still winter – a creepy, cold, snowy, locked room mystery.
The Five Year Lie by Sarina Bowen Genres: Adult, Mystery/Thriller
Published by HarperCollins on May 7, 2024
Format: Audio/eBook (432 pages) • Source: Kindle Unlimited, Spotify Audiobooks
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“I devoured this book in one day, and I guarantee you will too.”—Julie Clark, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Flight and The Lies I Tell
“An expertly woven story of love, revenge, and murder. In a world where so many books feel so similar—this was a refreshingly unique read and an addictive blend of love and mystery that I couldn’t put down. This is storytelling at its finest and I can’t recommend this book enough.”—AR Torre, New York Times bestselling author of Every Last Secret
Bestselling romance author Sarina Bowen’s debut thriller, about one woman’s search for the truth after receiving a text from her deceased ex.
She thought it was love. Then he vanished.
On an ordinary Monday morning, Ariel Cafferty's phone buzzes with a disturbing text message. Something’s happened. I need to see you. Meet me under the candelabra tree ASAP. The words would be jarring from anyone, but the sender is the only man she ever loved. And it's been several years since she learned he died.
Seeing Drew’s name pop up is heart-stopping. Ariel’s gut says it can’t be real. But she goes to the tree anyway. She has to.
Nobody shows. But the text upends everything she thought she knew about the day he left her. The more questions she asks, the more sinister the answers get. Only two things are clear: everything she was told five years ago is wrong, and someone is still lying to her.
The truth has to be out there somewhere. To safeguard herself—and her son—she’ll have to find it before it finds her. And with it, the answer to what became of Drew.
For fans of Laura Dave and Julie Clark, but with a heart-stopping romance that only Sarina Bowen can execute, The Five Year Lie is a page-turning, spine-tingling thriller that will have you guessing until the very end.
Okay this is a tricky one! This book has been on my radar for a while so I was really happy when my mystery/thriller book club selected it for February! Sometimes I just need a little push to read certain books apparently.
The book follows Ariel as she tries to unravel the mystery of her boyfriend leaving her five years ago… only to later find an obituary for him online. He doesn’t even know that they have a son, Buzz. One morning she receives a text from Drew asking to meet (which is explained kind of early but I won’t spoil it just in case), leading to her “reopening” a little investigation into his disappearance. The two of them worked together at her father’s company, Chime Co. (think Ring Doorbells) until he left and this company is heavily “involved” in the book/her investigation.
THE FIVE YEAR LIE was definitely interesting enough to keep me reading but there were so many little things I didn’t like. The book is set in Portland, ME, where I lived for a year, so she dropped a ton of Portland landmarks…but it mostly felt like a tourist picking the highlights and not what actual locals would do? (Ex: she and Drew “loved to hang out at the Holy Donut” on the weekends… this is pretty much a place just for tourists to grab famous donuts and there are like two tables there. Absolutely no one, even tourists, “hang out” at the Holy Donut lol) She’d get super specific with restaurant names sometimes and it was a little off-putting, especially when later she’d say “my favorite deli” or “the Thai place”. Either be specific to the setting or not! lol. I did love going on Google Maps to look up the street names and confirm where the book was taking place within the city, especially because quite a few landmarks and plot points happened walking distance from where we lived. The setting was kind of a double-edged sword for me as a result.
I thought the whodunnit aspect was really obvious from the beginning and it was kinda frustrating being ahead of the main character. Girlie please keep up! I did like how the book heavily involved her other coworker, surveillance stuff, and the company her dad and uncle founded. It was definitely more of a suspense novel instead of a thriller but I had fun with the overall premise and how the investigation unfolded.
There was a stretch where she was traveling and dealing with entertaining a five year old and it felt like it went on for ages for no reason. Super long for no reason and repetitive in too many places. In general, I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style. There was one section early in the book where she used the phrase “I felt like such a heel” TWICE in like two chapters. It’s such a specific sentence that really should have been edited out. She also said something like “But I never talk about [name]” multiple times in the same few paragraphs. It was just a little off-putting especially since this was traditionally published and should have been edited better. Along the same lines, there was absolutely no reason for this to be over 400 pages. Some descriptions and repetitive scenes/conversations could have been edited way down or removed: Zain finds something else, he goes over to tell Ariel, they discuss it, they decide what to look at next, and repeat. Over and over for 70% of the story.
In the end, this was completely forgettable, but a good enough ride while it was happening.
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