Scan barcode
booksbymonth's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
4.5
Dark and demented. A great thriller that leaves you guessing til the end. I did enjoy the constant time jumps between the present and 10 years prior.
libraryforspooky's review against another edition
3.0
A lot of details for skiing, a good fast paced thriller. I enjoyed it enough.
paulabrandon's review against another edition
1.0
Wow. If I wasn't going to give this 1 star to begin with, that twist ending would have sealed the deal.
I can't believe anybody would give this four or five stars.
I can't believe the author would pull out that ridiculous ending without taking even two minutes to do some rudimentary internet research.
I can't believe that an editor read that twist ending, and didn't send it back, saying, "That is not physically possible."
I am just gobsmacked.
That twist ending was an insult to my intelligence.
That ending alone is worth 1 star, but so is most of the rest of this terrible book.
The plot involves former snowboarder Milla Anderson returning to the French Alps for a ten year reunion with fellow snowboarders Curtis, Brent, Dale and Heather. None of them have spoken to each other in that time, still haunted by the disappearance of Saskia, Curtis' sister, and their possible links to that disappearance. They all had reasons to hate her.
First of all, it makes absolutely no sense that any of these people would attend this reunion considering what went on between them all and the fact they barely like each other, and none of them have spoken to each other. Except maybe Milla, because she's always been madly in love with Curtis.
Secondly, because they all have motives to harm Saskia, we get the standard "then" and "now" chapter set-up as we witness all the ways Saskia was horrid to them back in the day. Heavens above, I am sick of this approach! We get it in EVERY SINGLE THRILLER THAT COMES OUT NOW. Enough already! Try something new!
Once the five friends are in the chalet in the French Alps, and cut off from any assistance, their phones go missing. An "icebreaker" game that has been left for them teases that one of their group knows the truth about what happened to Saskia. Other mysterious incidents occur. Is Saskia back after all this time for revenge? Is it really one of them? Or someone else entirely?
The author pushes hard for either one of the five being the culprit, or Saskia herself. Most of the book is made up of Milla internally musing which of her "friends" could be responsible and why. It got old pretty quickly. Particularly because Milla frequently thinks, "I can't trust what anybody tells me," and yet she keeps on asking questions of her "friends" over and over and over again.
Why do this if you've already acknowledged you can't believe any of the answers?
There is far too much chit-chat about snowboarding and the various moves involved. I got so bored. Every other chapter, I would groan and say, "Ooh, look, more stuff about snowboarding that I don't understand and don't really care about."
The characters are all uniformly awful. Milla is pretty much as bad as the horrid Saskia, and the "then" chapters is an endless tit-for-tat contest that drove me nuts and basically made me hate them both. Curtis, who Milla is hot for and obsesses over the whole damn book, is a violent hothead and not charming at all. These people spent all the "then" chapters sleeping with each other, betraying each other and hating each other.
So, AGAIN, why the fuck would they come to this reunion? (Only one character has a believable reason.)
Oh yeah. And the stuff with Milla being obsessed with Curtis, but having a casual relationship with Brent? So YA. The characters are in their early 20s in the "then" chapters and in their early 30s in the "now" chapters, but I swear they all acted like they were still 16. Milla just can't stop obsessing about how hot for Curtis she is.
Did I mention that in the "then" chapters, Odette fractures her C2 vertebrae and is left paralysed from the neck down?
Yet she apparently recovers enough from this to become an Olympic hopeful and also carry out this revenge scheme.
What. The. Fuck.
If you fracture your C2 vertebrae, you're lucky if you can breathe unassisted. There's no way you would be up and walking and COMPETING IN COMPETITIVE SPORT AND CARRYING OUT COMPLEX REVENGE PLANS.
We then have that tropetastic element of Milla believing she's responsible for Saskia's death and bangs on about it without saying what it was until the end. Of course. As it turns out, she told Saskia she hoped she broke her neck, and also put sleeping pills in her coffee. Except, you know, Brent pushed her over and she hit her head, Heather tried to smother her, and Curtis threw her into the crevass. So, Saskia's responsibility is fourth tier, at least.
