Writing is a struggle. John Krik finds that out firsthand. Going to his second home with the hopes of writing with no distractions, John Krik is in for a ride. His other home has secrets, and he’ll be forced to learn them firsthand.

The beginning of the book is a bit slow, but the ending more than makes up for it. With vivid characters and plenty of suspense, this is a fantastic little chiller.

I’ve listened to several of Jake Urry’s other projects and always found that he has a way of enrapturing the darker theme and tones. Perfect choice for this piece.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
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This is the story of John Krik, a romance author who probably has writer's block and with some pressure and at the suggestion of his agent goes away from his wife and son to the small town of Cafeville. John moves into an old Victorian house and we immediately find that there is an odor eminating from the basement, the first sign that there is something wrong with the house. There are noises and beings in the attic as well, but somehow in the process of settling in, John begins to write. The problem is, John is not writing romance, but writing a much different type of novel.

There are other prominent parts of the story played by the seductive next door neighbor Eva Green and eventually, John's wife shows up in Cafeville. You'll have to read the book for yourself to see how it all turns out.

This was a quick read, taking just a little over a day. I must say, though, that it really didn't have the elements of horror that I was expecting. Sure there was the obvious haunted house, but there was no shocking surprises and the supernatural elements were average. The fact that it was an easy read kept me going, the elements of suspense weren't there, though. ( )

Like a great Stephen King novel, this story grabbed my attention from page 1 and I didn't come up for air until the very last page. A very entralling novel and I look forward to reading more books by this author. I thank LibraryThing and A.I. Nasser for the opportunity to read and review this book. ( )

This was a fast read. Reminiscent of Amityville Horror in the haunted house genre. Would have liked more character development and background information. I liked the use of italics to denote the house “talking” to the characters. ( )

John Krik, a romance author with a few successes under his belt, finds himself stuck in writing his newest novel. Under the direction of his editor, he retires to the small town of Cafeville into an old Victorian house with a dark secret. As he writes his newest novel, the lines of fiction and reality start to blur, and he finds himself falling under the insidious grasp of the house's history.

The first half of this one failed to really grab my attention. The horror was mostly rote, with flickering lights, banging doors, etc. If bloody writing had appeared on the walls, it would have been a perfect cliche trifecta. Additionally, I found myself getting annoyed with John's internal dialogue, and found myself even more annoyed when it was revealed that it was actually necessary to the plot. I was about ready to write it off when the second half suddenly picked up the pace.

The second half of the book isn't without its dramatic moments, and a lot more action-packed than the first half. John's novel and the reality he's in start to blur, and I found myself more interested in what happened than I was before.

There are still some major issues with the book: for one, the bonus chapters are more confusing than anything, and the use of Dean and Green for the town founding families gets really confusing (why make them rhyme?) as I tried to follow along.

Secondly, while the second half was enough to nudge this one up to three stars for me, the horror ambiance never really worked for me. Most of this was pretty stereotypical, something that would probably work well for a movie, but not so much for a novel; the atmosphere just never felt particularly scary, and nothing happened that was really surprising.

All in all, a decent read, and I enjoyed it well enough, but it wasn't quite the spine-tingling horror book that I was expecting.

Note: This was received in an Early Reviewers program through LibraryThing. ( )