To die, to sleep;
To sleep… perchance to dream

Imagine this

You’re on your way to a secluded resort to unwind because life is rough and we all need some pampering in our lives.

SO, on your way, driving up this crazy mountain and you stop and help this woman who no isn’t a ghost (my first thought of course) but she’s sick and you help her. As you’re helping her a car clips you and YOU go tumbling down the mountainside yourself. Happy vacation to you! What a great start to some peace and relaxation and this is just the very, very beginning my dears…

Natalie Marsh’s trip to the reclusive Ellsberg Keep isn’t what she thought it would be. She thought she would finally get some well needed rest and relaxation but more importantly this is a chance for her to reconnect with her long lost cousin Lily, who works as the Keep’s nurse. Her fall down the cliff does put them together as she spends her first night at the resort in the infirmary and Lily is the overnight nurse but this wasn’t what she was expecting. At all.

Neither was she anticipating the very sudden death of the owner of the Keep, the eccentric and highly delusional Henry Ellsberg. His death was just an accident though.

Or was it?

The Keep is like a fortress, the family royalty and with the King gone the treasure is for the taking. Bodies start to pile up, accusations spill like blood and Natalie finds herself in the center of all of it.

There’s a storm brewing and she’s trapped. So much for relaxation.

I felt a mixture of emotions while reading this.

On one hand I absolutely love bloodshed so I felt absolute glee at that. ANOTHER MURDER STORY ABOUT BEING TRAPPED IN A SNOWY FORTRESS? *THE MURDER ANGELS SING*

I was irritated at the entire Ellsberg family however. To me they just seemed entitled as all hell. I don’t care how much money you have. The sequence of events that occurred at the end especially drove me especially insane. I actually had to roll my eyes because it just seemed so over the top and unreal. I was like this can’t ever possibly happen can it. But…also uber rich people so, maybe.

Apparently this is maybe part of a series which is why I felt kind of disjointed while reading this and why Natalie’s relationship with her boyfriend felt kind of off to me. It reads a lot like a standalone in most aspects but in other ways I felt completely lost. It frustrates me sometimes when books aren’t labeled as being part of a series.

Natalie’s character was pretty well written and I liked her a lot. I wish I could say the same about the rest of the characters but…I can’t LMAO. I don’t think I liked any of the others besides her cousin Lily and her boyfriend Gideon. There was another nurse named Isabel who I absolutely wanted to strangle and Soren? Obnoxious little shit. He could have drowned in the snow.

If you’re looking for something quick, light, and murderous to read this is definitely the book for you.

Thanks very much to the publisher and Netgalley for this copy of my ARC.

Every time I think I know what's going on, I find out I have no clue. Seriously.

I grew up reading Agatha Christie, and thought she has some twisted stories, but Stephanie Black's are even more twisted.

I love these characters, Natalie and Gideon. This is the 3rd book featuring them, and I was really glad to see them together. They've been through a lot, both together and alone, and Natalie is ready for a reprieve, for some quiet time, while she reconnects with her cousin.

Of course, it doesn't happen. This story is a whirlwind from the get-go. Don't expect to start it and then go on as before.
The ending was great! Loved it!

I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.

Imagine going on a vacation to recover from some horrible happenings in your life, only to find yourself stuck in an overpriced retreat where people keep dying. That is Natalie's life in this book.

The author does a great job of keeping the reader guessing about who the bad guy is. Even when Natalie figured it out for real, I wasn't entirely convinced she was right, because it wasn't who I thought it was going to be.

I think Anthony and Finn were probably my favorite characters. The entire Ellsburg family had me shaking my head in disbelief at times. Definitely an interesting bunch of characters. Also, the setting for this story? It was supposed to be this posh (overpriced) getaway up in the mountains. To me, it came across as this spooky, dark and drafty fortress - probably due to all the dying and crazy people, but also due to the cover of the book.

This was one of those books where I'd tell myself I'd read "just to the end of the chapter," and finally have to force myself to put the book down 4 chapters later. Not too creepy to read alone at night, but suspenseful enough that I had to keep reading in order to find out what was going to happen next.

This book is AMAZING with one twist after another! I cannot even imagine going on a vacation like this...oh, but how fun it was to read about! Open these pages and welcome yourself to Ellsberg Keep. I highly recommend this book!

If you're looking for a great suspense/thriller to read on Halloween, a dark and stormy night, or basically anytime this is the perfect book. The cover is eerily fantastic and the story inside is a maze of plot twists and turns.

Psychologist Natalie Marsh has had a difficult year and is overdue for some rest and relaxation, which is why she's going to Ellsberg Keep up in the mountains, which has no cell phone reception or internet. She plans to rest and get to know her cousin Lily who she hasn't seen since they were kids. Natalie doesn't even make it there without literally running into a problem and within 24 hours of her arrival the owner of Ellsburg Keep is dead. (Dun, dun, dun!)

It was very hard for me to put this book down to get other things done, I NEEDED to know who was behind everything. When I thought I had it all figured out, I found out I didn't. This happened several times!! This book is told from multiple character points of view and moves along at a great pace, with never a dull moment for the characters or the reader. Thank goodness Gideon, Natalie's boyfriend, joins her at the Keep because I don't think she would've survived her stay without him.

This is the third book in the Natalie Marsh series, but you don't have to have read the previous books (Not a Word and Mind Games) to understand what's going on, however, I think once you read this one you'll want to read the other two. Move over Agatha Christie there's a new suspense queen in town.

Thanks to NetGalley and Covenant Communications for letting me read this book. All thoughts and opinions expressed in my review are my own.