Bark At The Ghouls

Wrong book, wrong reader. It happens. Lute by Jennifer Thorne Released October 2022 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads   | Amazon Wicker Man meets Final Destination in Jennifer Thorne's atmospheric, unsettling folk horror novel about love, duty, and community. On the idyllic island of Lute, every seventh summer, seven people die. No more, no less. Lute and its inhabitants are blessed, year after year, with good weather, good health, and good fortune. They live a happy, superior life, untouched by the war that rages all around them. So it’s only fair that every seven years, on the day of the tithe, the island’s gift is honored. Nina Treadway is new to The Day. A Florida girl by birth, she became a Lady through her marriage to Lord Treadway, whose family has long protected the island. Nina’s heard about The Day, of course. Heard about the horrific tragedies, the lives lost, but she doesn’t believe in it. It's all superstitious nonsense. Stories told to keep newco...

Unfortunately, this third book was not for me but you can't love 'em all, right? Beguiled by Darynda Jones Released February 2021 Source: Library Borrow Goodreads   | Amazon Newly indoctrinated witch, Defiance Dayne discovers there’s more to life after forty than she'd ever imagined possible. Especially if one is a charmling, one of only three in the world, with enough magics to make her a target for every power-hungry warlock out there. When one of them sends a hunter to town, she knows it’s time to take her talents seriously before the hunter takes her life. She decides she has three things to do before she can die. Find out who killed her beloved grandmother, teach her BFF the finer points of spellcasting before she blows up the world, and figure out how serious her relationship with the Adonis living in her basement really is. If it’s heading in the direction she’s hoping for, she can die happy. Though, admittedly, she’d rather not. Die. Happy or otherwise. None of that...

This one makes me sad . . . It's due out today if you want to see how it works for you. Toad by Katherine Dunn Released November 1, 2022 Source: Received for Review Consideration Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   | Bookshop A previously unpublished novel of the reflections of a deeply scarred and reclusive woman, from the cult icon Katherine Dunn, the author of Geek Love. Sally Gunnar has been in love, has been mad, has been an agent of destruction, has been spurned; and now she has retreated from the world. She lives in isolation in her small house, where her only companions are a vase of goldfish, a garden toad, and the door-to-door salesman who sells her cleaning supplies once a month. From her comfortable perch, she broods over her deepest regrets: her wayward, weed-hazy college days; her blighted romance with a scornful poet; a tragically comic accident involving a paper cutter; a suicide attempt; and her decision to ultimately relinquish a conventional life. Color...

This was not a favorite. My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell Released March 2020 Source: Library Borrow Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   | Bookshop Exploring the psychological dynamics of the relationship between a precocious yet naïve teenage girl and her magnetic and manipulative teacher, a brilliant, all-consuming read that marks the explosive debut of an extraordinary new writer. 2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher. 2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But ...

This book won the Goodreads Choice Award . I was expecting to love it. Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo Released October 2019 Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   Source: Library Borrow Galaxy "Alex" Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale's freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she's thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world's most elite universities on a full ride. What's the catch, and why her? Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale's secret societies. These eight windowless "tombs" are well-know...

Source: I borrowed all of these from the library. Words cannot express how proud I am of myself for completing a series! Yep, I read all three books and am caught up. I can hardly believe it. Because I'm lazy I am bunching them all together in this one "review". Review is in quotes because two of these aren't reviews at all - oops. Sorry but you know how I am, haha. A Duke in the Night  by  Kelly Bowen My rating:  4 of 5 stars This is not a real review because I am lazy and I read this for myownself. I took a mini-break away from all of the horror and dread and backstabbing I typically read and I am not sorry. This was a delightful historical romance with a smart, independent heroine who had the backbone to stand up for her beliefs. August was a decent hero who was hellbent on protecting his future for himself and his family at the cost of everything else. The conflict bit was a little "meh" and dragged out too long for my impatient self but...

The blurb is going to be longer than my "review" but there's a reason besides my laziness. When The Lights Go Out by Mary Kubica Audiobook   Deceptive Fiction , 9+ Hours Released September 2018 Goodreads  | Buy A Copy Here   A woman is forced to question her own identity in this riveting and emotionally charged thriller by the blockbuster bestselling author of The Good Girl, Mary Kubica  Jessie Sloane is on the path to rebuilding her life after years of caring for her ailing mother. She rents a new apartment and applies for college. But when the college informs her that her social security number has raised a red flag, Jessie discovers a shocking detail that causes her to doubt everything she’s ever known. Finding herself suddenly at the center of a bizarre mystery, Jessie tumbles down a rabbit hole, which is only exacerbated by grief and a relentless lack of sleep. As days pass and the insomnia worsens, it plays with Jessie’s mind. Her judgment is b...

Our reading group lovingly called this book "old coots" as we read it for what felt like FOREVER (if you ask me)! Ghost Story by Peter Straub , Narrated by Buck Schirner Audiobook   Dark Fiction , 22+ Hours Released April 2012 Goodreads  | Buy A Copy Here   In a seedy motel in Florida, a young man holds captive a little girl in a soiled pink dress. He is anxious, tormented, introspective. She is calm, passive, strangely detached. She says her name is Angie Maule. In the small upstate town of Milburn, New York, four old friends meet to honor the traditions of the Chowder Society. They drink good whiskey and trade ghost stories. As chilling as these tales are, and as strangely prophetic, they pale before the horrific nightmares that began a year ago when one of their members attended a party for a visiting actress--and there died of a heart attack. Or was it fright? Ask the actress. She says her name is Ann-Veronica Moore. In California, a talented young no...

