Haunted (Book 1) by Willow Cross

3 1/2 out of 5 stars

This short read is a collection of actual ghostly encounters as experienced by the author. She states that these are 100% true and have not been embellished for entertainment purposes.

I really enjoyed these tales. More written like a blog rather than a book, I got it free from Barnes and Noble not realizing how small it was. My only gripe is that I wish it had been longer! I personally am not sure how I feel about ghosts. I think I may have seen one when I was a kid, but looking back, I'm still not sure about that. Without any further sightings in my life to date, I really can't decide if I think they are real or not. However I always enjoy hearing other peoples thoughts and experiences and these were great. You could tell the author was pretty straight forward in her accounts and didn't embellish her stories. That's what makes them that much more believable. Being a huge horror film fan and reading more than my fair share of horror novels, I can't say that these are going to keep me up at night, but it was still a very entertaining book and I look forward to reading the other books she has written on this subject.

Total pages: 26, Kindle edition

Available for Kindle at Amazon:

Haunted by Willow Cross

Available for Nook at Barnes and Noble:

Haunted by Willow Cross

The Wicked Boy (The Mystery of a Victorian Child Killer) by Kate Summerscale

2 out of 5 stars

I received this book free from Netgalley.

In the summer of 1895, brothers Robert Coombes (13 years old) and Nattie Coombes (12 years old) were accused of murdering their mother. Robert's guilt was never in question, and he never denied the charges when the death was eventually discovered. For ten days after the murder, their mother's body lay in the upstairs bedroom while Robert, Nattie, and a simple-minded colleague of their fathers, who had no idea of the grisly crime, went to watch cricket, to the seaside, coffee shops and the park, played cards and other games. Family members soon grew suspicious however and the crime was eventually uncovered.

A true crime novel, I really went into this book assuming I would just become captivated by it. There is a morbid fascination that one has with child killers, The mere idea that someone so young could be capable of such violence is both interesting and frightening at the same time. Given the time period as the late 1800's, I was especially intrigued since it was even more of a rarity back then. Unfortunately I can only say this book was ok. It was well written and was obviously well researched, but it didn't engage me and seemed to lack real depth. It could be because it didn't appear that the trial lawyers had any interest in finding a motive or maybe because you don't get any real sense of the emotions of all the people involved, but I was disappointed. It's more of a "this happened, that happened and he said, she said" type of read and I had hoped that the book might have tried to make sense as to why Robert killed his mother. It didn't really. Instead the focus was on Robert's mental state and whether or not he was insane a the time of the murder. Of course it is interesting to see how they viewed such things and what they considered a person to be insane, but that alone couldn't hold my interest. I hate to admit it because it sounds so callous, but I ended up getting bored and just skimmed through the end.

Available on Amazon at the link below:
The Wicked Boy

Why Bernie Sanders Matters by Harry Jaffe

5 out of 5 stars.

I won this book as part of the Goodreads First Reads giveaway.

I don’t normally read autobiographies or political books but I entered this giveaway anyway as I was intrigued by Bernie Sanders but admittedly didn’t know much about him. I was surprised that it drew me in so quickly and I finished it in a day, finding it hard to put down. It was well written and had a nice story like flow to it making it interesting as well as easy to follow if you are not politically savvy. I would recommend this book whether you are a big Bernie fan or just mildly curious about who he is, where he came from, and what he stands for.

Available on Amazon at the link below:
Why Bernie Sanders Matters