If you like your mysteries with a good dollop of horror, you'll enjoy Bless Your Heart.
The Evans family has run the funeral home in a small town in TeIf you like your mysteries with a good dollop of horror, you'll enjoy Bless Your Heart.
The Evans family has run the funeral home in a small town in Texas for years. Ducey, the matriarch, her daughter Lenore, her daughter Grace, and her daughter Luna make four generations of Evans women in one house, all in the family business (well, Luna is still in school, but she helps out when made to).
But they aren't just "normal" undertakers - when a body rises, they know what to do to send them permanently to the grave. Fifteen years ago, there was an incident, referred to as That Godawful Mess, but other than that, there's been little vampire activity. However, there have been several attacks and multiple people coming back to life after death. The original Strigoi (vampire) are back, and the Evans women must take care of business and put the Strigoi to rest once and for all.
This book was a little too graphic for me, and I guess I don't love horror with my mysteries! But it's not a bad book, just not the right one for me.
Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book....more
This was a spooky book, perfect for those who like horror-lite like me!
Olive died two years ago, if only for 5 minutes. She had an allergic reaction tThis was a spooky book, perfect for those who like horror-lite like me!
Olive died two years ago, if only for 5 minutes. She had an allergic reaction to shellfish. As long as she stays away from them, she should be fine, but she doesn't feel fine. Instead of seeing an afterlife, all she saw was blackness. She calls it the Nothing. She drops her friends, even her best friend Davis, to protect her heart from ever losing anyone again.
She accidentally becomes friends with Mrs. H at the local nursing home, and is there when she passes away. But Mrs. H isn't afraid when she dies - her face lights up and she says, "Mom." Olive has a tiny sliver of hope. Maybe she's wrong and there is an afterlife. She decides to ask a ghost.
After finding a ritual to bring someone back, she goes to the most haunted place in their (very haunted) town, and drags along new girl Vanessa and her ex-bestie, Davis. She brings Jay back, but unwittingly ties him to this world and dooms him to turn into a shade, unless she can find his grave. She needs the help of Davis, Vanessa and her nemesis/frenemy/crush Maren to free Jay from this world and find out what happens after death (and maybe save her town as well).
You'll struggle to figure out who are the good guys and who are the bad guys in this book, but that's part of the fun! There is some romance, although most of the action is off-page. There definitely is violence, but this is horror-lite for the most part. You won't be kept up with nightmares!
Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book!...more
The Witches of Bone Hill is a great witchy suspense novel!
Sisters Cordelia and Eustace Bone inherit their great aunt's home in Connecticut. The issue The Witches of Bone Hill is a great witchy suspense novel!
Sisters Cordelia and Eustace Bone inherit their great aunt's home in Connecticut. The issue - they didn't even know they had a great aunt. Their mother raised them away from family, and they both believed that there was a reason she had left all of those years ago. But now both are facing crises - Cordy has a cheating husband who now has the mob after her for his debts, and Eustace has been diagnosed with cancer - so they jump at the chance to go to the house, even if Cordy just wants to sell it to pay off the mob. The sisters had a falling out recently, but now they are both happy to be back together.
The house they inherited is more mansion than mere house. The lawyer tells them that to inherit, they must live in the house and keep it up. While Cordy's plans to sell and get out are over, she still needs to pay off the mob. She tries to sell an antique clock, but the house won't let it leave (the appraiser's car is hit by a large branch falling).
The problem is, the Bones are witches, and even though they haven't ever really practiced, strange things have happened all of their lives. Cordy deals with horrible headaches. Supposedly, being in the house will heal them - it healed Eustace's cancer - but they can't leave, or they will get sick again. Strangely, Cordy's headaches don't get better when she gets to the house, at least not all of the time. But Eustace is becoming a domestic goddess, baking, growing plants, healing animals, and Cordy is controlling the weather, seeing and talking to ghosts, and predicting the future.
There are more questions than answers for the sisters to figure out, and a very sexy groundskeeper who is willing to help them. What happened to her ancestors? What is the magic that binds them to this house, and how did their mother survive all of those years away? Who is trying to keep them from taking ownership of the house?
Some of the twists I saw coming, while others were a surprise. But even if I knew some of the answers, the story was very entertaining and exciting.
Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book....more
This book is a high interest/low level book written in verse, making it perfect for middle school reluctant readers. It took me, an adult, maybe an hoThis book is a high interest/low level book written in verse, making it perfect for middle school reluctant readers. It took me, an adult, maybe an hour to read.
Dennis and his dad have moved to a new town, where his dad is working for the local chemical plant. Dennis makes friends with the Deadliest Poet Society, a club at his school that tries to communicate with spirits through knocks. But now they are encountering people taken over by sludge and must defeat the evil lurking in their town!
This book is very light horror (as in there is sludge taking over people by entering their mouths, but even that isn't written in a way that is horribly scary). The story is very engaging and I think most middle schoolers would really enjoy it.
Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book....more
Whew! The Last Heir to Blackwood Library was a hard book to put down.
Ivy is living a simple but full life in London when she finds out she's inheritedWhew! The Last Heir to Blackwood Library was a hard book to put down.
Ivy is living a simple but full life in London when she finds out she's inherited an estate in the country called Blackwood. Her family is all dead - her brother and father in World War I and her mother to the Spanish Flu. She decides to take the inheritance, even if that means she has to leave London and move to the estate.
When she arrives at Blackwood, the staff seem unfriendly. They are hiding something, Ivy is sure of it. A chance encounter in a bookstore in a neighboring village puts Arthur Mabry into her life, and he tells her there is a wonderful library at Blackwood that no one showed her. The library is magnificent, but it also feels haunted and strange. She begins to spend time in the library, even though her staff disapproves and being in there gives her a headache.
Ivy feels the presence of two different spirits, one friendly and helpful, one malevolent, and she worries she's losing her mind as she starts to forget things. Arthur insinuates himself into her life, and her staff warns her he isn't what he seems. But who can she trust, Arthur, who is kind to her, or her staff, who have always been cold to her?
Ivy's memory problems make her an unreliable narrator, so you suffer along with her as she tries to figure out who has her best interests at heart, and what the library holds that everyone wants.
This is a great thriller and love story that you'll find hard to put down. Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book....more
Such Pretty Flowers is a departure from what I normally read, but it definitely sucked me in!
Holly's younger brother Dane killed himself, and Holly caSuch Pretty Flowers is a departure from what I normally read, but it definitely sucked me in!
Holly's younger brother Dane killed himself, and Holly can't forgive herself for not doing more. Dane had been suffering from mental illness, and Holly had distanced herself from him. However, the night he died, he sent her some strange texts, about his girlfriend Maura wanting him to play a strange game. In time, Holly becomes curious and tracks down Maura.
Holly doesn't trust Maura, but she is attracted to her, both physically and mentally. Maura is a florist, and an herbalist, and lives in a huge two-story townhouse with a library and a greenhouse. She invites Holly to move into her townhouse, which is amazing, since her current roommates are getting married and looking at condos themselves, and Holly can't resist the chance to get close to her to find out what she knows about Dane's death.
But the more she investigates, the weirder things seem. Dane had left her a few clues at the townhouse, but nothing is adding up. There are these strange black roses that seem to have their own energy source, and every time Maura gives her an herbal tincture to drink, she loses time and wakes up in her bed.
This book leaves you with a feeling of unease pretty much from page 1. I felt like screaming, "Run away! Don't open that door! Leave while you can!," just like I do when I watch a scary movie. However, the book's atmosphere isn't so oppressive that it makes the story hard to read. Instead, I found myself reading "just a few more pages" over and over again.
Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book....more
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