Heavens above, this book made me mad!
There's other gripes I probably missed, but I'm a bit worn out. This was alternately boring, stupid and completely f***ing ridiculous.
This was optioned for TV in 2019, two years before it was even released. How is that possible? I imagine they've probably read the thing by now and thought, "Whoops. What do we do this pile of crap?"
I can't believe anybody would give this four or five stars.
I can't believe the author would pull out that ridiculous ending without taking even two minutes to do some rudimentary internet research.
I can't believe that an editor read that twist ending, and didn't send it back, saying, "That is not physically possible."
I am just gobsmacked.
That twist ending was an insult to my intelligence.
That ending alone is worth 1 star, but so is most of the rest of this terrible book.
The plot involves former snowboarder Milla Anderson returning to the French Alps for a ten year reunion with fellow snowboarders Curtis, Brent, Dale and Heather. None of them have spoken to each other in that time, still haunted by the disappearance of Saskia, Curtis' sister, and their possible links to that disappearance. They all had reasons to hate her.
First of all, it makes absolutely no sense that any of these people would attend this reunion considering what went on between them all and the fact they barely like each other, and none of them have spoken to each other. Except maybe Milla, because she's always been madly in love with Curtis.
Secondly, because they all have motives to harm Saskia, we get the standard "then" and "now" chapter set-up as we witness all the ways Saskia was horrid to them back in the day. Heavens above, I am sick of this approach! We get it in EVERY SINGLE THRILLER THAT COMES OUT NOW. Enough already! Try something new!
Once the five friends are in the chalet in the French Alps, and cut off from any assistance, their phones go missing. An "icebreaker" game that has been left for them teases that one of their group knows the truth about what happened to Saskia. Other mysterious incidents occur. Is Saskia back after all this time for revenge? Is it really one of them? Or someone else entirely?
The author pushes hard for either one of the five being the culprit, or Saskia herself. Most of the book is made up of Milla internally musing which of her "friends" could be responsible and why. It got old pretty quickly. Particularly because Milla frequently thinks, "I can't trust what anybody tells me," and yet she keeps on asking questions of her "friends" over and over and over again.
Why do this if you've already acknowledged you can't believe any of the answers?
There is far too much chit-chat about snowboarding and the various moves involved. I got so bored. Every other chapter, I would groan and say, "Ooh, look, more stuff about snowboarding that I don't understand and don't really care about."
The characters are all uniformly awful. Milla is pretty much as bad as the horrid Saskia, and the "then" chapters is an endless tit-for-tat contest that drove me nuts and basically made me hate them both. Curtis, who Milla is hot for and obsesses over the whole damn book, is a violent hothead and not charming at all. These people spent all the "then" chapters sleeping with each other, betraying each other and hating each other.
So, AGAIN, why the fuck would they come to this reunion? (Only one character has a believable reason.)
Oh yeah. And the stuff with Milla being obsessed with Curtis, but having a casual relationship with Brent? So YA. The characters are in their early 20s in the "then" chapters and in their early 30s in the "now" chapters, but I swear they all acted like they were still 16. Milla just can't stop obsessing about how hot for Curtis she is.
Spoiler
Of course, the plot then descends into evil lesbianism. Saskia is bisexual, Odette is a lesbian. They're revealed to be having a relationship. Milla has a lesbian tryst with Saskia as part of their one-upmanship. Odette turns out to be the one behind everything, because of course, lesbians can't handle any hardships, such as being dumped.Did I mention that in the "then" chapters, Odette fractures her C2 vertebrae and is left paralysed from the neck down?
Yet she apparently recovers enough from this to become an Olympic hopeful and also carry out this revenge scheme.
What. The. Fuck.
If you fracture your C2 vertebrae, you're lucky if you can breathe unassisted. There's no way you would be up and walking and COMPETING IN COMPETITIVE SPORT AND CARRYING OUT COMPLEX REVENGE PLANS.
