Mira is desperate to get home for the holidays. When an approaching blizzard cancels her connecting flight, and seriously derails her chances of getting home, things are not looking good. And then Mira’s sophisticated seatmate, Harper, offers her a solution. Harper and her friends are driving the same way and will drop Mira off on their way.

When the road trip begins to go wrong – the roads become dangerous, and items are going missing – it looks like someone in the car is sabotaging the trip. Mira is growing increasingly uncomfortable. And to make matters worse, she has realised her fellow travellers are all total strangers. It’s obvious that her companions are all hiding something, but could one of them really be dangerous? With the weather worsening and night approaching, not to mention they are in the middle of nowhere, Mira has no other options but to stay with these strangers. Will Mira make it home safely, or is the nightmare only beginning? 

Believe the hype. Five Total Strangers is an exciting new thriller from bestselling author Natalie D. Richards and it truly is thrilling from the very start. It’s fast-paced, action-driven and very tense throughout! I’m very tough on thrillers, because it’s a genre I am really invested in, so trust me when I say this one was worth it!

Early on I had a few issues with the story. Mira seemed a little too anxious a little too early on, and I wasn’t completely convinced by it, particularly because the approaching storm didn’t faze her at all – she actually dismissed the warnings until they were heading into it. I know this was to show her desperation – why else would someone that scared get in a car for a long drive with complete strangers? But I would have preferred a little less anxiety earlier on so that her panic at finding out no one knew anyone else in that car, and the many things going wrong felt a little more powerful. Aside from  that though I thought it was fantastic! I really loved Harper’s constant switching between someone completely falling apart and someone who had it all together. That felt much more natural. I also loved how suspicious almost everyone made me.

And, dear reader, I got it wrong. I didn’t guess who! I have pretty much always figured out any plot twist to some degree in every book since childhood. It doesn’t matter whether its well written or not. I always guess the ending. And this time I didn’t. As I said, I was so suspicious of almost everyone that I didn’t guess the ending (unless five seconds before the reveal counts). And that both surprised and impressed me. That alone makes it worth the read! Honestly, guys, please check this one out if you love a good thriller!

Grab a copy today! http://nataliedrichards.com/books/fivetotalstrangers/

WOW! This book is a slow build and has a twist in the end that you just can't see coming. The story opens with Mira heading to visit her mother. She provides background context about the grief that her mother is experiencing during the holidays. However, there is a major snow storm happening, so Mira, despite her better judgment, decides to ride home with four strangers. As the story unfolds, the group experience one misfortune after another. At the same time, readers are given insight that one of the passengers happen to be a stalker of Mira. I highly recommend this book.

One of my favorite YA Thriller authors is Natalie D. Richards, and when I saw that she had a new release- it was no doubt that I would read it and enjoy it. The book starts with our main female character Mira heading to her mother's for Christmas after spending some time with her Dad. On the plane, she gets talking to her seatmate Harper and the pair click. The next thing the girls know, they are experiencing terrible turbulence which will result in their following planes being delayed or canceled. This reminded me of Dec 2013 when I and my friend Nina went to the US and got stuck at LAX and had five flights canceled in a row as the states had experienced a freak snowstorm. Mira goes along with Harper as neither of them wants to spend another night at the airport and soon meets up with three other strangers Brecken, Kayla, and Josh. The five of them end up renting a car together to make it to their final destinations. However, the journey is about to turn a bit crazy as neither knows one from the other and when five strangers are on edge to get home, then things are bound to get crazy. As it turns out one of them is a dangerous stalker, one has violent tendencies, one is running from something and the other is addicted to drugs, and of course, one is pretending to be older than they are. Throughout the journey, secrets will be revealed and some of those secrets turn out to be worth killing to keep others from revealing. Five Total Strangers is another great YA thriller from Natalie D. Richards and is the perfect mix of 90s horror films with a Christmas setting.

As a fantasy lover, it's kind of hard for me to pick up outside of the genre but when I do, it's something that intrigues me to the highest degree and Five Total Strangers did. This is a NA thriller that follows five strangers who decide to share a rental car to get to PA after all flights from Newark are cancelled. Now, you may be thinking this is a stretch but it’s Christmas and a blizzard, so time is of the essence.

The writing is so incredibly detailed and atmospheric. There were some scenes that had my heart pumping as well as my stomach doing flips from the sheer adrenaline rush. After one of the really intense scenes, I had to put the book down just so I could breathe and slow my heart rate down. This is literally the road trip from hell and everything that can go wrong does. In addition to the wild road trip, our MC (Mira) has a stalker and the letters from the stalker are dispersed throughout the plot, which adds even more tension to an already dire situation.

