The first 1/2 of this was a little slow moving, but once it picked up the pace I could not set it down. Everything was almost *too* mysterious at first. I liked how the story randomly included ambiguous flashbacks as we slowly unraveled the truth. Once the halfway point hit, the pace definitely picked up. Rich people behaving badly is almost too relaxed of an explanation for this one. Diabolical rich people. This was definitely a twisty story. I never knew what to believe and Everytime I thought I knew…wrong. I’m hovering between a 3-4 so in my heart it’s a 3.5.

4.5 *

This was a fun fats paced read! I went into it somewhat blindly and chose not to read the blurb (I'm sure that I read it at some point but I sure don't remember 😂).

I loved the amnesia part of this story because our FMC doesn't remember her life before she was adopted and I mean I'm sure most people would want to know but even her adoptive parents werent great and it seems like there was more to the story there as well.

Theo and her fiance are going to his family's cabin! Yes they are LOADED. And with money comes judgement, a lot of judgement and seeing if this new lady is worthy of joining the family. They were all so concerned with Theo's secrets but it seems like Connor and his family may be the ones that need to be worried about secrets.

And let me tell y'all, the secrets SPILLED OUT! Definitely had fun with this one!

Thanks netgalley!

A

✨A KILLING COLD ✨

4.5/5⭐️

READ IF YOU LOVE:
📖 Short Bingeable Chapters
🧮 Complex plots
💰 Wealthy/Dysfunctional Families
🤫 Uncovering Secrets
🔒 Isolated Locations

SHORT DESCRIPTION:
Theo, and her fiancé, Connor, fall in love and get engaged within 6 months. He then asks her to meet his (very wealthy) family and spend time with them for a few weeks at their private mountain estate. The problem is that she is receiving warning texts about Connor and the Dalton family.

Once she arrives at the estate her reoccurring nightmares return and she starts to have visions. The only issue is that they’re fragmented and not from great memories either. Something bad clearly happened, but what?

REVIEW:
Kate Alice Marshall has yet to disappoint me with her novels. She has an incredible talent of painting the scene as if you’re right there with the characters. Her characters themselves also have so much depth that it’s hard not to root for them, specifically Theo and Connor. The twists and turns were SO good that I audibly said “What the f***” several times out loud. THANK GOD MY KIDS WEREN’T AROUND.

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest feedback.

Thank you to Kate Alice Marshall, Flatiron Brooks, and NetGalley for an arc of this novel in exchange for my honest review. Set to release on February 4, 2025.

This is my second book by this author. My first was What Lies in the Woods and it was one of my top reads of 2024. I enjoyed this one a little less than her previous book I read. This story centers around Theo, who is invited to her fiancé's, Connor, family retreat. Theo has little to no recollection of her earlier years. She was adopted at the age of 4 and only has fragments of her childhood memories. When she finds a photo of herself as a child, taken at this very same retreat, she begins to put the pieces of the puzzle together. The only problem is that Connor Dalton's family, although initially warm and welcoming, have a hosts of secrets that they are determined to keep hidden. They are rich, entitled, menacing and they always get their way.

What I enjoyed the least was that it starts off as a slow burn, but then towards the middle, it becomes crazy, frantic, and seemingly rushed. There were all of these "coincidences", but after I finished the book, it started to feel like in reality, they weren't even close to plausible.

Aside from that, I love a locked room mystery and I found the title to be true, as some of the twists and turns were truly "chilling", making for the perfect winter read. I was constantly questioning Connor and his motives for bringing Theo to this secluded cabin in the middle of winter and with all the red herrings, I found myself not knowing who to trust, which carried throughout until the very end. I found the parts where Theo's memory started to come back very tense and had me on the edge of my seat and I was pleased with the conclusion.

If you're a fan of locked room mysteries, secrets, twists, a strong female character, and super sus dark and twisty rich families, this is the book for you!

I received a free eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I’ve read and enjoyed a few of Kate Alice Marshall’s books, usually as a Book of the Month choice (and of course, it’s on the list for this month! At least I didn’t buy it). This ended up being weirdly similar to The Ghostwriter, which I read right before, so I’m already starting to mix the plots together in my brain. Like Olivia in that novel, Theo has a mysterious past she’s hiding from her partner (although he’s obviously MUCH more involved in the story than Olivia’s husband was). There’s also some interesting overlap about how memories work, and how unreliable they can be, even if we think we know exactly what happened.

