The September House by Carissa Orlando

 

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Five "Twisted Spooky Suspense" Stars

Would You Dare Enter September House?

A small taste of what lies within:

Hal and Margaret move into a house that they soon learn to be haunted but only in September as the house emits strange sounds along with moans and then the walls start bleeding.  When Hal ends up disappearing though is when things go bad for Margaret as she believes that Hal left her as he couldn't deal with the haunting. 

When Katherine shows up (Hal and Margaret's daughter) is when things go more awry as Katherine knows something has gone horribly wrong when her father no longer answers her phone calls so she decides to go see her parents to see what is going on but little does she know that the house is not ready to reveal its secrets until it wants to and when that happens all hell will  break loose! 

That is about all I can hand out with a small taste so if you want to know more then go read this book! 

Thoughts:

This was my first time reading this author but I had been seeing this book circulating over in my Goodreads feeds for the last three years as quite a few of my Goodreads friends have read this book.  This book was almost like a slow burn horror - normally I struggle with slow burn books but this one just kept piquing my interest and I would have a hard time putting it down. 

Lots happen within this story that kept me invested with keeping on reading to see what would happen next as this story goes on an emotional roller coaster of a ride with lots of twists and turns that kept me pinned to my cozy chair. The haunted part of the story was never really scary - this haunted house book is a little different then some other haunting books out in the world. There was almost like a satire weaved into the story and I would find myself chuckling at different scenes in the story. 

All in all this story was crazy wild near the end of the book which I ended up reading the last 30% in just a few hours as things escalated in the house and the book made me feel like I was on a bullet train that just sent me careening to the end of the story! What a wild ride this story turned out to be and I can see now that the hype for this book is real! 

Attached is the author, Carissa Orlando, profile page from Amazon:

Carissa Orlando

My Goodreads Review:

My Review

The Selkie Wives (Old Wives' Tales Book 2) by Tamara Thorne

 

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Five "Spooky Selkie" Stars

What Happens in Fort Charles Stays in Fort Charles!

A small taste of what lies within:

Sheriff Tully has been asked to take over sheriff duties in the coastal town of Fort Charles so him and his wife, Kate leave Eternity to go to Fort Charles. 

They are not there very long when a dead body is found pinned to a boat mast and is unrecognizable. When more bodies start turning up, Tully finds out that living in Eternity with all its problems was a walk in the park compared to what he has to deal with in Fort Charles as there are secrets that are to be kept within the town.

Mythical lore of Selkies are surrounding the deaths which Tully is finding hard to accept but he is wondering if there really is any truth to the sailor tales which he intends to find out one way or another!  

(Selkie on the beach in Fort Charles)

That is about all I can hand out with a small taste so if you want to know more then go read this book and series! 

Thoughts:

Once again, author, Tamara Thorne hooked me into the clutches of this story as I was thrown straight into a spooky mystery that is wrapped around mythical lore creatures and the story just runs smoothly along with Sheriff Tully trying his best to make sense of what is happening in the town of Fort Charles.  

There are quite a few characters in this book and there are cameo appearances from characters that were in the first book, Eternity. This story goes deep into mythical lore and I could see the lore research the author took as she created this story. I found myself being caught up in the web of intrigue as the story rolled along.  There is tons of suspense wrapped within the pages of this story and the pace became faster as I careened through my kindle pages which one night I stayed up till near 4 am reading this book as I just could not lay it down! 

There is another book coming down the pike with Sheriff Tully and I am looking forward to seeing what other mysteries he will need to solve.

Attached is the author, Tamara Thorne, profile page from Amazon:

Tamara Thorne

Attached is the website of author, Tamara Thorne:

Tamara Thorne

My Goodreads Review:

My Review

Note:  

These books might seem to be stand alone but they are not as characters from previous books make appearances and things happen within the lives of the main characters that are in these books so these books need to be read in order to understand the lives of the characters.   

Eternity (Old Wives' Tales Book 1)

The Selke Wives (Old Wives' Tales Book 2) 

Fave Horror Authors Blog Addition from Book Nook Retreat

I have decided to do something different with highlighting favorite horror authors that I have read in the past and enjoyed their work. 

Every other month I will be listing out 10 favorite horror authors with an author link to their website (if they have one) and/or a link to their Amazon profile. I will also be listing two of my favorite books by the authors. 

This will be for all horror authors that write horror whether they are in the indie horror community or even if they are traditionally published.  All horror authors will be listed together in a blog edition every other month.  

This new blog edition that I will be working on will replace my "author's discovered list". I have decided to do a complete favorite horror author list as I think it will help friends and blog followers to see who I love to read and what books I loved by each horror author. 

Sometime this month I will be putting out my first 10 favorite horror author list and will publish it to my blog then post it over to my Facebook.   

To find each list I do for every other month in one easy step -  I have added a tab to my scrollbar on my blog which is under my blog art header. You cannot miss it - you will see a tab that says "Fave Horror Authors". 

So get ready as it will be coming sometime this month. 😁

Whistle by Linwood Barclay

 

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Four "Creepy & Cursed" Stars

What Would You Do With a Cursed Train Set?

