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Five "Haunted Horror" Spooks
This is a triple omnibus of three haunting novels so breaking them down book by book with thoughts for each book.
Island of Bones:
The story revolves around Ellie wanting to go to Key West as her grandmother use to live there and after her grandmother passes on, she decides to take her grandmother's ashes to spread them on the island. But little does she know that her journey to Key West is going to be just a nice trip down memory lane. There is a mystery surrounding Ellie's past as her grandfather disappeared off the coast back in 1951.
What entails is a mystery that is so deep that no one wants Ellie to know anything of the past and Ellie has to endure not only a hurricane that is barreling toward her, but she has to endure a nutty motel manager, visions of the past (Ellie has visions), and hauntings at the motel.
This book just takes off from the first chapter and it barrels quickly all the way to the end. There are lots of twists, turns, danger, suspense, and action wrapped up tightly within its pages. I was very impressed with this book and I loved how the author just brought it all together!
River of Ghosts:
Avila Cypress takes people on airboat tours out to the Everglades and weaves ghost stories of hauntings along with telling the story of a haunted house deep in the Everglades named the Villegas House which is known for having a bad past with murders. Avila is approached by a crew of ghost hunters that have a tv show and they are willing to pay whatever price for her to take them out to the haunted house.
Against her better judgement and against her tribes warnings from the past about not setting foot on the island where the house is located, Avila decides to go ahead and take the tv crew out there.
Things seem to go awry the minute they set foot on the island as an unspeakable evil seems to permeate their surroundings and they can feel a heaviness in the air, but it is when they approach the house that things become weird as all is quiet until they hear something drop in the house as the house "knows" why they are there and it is about to show them that sometimes things are better left to the past!
Thoughts:
This story starts off a little slow as there is some world and character building, but once I got to the 30% mark things seemed to slowly start happening within the house and by the time I made it to the 50% mark the book started escalating with the haunting. There is really more to the story but without giving away spoilers it is best to keep it under wraps as there is more of a past tie-in with one of the tv crew and with Avila, but to find out more you will need to read it for yourself.
There is suspense and nail-biting tension along with whispers on the wind, ghostly voices, and lots of haunting atmosphere within this book but there is lots of twists and turns the further that I got into the story to the point I ended up reading the last 40% of the story within a few hours as I just could not put it down!
City of Spells:
Queylin and a couple of friends runs a new age shop that sells sage and incense but they also will do psychic readings for people that need it. When an elderly man (Dr. Rivera) comes into the shop he has more than thoughts of buying something in mind as he needs help with getting rid of a ghost that is haunting his home.
When Queylin finds out that the home is the Harding Estate is when she has a tiny inkling of fear as she has heard rumors for years about the place being haunted and try as she might she doesn't really want to go there to investigate, but when Dr. Rivera is most insistent and he tells her that he will pay her a hefty fee for coming out to the house her friends tell her to try it and see if she can open up her psychic ability to the otherworld.
What Queylin doesn't realize is that there is more to the house than just ghosts and when she ends up staying out there to help she finds out that all is not what it seems with the doctor too as he is hiding a terrible secret and it is a secret that he will keep private no matter what the cost!
Thoughts:
This story started out a little slow as there was a little bit of world building, but once I reached the 30% mark the book started slowly escalating. The mystery of the ghosts, the house, and the doctor just deepened as there were lots of twists and turns within the story. I never knew where the author was going to take me next from chapter to chapter as tiny things were revealed at a slow pace until after the half way point pieces of the puzzle were coming together.
The last 20% of the book there was a startling revelation and a major twist that I did not see coming! It shocked me out of my shoes! Which the pace picked up for me and I read the last of the book within just a few hours as I wanted to see how it all ended!
Out of all three books in this trilogy this book was the whip cream of them all as this story just finished the whole trilogy on a high note for me! I wasn't expecting to finish this omnibus before the new year, but I just could not break away from the story. I had to finish it even I stayed awake for 24 hours to get it done! I am so glad that I did finish it up and I was satisfied with the ending!
All of the books though together are full of mystery, suspense, ghosts, and spine shivering chills which kept my insomnia fueled for about a month! Lots of sleepless nights with these books! 😊
Attached is the author, Gaby Triana, profile page from Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/177012.Gaby_Triana
Attached is the author, Gaby Triana, profile page from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Gaby-Triana/e/B0045B9682
Attached is my review from Goodreads:
