Ride or Die by James Newman

Amelia Fletcher is a good girl. She’s a straight-A student, second chair in her middle-school chorus, and she never uses the Lord’s name in vain.

But a few days ago, she discovered that her dad has been cheating on her mom.

For the first time in her life, Amelia decides she would like to know what it feels like to be a bad girl. For just one night.

With the help of her BFFs, Cassie and Folline, she plans to teach Dad’s “other woman” a lesson. It's harmless fun, right? An evening of teenage mischief. When all is said and done, the homewrecker will go away and never come back. Only then can Amelia's family begin to repair what has been broken.

However, this was no ordinary affair. And the trio could never expect the horrors that await them inside the house on Callaghan Drive.

When three teenage besties set out to teach someone a lesson about messing with a married man, the important thing to remember is that nobody was supposed to get hurt. Their intention was only to make the other woman go away. Sure there may have been some property damage, but mild destruction was not meant to include death. Well you know what they say about best-laid plans. Things go awry for Amelia and her friends when they discover a horrifying secret and there's no telling who will survive the night on Callaghan Drive.

"Silence. Even the crickets had stopped chirping for now. As if they too were appalled at what they had witnessed."

I loved the friendship between these three girls and the way they were portrayed as willing to do anything for each other no matter the risk. These girls were tough as nails in a day when so many female characters in horror are portrayed as catty or weak and waiting for a man to swoop in and save them. The story itself is quite unsettling. It went places I did not expect to go. 

5 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy for review.

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Camp Neverland by Lisa Quigley

 

Camp Neverland is special. At least that's what it said on the mysterious brochure. But when Max arrives to discover her tormentor Chuck Snyder is there, too, her hopes for a magical summer are dashed. Still, the bond she develops with her cabinmates feels almost too good to be true. And when kids start dying in gruesome ways, Max hides a frightening secret. She soon learns just how far she'll go to belong.

Camp Neverland
Book 29 in the Rewind-or-Die series: imagine your local movie rental store back in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, remember all those fantastic covers. Remember taking those movies home and watching in awe as the stories unfolded in nasty rainbows of gore, remember the atmosphere and textures. Remember the blood.

This was my first venture into the Rewind or Die series and although this is book 29 don't let that stop you from diving in. This is a stand alone novella, in the style of those great old horror movies of yester-year.

Max is a lonely teenage girl with a passion for drawing, and no friends to speak of. She is ignored by most, and tormented by one in particular. She is looking forward to the end of the school year when she can get a break from being bullied and harassed by Chuck, the boy who makes her life hell. This summer will be special, because she's going away to Camp Neverland, a mysterious summer camp that sounds too good to be true. Now we all know what happens in horror movies when a teen is bullied beyond her breaking point. Especially a girl like Max who may be more powerful than she knows. Bad things happen that's what. Painful, deadly things.

This was a fun read with a nostalgic horror movie vibe. I enjoyed the woodsy camp setting and will definitely be looking into more of the Ride or Die series. 

I received an advance copy for review.

Camp Neverland will be published on June 24

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About the author

Lisa Quigley is a writer, mother, wife, and irreverent witch living in New Jersey. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California, Riverside's low-residency MFA program in Palm Desert. Her work has appeared in Unnerving Magazine, Automata Review, The Manifest Station, and more. She is the co-host of the dark fiction podcast Ladies of the Fright, and she is a professor of English and communications.

The Web of La Sanguinaire & Other Arachnid Horrors by Ronald Kelly

 

I must be ahead of schedule for a change because I'm finished reading this before there is any synopsis or purchase info available. 

I believe the publication date is June 18th from D&T Publishing.

This is a collection of the following 8 spider themed stories...

The Web of La Sanguinaire
The Memory Eater
Housewarming
Atomic Arachnid Armageddon!
Cell Number Nine   
The Creeping Sands
Hugs and Kisses
Come See Spider Cave!

A couple of these stories were familiar to me and I believe I may have read them previously in "Sick Stuff"

Ronald Kelly's latest collection of tales all share a theme of 8 legged creepies from which nowhere is safe. They are everywhere, on land and sea, deep underground and in the misty fog of the swamp. Some are so small you won't notice them until it's too late, and some are freakishly large.

