Horror or Rom-Com? || The house on foster hill: Review

The House on Foster Hill by Jamie Jo Wright

Genres: Mystery, Lite-Horror, Romance, Historical Fiction

One Two sentence book summary: After the death of her husband, Kane moves to the middle of nowhere to restore a dilapidated old house, but the ghost of her past refuse to die. A hundred years prior another woman, Ivy, is caught up in the mystery when a dead girl appears in a hollowed out tree outside of the house on Foster Hill.

One sentence review: The author tries to fit every genre into one story and fails at doing any of it justice; she goes for shock value over authenticity and there are better books out there.

Let me explain! ((Get ready for a lot of caps because I have ALL the FEELINGS))

The biggest fault I found with this book is its oscillating and unstable tone. The author can't figure out what type of book she wants to write. Romance? Horror? Murder mystery? She tries her hand at all of them at once and the result is a splattered mess with rom-com lines that follow horror scenes. The genres crash together like dissonant notes as she struggles to find her voice.

Instead of crafting a story it feels more like the author is throwing SUPER SAD things in to make it a SUPER SAD story because it's SAD couldn't you tell by the SAD THINGS? It felt like I was being hit over the head with the SADNESS and not actually getting to know the characters in an authentic manner.

The plot is a little sketchy and at times pretty unbelievable. Once again I felt like the author was going for shock value as opposed to something authentic. One thing that I did like was how seamlessly the author melded the character's faith into the story. Often times if a character is Christian then once they pray EVERYTHING works out PERFECTLY because GOD and while yes, that is a possibility, there is also the possibility that your prayers will go unanswered and that is where the true test of faith lies.

This romance iS ~pRoBlaMatIc~. The author wants it to be cute but it is NOT HEALTHY. Basically you have this super traumatized woman dating her therapist (who, by the way is a PERFECT character who does EVERYTHING RIGHT all the time and could we be more boring) and that's supposed to be okay? Also we're dealing with some love at first sight and personally that always bugs me. Like. No.





At this point you might be wondering "wait...why did you keep reading it?" and yes, this novel has its flaws, but that doesn't mean it was a horrible reading experience. The writing felt choppy and sometimes read like the first draft of my novel-- lots of telling with no showing, if you've ever received that writing advice it is the HARDEST and most important piece of advice ever.

And yes the romance was PROBLEMATIC but also like, it had its cute moments. And the plot was a bit eye-roll inducing, but hey, I did want to figure out what explanation she was going to pull at the end (even if I knew it wouldn't be satisfying).

Overall: This was an okay book. It wasn't a bad reading experience but...it wasn't a great one either. If you love murder mysteries or lite-horror then maybe give this a go? I hate to say don't read a book because this is just my opinion but honestly there are better books out there.


What about you? Have you read this book? Do you also hate it when the author tries to fit every genre into one story?

Austen-themed books || 2 mini reviews

Recently I read two books that I didn't love/hate enough to sit down and write a real, in-depth, review. Conveniently I was able to cobble together a little theme to lump these two mini-reviews together. They are both (however tenuously) Jane Austen-themed. Kind of. Sort of. Okay just keep reading.


Austenland by Shannon Hale

This novel is a fun, quirky story about a woman who goes on a Regency vacation where actors are paid to portray Austen-esque characters designed to court and 'fall in love' with the vacationers. Sound weird? Yeah, same. The plot is only partially believable (seriously? people are paid to talk to you and that's...fun?) but once you get past that it was a cute little story. That being said I would definitely not read the second book-- once was enough.



Pies and Prejudice by Ellery Adams

The title is a completely gratuitous Austen-reference as this book resembles an Austen novel like finger painting resembles the Mona Lisa. In short: a cozy murder mystery with a stereotypical evil-because-duh-evil villain. The only saving grace of this book was the emphasis placed on female relationships-- mother-daughter, aunt-niece, etc. Female relationships can be hard to come by in novels, where the focus tends to laser in on romantic relationships only. That being said, the female relationships is about to the only thing this book did right. Ain't no way I'm reading the sequel.


That's it for me! If you are interested in other Jane Austen-themed stuff I wrote an entire post on my favorite Pride and Prejudice adaptations. Let me know-- what is your favorite Austen-themed-inspired-etc-work? 

ARC Review: This Side of Murder

This Side of Murder by Anna Lee Huber 

Genre: Historical Fiction, Murder Mystery

Rating: 7/10 

Expected Publication: September 26th 2017

Anna Lee Huber is the author of one of my favorite Victorian murder mystery series (Lady Darby Mystery series) so when I saw the first book of her new series pop up on Netgallery, I quickly hit the request button. To my continual surprise my requests have been granted on Netgallery and before too long, the ebook magically appeared on my Amazon fire. 

I'm torn. 

Most bloggers write a disclaimer, about how getting a book for free will not affect their review. Considering I almost exclusively read library books, the idea of getting a book for free is so natural, I don't feel the need to write such assurances of my lack of bias. However, I can't ignore my bias towards this author. Am I harsher with her because I love her other books so much? Am I expecting more from her than is reasonable? 

This Side of Murder is a well researched murder mystery with a slightly confusing plot staffed by characters who were fell a little flat. The plot could be called intricate, but to me it had just one too many turns. It was fast paced and easily held my attention, even when I was frustrated by the characters. I never felt like I knew them-- they never seemed to be fully alive. 

But the downfalls of this book were not grave. The plot was interesting, as were the characters. I was just expecting more from this author. The subject matter is much darker than her previous novels, as it details the aftermath of WWI; how soldiers who were lucky enough to return, often did not return whole. 

The style felt a tad too artless for me-- it never clicked with the deep, dark subject matter. This is, of course, personal preference. Just because I felt like it lacked subtlety, doesn't mean that a different reader wouldn't love it. 

Let's move on to what I love, shall we? I loved how well-researched this novel felt. There were so many tidbits the author included merely to help flesh out the world. The novel was very atmospheric; for whatever reason, the novel played out in my head as though it was an episode of Poirot on Netflix as it felt like an unromanticized portrayal of the roaring twenties.  

The plot had so many twists and turns that, while confusing, meant it was a hard book to put down. I finished the book as conflicted as I feel now-- it was a good, not great book, and I won't be looking to pick up the sequel. 

What about you? Have you read anything by Anna Lee Huber? If not you should definitely check out The Anatomist's Wife because I thoroughly loved that book.