finished reading

This is a buddy read with my niece.  She chose it.  I went into it blindly, not realizing it's a mystery horror thriller. Winter is a character in this story.  The isolation, frigid winds, abundant snow, white-outs, all of what makes winter winter are a character.  As the characters are thrown together due to a storm, they slowly get to know each other.  The slow reveal of personalities and budding camaraderie set the pace for the first half of the story.  After the major plot reveal, which I will not spoil, the tension builds!  It was well-crafted and paced second half of the story.

This book heightened my dislike of winter. 

From the publisher:

When Christa joins a tour group heading deep into the snowy expanse of the Rocky Mountains, she's hopeful this will be her chance to put the ghosts of her past to rest. But when a bitterly cold snowstorm sweeps the region, the small group is forced to take shelter in an abandoned hunting cabin. Despite the uncomfortably claustrophobic quarters and rapidly dropping temperature, Christa believes they'll be safe as they wait out the storm.

She couldn't be more wrong.

Deep in the night, their tour guide goes missing...only to be discovered the following morning, his severed head impaled on a tree outside the cabin. Terrified, and completely isolated by the storm, Christa finds herself trapped with eight total strangers. One of them kills for sport...and they're far from finished. As the storm grows more dangerous and the number of survivors dwindles one by one, Christa must decide who she can trust before this frozen mountain becomes her tomb.