Yoooo this was such a good read!!! I love KAM so much and I’m so thankful MacMillan reached out to offer me an ARC NetGalley copy, even though I’ve had a bad ratio of late.

This book strays away from the reputation the author has developed for herself of supernatural horror, being a more domestic thriller/rich people problems (it reminded me somewhat of Ready or Not) story. However, there were plenty of twists that felt mythical or supernatural and I don’t think any of her fans will be disappointed—I certainly was not.

I will say I found the narration a little jarring—the child’s impression by the narrator took me out a bit since it was SO different from the voice she used for the rest of the story. Aside from that, she did a wonderful job.

The book publishes soon beginning in early February, so make sure to reserve or pre order your copy now!

⭐️⭐️Review⭐️⭐️
📖 Title: A Killing Cold
🧍‍♀️Author: Kate Alice Marshall

About?
Theo met Connor and the two fell passionately and quickly in love. Just 6 months later, he brings her to meet his entire family on a winter retreat in hopes they will love her and support their proclivity to marry despite the short amount of time they’ve dated.

Theo is invited to her very wealthy fiancée’s family vacation property in the mountains and realizes there is much more there than meets the eye. Secrets. An eery feeling she has been there before.

The Dalton’s are powerful. They are rich. And they don’t like Theo. Is it because they think she’s just a gold-digger out for Connor’s money? Or is it more complicated than that?


Makes you feel?
Secluded. Off the beaten path. I loved this one so much. It scared me. It surprised me. It made me never want to stop reading. I towed that fine line between reading quickly because it was so good but made myself take breaks because I knew I’d be sad when it was over !🤣Recommend this one 100%!!!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you so much to @Netgally & @macmillian.audio for an advanced audible copy in exchange for an honest review.

Mind-blowing. That’s the only way to describe A Killing Cold. With twists and turns so vivid they practically leap off the page, Marshall’s storytelling pulls you in and doesn’t let go. From the first chapter to the last, I was completely captivated, wishing I could experience it all over again for the first time.

The story begins with Theo—short for Theodora—embarking on what should be an exciting trip to the mountains to meet her fiancé Connor’s wealthy family. But things quickly spiral into a chilling series of events that force Theo to confront her past, her relationship, and some deeply buried family secrets. Theo’s childhood is a blank slate; she was adopted at a young age and has no memory of her life before that time. However, as the visit to Connor’s family cabin approaches, ominous warnings and strange occurrences hint that someone desperately wants her to stay away.

What unfolds is a harrowing tale of how far a family will go to protect their name and preserve their pristine reputation—no matter the cost. Theo finds herself piecing together the mystery surrounding her fiancé’s family while grappling with signs and memories that eerily connect to a recurring nightmare she’s had her entire life. How can a place she’s never visited feel so hauntingly familiar?

Marshall masterfully layers suspense with family drama, creating a fast-paced thriller set against the icy, isolating backdrop of the mountains in the dead of winter. The atmosphere is so vivid, that you’ll be on the edge of your seat as Theo navigates the cabin’s secrets and her own suppressed memories.

If you’re a fan of thrillers that dig deep into buried family secrets, unravel mysteries with heart-stopping twists, and leave you questioning every coincidence, this book is a must-read. A Killing Cold delivers on every level: atmosphere, intrigue, and unforgettable revelations. Highly recommend for readers who love a fast-paced, wintry thriller that will leave their jaw on the floor. Kate Alice Marshall has done it again—this one’s a winner!

This is a plotted book that digs into how we perceive fate and love. It follows a young woman who does not know part of her history and the part she does know is filled with trauma.
The story is adequately paced.
I did find some aspects of the story to be similar to another one with a similar setting. This was off putting at first because it read super similarly in the beginning. The stories ended up being different though and this one was reasonably unpredictable.

I loved the narrator

I was so excited when I heard about this book. A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall was an early release from book of the month so I ordered it right away. A few days later I was approved to get the audiobook from NetGalley. I love audio so much and Karissa Vacker is one of my favorite narrators so I knew it was going to be an audio listen. First, I want to say the narrator was perfect. But the story itself was very confusing. I felt like the beginning was very drawn out and I kept loosing focus. Then when things started coming together, there was so much back and forth that nothing really made sense. What lies in the woods and no one can know we’re both 5 star reads for me, but this one I would give 3.5 stars to, I’ll round up because of NetGalley.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC, I really appreciate it, and my opinions are of my own.