My major criticism is that the high octane pace comes to a crashing halt because the final reveal takes place in the last 30 pages or so and then the book then abruptly ends. Even though I'm giving this 3 stars, it feels more on the higher end of it. Still recommend!

**3.5-stars rounded up**

Mira lives in California, while her mother lives in Pittsburgh. It's Christmas and Mira wants nothing more than to be over on the other Coast with her Mom. Last year, her Aunt, her Mom's sister and closest friend, passed away. They both took it hard, but her Mom really struggled. Mira is concerned about her mother's mental health as she tries to cope with that loss around the holiday.

So, when her connecting flight from New York to Pittsburgh gets canceled due to inclement weather, Mira needs to find another way to get home to her. Luckily, the girl she was sitting next to on the plane, Harper, is renting a car, along with three of her college friends, Brecken, Josh and Kayla. There is room and they are heading in the same direction, so Harper offers Mira a ride. It would sure beat any of the other options, like sleeping at the airport.

Mira accepts, but she has her reservations. She doesn't know these people at all. As they hit the road, the weather gets progressively worse. They see a lot of accidents and even have a few close calls themselves. As you can imagine, the stress level in the car is ratcheting up. They're now at each other's throats and it's not pretty.

Anything that could possibly go wrong, does for this group. Conditions get to the point where they are barely able to drive at all. They make a few pit stops and yep, you guessed it, those don't go well either! 

I had fun with this one, y'all. Richards did a great job or bringing your typical Teen Scream to the page. The cast of characters played well off of one another and it definitely kept me guessing. There's some uncertainty as to what people's motives are and I enjoyed that element a lot. The suspense continues to build throughout the story. Items start to disappear from the car and it feels threatening rather than accidental.

Although there were some plot holes, and I wasn't sold on the ending, I did have fun with it. I think if you don't take it too seriously, it's quite an enjoyable read. Thank you so much to the publisher, SourceBooks Fire and NetGalley, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review. Blizzard Scares are some of my favorite scares, so I am definitely happy that I had the opportunity to read this one. It's perfect for this time of year!!

3.5/5.

A real page-turner, and I could really see this being made into a horror movie. It made my stomach turn a few times! The only downside was the ending, really. It was quick and clinical, I would've liked more of a drawn-out climax. For most of the book, there's little guessing you can do about the antagonist and once you get to the end it's all explained and done within a few pages.

Five Total Stangers kept you on your toes and wanting more. 

Mira is flying back from the West Coast to the East Coast for the holidays but a blizzard forces her connecting flight to cancel.  She needs to get home because Christmas because it is the anniversary of her aunt, her mom's twin's death and after calling her stepdad she finds out they are getting a divorce. She hitches a ride with her seatmate from the plane and her friends only to find out once they get started no one knows each other and getting stranded in a blizzard with complete strangers with things getting stolen by someone is not how she expect this would go.

Five Total Strangers had plenty of suspense and atmosphere. When Mira gets stranded between flights in a blizzard, I could feel the cold and her frustration as she scrambled to figure out a plan. And one falls in her lap: the nice girl who sat next to her on the plane offers her a ride. Mira, who isn't old enough to rent her own car, and her up on that offer, along with three other random college students who are also stranded.

But soon, strange things start to happen and it seems like someone doesn't want this group of strangers to reach safety at all. Which one of the strangers is the culprit? Will Mira ever reach her destination?

I give Five Total Strangers a big thumbs-up for the suspense and twists but a thumbs-sideways for the conclusion, which left something to be desired.

Let me start this review with a disclaimer. I have read a tremendous amount of thrillers, both YA and adult, so I often have high expectations when it comes a story’s plot. When I read thrillers, I want to be surprised. I do not want to predict any of the major reveals. 

That being said, Five Total Strangers met some of my high expectations. Although I started to figure out the big reveal during the last 1/3rd of the book, the novel’s pace still kept me interested. Five Total Strangers was a very atmospheric read. As story progressed, you could easily sense the increasing tension as the storm worsened and the characters’ mistrust of each other grew. This is one novel that you would definitely want to read by a crackling fire while snow falls outside.

Many thanks to SourcebooksFire and NetGalley for the e-ARC! All opinions are my own.

Title: Five Total Strangers
Author:  Natalie D. Richards   
Genre: YA, suspense/thriller
Rating: 3.8 out of 5

When Mira flies home to spend Christmas with her mother in Pittsburgh, a record-breaking blizzard results in a cancelled layover. Desperate to get to her grief-ridden mother in the wake of a family death, Mira hitches a ride with a group of friendly college kids who were on her initial flight.