Today I'm sharing a silly bit of fluff I read a bit ago because who doesn't need a wee little bit of fluff nowadays? Kilty As Charged by Amy Vansant Romance Released 2016 Amazon  |  Goodreads  | Better World Books   When Catriona spots a plaid posterior passed out on the Hollywood movie lot where she works, she doesn't know her life fixing problems for Hollywood's spoiled elite is about to grow more complicated. She wants to write-off the ridiculously sexy, kilt-wearing Brochan as a con artist, but her adopted father seems strangely comfortable with a man claiming to have no memory of his past or knowledge of the modern world. A red-bearded thug, an old picture and a three hundred year-old vendetta soon have Catriona worried she could lose everything - including her mysterious time traveling Scotsman. A Highlander followed her home...Can she keep him? These Are My Thoughts: I read this book for my local reading group. There are seven of us. Th...

This book was a struggle. House of Fallen Trees by Gina Ranalli Horror Fiction Released August 2009 Amazon  |  Goodreads  | Better World Books   "Two men have the carcass."  These words, heard over a crackling telephone line, change writer Karen Lewis's life for the worse. Months earlier, her brother went missing in the small rural town of Fallen Trees, Washington. And now she finds out he willed his half of a bizarre bed and breakfast to her. "Two men have the carcass." Is this ominous phrase enough to draw her into the mystery of Fallen Trees? Is the answer to her brother's disappearance located there? Or is it just a trap, something designed to draw her into a nightmare world and break her sanity? What horror awaits Karen in the House of Fallen Trees? Here Are My Thoughts: Well, I am sad to say that this book didn't work for me. I was very excited to start it and I LOVED the gorgeous cover but I didn't enjoy this story. I...

This is my least favorite Clive Barker book. Mister B. Gone by Clive Barker Horror Fiction Released October 2007 Amazon  |  Goodreads  | Better World Books   Mister B. Gone marks the long-awaited return of Clive Barker, the great master of the macabre, to the classic horror story. This bone-chilling novel, in which a medieval devil speaks directly to the reader, claims to be a never-before-published demonic memoir penned in the year 1438. The sole copy was, so the story goes, created by the inventor of the printing press, Johannes Gutenberg himself. But this historic piece of writing immediately vanished without a trace. Until now... A demon known as Jakabok has embedded his very self inside each word of this meticulously printed tale of autobiographical terror. The reader is taunted and teased by his pleas for release from the confines of the very ink and paper that provide the vehicle for his life story. Little do they know, the depths of horror the...

Do not be sucked in by the cover alone like me! Bad Reputation by Nicole Edwards   Romance Released October 2017 Amazon  ♦  Goodreads Meet the most wanted players in sports . . . one ridiculously hot alpha male at a time. Chase: With a nickname like “Sin,” it’s no wonder they call me the bad boy of hockey. Opponents curse me. Fans scream my name—in the arena and in other, much more private places. Penalties or not, I’m not afraid to dish out a little pain. But pleasure? That’s my weakness. And no one knows it better than my best friend, Cassie Desrosiers. I’d have to be blind not to notice her rocking body and teasing grin. So when she invites me along on a trip to Vegas, my curiosity isn’t the only thing that’s aroused. Cassie: Chase Barrett is a world-class A-hole. As his best friend, I’m allowed to call him on his BS. Who else is going to do it? Certainly not the puck bunnies swooning at every flex of his biceps. Everyone knows that Chase is the love-’em...

This book aggravated me. Virtually Perfect by Paige Roberts, Narrated by ‎ Marguerite Gavin Audiobook   Released September 2017, 9+ Hours Amazon  ♦  Goodreads Not so long ago, Lizzie Glass had a successful TV show, a cookbook deal, and a social diary crammed with parties and events. But fame doesn't stay fresh for long. Her show fizzles, her magazine column is canceled, and Lizzie's only option is a summer job as personal chef to the Silvester' s, a wealthy and eccentric family.Their beach house is a lavish, beautifully decorated palace on the Jersey Shore, and Lizzie gets to work catering to Kathryn and Jim Silvester's fashionably restrictive diets. But its their twenty-something daughter who presents Lizzie with her biggest challenge professionally and personally. A self-proclaimed wellness warrior, Zoe Silvester has a hugely popular website and app that promotes healthy living and organic, unprocessed foods. Yet Lizzie soon realizes that The Clean ...

Even I could not suspend my disbelief this much! American Queen by Sierra Simone, Narrated by Stephanie Rose Erotic Romance   Audiobook  12+ Hours Released April 2017, Tantor Media Amazon  ♦  Goodreads It starts with a stolen kiss under an English sky, and it ends with a walk down the aisle. It starts with the President sending his best friend to woo me on his behalf, and it ends with my heart split in two. It starts with buried secrets and dangerous desires…and ends with the three of us bound together with a hateful love sharper than any barbed wire. My name is Greer Galloway, and I serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States. This is the story of an American Queen. I guess I'm giving this book a 2 1/2 but I cannot bump it up to a 3. This author likes to jam a lot of stuff into her books and into her heroines and this story is no exception. She also likes to set up preposterous plot lines and run with them. I said this ...