This checked all the boxes for me: Building tension, a plot that moved steadily, and a satisfying ending that wasn't too over the top! I especially enjoyed Karissa Vacker's audio narration, which elevated the reading experience!

A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall

Synopsis: Theodora (Theo) is invited to her ultra rich fiancées family mountain retreat where she learns they are hiding terrible secrets and somehow she’s been there before already. Theo is in trouble and who is ultimately telling the truth?

One of my favorite things about a good thriller is a book that keeps me second guessing my thoughts with almost every page turn. It’s hard to find one person to trust in this book, including the narrator herself. This was such a fun one to listen to especially this time of year. Pick this one up if you enjoy storylines about rich families with secretive pasts, unreliable characters, and twisty turns!!

4/5 ⭐️s

Thank you @macmillian.audio and @netgalley for the advanced audio copy.

This thriller set on a cold, snowy mountain retreat of a very wealthy family definitely kept my attention. I could not wait to find out why Theo felt like she had been there before.

Karissa Vacker did an excellent job with the audiobook.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced digital copy of the audiobook.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio via Netgalley for this ALC in exchange of an honest review.

Wow wow wow. This is how locked room mysteries should be done. There’s a multi-layer of secrets and when you thought you have it all figured out, think again.

Recently engaged Theo and Connor spend the holidays in the Dalton’s winter retreat, Idlewood, as a way to meet and win over Connor’s family. Aside from the cold welcome, Theo also receives cryptic messages saying to stay away from Connor Dalton.

I really enjoyed this dysfunctional family and the secrets each of them are willing to keep, even at the expense of another’s life. I like how the each of those secrets slowly started unravelling and seemed like a puzzle piece to the bigger mystery that was being hinted at the book.

This was fast-paced and unputdownable and the perfect chilly read for a very cold cozy winter day. Plus points for Karissa Vacker narration as well (one of my faves!)

Listened to in one day. Kept my intention throughout. Suspense, unexpected twists and turns, fast paced. Family secrets, confusion as who to trust. romance. I really enjoyed this. Great narrator! Thank you to the author, publisher, and net galley for this opportunity!

Kate Alice Marshall

There is something about this place, something about him. Something about the way he makes her feel.

They fell in love in an instant. His family would take more work. She hasn't met them yet. They are a part of the infamous Dalton family. Rich beyond measure and she is due to meet them over an extended family getaway.

She'll have to impress, she'll have to win them over. She'll have to be quick on her feet and effortless with retorts.

The week will feel endless. The wind, will feel like A KILLING COLD. By the end of her time there she will figure out what she liked about him in the first place. By the end of her there she will know more than she ever wanted to.

I like Kate Alice Marshall and I like this book. It feels like a classic but in a good way. It was a great way to spend time on those cold winter mornings. Atmospheric and chilling.

The story didn't feel incredibly new, it didn't feel entirely surprising. It felt like coming home, something dependable. Something you know will hit every time. It will be amongst books that I revisit from time to time and especially when the days are short and the to do list is long.

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy!

A KILLING COLD...⭐️⭐️⭐️

Not only a 5 star read for me but it’s now one of my favorite thrillers of all time! This book had me on the edge of my seat the entire second half.

I really enjoyed A Killing Cold. This was very different than the last book that I read by her, and I definitely liked this one better, but it was a completely different vibe/read.

This book falls into a more "typical" thriller for me. It has more of the expected twists and turns that I have come to expect in a mainstream thriller/suspense novel. But often there are those times that I want that "old, reliable, go-to" kind of book. That is what I did appreciate about this book. There wasn't the abstract, out of left field paranormal at the end- which I don't mind, but just every once and a while.

So, I guess, so summarize all my chaotic thoughts on this book I would just put it down to this: good solid plot, characters you love to hate, and a good pace throughout. The narrator is great and doesn't make your wish you would have read the book instead. I don't think you will be disappointed, it's not groundbreaking, but not weird AF either.

