TLC Book Tour: Laura Kasischke, Mind of Winter

She woke up late that morning, and knew: Something had followed them home from Russia.

Those are the first lines of this psychological thriller by Larua Kasischke, author of The Raising.  The main character of the novel is Holly Judge, a woman who, because of her genetic predisposition to aggressive reproductive cancer, has adopted a baby from Siberia.  Her beautiful daughter, Tatty, is now fifteen years old, and on Christmas morning, as soon as Holly wakes up, she realizes that something is not right.  In fact, it is possible that something has always been wrong.  Her husband rushes off to pick up his parents from the airport, and leaves Holly and Tatty alone as snow begins to fall and soon turns to a blizzard and plans for Christmas dinner are cancelled. Mother and daughter are trapped in the house together, and Tatty's behavior is growing stranger by the moment.

This book scared the pants off me. Like, if I was home alone, reading this at night, I would get scared and have trouble sleeping.  Like this was me:

Kasischke creates so much tension, and the atmosphere of the book is just so creepy; it is a thrilling thriller for sure.

There are a lot of flashbacks to when Holly and her husband go to Siberia to adopt Tatty, and the reader spends a lot of time inside our narrator's head.  All of this makes you feel like you know Holly, which makes the ending even more of a surprise, and it is a surprise, a true twist ending:

If you are looking for a good, stay awake at night psychological thriller, this is your book.  I won't be thinking about it for weeks to come, but I was definitely thinking about it while I was reading.

Title:Mind of Winter

Author: Laura Kasischke
Publisher:Harper Collins
Date: 2014
 Genre:Psychological Thriller

276 pages.
Where I got it: From the publisher and TLC Book Tours.  Please visit the other blogs on this tour here.