We then have that tropetastic element of Milla believing she's responsible for Saskia's death and bangs on about it without saying what it was until the end. Of course. As it turns out, she told Saskia she hoped she broke her neck, and also put sleeping pills in her coffee. Except, you know, Brent pushed her over and she hit her head, Heather tried to smother her, and Curtis threw her into the crevass. So, Saskia's responsibility is fourth tier, at least.
Heavens above, this book made me mad!
There's other gripes I probably missed, but I'm a bit worn out. This was alternately boring, stupid and completely f***ing ridiculous.
This was optioned for TV in 2019, two years before it was even released. How is that possible? I imagine they've probably read the thing by now and thought, "Whoops. What do we do this pile of crap?"
bookaholic_jasmine's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ramshajamil's review against another edition
1.0
I wish I had just borrowed this book. What a waste of time and money.
bmhbooks's review against another edition
5.0
I absolutely loved everything about this book. The atmospheric environment which felt like a character itself, the building tension throughout both timelines, the authentic and complex characters, and so many more details that make this story so immersive and captivating.
I am not a fan of sports, so I usually avoid books that feature them as a significant part of the plot, but this book did the impossible. I found the snowboarding so interesting and impressive, and the author’s experience and expertise as a former snowboarder herself made this such an intriguing aspect of the book!
This book is so riveting, and when I wasn’t reading, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I read it a couple months ago, and I still think about it all the time. I’m now counting the days until Allie Reynolds’ next release!
I am not a fan of sports, so I usually avoid books that feature them as a significant part of the plot, but this book did the impossible. I found the snowboarding so interesting and impressive, and the author’s experience and expertise as a former snowboarder herself made this such an intriguing aspect of the book!
This book is so riveting, and when I wasn’t reading, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I read it a couple months ago, and I still think about it all the time. I’m now counting the days until Allie Reynolds’ next release!
samarie04's review
5.0
This book!!!
I don’t know jack about snowboarding, or snow sports in general…but this book is so good! I literally could not put it down. I had no idea who set up the reunion, who was playing mind games, or what happened to Saskia. Getting the flashback scenes was so interesting, and a great break from the present tension. It was a weird feeling to be rooting against the victim, but those flashbacks really made me actively hate Saskia. This book was soooo good!
I don’t know jack about snowboarding, or snow sports in general…but this book is so good! I literally could not put it down. I had no idea who set up the reunion, who was playing mind games, or what happened to Saskia. Getting the flashback scenes was so interesting, and a great break from the present tension. It was a weird feeling to be rooting against the victim, but those flashbacks really made me actively hate Saskia. This book was soooo good!
casuallyreadingx's review
2.0
2.5 stars
Hmmm. This is a #UnpopularOpinion
The overall premise of a locked in thriller with a chilly atmosphere regarding a group of friends sounded exciting and mysterious. But all I was left with was annoyance and odd features.
I think it’s really cool that the author had included actual, detailed things regarding snowboarding. It was a neat aspect! The atmosphere was done well. But even with that I was not interested in the story nor the characters. The characters derive me nuts and I just didnt care for them. It wasn’t gripping or exciting. After reading so many thrillers, this one was just flat.
Hmmm. This is a #UnpopularOpinion
The overall premise of a locked in thriller with a chilly atmosphere regarding a group of friends sounded exciting and mysterious. But all I was left with was annoyance and odd features.
I think it’s really cool that the author had included actual, detailed things regarding snowboarding. It was a neat aspect! The atmosphere was done well. But even with that I was not interested in the story nor the characters. The characters derive me nuts and I just didnt care for them. It wasn’t gripping or exciting. After reading so many thrillers, this one was just flat.
hotgirlsireads's review against another edition
3.0
3.5
i randomly picked this up at my library and it wasn't bad. my only problem was how repeative the book got in both the flashbacks and present plotline. also why was that whole group so gagged over saskia ??? she was horrible to literally all of them.
i randomly picked this up at my library and it wasn't bad. my only problem was how repeative the book got in both the flashbacks and present plotline. also why was that whole group so gagged over saskia ??? she was horrible to literally all of them.