The Story's Writer by Wayne Lemmons

Description
"Amy, a single mother of one, has been alone for too long. One-night stands and unsatisfying relationships are dragging the joy out of her life. One Sunday morning she wakes in a strange bed, one of many just lately, and meets the man of her dreams.
Grant is handsome, charismatic, and charming. He’s also a horror novelist who’s had moderate success in his craft. The only thing more attractive than the man is the fact that he actually wants to meet Amy’s son, Bailey.
Bailey is independent for his age, as competent at caring for his own daily needs as most children twice his age, but overweight and ailed by a lack of personal confidence. His reservations about meeting a new man are evident in his resistance of his mother’s demands, but soon he warms to the charming writer. Bailey sees an opportunity to gain not only a father, but a friend.
Months later, after Amy and Bailey have taken up residence with this new man, odd behaviors begin to emerge as Grant researches the basis for his new novel. It’s a nonfiction manuscript, based on ghost stories originating at a local bar with a reputation for appearances from the other side. It’s a good book with a good story behind it, but it’s taking Grant down a path of hatred, violence, and ultimate destruction.
When Amy begins helping Grant with his editing, she too falls victim to the effects of prose, Bailey begins to receive a more brutal version of parenting. Now he’s hungry, in pain, and afraid with little or no help in sight as the story being written in his home stops mirroring the events at a remote bar, and becomes the new terrorizing story of his life."

The Story's Writer: From the author of The Dark Roads by Wayne Lemmons
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

8 year old Bailey is a lonely child, often left home alone for long stretches of time while his mother is out. He is a bit overweight due to his favorite pastime of watching movies, playing video games and comforting himself with food. He is a bright boy, wise beyond his years and loves his mother Amy fiercely, and she returns that love even though it seems she could benefit from a few parenting classes.

Suddenly, Amy just happens to click with her latest one night stand Grant, and the two become a couple. Not long after that Amy and Bailey move in to his apartment and Grant is thrilled to be part of a family. While working on a book concerning the happenings in a haunted bar, Grant begins to act strangely. He has bursts of rage for no apparent reason and vile thoughts that are no longer under his control. It appears something evil has followed Grant home from the bar and is now taking over his personality. Bailey knows something horrible is happening and that it has to do with the book, but he is powerless to stop it and as it begins to effect his mother's behavior as well there is nobody left to protect him.

This was a quick and creepy read with several heart in your throat moments that made me wish I could get in that apartment and rescue Bailey myself.

I received a complimentary copy for review.

Watching Edie by Camilla Way

Description

For fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train: A dazzling work of psychological suspense that weaves together the past and present of two women's twisted friendship.

Beautiful, creative, a little wild… Edie was the kind of girl who immediately caused a stir when she walked into your life. And she had dreams back then—but it didn't take long for her to learn that things don't always turn out the way you want them to.

Now, at thirty-three, Edie is working as a waitress, pregnant and alone. And when she becomes overwhelmed by the needs of her new baby and sinks into a bleak despair, she thinks that there's no one to turn to…

But someone's been watching Edie, waiting for the chance to prove once again what a perfect friend she can be. It's no coincidence that Heather shows up on Edie's doorstep, just when Edie needs her the most. So much has passed between them—so much envy, longing, and betrayal. And Edie's about to learn a new lesson: those who have hurt us deeply—or who we have hurt—never let us go, not entirely…

 

This was a brilliant psychological thriller.  Edie is about to become a single mother. Alone and pretty much friendless in her drab tiny apartment, cut off from her family except for an uncle that she has kept in touch with. Out of the blue after more than a decade, she is shocked to get a visit from her former friend Heather,... She is not at all happy to see her and right away I was struck with such a feeling of dread. The story is told in both the present, from Edie's point of view, and the past in Heather's point of view. Slowly we are let in on the secrets that tore these friends apart. It left me wondering almost until the reveal near the  end whether Edie had done something horrible to Heather or whether Heather had done something horrible to Edie. Was Heather some sort of Psycho who latched on to Edie and wanted her to herself or was it Edie who had done something unforgivable to Heather? You will have to read for yourself and find out. 5 stars from me.

 

I received an advance copy for review

Afterlife: A Shadows Series Novel by Cege Smith

 
 
 

Description
Twenty years have passed since the events that transpired inside the walls of the haunted Bradford mansion. On the eve of its demolition, it calls out to those that escaped it to come home…

It’s Thanksgiving vacation, and Morgan Mitchell returns home from college unexpectedly to find her parents, David and Ellie Mitchell, are mysteriously missing. Thinking they have taken a holiday trip and forgotten to tell her, Morgan settles in for a quiet vacation break alone. When some friends suggest exploring an old abandoned mansion due to be torn down the following week, she doesn’t think there’s any harm in going with them.

But this seemingly random invitation is one that proves not to be so random at all. Shadows from the past are coming for Morgan and her family, and soon she discovers that she is the only one who holds the key to saving them all. 


This was a quick read and my first time reading anything from the Shadows Series. As it is a "companion" to the series there may be pertinent details I am not aware of, but the story seems able to stand on it's own without having read the series.
Morgan, is a college student who suffers with a sleep paralysis night terrors type condition. She thinks she has it under control and is able to keep it a secret from most everyone. However a sleep over leads to a break up, and depressed she returns home for the holidays even though she had told her parents not to expect her.
Oddly enough her parents seem to have gone off somewhere without letting her know. They do not return her texts or calls, and their cars are in the garage but nobody is home. When Morgan accompanies some friends to an abandoned house rumored to be haunted She discovers that she didn't know as much about her parents or herself as she thought.
I received a complimentary copy for review

Whitefern by V.C. Andrews

Description

The long-awaited sequel to My Sweet Audrina, one of V.C. Andrews’s strangest, most beloved books—and now a Lifetime movie! Whitefern swallowed Audrina’s childhood—and now the sprawling Victorian mansion threatens her adult life too…

Audrina remembers a better time, when her husband, Arden, was a young man with a heart filled with devotion for her. He didn’t used to be this ambitious, expansive…this cruel. But then, the death of Audrina's father changed a great many things.

When the reading of her father’s will reveals that Audrina herself will control fifty-one percent of the family brokerage—the halls of Whitefern again don’t feel safe. Arden’s protestations become frantic, nearly violent. And while Audrina didn’t anticipate running the family business, she’s curious to do so. And she can’t help but wonder what had made her father change his will at the last minute? What did he know about Arden that she didn’t?

Trapped in the middle of it all: her fragile, simple sister—the beautiful, trusting Sylvia. Audrina promised her father she’d watch over the young woman. But after years of relative quiet, the dark days of Whitefern may have returned…

 

It's been at least 20 years if not more since I read My Sweet Audrina. I can't say I remember every detail about it but I remember that I liked it very much and so was quite anxious to read the sequel.

Audrina's life as a married woman has not seemed to mature her very much. She has much of the same naiveté and innocent too trusting nature of a young girl.

Her marriage to Arden has not turned out as she had hoped and although her father has left her controlling interest in his business she lacks the drive and maturity to do anything about it.  She spends most of her time caring for her developmentally challenged sister but due to her own too trusting nature she is not as vigilant in protecting her as one would hope.

If you read the first book then this is certainly worth a read but I found the plot quite predictable and it was fairly obvious how it would all end.

 

I received an advance copy for review.