★★★★
SYNOPSIS:
Seven guests. One Killer. A holiday to remember…
A dark and addictive psychological thriller about seven strangers who find themselves cut off from civilization in a remote guesthouse in Ireland…
Not all the guests will survive their stay…
You use an app, called Cloud BNB, to book a room online. And on a cold and windy afternoon, you arrive at The Guesthouse, a dramatic old building on a remote stretch of hillside in Ireland.
You are expecting a relaxing break, but you find something very different. Something unimaginable. Because a killer has lured you and six other guests here and now you can’t escape.
One thing’s for certain: not all of you will come back from this holiday alive…
(Taken from Goodreads)
MY THOUGHTS:
This is definitely my kind of book so I jumped at the chance to join the blog tour. From the very beginning you know you are in for a thrilling read; Hannah running and scrambling away from the guest house, terror-stricken and fighting for survival. Then chapter one takes you back to six days earlier. Here you meet Hannah, a desperate soul on self destruction mode. Having broken up with her boyfriend after being unfaithful to him, Ben then takes his own life. His family blame her and most of her friends abandon her. Needing time away Hannah decides to go on the holiday that she and Ben had booked prior to their breakup.
Hannah is joined by six other guests; a father and son, a couple and their teenage daughter and a musician intending to use the break away to write songs. However, on arriving things do not seem as they should. Strange noises are heard in the night, food is disappearing, and a strange gardener appears but is reluctant to talk. As the guests start to explore and begin to get to know each other they start to wonder whether it is a coincidence that they are all here together or if there was a predetermined guest list that has brought them here. And then the guests start to disappear and some are found dead.
I loved the pace of the novel and the cliffhangers at the end of each chapter which kept me reading long after I should have gone to bed. The setting, an old house full of hidden doors and nooks and crannies was both spooky and fascinating. The weather added to the atmosphere of the novel and I couldn't help but imagine myself right there with the other guests. The concept of being trapped in a strange house not knowing who you could trust, as surely, one of you is the killer kept me hooked. I questioned each character's motives and was on tenterhooks the whole time. As the story unfolded and connections were made I grew to love the story even more. The ending, perhaps a little far-fetched but I forgave it instantly as I was fully invested in the characters, the development of the plot and found the whole novel absolutely thrilling. This is definitely a book I will be shouting about and recommending.
Thank you so much to Abbie Frost, Rebecca Bryant at Harper Collins Publishers for letting me join The Guest House Blog Tour.
AUTHOR:
Abbie Frost has worked as a teacher, an actor and scriptwriter, and now reviews fiction for publications and blogs. She is a published thriller writer whose work has been shortlisted for various awards.
Follow Abbie Frost on Twitter, @FrostyAbbie.