In this propulsive locked-room thriller debut, a reunion weekend in the French Alps turns deadly when five friends discover that someone has deliberately stranded them at their remote mountaintop resort during a snowstorm.When Milla accepts an off-season invitation to Le Rocher, a cozy ski resort in the French Alps, she’s expecting an intimate weekend of catching up with four old friends. It … old friends. It might have been a decade since she saw them last, but she’s never forgotten the bond they forged on this very mountain during a winter spent fiercely training for an elite snowboarding competition.
Yet no sooner do Milla and the others arrive for the reunion than they realize something is horribly wrong. The resort is deserted. The cable cars that delivered them to the mountaintop have stopped working. Their cell phones–missing. And inside the hotel, detailed instructions await them: an icebreaker game, designed to draw out their secrets. A game meant to remind them of Saskia, the enigmatic sixth member of their group, who vanished the morning of the competition years before and has long been presumed dead.
Stranded in the resort, Milla’s not sure what’s worse: the increasingly sinister things happening around her or the looming snowstorm that’s making escape even more impossible. All she knows is that there’s no one on the mountain she can trust. Because someone has gathered them there to find out the truth about Saskia…someone who will stop at nothing to get answers. And if Milla’s not careful, she could be the next to disappear…
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This book had me shivering as I read it and I did not guess the villain.
First-person narrative. We’re on this journey together with Milla. A group of friends reunites ten years later where they have lived the most important moment of their lives.
I loved that apart from the mystery around the character Saskia we get to see their life during a snowboarding competition. It shows a lot of knowledge on specific sports. But even if we have no idea about snowboarding we can relate to the spirit of competing and what it means to push beyond our capabilities. I enjoyed the twists and the author’s ability to control the story, although it was predictable to me in the middle of the book, I couldn’t put it down. The perfect book for a freezing, snowing January.
To begin with, I’m not a person with any interest in snowboarding, but I do know a brilliant thriller when I read one!
This book gripped me from the fitst page and kept me guessing throughout. All of the characters are well fleshed out (flaws as well as redeeming features) and all could be guilty of killing missing snowboarder Saskia. I was so enthralled by the story that I found myself neglecting Netflix.
A fab read and deserved 5 rating.
I’m going to start this review with I GAVE THIS BOOK FIVE STARS!!!! 2021 has taught me how to NOT give every book five stars. It’s been a rough internal battle. While there are always exceptions, I feel like any book I even sorta like deserves five stars. I haven’t managed to write a book…so I feel like those who write books deserve all the damn stars, even if I hated the book. So, who am I? A reader? Why do I have the right to review books all over the interwebs?
I’m going to move on to: THIS IS A FRIGGIN DEBUT PEOPLE! This human wrote a book, for the first time, had it published, somehow ended up on my TBR, and earned five stars from me. This is huge. I’m now super excited to read anything by Allie Reynolds.
I read three books with creepily similar themes in 2021. Ruth Ware, an icon in the thriller genre, published One By One on November 8, 2020. A bunch of people get suckered into going to a remote, mountain resort, where they all die. Then in February of 2021, Sarah Pearse published The Sanatorium (a Reese Witherspoon book club pick), where a bunch of people are enticed to a remote, mountain resort…and they all die. This book, about a group of friends lured to a remote, mountain resort…where they all die, was published between those two heavy-hitters. I fear it won’t receive the same acclaim, so little peon me is going to five start the crap out of it as many places as possible.
The backstory of this book was so much more complete than the other two similarly-themed books, which might be why I enjoyed this one more. During 2021, I got super frustrated with the back-and-forth timelines and alternating POVs, I almost didn’t want to read this one because of it. I knew I was going to endure two of my most frustrating writing themes, but I persevered. It was so compelling, I almost called in sick to work. I will not give any more information about this book, but I want the world to know that I REALLY enjoyed this one!
