Bark At The Ghouls

A book whose cover tells no lies! Creep by Jennifer Hillier Released January 2011 Source: Borrowed from Library Goodreads  | Amazon If he can't have her... Psychology professor Dr Sheila Tao is an expert on human behaviour, so when she begins an affair with charming graduate student Ethan Wolfe, she's well aware she's playing with fire. Consumed by lust and riddled with guilt, Sheila ends their three month fling when she becomes engaged to a kind and loving man who adores her. But Ethan has different plans... NO ONE CAN. When a star student is stabbed to death, it's clear someone is raising the stakes of violence, sex and blackmail on campus. Before long, Sheila is caught in a terrifying cat-and-mouse game with Ethan: the lover she couldn't resist is now the monster who will never let her go. My 2 Cents for Free! Creep delivers. There's definitely a creep in here. Sometimes a cover will lie to me but not this time! This is a thriller brimming with characters wh...

It's a little over the top but fun stuff. Come Out, Come Out, Whatever You Are by Kathryn Foxfield Released December 2022 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads   | Amazon Welcome to the reality game show that'll scare you to death! Have you got what it takes to last the night? On the reality show It's Behind You!, five contestants competing for prize money must survive the night in the dark and dangerous Umber Gorge caves, rumored to be haunted by the Puckered Maiden, a ghost who eats the hearts of her victims. But is it the malevolent spirit they should fear, or each other? As the production crew ramps up the frights, tensions rise and the secrets of the cast member start coming to light. Each of these teenagers has hidden motives for taking part in the show. But could one of them be murder? My 2 Cents for Free! If you love campy horror this is a book for you! Campy horror novels (and movies) can be such a welcome break from reality. Nothing here can be taken...

This was fun to read with a group.  The Family Game by Catherine Steadman Released October 2022 Source: Audiobook Purchase Horror & Horrorish Fiction  |   Goodreads   | Amazon A rich, eccentric family. A time-honored tradition. Or a lethal game of survival? One woman finds out what it really takes to join the 1% in this riveting psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Something in the Water, Mr. Nobody, and The Disappearing Act. Harry is a novelist on the brink of stardom; Edward, her husband-to-be, is seemingly perfect. In love and freshly engaged, their bliss is interrupted by the reemergence of the Holbecks, Edward's eminent family and the embodiment of American old money. For years, they've dominated headlines and pulled society's strings, and Edward left them all behind to forge his own path. But there are eyes and ears everywhere. It was only a matter of time before they were pulled back in . . . After all, even though he'...

Hmmm . . . what to say about this one? Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier Released April 2020 Source: Library Borrow Dark Fiction  |   Goodreads  | Amazon Marin had the perfect life. Married to her college sweetheart, she owns a chain of upscale hair salons, and Derek runs his own company. They're admired in their community and are a loving family—until their world falls apart the day their son Sebastian is taken. A year later, Marin is a shadow of herself. The FBI search has gone cold. The publicity has faded. She and her husband rarely speak. She hires a P.I. to pick up where the police left off, but instead of finding Sebastian, she learns that Derek is having an affair with a younger woman. This discovery sparks Marin back to life. She's lost her son; she's not about to lose her husband, too. Kenzie is an enemy with a face, which means this is a problem Marin can fix. Permanently. All it takes to unravel a life is one little secret... Overwhelmed by tragedy, a ...

How is it monthly wrap-up time already?! Anyhow, here's what November looked like. It's not too shabby with five five-star reads! I think it's helped that I've been giving myself room to breathe and catch up on some things I've been wanting to read for fun instead of putting all of my focus on books that come in for review. I might not make the release date for some of the arc's but did I ever? 😀 All I know is that I'm definitely a much happier reader now that I've taken the pressure off myself. I'll eventually get all of the reviews up over here but for now I linked up the rating to the Goodreads review. If you want to learn more about any of the books just give the book a click.  ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐⭐ I hope you're reading lots of good stuff!

Why am I not hearing more about this book?!!  The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor  Released February 2021 Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   |  Bookshop An unconventional vicar moves to a remote corner of the English countryside, only to discover a community haunted by death and disappearances both past and present--and intent on keeping its dark secrets--in this explosive, unsettling thriller from acclaimed author C. J. Tudor. Welcome to Chapel Croft. Five hundred years ago, eight protestant martyrs were burned at the stake here. Thirty years ago, two teenage girls disappeared without a trace. And two months ago, the vicar of the local parish killed himself. Reverend Jack Brooks, a single parent with a fourteen-year-old daughter and a heavy conscience, arrives in the village hoping to make a fresh start and find some peace. Instead, Jack finds a town mired in secrecy and a strange welcome package: an old exorcism kit and ...

