Bark At The Ghouls

This was a fun opening book to a long-running series. My 2 Cents for Free! The Watchmaker's Daughter by C.J. Archer Released August 1983 Source: Audible Purchase See more @  Goodreads This was a fun start to a series, and it looks like there are 13 of them now. It’s not perfect but in this horrid year of 2026 that’s ok.  This is a historical fantasy that starts out with our heroine, India Steele, ranting at her former fiancé. Apparently, he wooed her only to steal the family business right out from under her. What a prick. Anyhow, back in those times, women weren’t allowed or trusted to fix the watches of men even when they’ve been trained by a master and are now a master themselves. Grrrr. When she’s finished berating the jerk, she’s approached by a dashing man with a foreign accent who needs her help and who offers her a job and (eventually) a place to stay since she’s lost everything. His reasons are vague, but it has something to do with a watchmaker, and she accepts becau...

      New Books Because You Know You Deserve Them! This is where I spotlight the sparkling new weekly releases that are tempting me so you can succumb to temptation too. The focus will be on dark fiction and romance with the occasional thriller tossed in that catches my eye. Every week there seems to be more and more book releases and this week is no exception. I've found 12 of them that I want to read. Now I just have to find time!  First the  HORROR and HORRORish   because it'll always be my first love. We Should Not Have Come Here by J. D. Mills The host of paranormal reality show Phantom Files, Ash built their massive following on fake hauntings, possessions, and passing off special effects as honest-to-god spirit activity. When the team arrives at Crenshaw Castle to shoot the first episode of their new season, the dilapidated former reform school turns out to be more than they bargained for. The team’s exploration of the grounds leads to the disco...

This was a weird one! My 2 Cents for Free! Wide Open by Jessica Gross Released August 2025 Source: Netgalley See more @  Goodreads I listened to this book on audio. Thanks to Netgalley and the author and pub! The narrator Alice Whey is very perky and sounds younger than the 30ish main character but she’s easy to listen to. Her cadence reminds me of a romance narration but since a lot of this book is about a romantic relationship (albeit a wholly unhealthy one) that makes sense. Anyhow, radio host Olive is 33 (I think, I didn’t write it down) and wants a partner real bad. Really bad. Like annoyingly, can’t-think-of-anything-else bad. I once knew someone like this, and the character portrayal felt very realistic in a story that is otherwise kind of wild. Olive quickly forms an obsessive attachment to a young surgeon she meets while volunteering. Fortunately for her, he is a happy go lucky type and seems to not mind her often too clingy affection and attention. But she has a we...

This was originally published in 6 installments. I'm reviewing it as a novel because that's how I listened to it. My 2 Cents for Free! Blackwater by Michael McDowell Released August 1983 Source: Audible Purchase See more @  Goodreads Wow, this was a long one! My attention span of late has been dismal but despite that I decided now would be the best time to tackle a 30-hour saga. I mean, it was either going to hold my attention or I could DNF yet another one. 2025 was the year for getting through my old tbr's so why not? Surprisingly, this absolute doorstopper of a book that often went on about nothing at all but daily dramas featuring a wealthy and very dysfunctional family, that was less horror than family drama, managed to grab me and hold me all the way through to the very end. It has a little weird thread running through it but it's very much a southern family drama where the women are the ones in control. Maybe that's why I enjoyed it so much. These people were...

     New Books Because You Know You Deserve Them! This is where I spotlight the sparkling new weekly releases that are tempting me so you can succumb to temptation too. The focus will be on dark fiction and romance with the occasional thriller tossed in that catches my eye. Every week there seems to be more and more book releases and this week is no exception. Will I find time to read all of them? Highly unlikely but I'll try to read a bunch before 2026 is over. First the  HORROR and HORRORish   because it'll always be my first love. A Veritable Household Pet by Viggy Parr Hampton Darla Gregory received a lobotomy at 11 years old ... and she was never the same. Based on painfully true history, mixed with family drama, complex characters, and a gut-punch twist. [Scribe’s This is my sister Darla’s story, as dictated to me. I have tried to remain as faithful to her diction and voice as I can, while also making it intelligible and coherent. Darla has progressed cons...

An evergreen reminder because although every year I grow older, I will never change. If you're new here, please know that my film reviews are crap and never to be taken seriously because I do not take notes and my memory is an unreliable thing but if you're okay with that, well, here's another! It's been a while since I posted a horror movie review. Lately I tend to watch them, log them on Letterbxd  (friend me if you feel like it) and then mostly forget all about them. Anyhow, here's one I watched a little bit ago. Have you seen it? The Gorge, 2025 Synopsis Two highly-trained operatives are appointed to posts in guard towers on opposite sides of a vast and highly classified gorge, protecting the world from an undisclosed, mysterious evil that lurks within. They bond from a distance while trying to stay vigilant in defending against an unseen enemy. When the cataclysmic threat to humanity is revealed to them, they must work together in a test of both their physical ...