Debut author Allie Reynolds brings us SHIVER, a ‘locked room’ thriller that takes place at a ski resort in the French Alps during the desolate off-season. It’s ten years since Saskia Sparks’ disappearance, and the five closest people to her at that time reluctantly gather for a reunion. It quickly becomes clear that unknown persons have brought them together to finally answer the question: Which of them was involved in Saskia’s disappearance?
The story regularly switches between the present day and the time leading up to the day Saskia disappeared and it is told from the viewpoint of Milla Anderson, a fellow competitor on the professional snowboarding circuit.
It won’t take reader long to discover that Saskia is a psychopath. Her remorseless manipulation of people and events often ends with those closest to her being impacted by whatever fallout follows. I thoroughly enjoyed the antagonistic relationship between Saskia and Milla. Being in Saskia’s orbit shows Milla that she isn’t as calculating a person – in fact, Milla is often shocked at Saskia’s actions. Yet Milla’s equally competitive spirit sees her rising (lowering?) to that same level. They both enjoyed this cat-and-mouse game they were playing.
While I enjoyed the characters of Brent, Dale and Heather, it is Curtis’ story that also held my interest a lot. He’s Saskia older brother. He is not unaware of some of his sister’s machinations, and often tries to both protect Saskia and those that cross her path. His attraction to Milla makes for an interesting triangle; Saskia isn’t keen on Curtis having any partner. Milla is also attracted to Curtis but focussing on him means not focussing on snowboarding. Curtis finds himself stuck between the two.
Having said this, the book is not without its issues: There was a lot of snowboarding terminology which I tuned out early on because I just wasn’t interested. I also thought that some of the plot was implausible.
Overall, I did enjoy the story. I thought it was well paced. I enjoyed the isolated setting. I loved the many villains. The twists were clever. I found it engaging. I would recommend it.
There is nothing I love more than a good locked-room mystery/thriller, and that is exactly what I got from Shiver by Allie Reynolds. I loved the atmospheric setting of the deserted mountain lodge, and there is such a small cast of characters that you really can’t help but suspect every single one of them. The story is told through dual timelines, both from Milla’s perspective, and I loved the way Reynolds switched between the two constantly. It kept me guessing until the very end, and I really liked the way they came together. This is a pretty unlikeable cast of characters, but I didn’t mind that, and I had no idea what was going to happen. I didn’t guess it either which is always a plus! I don’t think there is anything new in the setting itself, but if you are a fan of locked-room mysteries in general, especially ones set in wintery locations, then I think you will enjoy Shiver. There are a lot of snowboarding terms so if you aren’t familiar with the sport you might be a little lost, although this didn’t actually bother me personally. I hear there will be a glossary in the next edition though so that will be very helpful!
I was hooked from the very first page but had to set the book down for a while, so when I came back to it I decided to do the audio and I’m glad I did! Olivia Vinall is the narrator for the audiobook, and I really enjoyed her narration for this. She did everything perfectly and sounded exactly the way I would have pictured Milla to sound. I think hearing her voice really helped set the tone for the whole novel and made me feel very anxious about what was going to happen next. My only small gripe about Shiver is that I did get tired of Olivia’s internal monologue as she constantly second-guesses every person she is with. I understand the need for this but wish there had been a bit less of it. Other than that this was a real winner for me, and I can hardly believe it is Reynolds’ debut! I will be definitely looking forward to seeing what she writes next.
For those who grew up loving Christopher Pike’s teenage thrillers, this is the read for you! SHIVER is fun and filled with characters that you love to hate!
This was a really fun mystery to read! I was fully engaged in everyone’s role in the missing friend of theirs and how she was kind of haunting everyone involved. The story focuses around a group of friends that had spent a winter together training for a snowboard competition. As things heated up they were all involved personally and one particular friend, Saskia, took the competition too far getting people hurt physically and emotionally.
Now 10 years later the remaining group has gotten back together for a reunion but things quickly turn into a “whodunit” scenario as they try to find out who might know what happened to the missing Saskia.