Recent Mini Reviews I'm putting some "lovely" back into my blog today. Here's the rest of what I've read sorta recently (this has been sitting in my drafts for far too long!) in mini review form because life has been crazy and I might also still be a little lazy.   Red, White & Royal Blue  by  Casey McQuiston ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I apologize in advance to this book because I have no mental energy left today to compose a thought. I read this book to escape from the world and let me tell you it worked. This is the most adorable, sexy-sweet romance and I LOVED it. It's set in some sort of alternate world where a woman is the president and her son falls in love with a prince and there isn't a lot of pain and suffering (not that there's anything wrong with the pain and the suffering!) but seriously, right now, I could read this sort of thing all the live long day. T he Herd  by  Andrea Bartz ⭐⭐⭐ I think maybe I've read one too many of these "...

I read this a little bit ago and it was such an addictive read! A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight  Released May 2020 Thriller   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   Source: Library Loan Big Little Lies meets Presumed Innocent in this riveting novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia, in which a woman’s brutal murder reveals the perilous compromises some couples make—and the secrets they keep—in order to stay together. Lizzie Kitsakis is working late when she gets the call. Grueling hours are standard at elite law firms like Young & Crane, but they’d be easier to swallow if Lizzie was there voluntarily. Until recently, she’d been a happily underpaid federal prosecutor. That job and her brilliant, devoted husband Sam—she had everything she’d ever wanted. And then, suddenly, it all fell apart. No. That’s a lie. It wasn’t sudden, was it? Long ago the cracks in Lizzie’s marriage had started to show. She was...

Uh oh, it's a low three-star review *sorry in advance* You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen Released March 2020 Thriller   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   Source: Library Loan The thrilling new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling authors of An Anonymous Girl and The Wife Between Us. Shay Miller has three strikes against her: no job, no apartment, no love in her life. But when she witnesses a perfectly normal looking young woman about her age make the chilling decision to leap in front of an ongoing subway train, Shay realizes she could end up in the same spiral. She is intrigued by a group of women who seem to have it all together, and they invite her with the promise: "You are not alone." Why not align herself with the glamorous and seductive Moore sisters, Cassandra and Jane? They seem to have beaten back their demons, and made a life on their own terms—a life most people can only ever envy. They are every...

Even though everyone seems to adore The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor , I liked this one better. The Other People by C.J. Tudor Released January 2020 Thriller   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   Source: Library Loan She sleeps, a pale girl in a white room . . . Three years ago, Gabe saw his daughter taken. In the back of a rusty old car, covered in bumper stickers. He was driving behind the car. He watched her disappear. But no one believes him. Most people believe that his daughter, and wife, are dead. For a while, people believed that Gabe was responsible. Three years later and Gabe cannot give up hope. Even though he has given up everything else. His home, his job, his old life. He spends his days and nights traveling up and down the motorway, sleeping in his camper van in service stations, searching for the car that took her. Searching for his daughter. Katie spends a lot of her life in service stations, working as a waitress. She often ...

I am not too proud to say I love watching the lives of perfect people unravel in my fiction and this one delivers! The Perfect Liar by Thomas Christopher Greene Released January 2019 Thriller   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   Source: Library Loan A seemingly perfect marriage is threatened by the deadly secrets husband and wife keep from each other. Susannah, a young widow and single mother, has remarried well: to Max, a charismatic artist and popular speaker whose career took her and her fifteen-year-old son out of New York City and to a quiet Vermont university town. Strong-willed and attractive, Susannah expects that her life is perfectly in place again. Then one quiet morning she finds a note on her door: I KNOW WHO YOU ARE. Max dismisses the note as a prank. But days after a neighborhood couple comes to dinner, the husband mysteriously dies in a tragic accident while on a run with Max. Soon thereafter, a second note appears on thei...

This was one of those listens that makes you want to keep driving to hear more. The Swallows by Lisa Lutz Released August 2019 Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   Source: Library Borrow 11 hours, 1 minute A teacher at a New England prep school ignites a gender war—with deadly consequences—in this dark and provocative novel by the bestselling author of The Passenger When Alexandra Witt joins the faculty at Stonebridge Academy, she’s hoping to put a painful past behind her. Then one of her creative writing assignments generates some disturbing responses from students. Before long, Alex is immersed in an investigation of the students atop the school’s social hierarchy—and their connection to something called the Darkroom. She soon inspires the girls who’ve started to question the school’s “boys will be boys” attitude and incites a resistance. But just as the movement is gaining momentum, Alex attracts the attention of an unkno...

This is another one of those secret books and I LOVE those. Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica Released July 2015 Thriller  |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   Source: Library Borrow A chance encounter sparks an unrelenting web of lies in this stunning new psychological thriller from national bestselling author Mary Kubica She sees the teenage girl on the train platform, standing in the pouring rain, clutching an infant in her arms. She boards a train and is whisked away. But she can't get the girl out of her head... Heidi Wood has always been a charitable woman: she works for a nonprofit, takes in stray cats. Still, her husband and daughter are horrified when Heidi returns home one day with a young woman named Willow and her four-month-old baby in tow. Disheveled and apparently homeless, this girl could be a criminal—or worse. But despite her family's objections, Heidi invites Willow and the baby to take refuge in their home. Heidi spends th...