As the drive progresses and weather conditions become more treacherous, Mira realizes that the four other passengers she's stuck in the car with don't actually know one another.

Soon, they're not just dealing with heavy snowfall and ice-slick roads, but the fact that somebody will stop at nothing to ensure their trip ends in a deadly disaster.

It’s difficult for me to read novels with characters that I don’t like or characters that make stunningly stupid decisions, so when Mira decided to hop in a car with four absolute strangers in the middle of a blizzard, that was almost it for me. She was on the flight with one of these girls, so I have no idea why she ever assumed the rest of the group even knew each other. But she did—and promptly got in the car with them. Awesome decision, that.

There are bad decisions everywhere in this novel, but Mira keeps ignoring all the glaring signs. Again, I find it hard to sympathize with characters who make stupid decisions. Especially repeated ones. And I knew there would be a twist in there somewhere, so the reveal wasn’t much of a surprise. Solid writing and description—the setting comes to frigid, miserable life—but in the end, this was just a step above “okay.”

Natalie D. Richards is from Ohio. Five Total Strangers is her newest novel. 

(Galley courtesy of Sourcebooks Fire in exchange for an honest review.)

2.5 stars!

Mira is travelling home for Christmas across the country. When she lands in, her connecting flight is cancelled due to an intense blizzard that is rapidly approaching. She runs into her seatmate from her flight, Harper, who has managed to find a rental SUV. When Harper offers Mira a ride, she can’t turn her down as she is feeling a lot of pressure to get home to her grieving mother. Mira finds out that Harper has invited three other strangers to join them and becomes uneasy but she doesn’t see any other choice. On her journey home, their situation becomes increasingly worse as the storm settles in.

@sourcebooksfire sent me this ARC and I am so grateful! I always love the chance to read on paper instead of digitally. Unfortunately, this was just not an enjoyable read for me. I found Mira to be annoying as there is a lot of time spent exploring her anxiety around the decisions she’s made and not a lot of common sense. She repeatedly chooses not to contact her parents when she is in an obviously perilous situation. I did really like Richards’ depiction of grief and how it can impact people differently as Mira’s aunt passed away last year and her family is still trying to recover. There wasn’t anything that I didn’t guess - I thought the story was missing some red herrings. I am thinking I have been very spoiled for YA thrillers after reading Karen McManus’ books - she is a tough act to follow. Overall, an easy read with a few moments of tension.

Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards is a psychological thriller about a high school student named Mira who is trying to get home for Christmas to be with her family.  She ends up hitching a ride home with four strangers, and things start going wrong almost immediately.  This story was quite unbelievable at times, but it did keep my interest until the very end.  Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy.  All opinions are my own.

Great mystery with lots of action to keep a reader interested. Spun in a way that had me accusing every character at some point. 

Would recommend!

“I do not climb into cars with a group of strangers or jaunt off into a snowstorm. This isn’t something I’d normally do, but to get home to Mom? I’ll do whatever it takes.” These are Mira’s last thoughts before she indeed becomes one of Five Total Strangers stuck in a car together. Unfortunately, one is not just a stranger but also deranged. And a blizzurricane is predicted...

This book is pitch perfect for the way young adults think. Nothing bad could possibly happen. The snowstorm is over-hyped. The feeling of invincibility slowly turns to worry, then fear. Will any of the strangers make it home for Christmas?

Are you ready for a non-stop thrill ride? Five Total Strangers doesn’t let up on the throttle. Even when stopping for gas, the group encounters weird subplots about each other and other travelers around them.

If you want a thrill-a-minute plot with characters you come to care for, read this book. You won’t be sorry. 4.25 stars!

Thanks to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book was perfect for a quick suspense/thriller read. Just in time for Halloween (or Christmas since it takes place on Christmas Eve)!  I really enjoyed the fast- pace of this book, and the pure goosebumps I got several times while reading. It definitely makes you NEVER want to get in a car with a stranger (not that any of us ever would, right?)
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Five Total Strangers reminded me so much of No Exit but without the gore. Unfortunately, the only complaint I have was that I found it a little predictable. I usually can never guess what’s going to happen, but with this one I did. Perfect for Halloween, or if you want a Christmas Thriller.

This is a slow-burn psychological thriller that kept me enraptured from cover to cover. There is no prologue with a gritty murder to open this book. In fact, it all starts out fairly normal, yet the words and events still carry a sharp edge to them. We first meet Mira when she’s on a plane on Christmas Eve during a blizzard. The plane hits turbulence, and the stress that Mira feels about this, despite being a frequent flyer, nearly oozes off the pages. 