They are the stuff of nightmares, and for one woman in The Creeping Sands those nightmares come true.

While some are just your everyday poisonous variety others may have an intelligence and an evil intent.

Not all of them are looking to crawl into orifices where no spider should be and some can even break your heart like in my two favorite stories The Memory Eater, about a man who fears Alzheimer's losing his memories to something even worse, and Hugs and Kisses about a lonely teenage girl who finally finds a friend. These were the more character driven stories and I'm sure it's a difficult thing to fit characters you have time to care about into a short story but Ronald Kelly pulls that off deftly in both of these. I will admit I felt a tear starting to burn in my eye when I read them.

This was a 5 star read for me.

I received an advance copy for review.

About the author

Ronald Kelly was born and raised in the hills and hollows of Middle Tennessee. He became interested in horror as a child, watching the local "Creature Feature" on Saturday nights and "The Big Show"---a Nashville-based TV show that presented every old monster movie ever made ---in the afternoons after school. In high school, his interest turned to horror literature and he read such writers as Poe, Lovecraft, Matheson, and King. He originally had dreams of becoming a comic book artist and created many of his own super heroes. But during his junior year, the writing bug bit him and he focused his attention on penning short stories and full-length novels. To date, he has had ten novels and eight short fiction collections published. In 1992, his audio-book, DARK DIXIE, was included on the nominating ballot for a Grammy Award.

He currently lives in Brush Creek, Tennessee with his wife, Joyce, his two daughters, Reilly and Makenna, and his son, Ryan (Bubba).

Autumn Falls by A.R. Kingston

 

Twenty-five years ago, a deal was made to save a child’s life. Now the time has come for someone to pay the price.

Paramedic Charlotte Briggs is a woman on the run. Having escaped an abusive man with her son, she lives out of motels until a mysterious call offers her a job in a sleepy, fog-locked town of Autumn Falls.

At first, the picturesque New England town, situated off the coast of Maine, seems like an ideal place to raise her son, until strange things begin to happen. At first, it’s just the crows following her around the island and the frightful creature lurking in the shadows. Then, the accidents start. Gruesome, bloody accidents unlike any she’d ever seen before. The island is thirsty for human blood. The dead also don’t stay dead. They either return to warn her or threaten her, and Charlotte suspects that not all is well in her new town.

Digging into the island’s past, Charlotte won’t only unearth its supernatural secrets, but also solve the mystery of her own link to this cursed chunk of rock in the Atlantic.

Charlotte has come to build a new life for herself and her son. What she doesn't know is that there was a nefarious reason she was offered a new job and a place to start over.

Autumn Falls, a lovely name for the odd town with weird inhabitants. There were lots of things I liked about this book. The mystery of the old hospital where even paramedics are forbidden to go, the "ghost" ambulance that can be seen cruising down the street, the creepy way the children act, as if they are synchronized, even the Pig Man! There are lots of spooky happenings here and several  gruesome deaths and mutilations.  What I didn't like was the way some of the characters interacted, and their dialogue. It just hit a few wrong notes with me that a woman who has had to flee an abusive relationship would be so willing to spill her life story to her new coworkers practically the minute they first meet, or to feel obligated to explain to strangers why she chose to raise her son on her own. It could be, that was the way the author chose to fill the reader in on Charlotte's back story but in my head I was screaming it's none of their business! Why are you spilling your guts to these strangers?

I enjoyed the more macabre moments of the story but wasn't crazy about the long lost love angle.

3 out of 5 stars

I received a complimentary copy for review

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About the author

Multi-genre author A.R. Kingston is a lover of all things dark and magical. She started out writing fanfiction in High School until going off to college to pursue her bachelor’s degree in Psychology and spent a few years in the mental health field before her passion for writing called back to her. Now she spends her time weaving fantastical tales of magical worlds or planting terrifying beasts on earth. When she is not writing, you can find her enjoying tea with her potbellied pigs while she reads a book or hones a new skill. Eventually, she hopes to retire in her beautiful Colorado Springs, Colorado, and run her own pig rescue.