Welcome to Litsy!

It‘s a perfect day and such a good view for some front porch reading (imagine you can hear the sea lions and the traffic though 😂)

Spooky book, spooky mug, hot chocolate, spooky cozy blanket and curious reading buddy. An excellent evening.

Pre Chocolate Walk shopping yesterday at Aaron Books in Lititz, PA

A low pick… the story started out strong and spooky but I lost interest right at the point when I should have been most invested. Without giving anything away… there were definitely some things that were done well,but I ended up a little disappointed with a few of the twists at the end.

Overall, this was an okay thriller. The main character returns home after her father dies. There's a creepy house, a hidden manuscript, and scary monsters lurking in the dark woods. All of that was great, for about 70 pages, but then discrepancies in the writing started to leave holes in the story.

Quick, easy read, but if you ask me about it in a week I doubt I'll remember anything.

🎧 Another haunted house story!? Is more going on? I enjoyed this book. It had twists & turns and surprises.

I didn‘t really like that the MC was hawking her illustrations along with her dead father‘s last secret work. I imagine this was integral to the story but it made her unlikable to me. My only gripe

Still it had some good ideas, executed well … so …

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/3

Soft pick. I ended up liking this, but the book it was at the beginning ended up being entirely different from the ending. The tone didn‘t fit the early chapters & it got stronger as it went on.

Did some cleaning & my nails 💅 while listening. I usually have short lil chewed up nails so we‘ll see how long this lasts.
#20in4

Oof, the narration isn‘t adding the mood & tension I was hoping for so far. She sounds very young & peppy. Not like a grieving daughter reeling from a failed marriage scrounging the dead man‘s haunted house for whiskey.
😵‍💫

2022/2023 Reads

Book 213📚 4⭐️

When Havens dad passes away, she inherits Malice House… and all of its inhabitants 😱🦉

Very cool story line! I actually found myself rooting for a little romance😂

I liked the snips added in from the manuscript, definitely some characters I wouldn‘t want to meet🤐

The reward for going through all 60 judges on the ballot

[bailing at 57% C24—super-repetitive and slow; not scary or tense; Haven seems immature and is definitely unlikeable]

I only spent so much time on it because I was too tired to dig through my various wish lists to find something else that was available to borrow.

Shepherd‘s adult fiction debut is a terrific blend of spooky, thrilling & completely fascinating! Haven goes to the titular Malice House in Lundie Bay, WA- the house belonged to her deceased father & she retreats there. Desperate for cash, & not earning anything as an illustrator, when Haven stumbles across an unpublished manuscript of her author father‘s, she thinks she may have the key to her future. It‘s just not the future expected…I loved it!