I really enjoyed this book! It was a captivating read that held my attention from start to finish. The story was well-paced, and the characters felt real and engaging. I’m grateful to the publisher for providing an early copy—it was a pleasure to read!

The formatting was weird but it could be because of the lyrical prose! This thriller was amazing and I really enjoyed the story!

Storholmen is an island in the Stockholm Archipelago in Sweden. It boasts of no cars, no hotels, and only one cafe, open mornings. The island is accessible only by water taxi from locations such as Stockholm.

Emma Lindahl, art expert, was offered a wonderful opportunity to advance her career. She would be sent by prestigious auction house, Von Dardel to appraise the heirlooms of the wealthy Gussman family of Storholmen, for the centenary of their mansion house. The heir to the Gussman fortune, inhospitable Niklas, demanded a strict schedule for Emma’s visits to the manor. The time slots, totaling six hours daily, might be subdivided by Niklas into three hour segments. Emma would need to spend down time at the cafe. The mansion was eerie. Occasional screams permeated the silence. Niklas Gussman, his wife and son, were seldom present when Emma evaluated the artwork and antiques.

A view from “the French formal garden snakes to the shoreline [highlighting] a mound with a crown of evergreen trees”...including the hanging tree. A sixteen year old girl was found with a pair of scissors attached to a leather cord around her neck, her big toes bound together with dark thread. Norse legend suggests that on the 21st of December, the holiday called Yule, was a celebration of the winter solstice. Every nine years, on the 29th of December, sacrifices were performed, followed by a feast. Was the hanging girl such a sacrifice?

Victoria was a live-in housekeeper for the eccentric mansion dwellers. Sometimes “screams came out of nowhere, and I always let them catch me by surprise…. erupt suddenly like claps of thunder…the silverware and tray fall- I must re-polish the cutlery on the tray…”.

Police Inspector Karl Rosen waited for his wife after her night swim. Although she was an excellent swimmer, she did not return and was thought to have perished. Karl was devastated. He was still guilt-ridden over his inability to solve a case from 2012, the death of the hanging girl. Now nine years later, on the eve of the 29th of December 2021, another sixteen year old girl was found, this time frozen in the ice. Might Detective Inspector Rosen redeem himself by solving both crimes? When Emma Lindahl shares her secret with Karl, the art expert and detective team up to solve the mystery surrounding the brutal cases.

Emma, Karl and Viktoria are the principals providing information in this twisty, scary, gothic thriller. The reader will become unsettled as the grim details unfold. An edge of your seat read, “Yule Island” by Johana Gustawsson is the first crime novel in a new series. This chilling, jaw dropping investigation barrels to an unexpected conclusion. This reader was blown away.

Highly recommended.

Thank you Orenda Books and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The formatting on this was really odd but I’m SO glad I decided to push through and read it. I have whiplash from all the twists and turns! I really enjoyed reading it and am so so glad I didn’t just not read it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Johanna Gustafson, and Independent Publishers Group / Orenda books for the opportunity to read this ARC before it's intended release.

Yule Island is a gut-wrenching thriller that is unique in its almpst lyrical prose.

Storholmen, Sweden, an island with an unsolved mystery. A while past, a young women was found deceased, hanging from a tree with scissors afixed around her neck. A symbol deeply steeped in folklore, and a crime never solved

Emma Lindahl is has the opportunity to appraise antiques in the home of the wealthiest family on the island. She is fully aware of the unsolved crime and as sush, when she makes a discovery while working through her appraisals, she decides to investigate

At the same time, Det. Karl Rosen is called to a deceased young woman in the water that has echoes of the past crime that he was unable to solve. Rosen and Lindahl team up to uncover the secrets behind both crimes and open a deep, dark pandora's box of Swedens past

The writing is stunning, captivating and utterly chilling. The prose is brilliant and the storyline meticulously constructed. Truly brilliant.

Thank you to Netgalley, Independent Publishers Group | Orenda Books and the author Johana Gustawsson for this gripping ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

If I was going to judge any book by its cover, this was going to be the one! A thriller with sprayed edges? Yes, please! Well, let's just say this book ended up being beautiful inside and out.

Emma, an art expert, is called to one of the mansions on a Swedish island to appraise some artifacts. But the island has another pull for her, Emma's teenage sister was murdered here almost ten years ago in what looked like a ritualistic killing.

I am so happy I discovered this amazing author! I absolutely loved her poetic writing style, despite this being a thriller. Kudos to the translator of this novel as well for doing such a fantastic job with sharing the elements of Swedish in the translated version which brought out the culture and the atmosphere of the cold snowy island.

Emma carries enormous guilt about her sister's death and it was only natural to me that she was going to try and get to the bottom of her sister's murder mystery. I loved the multiple POVs, but read closely, because that's where the first of several twists come. Speaking of twists, they are few and nicely spread out, but they were definitely a wow! I guessed the wrong killer twice. This was quite a ride!

I enjoyed this Nordic Noir so much! Perfect pace, just the right amount of edge-of-the-seat moments mixed with a slowburn tale. So atmospheric and dark, you want to pull your blanket tighter. Excellent read!

This book was pretty good, I would definitely recommend

~This was given by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

The book that I read recently had a gripping crime story set in Sweden. The plot revolves around a mysterious crime scene from the past where a young girl was found dead, hanging from a tree with a pair of scissors around her neck. The incident was never solved and remains a mystery to this day.

The story takes on a new dimension with the arrival of Emma, the protagonist, who travels to Sweden to undertake an appraisal assignment of the Gussmans' collection. However, her arrival coincides with the discovery of another young girl, dead and hanging from a tree in the same fashion as the previous incident. This discovery sparks off a chain of events that bring the unsolved case back into the public consciousness, and the mystery deepens. The question arises, is it a copycat, or has the original killer resurfaced?

