by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Publisher: William Morrow
Pages: 384
Format: ARC
Buy the Book: Amazon
Goodreads: The dead of winter.
An isolated island off the coast of Maine.
A man.
A woman.
A sinister house looming over the sea ...
He's a reclusive writer whose macabre imagination creates chilling horror novels. She's a down-on-her-luck actress reduced to staging kids' puppet shows. He knows a dozen ways to kill with his bare hands. She knows a dozen ways to kill with laughs.
But she's not laughing now. When she was a teenager, he terrified her. Now they're trapped together on a snowy island off the coast of Maine. Is he the villain she remembers or has he changed? Her head says no. Her heart says yes.
It's going to be a long, hot winter.
Kritters Thoughts: Annie is returning home to lay claim on a home from her past that she must inhabit for 60 days per an agreement between her mother and step father. She must return to this house in the dead of winter on an island off of Maine and tough it out while having memories of her childhood haunt her. Theo is a part of these childhood memories that are haunting and he is living in his family's home trying to work on his next novel.
Their love story was great. I loved the ups and the downs and the realizations they each had to make to get to where they ended up. My favorite secondary character was a young, sweet girl named Livia who had been through a lot, but actually helped the other characters learn more about themselves through her. She wins a prize for top secondary character in my book.
The only thing that really got me hung up was the opinionated ventriloquist puppets. From the beginning when they provided their opinions in Annie's mind, I was weirded out and didn't love it and ended up ignoring them. For me the story would have been just fine without their thoughts.
As in all Susan Elizabeth Phillips books, there is an ultimate love story and usually they are doomed lovers and this one worked so well. I loved that this couple had a past so it was not insta love and instead a long slow burn of love.
Side note - this book just came out and as it is nearing the end of summer, I would say purchase it, but you may want to hold off reading it until the weather gets a little cooler, it was weird to read this book with a sunburn!
Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row
Ebook 2014 Challenge: 50 out of 100
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one copy of this book free of charge from HarperCollins. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.
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