My Week in Review: 9/1/18-9/8/18

Well, we've moved right on in to September.  Time is trucking right along - I've heard that happens when you get old.  :)

This weeks theme: Ghosts/Haunted Houses

Craven Manor by Darcy Coates - 4 Stars ****

Daniel is desperate for a job. When someone slides a note under his door offering him the groundskeeper’s position at an old estate, it seems too good to be true.

Alarm bells start ringing when he arrives at Craven Manor. The mansion’s front door hangs open, and leaves and cobwebs coat the marble foyer. It’s clear no one has lived there in a long time.

But an envelope waits for him inside the doorway. It contains money, and promises more.

Daniel is desperate. Against his better judgement, he moves into the groundskeeper’s cottage behind the crypt. He’s determined to ignore the strange occurrences that plague the estate.

But when a candle flickers to life in the abandoned tower window, Daniel realises Craven Manor is hiding a terrible secret… one that threatens to bury him with it.

Callie The Bayou Hauntings by Bill Thompson - 4 Stars ****

Deep in the bayous of southern Louisiana, an ancient mansion called Beau Rivage sits empty and abandoned. Arceneaux family members built the house and lived there for two hundred years. The house is inherited by Callie Pilantro, a down-on-her-luck granddaughter of Juliet Arceneaux, its most recent owner who died there a few months ago.

Strange things begin to unravel as a mysterious child appears and disappears at will inside the house, Callie finds a family graveyard in the woods that creates more questions than answers, and she discovers that even the walls of the mansion hold long-forgotten secrets.

Confronted by strange events she doesn’t understand and a little girl who speaks in riddles, Callie struggles to find the secrets of Beau Rivage even as someone is determined to keep her from learning them.

Sinister Summer  by Colleen Gleason - 4 Stars ****

A sexy professor.

A logical lawyer.

A determined ghost.

And a very real killer...

Welcome to Wicks Hollow: a cozy town near Lake Michigan filled with quaint houses, eccentric residents, and more than its share of ghosts, murders, and romance.

Diana Iverson needs a break--from her stressful job, from her philandering boyfriend, and from the rest of her fast-paced life. When she inherits her eccentric Aunt Jean's home on Wicks Lake, Diana takes a much-needed vacation in the cozy little town.

But when the lake house becomes the scene of multiple break-ins and other unsettling events, Diana begins to suspect Aunt Jean’s death was not as innocent as it seems.

And then there’s Ethan Murphy, the sexy college professor who lives next door… He appears to know a lot more about Aunt Jean than he should, and Diana doesn’t trust him.

But most of all, there's Aunt Jean herself…who seems determined to communicate with Diana—from beyond the grave.

Obsession by David Probert - 3 Stars ***

Doug and Karen have rented a picturesque vacation home on a quaint New England island. Doug's goal is to complete the follow-up to his debut novel. Karen's is to relax. 

But the couple soon realizes that they are being watched by something that's inside the house with them, something that has formed an unnatural attachment to Doug and has now begun to terrorize Karen. 

As Karen begins to uncover the home's malevolent past she discovers that the presence among them is far more dangerous than they had ever imagined, and regardless of its preconceived intentions, neither of them are safe.

Shallow Graves by Patrick Logan - 3 Stars ***

Not all houses are made of brick and stone...

Robert Watts is having the worst day of his entire life: first he's laid off, then he finds out that his wife is having an affair... with his boss no less. And that's only the beginning.

Before the month is out, Robert finds himself alone to raise his daughter with no money, no job, and a house that is minutes from being repossessed. Just when he hits rock bottom, a strange visitor arrives at the doorstep of his soon to be foreclosed house with a letter from an Aunt he didn't know existed.

The offer is simple: look after Aunt Ruth during her dying days, and in return Robert will be bequeathed the Harlop Estate in which she currently resides. It's a no brainer and Robert jumps at the opportunity, equally motivated by the prospect of financial security as he is for a fresh start.

Problem is, it only takes a few nights in the Harlop Estate before he begins to question Aunt Ruth's claims that they are the home's only inhabitants...

It's the scratching he hears during the night, the voices that he can barely make out over the constant rain, and then there's the girl with the rat...

With their house foreclosed and their bank accounts liquidated, Robert and his daughter Amy desperately need a place to live. But the question Robert soon finds himself struggling with is whether living in the Harlop Estate is worth it... and if he can survive until Aunt Ruth passes to collect his inheritance.

It's been a long time since I've read a "ghost" story and I enjoyed these.  A couple kept me awake late into the night.  :)

I hope you see something you'd like to try.  As always, thank you for stopping by.

~Michelle