Linda WatkinsReviews

Although, this would probably make a good movie, the writing was very amateurish and the story just didn't flow very well! The dialogue between the constantly quarreling husband and wife, which was the bulk of the story, and whether they would stay together or not, was incredibly shallow and immature. This was more about each of their flings on the island. This was suppose to be my choice for a suspense/thriller (#20/52) on the 2019 52-bookmark reading challenge. But, just like Ten Mile Creek, it's so stupid I can't even count it. My search continues for a real suspense/thriller novel.

Bill Anderson is the first one laid off from a lucrative software company because he was caught flirting and messing around with the bosses girlfriend. His wife, Karen, knows something was up but not sure how far things went. Bill hasn't been able to find another job in affluent California for two years now. Their house is going into foreclosure when, luckily, his lesbian Aunt Janie dies and leaves him the haunted house on Mateguas Island, once owned by an Abenaki native woman and her child. Centuries earlier, the native woman was booted off the hill and then eventally killed in the woods so that the white man could "make better use of the land" and build a home there. So, of course, the ghost of the Abenaki is looking for revenge. She cries and moans during storms until someone goes out searching to help her and they are never seen again.

Bill and Karen's twin girls, Sophie and Terri, find a hidden box with two locks on it. They are on a mission to find the keys to find out what's inside. Meanwhile, Karen is having hallucinations. She's out cutting rose bushes and blackerry bushes when suddenly she sees a well established trail in the woods just beyond. She cuts through the bushes and walks it to a beautiful pond surrounded by spring flowers. But, suddenly it all turns to swamp and the smell of rot and death. An owl attacks her and she takes off running as the trail seems to grow narrower and narrower. When she gets to the end, the bushes had already grown over the entrance to the trail, but she has to barge through the thorns because the owl is after her again. She barely makes it out. As she learns more, she discovers she's the only one who can save her family.

Meanwhile, the bulk of the story is about their relationship falling apart and each of them having affairs with an islander. He with the beautiful redhead Mag, and her with Dex, the finest and most successful fisherman on the island. Bill gets the lady pregnant on their last fling and loses it all, even his life in the end. The evil Abenaki spirit kills him in the swamp. Karen comes out the winner. Her husband is dead and she still gets the hunky Dex. He actually sells his beautiful home, his fishing boat and picks up and moves back to California with her and the two girls just days after her husbands death. So stupid.

The author sets it up at the end for part two, "Return to Metaguas Island". Maggie is pregnant with Bill's baby and has purchased the house on the hill. But, here's where I stop. The dialogue writing between persons and flow of the story is just horrible and is not worth my time.

"The place had a distinct medieval quality to it with its four large manor houses, each strategically located on one of the primary compass points".

Storm Island (Kate Pomeroy Mystery, #1)
by Linda Watkins

Oh wow. This is one of t he craziest books I have read in awhile. It also crosses so many genres. It is listed as a mystery/thriller but just to list some of the other genres.

Gothic.

Romance

Historical

Folklore

Family Drama

Medical thriller

Paranormal

Horror

You get all that?

This was also a tough one for me to rate. Here is why:

Beginning-five

middle-two

Seriously..this book was intense.

So it starts with Kate, a Doctor witnessing a conversation she should not be hearing at the hospital where she works. A short time later, right before she is to begin surgery, she collapses. Has a complete breakdown. She is evaluated and eventually released and sent to Storm Island, to heal there.

Kate grew up on Storm Island and her memories of the place are not good. Her mother died tragically there and Kate was the one to find her. There are many secrets..she is unhappy about going back there..as well she should be because her journey and recovery there will change her life.

Storm Island has a great premise. And it is a really spooky read. As Kate goes about getting used to being there again, she is haunted by a variety of utterly bizarre happenings, including nightmares, strange noises and hallucinations.

Does someone have it in for Kate? Is she imagining all this? Or has the past returned to guide the way for the present and for the future?

There were many things I liked about Storm Island including that you do get hooked in and fly through the pages trying to figure out what is going on.

What I did not like..is that it is pretty easy to guess what is going on. I was not really surprised by the big reveal..this book is pure Gothic and if one likes.or loves..Gothic I really cannot see them not loving Storm Island. But the time spent on Kate's visions and druggings and crazy stuff happening felt far to long to me.

But I am picky about My Gothic books. What I did love..was the history and the Folklore which really does not come into the picture until more than halfway through the book. That aspect was fascinating. It is an odd book because there were things I liked so much about it but other things where I rolled my eyes a bit. And the killing off of one character left a bad taste in my mouth and prompted me to rat er t his a 3 and not a 4.

It is said this is to be a series and I intend to read the prequel if there is one because I think I just might adore it. I hope that other books in the series are less Gothic oriented and more focused on the haunting folklore. I'd even like to see a prequel that goes back to the group of women who met such an sad end so very long ago. (Nobody will understand what I just wrote unless they have read the book).

Dare I say that I disliked Kate's love interest? Alot!

So I would recommend this and would rate it a 3. It was a really different type of read.

If you start reading Storm Island and are into it - great.

If you start reading this and are questioning your judgement (Should I finish? This doesn't make sense, it has to get better, right? Surely it will get better now) - quit and read something else. It does not get better. I do not understand how this had such great reviews.