A lot of the creepy things that happen in the early pages of this book are easily explained away. I love how Mira questions her paranoia and isn’t sure if anything malicious is actually going on.  The four strangers that she’s traveling with are all “normal” at a surface level, but there are little unsettling quirks and unlikeable personality characteristics that make themselves known the longer they travel together.  Harper seems to have two different personalities that don’t quite mesh.  Brecken seems like a nice pre-med student, yet he says several misogynistic things that bring his “niceness” into question.  Josh also comes across as kind, but he can be condescending and pushy.  Kayla is the quiet one in the group, and she is sleeping far too much.  They all have their secrets, even Mira, who’s pretending to be a college student out of fear that they wouldn’t let her tag along if she told them she was still in high school. 

Throughout the novel, we’re made privy to the content of letters to Mira that were mailed to her over the last year.  Last year Mira’s Aunt Phoebe died after a long battle with cancer, and when she was in the hospital, a kind stranger bought her a coffee. While it’s obvious that Mira doesn’t remember this stranger, the stranger remembers her. These letters detail this stranger’s growing obsession with her, and it quickly becomes clear that they’ve found her. They’re one of the four strangers she’s travelling with–but which one? 

While the events escalate quite gradually, the book is far from boring. Every little possibly innocuous thing that goes wrong seems suspicious.  Not only is one of the strangers potentially dangerous, but they’re also battling the elements and other unpredictable obstacles in their journey home.  I did notice that the group tended to have long, drawn out conversations while outside the car a few too many times. Maybe blizzards are different in the US than in Canada (I mean, I’m sure they are), but I was expecting the snow and ice that was causing thirty-car pileups on the highway to be a deterrent for standing outside and chatting. That said, emotions were running high, and if they’re afraid to get back into the car with strangers, maybe a little frostbite is preferrable to being shanked by a new “friend”. Aside from this little criticism, the events of this book are quite plausible, making this into one of the more realistic psychological thrillers that I’ve read in a while.

I recommend this book to anyone looking for an intense slow-burn thriller featuring suspicious characters, questionable choices, and unpredictable weather.

*Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and Netgalley for the ebook to review*
*This review will be posted to https://powerlibrarian.wordpress.com/ and other platforms on October 10, 2020*

Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards will suck you into a snowstorm of stress and second guessing yourself. I can’t recommend a more perfect spooky read to launch you into a fall mood and make you feel jumpy right before Halloween.

After spending the semester in sunny San Diego at art school with her dad, Mira is anxious to get home for Christmas with her mom in Pennsylvania. Their duo used to be a trio—Mira, her mom, and her Aunt Phoebe did everything together until Aunt Phoebe died of cancer exactly one year. However, during her layover, she learns that her second leg has been cancelled, thanks to a record-breaking snowstorm. To make matters worse, when she calls her stepfather to check on her mom, he reveals that they’re getting a divorce—and her mom never told her. 

More desperate than ever to get home to her emotional mother who surely needs her, she accepts the ride offered by her seatmate on the plane, Harper, who’s driving home with a group of her college friends. From the very beginning, Mira has a bad feeling about these friends. Both boys, Brecken and Josh, seem like nice guys, but are looks deceiving? Kayla, meanwhile, sleeps slumped against the window for the majority of the drive, and when she is awake, she says weird, random things that make Mira’s skin crawl. Still, she trusts Harper, and if these are Harper’s friends, she should be safe.

Then, at their first stop, Harper notices that her wallet is missing. Fingers start to point. Apparently, these four aren’t all friends, like Mira originally assumed, but total strangers. Next, Josh’s book goes missing. Then, Mira’s phone. Finally, the map. This is too much to be a coincidence. Meanwhile, the storm continues to get worse and worse. Pileups dot the snowy roads and drivers can’t see even a few feet in front of them. Mira tries to fight her growing instinct to panic, telling herself that she’s overreacting, but finally, the evidence is too great to ignore. Someone in the car doesn’t want them to reach their location.

Now, this is a pretty typical thriller, but I applaud it for keeping me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Every time I would start to grow complacent, start to think, “Oh, maybe I can trust this guy,” something shifts, and suddenly, I wasn’t so sure anymore. Although I had an idea of who was behind it all (and I turned out to be right), I kept second guessing myself until the very last page. Mira second guesses not only the people around her, but her own judgement. In the end, her judgement turns out to be wrong, leading her to question if she can trust herself at all. 