But while I loved the story, the ending really threw me and in a way I didn’t really like. It changed all the ways I enjoyed the mysterious elements of the story and really changed how I felt about the book overall.
This one kept me guessing right to the end, from the start it was gripping, I could sense the danger and the emotions of these five friends who had come together ten years after one of their friends went missing in the French Alps, invited for a reunion by who? Back to where everything went wrong, friendships destroyed, lives lost and secrets kept, is it time these secrets were uncovered?
Milla Anderson gets an invite back to the resort Le Rocher by her once friend Curtis, she was at her peak as a snowboarder the last time she was there but the last time she was there one of her friends, Curtis’s sister Saskia went missing, why the reunion now what is the point but Milla is determined to go, she holds secrets that have churned in her gut for years, but how will this weekend turn out? Once she was a snowboarder determined to win at all costs, is she still so determined these days?
Milla, Dale, Heather, Brent are there as well as Curtis, each had a lot to do with Saskia in different ways and on arrival with an icebreaker game that turns dangerous and has each of them going back to the past and the things they had done the story rolls on easily going back ten years earlier as we learn about each of the friends, all being snowboarders except Heather we learn what people will do to win and what went on in their lives.
This is such a gripping, riveting story that had my heart thumping as I turned the pages, Allie Reynolds writes with emotion as she brings these characters to life on the pages, pulled me into the story I didn’t know who to trust and who not to and there were times I was yelling at the characters in the past and now. This is a fabulous debut and one that I highly recommend, the ending stunned me, I thoroughly enjoyed it from page one and I honestly was on the edge of my seat most of the time. I do look forward to more stories form this new author.
Wow!!!! This was everything a suspense/thriller should be, down to the most minute detail. Exceptionally well written but I feel the characters could have been “fleshed out” more. This book will keep you on the edge of your seat from the beginning until the end. Hold on tight because you are about to ski down the mountain for your life.
This is not my usual type of book but I loved it. Action, mystery, romance, this book has it all and a totally unpredictable ending. It is one of the keep your friends close but your enemies closer kind of stories.
I couldn’t put this book down! I was absolutely sucked in right from the beginning. One of the things I loved about it was the fact that the story is about snowboarders and the writer herself used to be a snowboarder. It was really interesting to get an insight into the sport along with a twisty, thrilling, scary, page-turning story. I absolutely loved it.
Fantastic debut! Five former friends, and competitive snowboarders, are invited for a reunion to the exact place where they forged their friendships ten years ago. They were friends until one of them vanished from the same mountain on the morning of a competition. After that, they each went their separate ways. The invitations to the reunion are mysterious, when they arrive each of them feels as if something is not right. What secrets are they each keeping, is someone responsible for Saskia vanishing, or was it a terrible accident? Whom can they trust?
This aptly named thriller will keep you riveted in your seat. This is a great example of write what you know, and turn it into a story that will keep you guessing. This author skillfully weaves her knowledge of snowboarding with a mystery full of twists and turns. As someone who has very little knowledge of winter sports, I had no problem following this story. The characters were well developed and the storyline builds the right amount of suspense until the end. A winter thriller must-read for anyone who enjoys this genre.
“They don’t know what I did. And I intend to keep it that way.” – Shiver by Allie Reynolds
I finished reading SHIVER by @authorallier and it was so good!! 5stars! The story sucked me in and I couldn’t put it down. I had to find out what happened next. Wow!
I loved the story, the mystery, the romance, all of it!
This Thriller is Allie Reynolds DEBUT novel! It is amazing!
For those of us who read Christopher Pike’s teenage thrillers, SHIVER is a throw-back to those books. It’s fun with revelations throughout and some surprises that I never saw coming.
I don’t normally enjoy alternating chapters telling past and present stories, but both were so compelling that I couldn’t put the book down!
I could not turn the pages of this book fast enough to find out what had happened to this group of snowboarding friends, trapped in the mountains by someone who seems to know too much about them all! Gripping!