I really enjoyed this book. Yes it's a bit far fetched at times but I liked the atmospheric setting and found the plot quite tense at times.

This novel tries to be several genres, a murder mystery, a ghost story and a why/whodunnit. Dislikeable characters despite some atmospheric storytelling made this a patchy read.

Creepy and claustrophobic, a really well written read that gets under your skin slowly but surely. I really enjoyed it.

The ‘bunch of people trapped in a strange house’ sub-genre has various standard tropes and the hardest one to get perfect is 'Why are they there?’ In this case the upfront reasons are sensible but most of the group of people here assembled wouldn’t, in my opinion, have fallen for the ruses used to get them there. Given that caveat most of them behave as one might expect from their backgrounds, which are quite well drawn. The tension is maintained, and the writing is solid, so hanging on to the end is not hard. The end is a bit predictable and the eventual rationale is not terribly convincing. It would while away an afternoon but not if it is raining for there is too much of that already.

There is an awful lot to like in this story. It's really atmospheric, creepy and full of plot twists.. with the constant "who done it" concept thrown in for good measure.

The characters are well written and the whole group dynamics worked really well

BUT.. in all honesty it got a bit too busy at times, it could do with a little tweaking. At some points so much is going on at once or ends up as a brain fog.

A bit of a slow starter but it soon gets going and I enjoyed Hannah's past being brought into the present throughout the storyline.

The storyline isnt exactly original, I've read a few that felt quite similar but that being said this was an enjoyable read that kept me guessing and I didn't scan through any pages which is always a plus!

3.5* from me.

Thanks to netgalley and Harper Collins UK for the ARC.

A good thriller which keeps you guessing. Everyone loves a secluded house in bad weather story...roaring fires, hot soup, rattling rain on the roof, and dead bodies in the bedroom!

Thank you NetGalley, Harper Collins and Harper Fiction for the ARC of this book.

I felt this was part ghost story, part who-done-it and part thrilled to be honest. I liked the first part of the book but then I got confused but rooms, cellars, corridors and I started to get bored.
I liked the concept of the story but got a bit fed up with it. A good idea just needs tweaking to be better.

Hannah is a mess. She’s drinking way too much and she’s full of guilt following the death of ex-boyfriend Ban for which she is blamed by many people. She along with six other guests books a room in a remote Guest House in Co Mayo in Ireland which is in the process of renovation. Hannah goes to recuperate and sort herself out but instead she enters a twilight zone. All seven of the guest have links to the house which becomes clear as the book progresses and it’s also apparent they’re all in danger. The question is, who from? Whom can they trust? The story is principally told by Hannah in the present but also with flashbacks to her childhood.

There is plenty to like in this atmospheric story which is provided by the house itself and the unpredictable Irish weather. It has some ghostly and creepy elements and plenty of plot twists. It’s well written and I like how Hannah’s past emerges in the present and connects to the house and the people in it. I think the start is a little slow but once it gets going the pacing is good.

However, I think the plot is too busy, there’s so much going on you’re almost dizzy with the attempt to keep up. I feel some events stretch credulity although I accept many other readers really enjoy this aspect. Why, oh why, do people in novels go stumbling and bumbling around in the pitch black in a dark and very scary house usually on their own?? The instinct is to dive under the covers, or shriek, or both. How many doors, hidden secret rooms and tunnels and so on can one house have? How big is it? It feels on a par with Buck Pal. The premise is not original either as I’ve read similar books before although again I accept I’m the outlier on this one as it’s had many 4/5 star reviews.

However all the above being said, I did enjoy a lot of it. I really like the Gothic feel and if you can suspend disbelief and like a bit of chaotic murder and mayhem in a huge and creepy house then this one is definitely for you!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK, Harper Fiction for the ARC.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me.

It was very far fetched and it seemed quite unbelievable. it is not dislike other books that I have read, but it lacked the suspense premise.

Despite it being quite far fetched, it was predictable.

I couldn't warm to any of the characters.

A free holiday comes with strings. A disparate group of people think they're staying in a new Air B&B but there's a secret agenda and it's deadly. Good and gripping and multi-layered.

A story about a bunch of strangers, trapped in a remote area where spine-chilling events keep happening à la Agatha Christie fashion? Sign me up, please!

I’m not sure what I like most about these kind of stories, is it the premise or the creepy setting or is it the suspense, which holds it all together? I’d opt for a mixture of all these enchanting ingredients.

This book was a slow burner for me but I still enjoyed how the story progressed with twists and turns up to the ultimate finale where all pieces fell into place, painting a dark image of past troubling events.

All in all, I enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it.

I would like to thank the Publishers, NetGalley, and the Author for sending me a copy of this book.

Abbie Frosts’ new novel is an exciting thriller that deals with loss, the past and a mystery that unfolds whilst murder and trust become the game of the day.

