Member Reviews

It was a clever, if slightly confusing juxtaposition of the two, fairly similar couples in the ski resort. Unfortunately I didn’t feel any great sympathy with any of them, to the extent of thinking “will you hurry up and just die!”
I say ‘confusing’, and I suppose this was the aim of the story...but even by the time I’d almost finished, I kept having to sit back and think...”now..which one were they, again?”

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At a ski resort, while a rich businessman is trying to impress a potential new client, a body is discovered on the mountain of a skier who went missing 20 years previously. The story switches between the past and present to uncover the identity of the missing skier as well as the unexpected connection to those now staying in this same resort.

The story is told from the point of view of different characters and this does well to demonstrate the miscommunication and misinterpretations that different people have of the same situation. There is not really much to like about the characters in the story, which is a shame, but the plot is interesting enough.

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I was gifted my copy for the blog tour.

This was so so good! Even more so than i expected it to be. In 1998 two men go skiing in a blizzard and only one is ever found. 20 years later, four people who are somehow connected to the missing man end up on holiday in the resort, and two of those have blood on their hands and someone is after revenge.

Told over a timeline of the past, present and then from a third perspective we start to discover what happened on that fateful day in 1998. I really enjoy a past and present timeline where we discover what happened at first sight but over time we start to see there really is more than the initial narrative suggests.

I really enjoyed discovering the characters and their hidden secrets, why they behaved the way they did and i especially enjoyed discovering how they were all connected thats the one piece of the puzzle that took me the longest and was well worth the wait.

Overall this was a thrilling exciting debut that is the perfect winter thriller. Its tense, dramatic and so in depth. It was carefully weaved together over a long timeline that gave the reader a really enjoyable experience.

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#thecharlet by Catherine Cooper has been on my tbr pile for a little while now. A perfect cosy Christmas murder mystery read. It had me gripped from the first page.

An easy page turner The Chalet follows a group of people who all return to a French skiing resort, the same one where a murder happend years ago. However, they are all linked to this murder but how and what truly happened that day?

Catherine Cooper creates an intense atmosphere with her descriptions of the characters and the setting. As having been skiing myself I could picture the mountains, the skiing and the lodges quite easily. Each chapter is relatively small and you are drip fed a little but more each time, which I love and keeps you reading untill suddenly the book closes and you learn who did!

An intense and gripping and murder mystery perfect for a cosy winters night!

#bookstagrammer #chellsandbooks #thriller #mystery #book #review #christmasreview #christmas #catherinecooper #thechalet

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Ten years ago Henry and Keelin Kinsella had a party at their luxury home on the island of Inisrun. During the party there is a violent storm cutting off the power. The next day the body of Nessa Crowley is discovered in the garden. Who killed her? Nobody could leave the island, so the murder should be easy to solve!! Henry is to blame but no one is convicted of the crime.

Ten years later a film crew arrives to investigate wha did kill Nessa and Henry is keen to clear his name. Everyone on the island is to be interviewed, but are some secrets best kept buried!!

I love a good murder mystery. I loved that it was set in a close knit community with the storm adding a dramatical touch. I had fun looking at all the party guests trying to work out who killed Nessa.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.

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A fantastic psychological thriller with an ending you'll never see coming.
Set perfectly, highly descriptive, adding to the suspense.
Well written, brilliantly crafted and definitely worth reading

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This book started off quite slow & to be honest I wasn't sure if I would finish it - however I decided to spend a lazy Sunday & try to get into the story.

Fast forward 4 hours & I have just turned the last page & I'm really pleased I persevered! Lots of twists, turns & flashbacks to the past had me gripped trying to figure out exactly who was who. Wouldn't hesitate to read more from this author

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I enjoyed this gripping thriller. Read quickly in one sitting.

Many thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

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The Chalet by Catherine Cooper attracted me immediately. The cover is divine and it felt like it was beckoning to me, inviting me in to read this tantalising book! I was invited on the Blog Tour amd immediately snatched my chance.
This is a suspenseful debut thriller set in the fictional ski resort of La Madiere France is so fantastically twisty. There are plenty of thrills to be had without needing to leave your sofa or subject yourself to the freezing temperatures there.
The story begins in 1998, December. Two brother have taken their girlfriends on a skiiing trip. A decision to go off piste with a couple of guides just to spend a bit of time with their competitive sibling rivalry turns into so much more when the weather turns. Only one brother comes back. Twenty years later a group of four people arrive at the same resort for a week of luxury. These people arw the ones who solve this mystery. A moment where past and present collide, the key to the identity of the killer being held by more than one person after all these years.
The story is written in alternating timelines and I do enjoy a dual time line! Keeps me glued to the story. The brothers Will amd Adam in 1998 and then January 2020, Hugo and his wife Ria desperately schmoozing Simon, A prospective investor in Hugo's business. I always get carried away as the tension rises as the story unfolds and events grow more and more relevant. There is also another anonymous child who tells us of their neglected childhood. How they had to become independant to survive, now thus had me so curious, I was dying to discover the relevance to the main plot.
This story is one where the author has transported me to a rich mans world, with the vividness of the writing. I have never and will never experience skiing and the luxuriousness of the surroundings, I felt part of it all. Immersed so much time slipped away constantly!
A really enjoyable and very well written debut. Thanks to Random Things Tours, Harper Collins UK and NetGalley for the copy of the book to write my review today.

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A truly original, captivating storyline. I enjoyed every page of this book, it was full of interesting characters that you come to love, or hate. An interesting story, exciting at times, with a great ending which wasn't expected at all.

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Note to self: do not go on a ski trip in the French Alps. Bad things happen there...

