When Ashley Smith – a bright-eyed but lonely American studying in London – is invited to spend Christmas with her classmate’s family at their Cotswolds manor house, it seems like a perfect country idyll.

And for Ashley – who records it all in her diary – there’s the added romantic potential of her friend’s twin brother, Adam, who she thinks could be her wildest dream come true.

But is there something strange about the old house, both stately and rundown? What could the motives of the mysterious Chapman family be? And what holiday horrors might be lying in wait?

My Thoughts:

This is my second read by Peter Swanson and I was excited to start reading. This is a short story but my god it packs a punch. Ashley gets invited to stay with one of her class mates Emma for Christmas in Emma’s family manor house in the Cotswolds. Whilst Ashley is there she starts writing a diary to document what would of been a lonely Christmas by herself if Emma had not invited her. But things are not all as it seems and people may have some hidden agendas. I couldn’t believe the outcome of this story, it shocked me. There were many gasps and oh my god’s as I couldn’t believe how good a short story read was. I read it in a couple of hours and really felt the chills reading it.

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