*Thanks to Netgalley for letting me read the book in exchange for a honest review*

So folks, I really, really, really wanted to love this book, especially since I am a big fan of Lovecraft and his universe. At the risk of sounding like a total dweeb (although I may have already failed because who says dweeb nowadays?) I even played the Call of Cthulhu table top game because I love Lovecraft horror so much. The beginning of the book shows two teenage boys breaking into a construction site, H.G. Wells old home to find some treasure. My mind played it out like a movie and I loved that, Probert has such an amazing way with words and horror writing in general that when those creepy parts came up I actually cringed at it as if I was seeing it in real life. While this book did not give me nightmares (that would take a lot to do), anyone who was not used to horror genre may have trouble.

The beginning of the book had such great pacing, it seemed as if things would settle down, then it would come back, settle down again and take you for another ride. The story itself was great, the setup, the backstory, the creepiness of the church. I loved that he used characters I knew of to set the history. I even recommended that my husband read it and I don't ever do that. The newspaper articles, the scribbled notes, the transcripts from news shows added major depth to a already great written book.

While I loved the story, and Probert's writing, his characters just didn't do it for me. When the story would turn it's focus to a character I hated it. I didn't like anyone of them. Honestly if they all died I think it would have made the story for me. Karen and Chambers the two main characters annoyed the hell out of me, their emerging romance, their dialogue, Their actions just made me scoff as well as want to just skip pages. I couldn't connect to them in anyway that made me root for them. I really wanted to like Chambers considering he is a forensic pathologist a field I want to get into, but I just still couldn't like him.

Anything thing that bothered me was even though this book is the first in it's series I felt as if I was missing a book, as if this was not the first but the second in a ongoing series. The characters would mention a person or a event that had occurred and I wondered if I have accidentally skipped something, I even made a search just to double check that this was the first book. It didn't give me the setup or backstory I needed, maybe that's why I couldn't connect to the characters because I felt like I was missing something.
( )

The Lovecraft Squad is a book that was very promising at the beginning of the book, but unfortunately didn't manage to be interesting all the way until the end.

I loved the beginning of the book. Two boys are investigating a building site and they find a skull, a bone and a pot in the place where H.G. Wells house once upon a time had stood. I found this part chilling and the story just kept on being interesting, the discovery of scrolls that tells about the end of time. It was fascinating and intriguing and the idea of 7 people entering the haunted All Hallows Church and spending four days there sounded so incredibly awesome.

However, it's here the story started to drag a bit. At first, I loved the events (apparitions, etc.) at the church, but it came to a point when the story just didn't intrigue as much as it had before. The "surviving" members of the team is going beneath the church and into another world, it was pretty easy to see which world this was, but it took some time before this was addressed by one of them (hint a classic book about hell). And, they traveled from one level to another and I grew more and more bored and I had a suspicion that a certain twist would occur here and I was right.

But, despite this did the book end in an interesting way, and yes I would read the next book in the series. Partly because of the cliffhanger ending, but I did find the book, for the most part interesting.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review! ( )

The Lovecraft Squad is a book that was very promising at the beginning of the book, but unfortunately didn't manage to be interesting all the way until the end.

I loved the beginning of the book. Two boys are investigating a building site and they find a skull, a bone and a pot in the place where H.G. Wells house once upon a time had stood. I found this part chilling and the story just kept on being interesting, the discovery of scrolls that tells about the end of time. It was fascinating and intriguing and the idea of 7 people entering the haunted All Hallows Church and spending four days there sounded so incredibly awesome.

However, it's here the story started to drag a bit. At first, I loved the events (apparitions, etc.) at the church, but it came to a point when the story just didn't intrigue as much as it had before. The "surviving" members of the team is going beneath the church and into another world, it was pretty easy to see which world this was, but it took some time before this was addressed by one of them (hint a classic book about hell). And, they traveled from one level to another and I grew more and more bored and I had a suspicion that a certain twist would occur here and I was right.

But, despite this did the book end in an interesting way, and yes I would read the next book in the series. Partly because of the cliffhanger ending, but I did find the book, for the most part interesting.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review! ( )

*Thanks to Netgalley for letting me read the book in exchange for a honest review*

So folks, I really, really, really wanted to love this book, especially since I am a big fan of Lovecraft and his universe. At the risk of sounding like a total dweeb (although I may have already failed because who says dweeb nowadays?) I even played the Call of Cthulhu table top game because I love Lovecraft horror so much. The beginning of the book shows two teenage boys breaking into a construction site, H.G. Wells old home to find some treasure. My mind played it out like a movie and I loved that, Probert has such an amazing way with words and horror writing in general that when those creepy parts came up I actually cringed at it as if I was seeing it in real life. While this book did not give me nightmares (that would take a lot to do), anyone who was not used to horror genre may have trouble.

The beginning of the book had such great pacing, it seemed as if things would settle down, then it would come back, settle down again and take you for another ride. The story itself was great, the setup, the backstory, the creepiness of the church. I loved that he used characters I knew of to set the history. I even recommended that my husband read it and I don't ever do that. The newspaper articles, the scribbled notes, the transcripts from news shows added major depth to a already great written book.

While I loved the story, and Probert's writing, his characters just didn't do it for me. When the story would turn it's focus to a character I hated it. I didn't like anyone of them. Honestly if they all died I think it would have made the story for me. Karen and Chambers the two main characters annoyed the hell out of me, their emerging romance, their dialogue, Their actions just made me scoff as well as want to just skip pages. I couldn't connect to them in anyway that made me root for them. I really wanted to like Chambers considering he is a forensic pathologist a field I want to get into, but I just still couldn't like him.

Anything thing that bothered me was even though this book is the first in it's series I felt as if I was missing a book, as if this was not the first but the second in a ongoing series. The characters would mention a person or a event that had occurred and I wondered if I have accidentally skipped something, I even made a search just to double check that this was the first book. It didn't give me the setup or backstory I needed, maybe that's why I couldn't connect to the characters because I felt like I was missing something.
( )

I saw this book at the library and was drawn to the "Lovecraft" in the title. I thought the cover art looked juvenile and like this would be a book with some humor in it. Boy was I wrong. This is definitely written for an adult audience, and it is not an attempt to be funny. This is a serious horror book.

The book feels like a mash up between the Lovecraftian Universe and Dante's Nine Circles of Hell. I enjoyed the beginning of the book, but once it became a "locked in a haunted house" story, it lost a lot of originality and interest for me. The people were taken over so easily. The monsters are so strong and so omnipotent that it feels like resistance is futile.

The descriptions of the various levels of hell seemed both unique and and the same time repetitive. Go to the next level of hell, get chased by the inhabitants, narrowly escape. Bleh. I started losing interest and just finished the book out of habit, not because I cared what happened.

This is supposed to be the first book in a series. I think it suffered because I did not care about the characters at all. Bob Chambers, who supposedly works for an organization investigating odd events, did not seem very competent. Karen, the journalist he teams up with, was annoying. Together, they made a pretty weak team. The more I write about the book, the less I like it, so I am going to stop now. ( )