A small taste of what lies within:

Annie Blunt along with her son, Charlie move out of the city to a small town in upstate New York as they are trying to start over after Annie lost her husband in a car accident. 

Annie and Charlie want to move on in a new life but when Charlie finds an old train set in the shed behind their house is when things go from serene and peaceful to a nightmare hell for both Annie and her son! 

That is about all I can hand out with a small taste, so if you want to know more then go read this book! 

Thoughts:

This was my first time reading this author and this horror story about a cursed train set piqued my interest. I love anything with creepy curses that are weaved into horror stories and this was a great story that just slowly built up with spooky terror the more I read the story. 

Having said that though I felt the story dragged a little bit along the way and also the author did some time jumps within the story as well which normally I am not crazy about time-jumping especially when the characters are completely different than what the story starts out with in the beginning. 

The time jumps are related to how many paths the cursed train set ended up being in children's hands during the course of its existence which was interesting but I felt that I wanted the story to return to the original characters that started out in the story and it seemed to take a long time to get there which drops this book down to 4 stars.  Other than that small quibble the rest of the book was mysteriously spooky and kept my attention span through some insomnia nights. 

Attached is the author, Linwood Barclay, profile page from Amazon:

Linwood Barclay

My Goodreads Review:

My Review

Eternity (Old Wives' Tales Book 1) by Tamara Thorne

 

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Five "Killer Chiller" Stars

Would You Want to Live in Eternity?

A small taste of what lies within:

Sheriff Zach Tully has left the big city of Los Angeles homicide unit and has arrived in the small town of Eternity hoping to help the town out with what they need but Tully soon learns that Eternity is not what he thought it would be with small town problems. 

Tully soon realizes that he is going to be just as busy in Eternity then he was in L.A. as there is some kind of serial killer on the loose and bodies are starting to pile up. The mayor along with some of the townspeople Tully feels is hiding something but he will do whatever he can to catch the killer and put everyone's fears to rest.....hopefully! 

(Zach Tully overlooking Eternity)

That is about all I can hand out with a small taste so if you want to know more then go read this book! 

Thoughts:

This story slowly took off as I came to know Sheriff Tully - he is the small town sheriff that everyone might want in their town to help when help is needed.  

The story moves at a great pace and the deeper I became involved in the story the faster I was turning the pages of my kindle! There are quite a few characters in the story that makes up the town which I loved them all as they all have their own personality and I found myself wondering what was going to be happening next! There are some twists and turns throughout the story with tons of suspense, intrigue and mystery! 

The author, Tamara Thorne kept me wrapped in a web of mystery as I tried to figure out who the killer could be and to me I felt that nearly everyone was a suspect! Truly enjoyed this first book that kicks off the Old Wives' Tales series and looking forward to reading book two here soon! 

Attached is the author, Tamara Thorne, profile page from Amazon:

Tamara Thorne

Attached is the website of author, Tamara Thorne:

Tamara Thorne

My Goodreads Review:

My Review

The World's Most Haunted Hospitals: True Life Paranormal Encounters in Asylums, Hospitals, and Institutions by Richard Estep

 

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Four "Spooky Suspense" Stars

Thoughts:

Just going to give out thoughts on the book as there are quite a few chapters to explore with different haunted hospitals and asylums from around the world. 

This book was very interesting as the author goes into quite a bit of detail on all the hospitals and the history of them before they became haunted. I was fascinated by the history of each hospital and what had taken place there. Quite a few of the hospitals were built in the 1800's so many things had taken place within the walls. 

Quite a few of the hospitals have quite a bit of ghosts and other spooky things that are found within these haunted buildings.  The author has interviews too with other investigators throughout the book and what they had endured with their investigations. 

All in all I really enjoyed this true ghost book with all the hospital locations and I loved to read about all the history of the hospitals as well.  The author went into quite a bit of research within this book and it shows when reading each story.  I am looking forward to reading more true ghost stories by this author in the future. 

Attached is the author, Richard Estep, profile page from Amazon:

Richard Estep

Attached is my review from Goodreads:

My Review

I Hate It When They Don't Stay Dead (A Short Story) by Andrew S. French

 

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Four "Dangerous Dolls" Stars

What is Wrong With the Dolls?

A small taste of what lies within:

Vincent inherits his dad's doll store after his dad passes away but Vincent is not prepared for what lies within the store as the dolls seem to have a mind of their own and when Vincent has problems with a loan shark and his crew of bad men Vincent sees first hand what happens when you mess with the dolls! 

That is about all I can hand out with a small taste so if you want to know more then go read this short story!

Thoughts:

This was my first time reading this author and I was intrigued by the book cover of creepy dolls so I decided to read this short story of horror. 

I was glad that I did as I really enjoyed the story even though there wasn't much background on the doll store or the character Vincent but this story kind of packs a small punch too with some doll activity. I will be checking out more of this author's works in the future as I want to see what else he has out there. 

Attached is the author, Andrew S. French, profile page from Amazon:

Andrew S. French

Attached is my Goodreads review:

My Review