Rating: 3 out of 5.

This was an interesting mystery involving a dysfunctional family, a 5 star hotel in the country and a snow storm. What more do you need for dark family secrets to come out and someone to commit murder?

Ten years ago Erin Bailey was involved in something tragic and instead of receiving comfort from her family, she received blame. Knowing she could not live with her family under those circumstances, Erin leaves town and disappears without a trace. The family has no contact with her until just before Christmas, when each sister, Sasha (married to Jesse with one daughter) and Leah (single and travels the world as an influencer), and the mother, Nadia (widowed for many years), receive an invitation to Erin’s Christmas party. Despite their misgivings, the family decides to attend the party, and the craziness begins.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, it was an interesting story about a messed up family with a lot of hurt feelings. On the other hand, I didn’t think there was much mystery to the story. The “tragic” event that was eluded to for the first half of the book was quite a let down and certainly didn’t live up to the hype of a “tragedy” in my eyes. After that, the train started going off the rails. Secrets and resentments started flying, whether germane to the storyline or not, and most are never mentioned again.

The pacing was off throughout the book. The first half of the book meandered along, taking time to develop the characters and build resentments against each other. The last part of the book raced along with stuff happening left and right, much of which didn’t make sense. The book is told in multiple POVs and it didn’t work too well here. It was ok at the beginning of the book when it was a slower pace, but when the book sped up it started to get confusing. We’re definitely dealing with one or more unreliable narrators, and some revelations seemed to be thrown in there for shock value alone since they didn’t add to the story.

The ending was anti-climatic and left me feeling blah. The book was entertaining, but I’m still not sure what I read. If you want to read a book about a messed up family with a lot of secrets and lots of action, this book is for you.

Thank you to Love Books Tours and the author for my complimentary copy of the book. All opinions are my own.