This book can be read on its own but it is the second book of a series and you will enjoy it more if you read book 1 first. This picks up shortly after Storm Island. Kate is in the process of setting up her free clinic on Storm Island and still seeing Jeremy. They are planning their future together. It seems she has her happy ever after. Wrong! People are still messing with her mind. Who is it this time? I'm not telling. You will have to read it to see. I thoroughly enjoyed this action packed Gothic mystery/paranormal suspense. I can't wait to read book 3. Thanks to Netgalley and the author for allowing me to read this book and review it. And thanks to the author for being so involved in dog rescue.

The book is set on Storm Island, an island off the coast of Maine, a place I really want to visit. The atmosphere of the island is one of the characters. As this character becomes more developed and we learn its history, it becomes an even more important character, one I loved and would like to visit. A doctor doing a residency in Los Angeles, Kate has a breakdown in surgery and her father sends her to her Aunt Hettie, a psychiatrist in New York, to recover. When she arrives Hettie tells her she will be going to Storm Island to get their house ready for the season. With much trepidation, and really having no choice, Kate returns to the island where she spent summers as a child until she was 10 when her mother committed suicide there. Strange things immediately begin happening, hallucinations and nightmares, leaving her pondering her sanity. A strange light in the woods, learning more about her mother, strange men, bootleggers, and tunnels all combined to keep me raptly reading. Throw in a romance with a local and the book has it all. I don't want to spoil the book so you will have to read to see how these are connected. I loved the book and am starting the second book now.

I would like to thank the Author Publishers and NetGalley for providing a free kindle copy of this book to read and honestly review
A clever intelligent mystery suspense story, well written descriptive and entertaining from start to finish. With a brave clever feisty heroine. Why only four stars well in parts it is somewhat contrived, and the paranormal parts unnecessary and far fetched.
Recommended.

A sweet coming of age story, blended with mystery, the tragedies of abuse, and lives grown apart, Linda Watkins’ Summer Girl is an evocative tale of island life, literary aspirations, deep hurts, and the coincidences that reunite the lost. Are first-love bonds unbreakable? What about marriage bonds, and bonds of love between a parent and child? And what about those broken bonds that wound and separate…

Andi had a secret that she never told. But she was only a summer girl, a sunshine visitor to an island where Jake lived a tough young hard-working life. The reader watches their growing attachment with the same sense of joy as adults on the island, reminiscing “about their first loves.” But darkness invaedes this sweet romance, and Andi is suddenly gone.

Summer Girl is not an easy tale, but it’s a beautiful, evocative and absorbing read. Dark and light are perfectly balanced. Past and present loves play out convincingly, with their attendant joys and pains. And characters and place both become real. A well-told tale of lives, loves and romance.

Disclosure: I won a copy and I really enjoyed reading it.

The Witches of Storm Island
I totally loved this book. The writing was great, the characters very interesting.
Overall, I thought the book was brilliant and well thought out.
Highly recommend.
Found a new favorite author.
Kudos, Linda Watkins

Storm Island
Highly recommend.
I loved this book. The writing was great, the characters very interesting.
Overall, I thought the book was brilliant and well thought out.

This novel captures its readers with its short chapters and easy read, you keep telling yourself that its just another page, two pages, five pages and then you're up so late you know you'll be tired tomorrow. Beyond that it somehow gets into your head and you will find yourself thinking about it when you aren't able to read it. It will make you angry and it will make you sad and like any good story you will root for your favorite characters while praying for the demise of others. The downside, as I presume it was self published, are the blatantly obvious spelling and grammatical errors some of which bring you to a full stop so that you can fill in the missing words or eliminate a word to make a phrase make sense. All in all Mateguas and it's sequel captured hours of my time and entertained me better than TV; I cannot wait for the third instalment.

"Those who love stories with some touch of mystery will not be disappointed with this one ... Watkins writes with moving simplicity, a kind of prose that tantalizes and is difficult to put down, because it rings with an eloquence that is akin to the spell of the ghosts sauntering along the rocky shores of Mateguas. It can be difficult to believe a story told about humans and ghosts, but when that story is told by Watkins, it becomes as convincing as it is real ... The story is fast paced; the suspense is so skillfully built into the story to have the reader turning the pages, and the characters are solid enough that any reader will care about what happens to them. One would say that Ghosts of Mateguas comes with a spell that makes the book impossible to put down. Beautifully written by a writer of a rare caliber." ~ Romuald Dzemo for READERS' FAVORITE (5-Star Review)

Couldn't Put It Down!

I saw that MATEGUAS ISLAND was free today and, because it had so many good reviews, I downloaded it this morning. Sat down to check it out and OMG I couldn't put it down! Watkins takes time developing her characters and, soon, I came to care about them, warts and all. Then strange things start happening and it becomes a real page turner. There is terror here and not all of it is supernatural - the disintegration of a once happy marriage and the effect it has on the children is also painfully portrayed.

So, if you enjoy well written horror that does not need to depend on blood, guts and gore to make its point, then you will love this book. I know I did and can't wait for the next installment!

Complete piece of junk. It's not a "horror" novel at all, but a kissy-kissy adulterous romance (and a very poorly written one at that). As far as the supernatural element, that doesn't really come into play until the novel's 80-to-85 percent through, and even then it's almost laughable.

I got this at a cut price on Kindle based on the high number of 5-star ratings it has on Amazon. I'm beginning to suspect these ratings, and I'm wondering if this thing is self-published.

borrowed from friend enjoyed!! :)