Beyond the suspense, I really appreciated that this story wasn’t just action, but it had an emotional core as well. For most of the novel, Mira’s thoughts are dominated by worry for her mother. This worry is what drives her to fight so hard to get home, sometimes making unwise decisions. I also enjoyed her dynamic with the other four characters. Mira is still in high school, making her younger than everyone else, and it was interesting to watch that play out on the page. I’m used to always being the youngest in the room, so I related to Mira’s feelings of smallness and ignorance. 

My main complaint would probably be the ending. While I enjoyed how it played out, and I wouldn’t change what happens, I wish it had been drawn out more. The novel ends pretty quickly once the mystery sabotager is found, and I wish we had more time in the aftermath with Mira, her mother, and her best friend. 

Overall, this is a quick, fun, gripping October read, perfect for this season. For all you thriller fans out there, I highly recommend it!

“Stranger danger” is something that’s been ingrained in me ever since childhood, and I suspect I should thank it for keeping me alive this long. Still, there are times when you have no other choice than to rely on a stranger, whether it be for a few extra quarters at the cash register or a ride home.

While I’d love to believe that we live in a perfect world and every human I come across is as opposed to randomly murdering me as I am, we’ve all heard the real-life horror stories where someone trusted a stranger they shouldn’t have. It’s rare, but it’s a fear we all hold in the back of our minds, warning us of the potential dangers lurking behind every pair of eyes we come across on the street.

Five Total Strangers flawlessly embodies this anxiety.

When Mira had no other option but to hitch a ride with four other strangers, I found myself fearing for her from the get-go, even when nothing nefarious had yet to occur. The plot's genius lies in its setup: five strangers in one car, trapped by a blizzard. There’s no escaping.

As a result, Richards’ extraordinary writing takes center stage as the relationships — or what little of them — between characters slowly started to form tensions that are just waiting to explode. Every character had their own flaws, strengths and suspicions, but they’re each so nuanced it’s impossible to know who to distrust.

This uncertainty made every bone-chilling, jaw-dropping event that occurred all the more fearsome, as I felt just as confused as Mira herself. After all, can you ever truly believe what a stranger tells you?

As with any thriller, Richards ensured to throw in a fair share of twists and turns throughout the plot to keep me on my toes. Without giving away too much, one of my favorite additions was the unique and downright terrifying use of mysterious letters that were interjected between some chapters.

What made the novel truly shine was how easy it was to place myself in Mia’s shoes. Besides being a relatable and well-developed character, her reactions never made me throw up my hands in frustration like some other thrillers might. This is not to say I necessarily agree with every choice she made, but it does mean her actions were always in-tune with her character — not because the story needed something to happen. Like any human being, she questioned her intuition, fell victim to others’ lies and allowed fear to cloud her judgment.

While it also touched on grief and loss, this theme of constantly doubting your own instincts and wishes just to please others is one that resonated well, and I expect many readers will connect to it.

Ultimately, it all leads up to one twisty, pulse-pounding finale that pulled all the pieces together perfectly. When many thrillers struggle to have a worthwhile ending, Five Total Strangers is a welcome exception to the trend. While it’s not complete perfection and some readers may have to suspend their disbelief during some moments, Richards still wholeheartedly delivered on her promises — and then some. And, after finally knowing how everything fits in place, I’m looking forward to completing a second read.

If that’s not evidence of a book’s success, then I’m not sure what is.

I didn't even realize this was more of a YA book when requested but that didn't matter.  Started off really strong, then just as I thought it was starting to drag a bit it picked right up again. I ended up really enjoying this book.  A bit of a creep factor, fast paced and a lot of fun!

This is my first experience with Richards' writing - and I am quite sure that it won't be my last! This one is suspenseful from the very start! Mira is trying to get home to her mother for Christmas. Her mother, still grieving for the twin sister that passed a year earlier, also inspires plenty of guilt in Mira for abandoning her for the other side of the country for school. But inclement weather disturbs Mira's travel plans and she decides to ride share in a rental car with four other people - and it's not long before everyone is doubting one another, things go missing and sabotage is suspected. 

The book is fast-paced and chilling! It's easy to sympathize with Mira and it's hard to predict all the twists and turns of the plot. I think that this one has a great visual appeal too, and it would be easy to see this as thrilling film. Tension mounts from almost every angle and while the ending may leave a few things unaddressed, it doesn't stop this from being a satisfying winter thriller from start to finish! And while Mira's age makes this more of a YA read, I think that adult readers would also be riveted by her plight. It will certainly make you think twice about driving or flying in a snowstorm!