The characters in the book are very well written with a three dimensional approach breathing life into their narrative with a strong artistic flow. Frost’s characters are flawed but through these, they become more real and able to make them more relatable. The character of Hannah whom we spend the entirety of the novel with, could have easily have been a character that could grate against the nerve but Frost does something quite amazing with this character and makes her likable. Considering the pretence of this character, it would have been very easy to thrust up the irritability factor of her but Frost is a master of her characters and prevents herself from doing this.

The other characters are a nice mix to keep the reader interested and although there are times that some of them kind of veer away from their personality traits, overall, they are well established. Ben becomes a character due to the imprint on Hannah’s psyche which is interesting.

Plot keeps the reader interested and what starts out as a ghost story turns into a mystery that twists and turns. There is some unexpected surprises and one that isn’t too hard to figure out but the narrative that it takes does take you in a direction you never quite expect. This becomes an extremely good asset which left me unguarded for these which helped with my enjoyment and kept me interested.

Overall, this is a great little read that has a slow burn up keeping the reader in suspense along with the main character. There are some questionable plot twists but it does keep things interesting. The ending of the novel works very well and I was totally invested in the plot and characters to the very end and indulged myself within the pages for many hours. This is an excellent read that keeps the reader invested, interested and exciting to the thrilling climax.

Seven guests. One Killer. A holiday to remember… A thrilling premise that puts a contemporary spin on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were One but it's one that I found sadly disappointing.

Unsatisfying slow and relatively predictable, The Guesthouse is a book that I found difficult to place. At times is read like a ghost story, others a chilling psychological thriller but neither followed through with potential.

Nevertheless, I've read a huge number of 5 star reviews of this book so if you like a little mystery and mayhem then The Guesthouse might be much better suited to your taste!

I was provided a preview copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, which I've repeated here.
The book starts off really well - you're given a glimpse into the future and then retrace the steps back to how you get there. I thought this set the scene well and left you just enough details to really get the sense of not quite knowing what was going on and 'whodunnit' and this sense of unease was carried on well most of the way through the book. I really enjoyed the book until towards the end when it all got a bit too unbelievable to me and I lost some of the scene setting that had otherwise had me hooked up to then. It's a balance between continuously increasing the pace and tension and setting the scene of what's going on and the balance got a bit lost towards the end, where it was slightly confusing as to where characters were and what exactly was going on.
Nevertheless a satisfying read that you could quite happily imagine as a screenplay adaptation on the BBC, for example.

Thanks very much, as eve, for teh preview copy.

This was an excellent novel that I very much enjoyed. Strong.characters and a fascinating storyline make for an exciting read. Highly recommended.

A fast paced thriller. Some of the plot ideas are good but parts are also not believable. A good read overall.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

This is a great book for curling up in front of the fire with on a dark and rainy night! A creepy old house, a cast of slightly unsettling characters and a plot full of twists and turns. Abbie Frost has crafted a really enjoyable and gripping read, which will keep you turning the pages.

The Guest House is a tense, atmospheric thriller set in a spooky old house and filled with a variety of,unusual characters . There were times when I was hoping that the author would just get on with it as I felt there was a lot of unnecessary details which sometimes broke the tension. Overall it was a satisfying read.

An excellent read and hard to put down which I love. It’s a gripping thriller and an author to look out for.
Highly recommended.

Seven stranges, a dramatic old building on a remote stretch of hillside in Ireland. A location that is difficult to access and surrounded by hills and woodland. Mysterious noises, locked doors, secret passages, hidden rooms, a tense and suspicious atmosphere amongst the guests and a vicious killer prowling the house eliminating them one at a time. Throw in gusts of wind and a thunder storm and you have the perfect ingredients for a thrilling murder mystery that is guaranteed to keep thriller readers everywhere frantically turning the pages and snarling at anyone who dares to try to interrupt whilst they are reading.

This enthralling story is narrated by our heroine Hannah who is twenty five and struggling to recover after the death of her boyfriend Ben. They had booked the trip to The GuestHouse together before he died and Hannah decides that the trip might do her some good,it would give her a chance to get away from it all. I loved Hannah, I thought she was a wonderful realistic character, who had flaws just like we all do. I loved her feistiness and her determination to uncover the truth behind her disjointed memories and dreams. I also liked Mo, his ex policeman father Sandeep and fourteen year old Chloe. I had mixed feelings about mysterious Lucy and I definitely didn't like Rosa for various reasons. I loved the setting for this book, I always think that nothing adds intensity and atmosphere to a thriller more than a isolated building, sinister looking woodland (especially at night) and trapped victims who are being stalked by a twisted psychopath does.

The GuestHouse is so well written that is is difficult to believe that this is actually a obviously very talented author's debut thriller. The characters were vivid and realistic, the story kept you guessing, had loads of unexpected twists and turns and a very intense, shocking final confrontation. Many of the chapters ended in a cliff hanger giving the reader a very bad case of just one more chapter syndrome. I would love to watch a film adaptation of this enthralling story and look forward to reading more books written by this author in the future. Worth far more than five stars and very very highly recommended.