Two brothers and their current girlfriends go for a holiday at La Madiere, France, in December of 1998. Unfortunately, the brothers, Adam and Will, don't get along very well and matters come to a head while they are out skiing off piste as a terrible winter storm comes in. Abandoned by their guides, one of them is found the next morning and the other is not.

Flash forward to 2020. A luxurious chalet and several well-heeled guests trying to work a business deal while enjoying the fabulous skiing, the delicious food, copious amounts of alcohol, and the attention of their own personal chalet girl making sure that every need is met. Hugo and Ria Redbush own a holiday booking company and are looking to partner with Simon as an investor so they really want to impress him and his young wife, Cass. The foursome is definitely not meshing but everyone is playing his or her part as the week goes by. Lots of little irritations start to cause cracks in relationships and it seems that everything comes to a head when another severe winter storm paralyzes the resort. Then, a news report reveals that the body of a skier has been found after an avalanche. NO SPOILERS.

The synopsis is a little misleading but I did enjoy this book despite its similarity to Ruth Ware's ONE BY ONE that I read earlier this year. This is a revenge story and, despite the fact that all of the characters are pretty much miserable, unlikable creatures, I did feel some empathy for a couple of them. The writing was excellent and I liked the way the story unfolded through the time shifts and points of view between 1998 and present day. It made for a great winter read and, though I guessed at most of what was coming, the revelations were tantalizing as they dropped.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers for this e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend.

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I always know I am enjoying a book when I wake up early to read. This is a great debut novel and a real page turner. Interesting, some nasty characters, with a few twists and turns along the way. A great holiday read.

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Great read. The 2 timelines were really well interwoven and the characters well written. Really enjoyed it.

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A debut thriller by an author to keep an eye out for in the future. Set in the Ski resorts of France, it was a suspenseful read that races along at a good pace so that I managed to read it on 2 wet afternoons. Highly recommended

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I loved this book as it was written in such an easy to read way with just enough suspense to keep me reading just one more chapter. Set in then and now chapters it is the viewpoint of several.characters, one who remains anonymous until the end although I did guess who she was.
The story is set around a ski resort where two.brothers holidaying with their partners are involved in a tragic accident where one of them dies. Fast forward 20 years to the present day when the body of the missing brother is found. Was someone to blame for the death,, should someone be made responsible? A fast paced tale of guilt and retribution. Such a good read!

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This book was so, so good! I finished it in under 3 days which I think is the quickest I’ve read any book this year.

The writing was wonderful and the characters great, even those that you disliked were still very readable and I just wanted to know what was going to happen next. I was so gripped I didn’t even try to figure out what was going on so was perhaps a little slow on picking up on some hints that were dropped along the way!

I enjoyed the change in view point of the chapters, it lent itself to the changes in time period and the way the story unfolded. It really helped you get to know the characters as well. I won’t tell you who I liked and didn’t as I don’t want to accidentally give anything away.

I feel it is worth mentioning that trigger warnings for rape and child neglect are needed for this one as well, so if either of those are triggers for you, you may want to avoid this book.

If you want a gripping crime read with a dose of strangers trapped together thrown in then this is definitely the book for you. I very much hope we get more books from Catherine cooper as well, this was excellent for a debut and didn’t feel like it at all so I can’t wait to see what she can write going forwards.

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Twenty years ago two young brothers went on a skiing trip to the alps with their girlfriends and took a guided tour up the mountain. However the tour took a turn for the worst and conditions deteriorated while the brothers were out with one going missing and the other ending up in hospital.

Twenty years on at the same ski resort the body of the missing brother is found which drives the events during a terrible snow storm. This brings back the surviving brother Adam and the two tour guides who have both moved on in different ways with their lives.

What follows is a murder mystery in perfect surroundings.

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I was enthusiastic about this novel, recommended to me by Netgalley since I'd previously read a much enjoyed ski resort murder mystery.

The premise of this one was intriguing, but I found it lost it's way in the middle. The characters were unlikable, and lacked depth. I found it all a little superficial and dashed, guessing the 'whodunit' culprits early on.

By no means was this a bad novel, and I did not give up on it, but sadly it lacked the potential it illustrated at the outset.

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Thank you NetGalley, Catherine Cooper and the publishers HarperCollins UK, Harper Fiction for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Well done Catherine Cooper. This is the first full-length novel that this lady has published and I think that she has done a marvellous job to keep me entertained from cover to cover. If your next full-length novel is as good and hoping better than this one I am very much looking forward to reading it and I shall be keeping my eyes out for its release.

I was really looking forward to reading this book as I knew from the tittle that it would have a few twists and turn thrown in. I loved this book. I got annoyed with one of the characters, I could of easily thrown my shoe at her and smacked her around the face a few times but this did not stop me from liking the book.

I would recommend this book to people who like reading thrillers and stories which have dark plots and twists and turns.

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The Chalet is the perfect thriller to get stuck into in Winter and had me daydreaming of the beautiful lodges and luxurious hot tubs whilst doing the school run in the pouring rain. For me, the sign of a good book is that I think about it when I'm not reading it and am looking forward to getting back into reading. And The Chalet did exactly this. Two couples are on a 'networking' holiday in the French alps and one of them is somehow linked to two male tourists who had been in an incident at the resort years earlier and one had ended up dead. So the whole book is the gradual unwinding of personalities, relationships and secrets that kept me constantly trying to figure out who the link was and how. I did my usual of guessing totally wrong in the 'who dunnit' game and so when the reveals happened I was shocked and loved the twists. I also really liked how the book ended, it just felt really satisfying as there were no ambiguities and no loose ends.
I flew through this book and will definitely be reading more from this author in the future. This book definitely didn't feel like a debut novel.

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