Colony of the Lost by Derik Cavignano

4 out of 5 stars

Glenwood, Massachusetts appears to be the perfect town, but it's actually home to a long-forgotten secret. Built upon the ruins of a lost colony with a dark part, children start vanishing from the quaint little town one by one, baffling the police. In order to rid the town of the evil that has escaped, an unlikely group of misfits must band together to fight it. Jay, a disgraced math teacher, Time, an awkward teen, and Sarah, a bullied nine-year old. Will they be able to defeat their own personal demons in order to take on a real one?

This book turned out to be quite the surprise. A real page turner, it's an engrossing paranormal thriller that does not suffer from lulls in action. I was pulled in from the very beginning and could not put it down. The story flowed and something was always happening to keep my interest going. The characters were well developed and not your typical "save the day" types. Jay, an alcoholic math teacher who loses his job and his fiancé, is a surprisingly likeable character even when you find yourself shaking your head at his behavior. His internal struggle with his alcoholism is well written and you can't help but start to sympathize and hope he can overcome his addiction. Then there is Tim, the new kid in town, who by talking to a pretty girl, angers her boyfriend and ends up suffering from relentless bullying. And finally, Sarah, a friendless little girl who doesn't understand why the other kids in school don't like her, so instead of suffering from complete loneliness, she holds onto her imaginary friend. Both of these are equally endearing characters and you can't help but root for all of them as they are basically forced to go up against the evil that has infiltrated their town.

If you are looking for a horror novel with a sci-fi/paranormal twist to it, then I would recommend this book.

Total pages: 314, Kindle edition

Available on Amazon at the link below:

Colony of the Lost

The Curse of the Bruel Coven (The Bruel Witch Series Book 1) by Sabrina Ramoth

3 out of 5 stars

I received this book free from NetGalley.

This was a very fast paced book. Almost a little too fast for my tastes. The main character, Vivienne, finds out she's adopted, locates her birth mother, discovers she's a witch, meets the rest of her family, learns to control her powers, and agrees to help fight against a curse that's been put on them....all within about a 24 hour period. Because of the quickness of it all, there wasn't much in the line of character development. You didn't really get to know them very well. Also there was a serious lack of emotion throughout the story. Especially when it came to Vivienne finding out the woman who raised her wasn't her biological mother. The person who she had always known as her mother passed away from cancer and never told her the truth. Most people would go through a series of emotions and struggle with this newfound knowledge, but she just went from discovering it to the next day going to locate her birth mom. You didn't get any feelings from her and her character just seemed to go through the motions without any passion. The whole book was pretty much this way. Once she meets her family for the first time, she instantly becomes a part of them without question. She believes everything they tell her about witches, vampires, curses, all of it. That seemed a little weird to me. It's almost as if the author came up with a really good story with lots of twists and turns, but didn't know how to fit it all in so she just drew a timeline and put in all in order without much thought to how the characters should react.

Now, with that said, I'm not saying it's a bad book. Quite the contrary. Oh, there were definitely parts that seemed silly because of how quickly it all came to be, but the story was actually pretty good. I liked to concept and once I got passed how rushed it was and starting looking at it more like a short story, which it kind of is considering the page length, I really enjoyed it. Vivienne was likable as was the rest of the characters and the backstory regarding the curse was interesting. Since the setting is New Orleans, it did add some spice to it and definitely made you want to hop on the next plane to visit. I always enjoy a good witchy story and although this one will have events speeding past you fast enough to make your head spin, it's still one I would recommend. It's fast, fun, and interesting. Hopefully, in future books, we will get a little more insight into all the characters so we can get to know them better. I look forward to it.

Available on Amazon at the link below:

The Curse of the Bruel Coven

The Spirit Chaser by Kat Mayor

4 out of 5 stars

 

I received this book for free from NetGalley.

Austin Cole is the star of the hit TV show Spirit Chasers Investigations, a reality show where a crew goes into haunted places and ghost hunts. Casey Lawson is a psychic who can see dead people. Together they hunt with a full crew and all seems to be going well. That is until an evil entity takes over one of their own. Now it’s not about hunting, but surviving.

Well, where do I start? I liked this book, almost loved it. I had a hard time putting it down for the most part. But something about it made me unable to give it 5 stars. The first part of the book was a little slow but I really enjoyed it and pretty much plowed through it. The second part, where most of the action was, didn’t hold my interest as much as it should have, which is strange. For some reason, even though a lot was going on, I had a harder time getting into it and just felt like it dragged a bit. Not that I didn’t enjoy it. I did. It was just harder for me to focus. Maybe it’s because I had a feeling what was going to happen and once it got to the ending, I was a little disappointed. Not because the author chose not to go for the typical happy ending. I actually applaud her for that. I think it’s more how it all happened. It felt like a big build up, but without the climax. I can’t explain it.

The characters in the book were fairly well developed. There could have been more background on them and the romantic part of the story was a little rushed and became too intense too quickly for my tastes, but it didn’t really detract from the ghost story itself. I liked Austin. He could be a real pain and there were times when he was a little overconfident, but he was a likable character. The rest of the crew were a mixture of personalities that seemed to mesh well together and helped tie in the story. My only real character issue was Casey. I had a love/hate relationship with her. There were times in the book that I really liked her and other times where she was being so ridiculous I could hardly stand her. One moment she would seem like a really talented psychic and then it would seem like she really didn’t know what she was doing. Especially when it came to her own boyfriend. I was really confused that she didn’t sense anything from him and when his behavior drastically started changing, it never occurred to her that something more paranormal could be going on. I just figured she would at least consider it since she is the one who cleansed his house for him because it was so full of paranormal things that latched on during their ghost hunting excursions and he ended up unintentionally bringing them home.

When it came to the ghost hunting, I have to say, the author really seems to know her stuff. I found that part the most entertaining and really enjoyed how she could pull you in and make you feel like you were hunting with them. She didn’t sugar coat it or make it seem like an easy job. I like the fact that she also made sure to have Casey walk through a place and declare it not haunted. I have watched different ghost hunting shows before and was always skeptical when every place they went was haunted. Makes it seem less believable. I really liked that she didn’t do that. There was plenty of suspense and scary moments to really keep you interested. Even though I couldn’t give it 5 stars, I would definitely recommend it.

Avaiable on Amazon at the link below:

The Spirit Chaser