3.75 stars rounded up to 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for this advanced copy of A Killing Cold. This was a medium to fast paced mystery/thriller. Theodora Scott was a fleshed out main character who was easy to root for. Oftentimes the decisions of characters in thrillers can feel infuriating for the sake of the plot. However, Theo’s actions and decisions made sense based on the character information we were presented with. However, the rest of the characters seemed like “rich people doing bad things” caricatures.

There were many moving pieces to this plot, and the information given to the reader is released slowly, which maintains the suspense until the end. The writing alternates between a current timeline (most of the novel) and a past timeline. At times second person writing was used in the past timeline (as our MC and other characters) and this felt disjointed and confusing. Overall, I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a cold season thriller with dark family secrets!

I’m all for a good mystery featuring an isolated setting amidst the snow blanketing the town full of people with secrets, some of them dangerous. You can easily guess why I decided that this was the right book to introduce me to Marshall’s writing.

I was approved for the audiobook version, narrated by Karissa Vacker, and she was perfect for this role. Theo’s entire personality is centered on the fact that her personal history is basically a blank, with her entire identity for her to make her own. But despite Theo’s dark ‘Mary Sue’ persona, I still found Vacker’s rendition to be likable. Wait, more intriguing than likable, because it’s really hard to get to know Theo when she doesn’t know herself. It made me want to know what the random flashes of memories actually mean when not filtered through the innocent lens of a child’s perspective.

This is told through the eyes of Theo, mostly, with some other characters thrown in, but she’s the one who stands out the most. Most likely because I was just waiting for her to be revealed as the missing piece connecting her lost history and the danger she steps into the present time.

As someone with an advanced degree in mental health counseling and significant working time with people who had extremely severe mental health disorders, I’m always intrigued by a book that depicts a rounded individual who seems to have some kind of inability to access their memories. Is this why amnesia storylines are so popular on television? TV isn’t something I watch often, but I can see the allure of watching someone kind of rebuild their personality if/when they can integrate their blocked memories. Maybe it’s because I haven’t worked with this issue, so I can’t really pull apart how the character and their disorder is portrayed. Aside from being unable to remember her earliest years, when she was old enough to see things occurring around her, she seems pretty functional for the most part. Which is good, because Connor’s family is a tough crowd.

Connor, Theo’s fiancé, comes from the prestigious Dalton family, which seems to mainly be composed of jerks, with like two members who aren’t total trash, one of those being Connor himself. While the majority of the Daltons weren’t people I’d want to be around, there were some cool moments as Connor introduces Theo to his family in one big go at a winter resort that the family owns.

Idlewood itself is a really interesting aspect of the story, seeing as how it is the location for two major mysteries—one in the past which relates to Theo herself and sets her on a path to discover what happened to her there as a child. It isn’t sexual abuse, I promise, but that was a huge fear for me, so I figure that it might put someone else at ease. But, as she discovers small clues, she realizes that she’s starting to remember pieces of her past, despite multiple threats instructing her to stay away from Connor, a bunch of people who are shady and have some pretty serious secrets that they’ll do anything to protect, and an underdog romance between a young woman with no roots and the odds stacked against her and Connor, a young man from a wealthy and extremely conservative family who wasn’t afraid to buck their traditions and choose the person he wanted to marry based on who they are, as opposed to their social class.

We constantly are reminded of the extreme differences between Connor’s upbringing and Theo’s often, as she is finally introduced to the family and learns that they’re more interested in ‘protecting the family’ than they are about celebrating a family member’s happiness. It might have read differently in printed or ebook versions, but hearing someone repeat that phrase, protecting the family, gave me strong Helen Lovejoy from the Simpsons vibes.

Won’t someone please think of the children??

We don’t really get to know much about Connor through showing, although we are told some of the basics to give a general outline, but he reads as particularly flat in the context of putting him into scenes where he is overshadowed by the side characters at every turn. Connor offers little to the story itself, yet he’s the link between Theo and Idlewood, so that’s really his main purpose, rather than creating a well-rounded character who furthers the plot in a meaningful way. When side characters overshadow a man she’s planning to marry, that’s not a great sign, but these side characters are the baddies (possibly baddies but maybe not?) I loved to read about.