The author, Johana Gustawsson, has demonstrated remarkable skill and ingenuity in crafting an intriguing storyline that keeps the reader engrossed till the end. The book features numerous unexpected twists and turns, and the ending is rife with unpredictability. Although the middle section of the book may appear to drag a bit, the overall experience is highly engaging, and the work is a must-read for lovers of crime fiction.

I've been a fan of Johana Gustawsson's writing ever since I started reading the Emily Roy & Alexis Castells series. All three books blew me away, and I've been looking forward to read more of her books ever since. Add the fact that I have a weak spot for a gothic thriller with a remote and spooky setting, and I've been highly anticipating my time with Yule Island. To say that this story didn't let me down is proobably the understatement of the year... It's a gloriously atmospheric read with a set of twists that hit me with a sledgehammer. WHAT a read!

I'm going to keep this review short, because Yule Island is one of those books where it's best to go in blind and let the author take you on a journey. Johana Gustawsson is a master at crafting the most intricate plot that will completely lead you astray, only to hit you with twists that will make your jaw drop to the floor. The 'holy guacamole' is most definitely back! There was a certain point at the 70% mark or so that had me literally staring at the page, unable to believe what I had just read. I love it when an author is able to completely turn the plot on its head and make me doubt everything I thought was true about a story!

If you like a well written and atmospheric setting, you are definitely in for a treat with the Storholmen island. The remoteness, the mansion and its secrets, the brutal crime that happened right outside... It's such a perfect backdrop for a gothic thriller, and its descriptions truly enhanced the reading experience for me. I also loved the incorporation of Norse mythology and references to Viking culture, which is an element I can always appreciate and it was fascinating how it was woven into the plot.

Yule Island uses a multiple POV structure, but it is easy enough to keep them all apart and follow their stories. The characters are all flawed and have their secrets, but somehow it is still quite easy to warm up to them or at least be intrigued by what they are hiding. The way the plot is woven together is simply sublime, and it's impressive just how successfully the author is able to completely mislead the reader along the way. Especially the second half is explosive and simply impossible to put down, and I loved every single moment of the journey.

It comes as no surprise when I say that I have no doubt that Yule Island will appear on my list of 2024 favorites, and I can highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys highly atmospheric and cleverly constructed gothic thrillers. A word of thanks to David Warriner is also in order for the flawless translation, enabling me to read this French masterpiece.

I thought that Johana took us through a wonderfully gothic tale from when it happened around 1900 and up. We could say it was about witches but it's really about finding out who you were. We start out with Karl and go into his finding a ritual hanging on the Island of Storholmen of a girl fourteen or fifteen years old. What we know is that her sister, Emma, was given the opportunity to appraise all the treasures of the Gussmans. It was filled with quite a lot of twists and turns with body's and trunks filled with skeletons. With this I well tell you that I don't want to tell tales out of turn so it is an excellent book with allot of detail that's mind blowing.

Recipe For a Dark Holiday Read: take this book on winter vacation in a snowy cabin in the woods, and read with a big mug of steaming coffee and a plate of crispy Swedish vaniljkakor (vanilla cookies).

It's a twisty whodunnit set on a remote island of Sweden, where the answers that art appraiser Emma Lindahl is searching for may be closer than she realizes. But on Storholmen, nothing is at it seems, and as the nights grow longer and the snow grows deeper, she's going to discover that her sister's long-ago death on this very same island is at the center of a bloodcurdling series of murders that are still going on today.

I'm a fan of great thriller novels. I like them confusing, mysterious, and not too gory. This title does a good job of satisfying on all those counts. It did get a little *too* twisty in some places...I found myself getting confused a few times while trying to follow all the events, keep track of varying timelines, and multiple characters. It doesn't help that these are often presented without clarifying information about the dates or locations (in order to keep twists more of a surprise when revealed), but until you get to those twists, you just find yourself a bit muddled as to what's going on. But the overall pace of the book kept moving along well enough for me to remain interested. The ultimate reveal was...without going into spoilers, I'll just say that I would have liked more "why" behind what happened. Why was this thing done? Why did that person make that decision? We find out the Who, What, Where, and When...but never really the Why. That irked me a little since if you're going to read an entire book about a series of terrible murders, you expect there to be some payoff explaining why it all happened. But nonetheless, I enjoyed the journey and the twisty turns along the way.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this eARC for unbiased review. This review will be cross-posted to my social media accounts closer to the book release date.

After several chilling discoveries and gruesome deaths at an opulent and rural Swedish manor, Emma and Karl desperately search for the answers to solve the crimes and heal their trauma. Shocking twists reveal the deeper connections at play in the island scene unfolding before them, and in the end both Emma and Karl will have to face the darkness that has been lurking in the peripheral of their lives and on the island.

While the writing style didn’t initially grip me and pull me in, I was intrigued by the description of rural Scandinavian life and the mystery surrounding Emma’s family and life. When I reached some of the more revealing plot twists and developments, the tension and suspense definitely increased and I was hooked!

Overall, I enjoyed Yule Island. The premise was borderline dark and gruesome for me, but also being somewhat based in Norse mythology was fascinating. Recommended for readers who love intense plot twists, and a dark tone.

Many thanks and appreciation to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advance copy to read! This was my genuine, honest review.

I really liked the twists and turns in this book.

What I loved the most was the background and setting. Coming from a tropical country, I find nature in the Scandinavian regions to be very beautiful and exotic. It feels so mystical and fairy-like. So I love any book thats set in such an environment.

The one complaint I do have with this book is that there is too much description and not enough dialogues so that make you a bit glassy-eyed at times. But apart from that it's a really nice and interesting book.