Jeff DeGordick

The second installment was just as fast paced as the first book and grabbed me from the first chapter!

Simon Donatti is back to continue the good fight against evil entities only this time he will have to go it alone. Howard isn't able to accompanying him on this newest adventure. The end of the last book takes the reader straight on the heels into this book as though it seemed to be all over in the last book it really wasn't as Simon and Howard released demons from the house and now they show more have invaded the town of Harrow's Hamlet.

The town becomes a cesspool of evil activity and Simon becomes so involved in trying to fix things that he realizes that he cannot conquer the evil by himself. He reaches out to a catholic priest that has been his friend for a long time to come to his aid. His friend arrives to help Simon and the two of them must battle not only the townspeople but the demons themselves if they want to make it out of Harrows Hamlet alive.

Satanic rituals along with a demonic theme is saturated throughout this whole book and it moves along quickly as the characters come alive within its pages!

From one chapter to the next I was wondering what was going to happen and it kept me glued to my kindle to see the outcome. I had the rating at four stars, but I am changing it to 4.5 and rounding it up to five as it was still a very amazing ride into terror! show less

This was a cool ghost story that gave me some spooky chills!

A little backstory for you readers:

A few friends get together at a museum as they have heard rumors that there is treasure to be found out in the bay as the museum sits on a cliff overlooking the ocean. There is a legend that pirates ransacked the area then their ship sunk out in the ocean with gold and jewels.

The friends do not realize that that the museum is haunted until they start hanging out there and as time moves on when show more they try to go in search of the treasure out in the bay they don't realize that they have awoken long dead pirates. The pirates are not going to relinquish their treasure willingly and even in death the treasure still belongs to them!

Thoughts:

I have read this author before and really liked his writing style so I grabbed a few of his books last year to read some more of his work.

The book starts out slowly with a little bit of world building and as the story moves along there is lots of spooky atmosphere as the haunting escalates in the museum. I would have given this five stars as the creepy trepidation of the haunting was superb but the characters just were not attachable to me and the story itself drew out far too long on the haunting of the pirates as it took awhile for the ghost pirates to even make an appearance.

All in all though the book has tons of atmosphere with the museum being haunted and I would still recommend it to readers that love haunted horror along with a mixture of pirates and lost gold!

Giving this one four Creepy Chiller stars. show less

Three years ago, a regular town was rocked by the disappearance of a child a few days before Halloween. The town needed someone to blame and chose and elderly woman who lived in a decrepit house in the woods. Many people called her a witch. On Halloween a mob formed and the woman and her house burned, before she passed the woman placed a curse upon them all. Now, the disappearances are happening again. The clues left behind are the same as before, a gingerbread cookie and a shoe left behind. show more Except, now there is no witch to blame. Carmen and her little brother Tommy see the effects of the disappearances first hand since their father is the police chief. They also notice that the adults in town seem to be under a spell. When children keep going missing, Carmen and Tommy know that they must do more than stand by and watch.
The Witch of Halloween House is a fast-paced paranormal mystery that is perfect for Halloween reading. This has a vibe similar to Hocus Pocus, however it is definitely not a copy. The intro sets up a perfect mystery with a confounding conclusion which leads into the possibility of the paranormal playing a part. Once the town seems to have fallen under a spell, the children and teens are left to solve the case of the disappearing children. I liked all the Hardy Boys references and the clues that were left for Carmen and Tommy to follow. I do wish that they found out a little more about the witch, her family and why she needed children. The pacing was steady throughout the entire book and kept the suspense high to the very end.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review. show less

This was a creepy story!



A small backstory:

Jess is still trying to get over things that happened to her at the Dover house when she was young which also involved her uncle dying, so Jess along with her boyfriend, Tyler and a couple more friends decide to go back to the abandoned house when they learn a blood moon will be appearing so that Jess can face her fears.

As soon as they arrive and get settled things start happening within the house. Jess finds an occult room and learns that her uncle show more was trying to summon the dead as the history of the house that included the Dover family had murders in the past. Tyler is a big skeptic and doesn't believe in ghosts, but when the friends experience a cold draft in the hallway is when things start heating up and Tyler becomes a believer quickly. The friends start hearing moans, chains rattling, footsteps, and creaking floorboards which makes them wonder what really happened in this house, but that is the least of their worries as when the house wakes up it decides that it doesn't want them to leave!

Thoughts:

This book started out a little slow with the world building, but then when the character Jess and her friends arrive at the house is when the book goes into full blown creep mode. I was into about 25% with not much happening, but then it escalated when the characters started experiencing activity in the house. Also there was a twist near the end of the book that I didn't see coming which really drove the story into overdrive mode!

This is about my fourth or fifth book by this author and I am always drawn to the writing style as everything is smooth and easy to read. The haunting atmosphere of his stories always seem to capture my attention and ends up taking me deep into the haunting of his mind. Giving this book four "spook" stars! show less