ARC Book review - The Ice Retreat by Ruth Kelly

Perfection!

Since reading (and loving) The Villa by Ruth Kelly, I’ve always waited with anticipation and excitement for new releases from her.

As you may have seen, from my belated review a couple of weeks ago, I thoroughly enjoyed The Escape too. Therefore, when the opportunity arose to read The Ice Retreat (with thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan) ahead of its November release, I jumped at the chance.

 

My review does not contain spoilers…

 

To start with, I want to say that I honestly think this is one of those books that you could read in a day if you had nothing else you needed to do. In fact, if I’d found myself on a beach etc, I think I could’ve read it in a long sitting as The Ice Retreat is a novel that pulls you in, puts its icy grip on you and you know you won’t take a breath/be able to breathe properly (or defrosted from the frozen state it puts you in) until you know WHO. WHAT. WHY. WHEN. WHERE…?

Now that I’m defrosted, and my breathing has returned to normal (although I think an early night is needed as I stayed up to finish it last night…) I am able to type this and say that I have nothing but praise for it.

I loved reading it.

I loved every part of it.

Knowing where/how Kelly drew her inspiration for, for The Villa and The Escape makes me wonder where this comes from. I am yet to read an article or ask her about the origins of this, but I am VERY intrigued. Her imagination is totally unique, special even.

This book and all its concepts are so original. Like an onion, there is layer after layer and when you think you have worked something out/know where things might be heading, off it goes again, freezing your brain further.

In my case, I was frozen solid as I did not get ANYTHING right! I fell for every red herring. If it were maths, in this case my two plus two equalled five. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Here's what particularly stood out to me:

·       Setting – it’s perfect. Intriguing, creepy, mysterious. Yet, the juxtaposition of the beauty of it works so well. If you are a visual reader and can picture as you’re reading, you’ll know what I mean.

·       Characters – well developed, all individual. I was rooting for so many of them too! In places, it certainly pulled on my heartstrings…

·       Plot – action packed. It doesn’t really let up for a moment, or lull you into any sense of relief as you constantly have the fear of what might be coming.

Yep, the big three. Setting. Characters. Plot. Kelly has, in my opinion, a piece of perfection here.

 

Often, when I write a review, I think about if a book would make a good film or TV series. I don’t always include my thoughts about this in my reviews, but here it feels relevant to.

I truly think that this would make for an enthralling series. There’s enough drama to fill a series in that you would be wanting to binge watch the lot! Therefore, it would also make a good film, I guess. I think a tad of CGI might be needed here and there (I won’t explain – I said no spoilers) but, when that’s done well, it’s effective.

So…here’s me hoping that one day I get to watch this on a screen of some sorts, unchanged as it really is perfect as it is!

I can see this book reaching the heights of the retreat itself when this book launches in November.

Oh…and if you are wondering (as I tend to mention this quite a lot)…YES, I LOVE THE COVER!!

                                                             

I would like to thank Ruth and her PR manager, Chloe, for their help when the Kindle transfer wasn’t working on NetGalley (it is now btw). Also, without Chloe’s advertising tweet about The Ice Retreat being on NetGalley, then her and Ruth’s help, I also wouldn’t have known about NetGalley. I am really enjoying reading and reviewing! Thank you both 😊