I just loved this story. It’s a wonderful mix of romance, grief, ghosts of the past, and ghosts of the present.
Florence is a ghost writer for an extremely popular romance author, and very few people know. When a new editor arrives to meet with Florence, they don’t start off on the best foot. After a terrible meeting, and then a terrible night at the bar, she finds out her father has passed away and heads home. Where she finds a ghost, but it’s not the ghost of her dad…
This is the third book in the Haunting Clarisse series, and I think it can be read as a stand-alone if you haven’t read the others in the series. You will be missing some backstory on the main characters, but if that doesn’t bother you, then you could go ahead and jump into the story here.
This book again has our main characters, Harry and Clarisse working to save the day. Old Tailem has been overrun with demons, and it’s up to these two to stop them. I loved that this was once again, a real ghost-town that the author chose to place the story into. I think it adds some special to the story!
This was quite the spooky, atmospheric read for October! I’m so happy I picked this one up! Along with the creepy storyline, it’s a quick read, so I felt like we jumped right into the scary stuff, which made it quite a fun read!
Beatrix Greene is the kind of spiritual medium that doesn’t actually believe in ghosts, nor does she actually connect with the other side. Instead, she feels that she can read people well, and provide them with what they want to hear to feel consoled about their loss. When James propositions her to spend one night in Ashbury Manor to decide if there is or is not a ghost, she agrees, knowing that he is setting her up to expose her as a fraud. James though seems to have other motives for the request of her assistance, and as they enter the house, they will soon realize that they have made a terrible mistake.
Well, I finally managed to read a bit of a disappointing spooky read this month. I wanted to love this book so much, but it just missed the mark.
The story starts with mother (Ruth) and daughter (Jane) traveling across the country to move into Ruth’s childhood home in Maine. Jane hates it there. It’s cold, she misses her dad, who just passed away, and the house is creepy.
I can’t really give you more details than that, or I’ll end up spoiling the story. I felt, though, that the plot was lacking some beefy information that would help to propel it along.
Another fun, spooky read for October in the books! I highly suggest this one if you enjoy historical fiction and some spooky story lines!
This dual-timeline takes us back to 1928 when the Bonaventure Circus is thriving. Pippa Ripley is the adopted daughter of the circus owner, but wants to know where she came from. She knows she is the daughter of people in the circus, but her parents will not give her more information. There is someone who knows though, “The Watchman” sends her letters telling her little bits of information. She starts to hears stories of a serial killer on the circus route that people are calling “The Watchman”. Is her watchman an innocent person just trying to help her, or is there something more sinister going on?
In present day, the Bonaventure Circus is nothing more than a dilapidated building that used to be the circus’ home. Chandler Faulk’s uncle has her evaluating the property, which he just purchased, to understand if it should be flipped or restored. When spooky things start happening in the building, Chandler starts to question if all these ghost stories are a bit more. Then, she stumbles onto evidence of the serial killer, and she becomes part of the story, rather than an outsider.
This was an absolutely beautifully written story of ghosts, grief, and self-discovery. I was blown away by the story. It was so much more than I expected it to be. The plot took me on such an emotional journey for the two main characters, and it was beautiful!
This is a story of two women dealing with loss. Emily, a woman in her 20’s lost her parents at a young age. Rather than handle her grief, she shoved it all down and focused on absolutely anything else to keep from thinking of her parents. Now a young lawyer, she has been assigned to catalog a storage room in a church. The church wants to sell their building, and move to a new location, but a law has placed them into historical building status. Emily’s firm is fighting for the church’s right to sell, and their case is with the supreme court. Emily starts her cataloging and discovers boxes of diaries from Elizabet Thomas, who died in 1935.
Elizabet Thomas went into her afterlife looking for her husband, who she lost too soon after their marriage vows. Rather than “go into the light”, she stayed behind at the church looking for him. After 80 years of searching, she still has not found him. When Emily begins reading her diaries, she finds new excitement in her life and becomes invested in Emily’s journey.
I absolutely loved that this is a book set in a town that really does have a paranormal vibe. I thought it just added to the overall story!
How I Felt:
Haunting in Hartley was such a well-written story! The plot has this mystery that I loved and was so intrigued by. I really liked that the author held a lot of information until closer to the end, so it left me guessing for quite a while! It made it so hard to put the book down!
The twists and turns that this book took me on were insane! I had absolutely NO idea what was going on, no guesses as to what the truth was. It was an amazing ride, and I loved it!!
My Synopsis:
Maggie’s father wrote a book that has haunted her every day of her life. As a young girl, her family bought Baneberry Hall, a secluded estate with a tragic history. Maggie doesn’t remember anything about their less-than-a-month stay in the home. All of her memories are from the non-fiction book, House of Horrors, written by her father. Maggie knows that everything in the book is a lie, but her parents will never discuss it.
When her father passes away, Maggie is shocked to learn that her father still owned the house, and she is now the owner of Baneberry Hall. Determined to understand what really happened during their stay in the home, Maggie moves in.
She is adamant that the ghost stories, snakes, and gruesome history were all a figment of her father’s imagination to create a best-selling book. When she arrives though, the things from her father’s book begin to seem less like a story and more like a foretelling of things to come.
How I Felt:
This is my first Riley Sager book! I know, I know. I’m so behind the times! But – I am with you all now, he is an amazing author, and I now need to read everything he has written!
She Just Loves Books 