After a whirlwind romance of only a few months, Theo is engaged to Connor Dalton, one of the heirs to the Dalton Family Fortune (they…have a company. It’s a little Succession-ish. Big family fortune, lots of shady stuff happening on the side, lots of talk of protecting the family’s image, and of course lots of evidence of how easy it is to get away with stuff when you have enough money). As his fiancee, Olivia is invited to the sacred family retreat, where they all gather in their mountain cabins for some unspecified amount of time before Christmas (it’s seriously weird - there’s no mention of how long they’re supposed to be there, and there’s also no cell service or WiFi up on the mountain, so how are these big time Company Folks actually doing their jobs? At first I thought they were just going for Christmas week, but they’re there for a really long time and it’s just…like random festive activities, but Christmas never actually seems to come). Usually such a short relationship wouldn’t “qualify” someone to be invited, but since they’re engaged, the family made an exception. They’re about as welcoming as you’d expect.

Olivia has a tragic past she’s been keeping hidden - her mother died when she was a little girl (she has recurring nightmares about it, but only seems to remember the barest details - it was winter, there was snow, there was a scary man with antlers, and her mother wore a red scarf), and she was raised by a foster family. Things with the foster family were grim, and didn’t exactly end well (we do learn the specifics on that eventually). She’s sketched the basics for Connor, but they haven’t been together that long, and although she didn’t pursue him *because* of his money, it certainly doesn’t hurt to know she’ll be taken care of with him as her husband. But being at the family compound seems to make her nightmares worse. She knows for a fact she’s never been to this place before, but something about it feels familiar, and the older members of Connor’s family seem like they recognize her. But when she finds a photo of herself as a child, she realizes this place may actually hold the key to her past, including what really happened to her mother.

It’s fun and twisty, and I think I probably would have enjoyed it more had I not read it literally *immediately* after I finished The Ghostwriter. It’s just too similar! Without giving too much away, the whole unraveling of the final night is weirdly similar (that thing where you think it’s one person and you construct the whole narrative of what went down…but then it turns out that story is incorrect and THIS is what happened - we go through that a few times). This isn’t quite my favorite flavor of “rich people behaving badly” - it’s actually a little too realistic on that front! The ways the Daltons are able to just do whatever they want because they have money and lawyers (and money to hire more lawyers!) is truly infuriating.

Money will make you do crazy things to protect your fortune, family, and reputation. The rich seem to believe they are above the law as long as they are protecting their interests. I enjoyed reading this story of a woman trying to find out where she came from and what those secrets may mean for her future. She finds herself immersed in a family that is hiding some major secrets and she is trying to figure out the truth vs the lies they have told. There are a lot of characters both living and deceased to keep track of, which can make it confusing at times, but totally worth the read.

I literally squealed out loud when I got an ARC of this book, and now that it’s one of BOTM’s January options (check out the link in my bio!) and about a month away from pub day, I have no hesitations about telling you that I loved loved loved this book. It starts out slow, but I promise you that by the middle you’ll not want to put it down. Between the remote location, the narrator’s memory loss, and the surprise ending, this was an instant hit for me. You’ll want to add this to your preorder list ASAP!! Thanks to Kate Alice Marshall, @flatiron_books , and @netgalley for my advanced copy, which in no way affected my honest review!


𝗦𝗬𝗡𝗢𝗣𝗦𝗜𝗦: Theo is finally going to meet her fiancé Connor’s old money family at their remote winter retreat, and she’s already on edge. She’s been receiving threatening texts to stay away, and Connor has been asking more questions about her past: questions she can’t answer because she can’t remember anything about her life before she was school age. The Dalton’s are less than welcoming, someone’s been spying on her every move, and the place gives her a disquieting sense of déja vu, but all of that pales in comparison when she finds a photograph of herself as a toddler in one of the abandoned cabins. Theo has been here before, the memory buried deep within her psyche. But uncovering the answers about her past means uncovering Dalton family secrets, and putting herself in mortal danger.