The pace of this book is fast, starting early on, and intensifying in the last quarter of the book. There’s a strong buildup to the plot twists, and since we see the worst of the majority of the Dalton family, it’s hard to guess who is behind it. Connor, besides being about as plain of a character as a baked potato, is one who can be trusted, and is possibly the only person she an put her trust in, aside from his sister, Alexis, whom she is growing more friendly with after having met her in a lower-pressure setting.

My introduction to Marshall’s writing was a great choice with this book. I loved the dual timeline mysteries, and seeing things from several different perspectives, but still struggling to see who was responsible for the mysteries Theo is exploring as she recovers her memory one piece at a time. Despite the breakneck pace of the story, it still allowed Theo time to make discoveries and integrate new information, for the most part. The way Marshall wrote tension so sharp it nearly crackled through my speakers blew my mind, keeping me glued to this book from start to finish, and leaving me thinking about it long after the end. This book would be a good fit if you love an isolated setting, winter mysteries, books about family secrets, and dual timeline mysteries.

4.5🌟
A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall is a twisty mystery thriller with lots of Secrets.
I was hooked from beginning to the shocking end.
I listened to the audiobook with great narration by Karissa Vacker. She brought the story to life.
I definitely recommend reading or listening to A Killing Cold.
Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC of *A Killing Cold* by Sarah Kate Marshall, and I’d like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read it! This was my first read from this author, and it definitely won’t be my last.

The mountain, snowy setting was absolutely stunning and added an eerie, atmospheric quality that perfectly complemented the story's mysterious tone. I was immediately drawn into the mystery surrounding Theo's stay with Connor's family. Connor’s family is mysterious and wealthy, their secrets creating layers of intrigue that kept me hooked.

One of the most gripping moments was when Theo stumbled across a photo of what she believed to be herself as a child, despite having no memory of ever being at this mountain. This discovery added a fascinating twist to the story, pulling me deeper into the unraveling mystery.

While it was a bit tricky to keep track of the slew of characters at first, I quickly found myself immersed in the story. The tension, twists, and rich character development made it a compelling read.

Overall, I really enjoyed *A Killing Cold*. It’s an atmospheric and suspenseful mystery perfect for fans of character-driven thrillers. I’ll definitely be looking out for more from Sarah Kate Marshall!

Great book that kept me guessing the whole time! Each time I though I had figured it out, a new twist came along!

A Killing Cold is the perfect winter thriller. Listening to this audiobook in January, you could literally feel the frigid and isolated atmosphere of Idlewood. Kate Alice Marshall keeps readers on the edge of their seats during this wild story. With lots of twists, dark intentions, and family secrets, A Killing Cold is the perfect book to snuggle under a blanket with while the snow piles up outside.

Theo and Connor have had a whirlwind romance. Meeting at a party in LA, Connor proposed after a few short months. Now it's Christmas time and Theo is headed to an isolated winter retreat owned by Connor's family. to spend two weeks celebrating the holidays From the instant she arrives, Theo is on edge. Will Connor's family like her? Do they think she is using him to get to him insane wealth and family fortune? And why does it feel like Theo has been here before?

As Theo discovers more and more about Connor's family and Idlewood itself, she begins to understand pieces her own identify. Between mystery messages and gifts to an untrustworthy cast of characters, this book is sure to keep you guessing until the very last page.

Theodora Scott is newly engaged to Connor Dalton, a member of the very wealthy and powerful Dalton family. In an attempt to win over his family, Theo accompanies Connor to Idlewood, the Dalton family's winter retreat, for Christmas. Through a series of strange dreams and the discovery of an old photo in an abandoned cabin, Theo comes to the shocking realization that this is not the first time that she has been at Idlewood. As she begins to uncover the truth about the Dalton family, she understands just how many secrets they have buried and lengths to which they will go to ensure those secrets stay buried - even if that means burying Theo.

A Killing Cold is a perfect winter read for those of us who love twisty, suspenseful thrillers. It is dark, atmospheric, and will keep you on the edge of your seat. The narrator sucked me in from the very beginning and held my attention for the entirety of the book. Some of the "twists" turned out to be fairly predictable, but I still found it to be a fun, exciting read, and I would absolutely recommend it to someone looking for a good winter thriller.