REVIEW: The Spite House, by Johnny Compton

Available February 7, 2023

Eric Ross is on the run from a mysterious past with his two daughters in tow. Having left his wife, his house, his whole life behind in Maryland, he's desperate for money—it's not easy to find steady, safe work when you can't provide references, you can't stay in one place for long, and you're paranoid that your past is creeping back up on you.

When he comes across the strange ad for the Masson House in Degener, Texas, Eric thinks they may have finally caught a lucky break. The Masson property, notorious for being one of the most haunted places in Texas, needs a caretaker of sorts. The owner is looking for proof of paranormal activity. All they need to do is stay in the house and keep a detailed record of everything that happens there. Provided the house’s horrors don’t drive them all mad, like the caretakers before them.

The job calls to Eric, not just because there's a huge payout if they can make it through, but because he wants to explore the secrets of the spite house. If it is indeed haunted, maybe it'll help him understand the uncanny power that clings to his family, driving them from town to town, making them afraid to stop running.

Wow...I just read that this is Compton's debut. 

My goodness, I expect some good things from him.
Southern Gothic set in middle of nowhere Texas, black lead characters. So much to unpack just there. The characters are realistic and exactly as relatable as they should be. Each one gets an opportunity to carry part of the story from their own POV. It does get a little confusing (wait, who's talking?), but that built some of the low-level fear/anxiety a good horror novel has in it.

The house...it isn't a character of it's own, like many a good haunted house story has. No, the Masson House harbors hauntings and haunted people. However, its haphazard construction feel does makes it creepy in its own right.

Overall, a solid first offering from a new voice. It's a good scary story and while not everyone's cup of tea, I can see a teenager or two staying up late to read.

What do you think??

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook galley from Tor Nightfire through the netGalley publisher/reader connection program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

BOOK REVIEW: The Ptolemy Project, by Kate St. Clair

Four Teams. One Test. No Way Out.

Wake up, report to the tect, try to survive.

Life on Carcer Station is a change from the daily struggle of four strangers, Lyra, Zeke, Aquila, and Pollux.
As Children of Titan, the first generation born on Saturn’s colonized moon, they’re used to following rules. But when they wake up on an empty space station with no memory of how they got there and no one in charge, the ghosts of their past scratch their way to the surface. Then things start to go wrong. The power in Carcer Station shorts out, and the veil around them thins. The four must fight to stay alive inside a system that’s falling apart as quickly as their own minds. Even if they can make it out, will they be able to find a way back to Titan, and to a society that accepts them—scars and all?

The first in the new series Children of Titan. It's a really interesting read. It's intense, in the way really good sci-fi adventures are. The characters are well-developed and layered. Likeable, even with all of their considerable scars and pasts.

The premise isn't an unfamiliar one. Four, seemingly unrelated, characters are left at the mercy of the technology around them. They don't have enough information to know what is going on, and soon they learn the situation is dire.That's been done, but the back story of what pits them all together is different. I don't want to slip and spoil something, but their histories are formidable and daunting. But somehow that's what makes them gel so well together.

I look forward to the next book in the series. This series has some definite escapist potential.

What do you think??

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook galley from Greenleaf Book Group through the netGalley publisher/reader connection program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

REVIEW: Defying Gravity: Mary Goss - Episode 1 (Earth's Secret Alliance), by Tony B Richard, with Lydia Payge

Available on Amazon

In 1947, there’s an alien invasion looming and humankind’s best hope is a brilliant nineteen-year-old woman.

When the A-bomb ended the war, with a power unlike anything humans had ever witnessed, Mary Goss was driven to gain the knowledge to prevent another war from ever beginning. Now the Army has come calling, looking for “a few good men” for a top-secret project. Instead, they find that the best and brightest is Mary.

Much to Mary’s horror, the project reveals an alien invasion. Yet at every turn, her efforts to intervene are thwarted by small-minded engineers who can’t look past her gender and age. She’d dealt with her fair share of discrimination in university, but with the fate of the world on the line, there isn’t time to waste on petty differences.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. You can't often tell what you're really going to get from a self-published title, and one only available digitally.

I like alien, first contact stories. I like very much the idea of a young woman with a PhD proving to the "big boys" that she more than knows her stuff. I liked that it was a quick approachable read, and would easily recommend it as a high interest, low lexile read.

The only thing the author could've done more of is more on the science. That's as important as the growth arc for both Mary and her colleagues. 

I think it's billed as being part of a series, but I don't think series is the right word. It's more of a "universe" as I feel like Mary Goss's story stands alone. I do, however, think having read the earlier "episodes" would improve my grasp of the "universe" the author has built.

What do you think??

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook galley from Tony B Richard and BookSirens and author/reader connection program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

REVIEW: Anne Boleyn, an Illustrated Life of Henry VIII's Queen, by Roland Hui

'If you remember my love in your prayers as strongly as I adore you, I shall hardly be forgotten, for I am yours,' - Henry Rex, forever

Written by King Henry VIII to his sweetheart, the seductive and vivacious Anne Boleyn, his passion for her would be so great that Henry would make Anne his queen, and change the course of English history.

But the woman whom Henry had promised to love for all time would go from palace to prison, charged with heinous crimes. Her life ended on a bloody scaffold in the Tower of London.

Explore the incredible story of Anne Boleyn, the most famous and controversial of Henry VIII's six wives, in this exciting new account of her life told in words and pictures.

One of the most concise and approachable biographies I'v read about Anne Boleyn. It's very well done, obviously well-researched, and well-organized. I enjoyed the information about her early years with her family and how she arrived in the situation she was in. I can't say I've read such a clear telling of the dynamics in her family when she was a child.

The illustrations were all black and white (an ARC/Kindle flaw?), but dispersed in a way that wasn't obtrusive and added to the text. The facts shared were done so carefully and with necessary details rather than flowery language. I was also taken by the handful of times that Hui stated "historians originally thought xyz, but now we understand it to be this way instead" (paraphrased).

Quite well done and not a history tome. This is a readable biography that can be completed in a short time.

What do you think??

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook galley from Pen & Sword History through the netGalley publisher/reader connection program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Audiobook Review: Cursed, by Marissa Meyer

Adalheid Castle is in chaos.

Following a shocking turn of events, Serilda finds herself ensnared in a deadly game of make-believe with the Erlking, who is determined to propel her deeper into the castle’s lies. Meanwhile, Serilda is determined to work with Gild to help him solve the mystery of his forgotten name and past.

But soon it becomes clear that the Erlking doesn’t only want to use Serilda to bring back his one true love. He also seeks vengeance against the seven gods who have long trapped the Dark Ones behind the veil. If the Erlking succeeds, it could change the mortal realm forever.

Can Serilda find a way to use her storytelling gifts for good–once and for all? And can Serilda and Gild break the spells that tether their spirits to the castle before the Endless Moon finds them truly cursed?

Follow up to Meyer's 2021 book, Gilded, Cursed is the fairty tale retellling I've waited for (why is there no fabulous collection of Rumpelstiltskin retellings?)

The Alder King's Courts, where the new Queen, Serilda, is living a lie. She is not acquiesing to his demands. She's determine to free herself and all those tied to Adelheid Castle.. But the Eriking has a much more evil agenda. Serilda and Gild's characters grow significantly and their relationship deepens. 

The simultaneously stirring and unnerving story of good versus evil, getting darker as it goes, is full of twists, familiar characters, suprising new ones, and the secrets and deceptions you expect from Meyer's. 

A delicious conclusion to a story that caught me up from the beginning. 

What do you think??

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this Audiobook galley from Macmillan Audio through the netGalley publisher/reader connection program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.