I may have the unpopular opinion with this one, but I didn't love it. I have mostly enjoyed this author's YA books. Rules for Vanishing is my favorite. I previously enjoyed What Lies in the Woods, but was pretty disappointed with her other adult thriller No One Can Know. This one falls somewhere in the middle of those two for me. I liked the atmosphere. It is definitely perfect for this time of year (winter). I wasn't super invested in any of the story though. I have a really hard time getting into stories where the main character has amnesia and the entire plot is just them trying to remember stuff. It very rarely works for me. I didn't think this book was bad. It just wasn't for me.

Theodora is engaged to Connor, who is quite wealthy and a member of the elite Dalton family. They instantly fell in love and six months later, he's brought her back to his family's isolated winter retreat to win over his skeptical relatives. Theo starts receiving threatening messages to stay away from Connor and has the sense she's been at this cabin before.

I have read the author's previous two books and this is by far my favorite of her recent books.
I love a good locked room mystery and the remote cabin setting in the middle of winter was perfect right now. This is very bingeable with some really good family drama, lots of hidden secrets, and some fun red herrings to keep you guessing up until the end.

Highly recommend on audio - narrated by Karissa Vacker who is one of my favorite thriller narrators. The story is single POV but she uses different voices to narrate for the large cast. .


Recommend if you enjoy:
Locked room mysteries
Rich people behaving badly
Remote winter cabin setting
Winter thrillers
Family secrets

A Killing Cold is an atmospheric psychological thriller set at a wealthy family’s estate in the dead of winter. The protagonist is there with her fiancé to meet his family. After she arrives, she has strange flashbacks that indicate that she might’ve been there before. Strange things happen and mysterious circumstances are slowly revealing until the intensely riveting conclusion. The winter setting drew me in. For fans of Lisa Unger and Mindy Mejia.

❄️🧣📚 A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall 📚🧣❄️
Genre: Thriller
Length: 304 pages
Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for the e-ARC of this book. The opinions stated here are solely my own.

Synopsis:
Theodora Scott, a girl with a mysterious and tragic past, has fallen in love with Connor Dalton, a man from an extremely wealthy family. After six months, they are engaged and finally going to meet Connor's family at his family winter retreat, Idlewood. While there, Theo tries to win over Connor's difficult family, but has also been receiving mysterious threatening messages to stay away from Connor.

As she gets to know the Dalton's strange memories from her forgotten childhood begin to resurface and she can't help but wonder why Idlewood starts to feel familiar... Will Theo connect the dots? Can she truly trust Connor, whom she has only really known for six months? As the winter weather worsens, Theo tries to decide whether she should stay and dig deeper into the Waltons secrets, or run away and risk never knowing what haunted her past.

Opinion:
I was really invested in this book from start to finish! The more you read, the more complicated and twisted the Daltons' family secrets become. I loved how each character in the family had different motivations and backstories of their own, all of which kind of came together for the big reveal. I always enjoy a rich family's dark drama as part of a thriller and this one was done perfectly. Theo was also a very strong female character and I loved how she was able to trust her own instincts to get to the bottom of her past, present, and future. Great book!

💙I’ve loved this author’s previous two thriller books so I was super excited to get an early copy of her next one!

📘Family drama, devastating secrets, sinister plots, and a claustrophobic setting all combine to make this a page-turner. You never quite know who to trust in this one.

❄️A perfect winter thriller read and the audio is done really well. Definitely recommend it if you like a thriller that is heavier on the family drama and mystery.

*Thank you to Flatiron Books, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the gifted ARC and ALC in exchange for my honest review*

OKAY KATE ALICE MARSHALL!! This is a fabulous winter thriller. An amnesiac's visit to her fiance's family's cabins reveals more than anyone could've predicted. This book is chilling in more ways than you'd expect: the cold, the terrible crimes that occur(red), and the constant sense that one of Thea's memories is on the cusp of returning. And the narration really helped build the tension of the story!

I love a thriller where you can't know who to trust, especially when the characters are rich people behaving badly. We constantly ping-pong between comfort and stress, I swear this book took a year off my life. The scarf visuals alone? Oh my god. The ending/epilogue was a bit abrupt, but I really enjoyed this quick read.

Wow! It’s been a long time since a book hooked me from the very beginning and had me on the edge of my seat right through to the very end. I devoured this book in less than 24 hours.

This book had a good bit of everything - class struggles, family secrets, a child raised by foster parents with nothing but snippets of her life that flash by in nightmares. I tend to be pretty good at picking up on plot twists, but this one let me guessing. The atmosphere is perfect - stranded on a mountain that’s one part playground for the ultra wealthy and one part a burial ground for deep, dark secrets. The only drawback for me was that the book, at times, could be a little TOO twisty and the lines between people and events sometimes felt abrupt and rushed.

Overall, a great book. Perfect reading for a cozy winter night - especially if there’s snow falling outside.

This was a fast paced thriller that kept me turning the pages. The setting was perfect, a secluded mountain house, snow, and Christmas time. The family is just as you would expect, wealthy and secretive, with multiple character flaws. The mystery was also pretty good. The only reason I didn't give more stars is because the ending was extremely lackluster compared to the build-up from the rest of the book.

Wow! What’s a cold thrilling trip I just took! Amazing read, taking you on a wild adventure of love, lost and truth. Highly recommend, easy to follow and captures your attention out the gate!

Kate Alice Marshall knows exactly how to raise my heart rate with her suspenseful, twisty, and atmospheric thrillers. This one combines rich people behaving badly with a secluded location and long-buried secrets to create the perfect winter read. I was kept wondering what was going to happen next the entire time. I read this one over five days with my booksta besties but you’ll definitely want to binge it on a cold night. None of us wanted to stop each day and it was really hard to stick to our schedule!

If you haven’t preordered this one yet and loved Kate’s previous works…go ahead and add it to the cart because you’re not going to want to miss it!

4.5/5⭐️

This is the third adult thriller that I’ve read from Kate Alice Marshall and I think A Killing Cold is her best yet! Theodora “Theo” Scott and her fiance Connor Dalton head up to Connor’s family’s mountain home for the holidays. However, Theo started receiving threatening texts from an unknown number to “stay away” from Connor. On the mountain, there is a main lodge and some cabins, one of which she stays in with her fiance while Connor’s family members stay in the others. While there, Theo starts to feel like she has been there before and is starting to piece together some memories from when she was a little girl. It starts to become even more clear that someone doesn’t want Theo to remember what happened to her as a kid as she continues to uncover clues that she was there on that mountain before.

This thriller was truly so fast paced that I read it in less than 24 hours—I kept needing to know what happened next. The twists and the layers to the story were done so well. I really didn’t know which characters to trust and every time I thought someone was the culprit, there was a new twist and even more tension added to the story. This thriller is also very atmospheric with the wintery mountain setting, making it a perfect book to curl up with during the winter. Overall, definitely one of the best fast-paced, high-suspense thrillers I’ve read in a while!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

TW: miscarriage, abuse of a minor
While the abuse depicted was very short in the book and not super central to the story in my opinion, it was a little jarring to me and probably what kept me from rating it a full 5 stars.

When Theo meets Connor, she hopes to leave her troubled past behind. Although things are moving fast, she’s happy to spend the holidays at Connor’s supremely wealthy family’s mountainside retreat called Idlewood. When Theo arrives, however, her soon-to-be inlaws are a bit intimidating - maybe even menacing. And then the Idlewood begins to feel familiar. Theo can’t remember anything about her early childhood, but she starts to think she may have been there before.

This is the third KAM book I’ve read, and it’s my favorite so far. A KILLING COLD is twisty, well-plotted and well-written. There are juicy secrets, multiple points of view, and shifting timelines, but the plot is easy to follow. As the plot thickens, everyone becomes a suspect and I stayed up way too late finishing it because I needed to know how the story ended.

I highly recommend this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher Flatiron Books for the early digital ARC of A KILLING COLD in exchange for my honest feedback.

4.5/5

Thank you Flatiron Books for the advanced reading copy!

I loved Kate Alice Marshall's 2023 novel WHAT LIES IN THE WOODS, but found myself a bit disappointed by her 2024 release NO ONE CAN KNOW. Luckily for all of us, 2025 is bringing with it another phenomenal, dark and atmospheric thriller. This was a great one to read at this time of year, as it has a sometimes-cozy-sometimes-ice-cold setting with lots of wintery vibes. I was hooked from the start, despite feeling that the story was going to be predictable and overdone. I was so wrong! There were so many surprises in this shocking and twisted story, and my interest didn't wane in the slightest from beginning to end. This was a quick read that I could not put down, and really nailed what I was wanting from an end-of-the-year read: entertainment, shock value, and creepy winter vibes. Loved it!