Posts Tagged ‘haunted house’

Welcome to The Friday 56 hosted by Freda’s Voice.

 

This is a really fun meme!

The only rules are to grab a book (any book), turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader and find a sentence or a few (no spoilers) that grabs you and post it.

Then go over to Freda’s Voice and leave your link so we can visit your 56!

My 56 for this week is from:

The Bothell Hell House

Poltergeist of Washington State

  by Keith Linder

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Genre: True haunted house story

From 56% in the eBook.

Try to think about all the moments in your house when you are most vulnerable. We’re vulnerable when we sleep, right? I think that’s the number one vulnerability for anyone living in a home. What comes to mind after that? If you’re like me, you’ll say bath or shower. One of the terrifying experiences for me took place while I was taking a shower.

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Synopsis

True Haunted House story – 2012 Keith Linder after successfully obtaining a management position at a prestigious healthcare company decides the time is right for him and his girlfriend to move in together. That’s putting things lightly. Weird things begin to happen within days of moving into the modern suburban home. The horrors Keith and his girlfriend witnessed and desperately tried to fight off would end up putting them at odds with members of the paranormal community and themselves. This griping story, told from the house occupant point of view not only lists tales, but also includes pictures, video reenactments, commentary, and audio of the events being reported. Keith Linder does not ask that you believe him. He only asks that you listen. The Bothell Hell House has finally arrived ladies and gentlemen. The house that Zak Bagans and his team came to investigate (albeit for a short time) only to leave empty handed has come full circle. The house occupant tells his story. The complete story which includes why Zak and crew left empty handed. Spontaneous fire outbreaks and inexplicable wall writings are not the most horrific things that happened here. Something more sinister lurks.

Amazon

This book was free at time of posting. Click on the link or cover above to grab a copy.

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Leave your link and I’ll drop by your 56.

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Welcome to my Saturday Screams!

With Halloween fast approaching, I’ve amassed a bunch of creepy stories to share with you.

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Last week I showcased several books I won from Michael Phillip Cash and I asked you to help me choose which order I should review them in.

The Flip was the top choice, so here ya go!

Come on in and get your scare on!

The Flip

by Michael Phillip Cash

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My Review

I enjoy watching shows about flipping houses. It’s fun to watch the transformation from ugly to fantastic. If I had the money, I’d do some myself.

My luck I’d wind up in the same fix as Julie and Brad Evans.

They’re starting to get the hang of the flipping thing. Buy low, fix it up, sell for a nice profit. But Brad has his misgivings about the one Julie has her heart set on. It’s a monstrous undertaking and he’s getting bad vibes from the old mansion, Hemmings House.

Julie loves it, sees only the potential, and wants to turn it into a bed and breakfast. Brad caves and now he has to get his crew together and get the stinking trash hauled out of the place.

Weird things start happening. Doors open and shut on their own. Cold spots occur throughout the place. And Brad and the crew are being affected by the atmosphere. Something angry is rubbing off on them.

All the makings for a scary good haunted house story, right? The author delivers, giving you things that go bump in the night. You’ll meet these ghostly inhabitants and get to know their stories. I engaged with the ghosts as well as Julie and Brad and came to worry about all of them.

Welcome to Hemmings House. Where anything can happen, and does.

4 Stars

Synopsis

Julie and Brad Evans are house flippers. They buy low, clean out the old occupants’ junk, and try to make a profit. Enter Hemmings House on Bedlam Street in scenic Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. Too good a deal to pass up, but with an ominous secret. The old Victorian Mansion has dwellers that do not want to be dispossessed. As the house reveals it’s past, will the couple’s marriage survive The Flip?

Trailer

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Stop back by next Saturday for your next choice!

Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew!

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Welcome to my Monday Minis.

For today I’ll be reviewing Welcome Home

by William Hage 

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My Review

I like it when I go into a book thinking I’m getting one thing, and I get something totally different. This happened when I began reading Welcome Home. I thought it was going to be a haunted house story.

The story is haunting but there are no actual ghosts. What’s there is something shadowing John Lester. It’s like when you see something out of the corner of your eye and when you turn to look, nothing is there. But this isn’t visual so much as it’s memories. They haunt his sleep, staying just out of reach of recall.

While this didn’t really scare me, it did surprise me and that’s always a good thing.

A good story for a rainy day.

 3 Stars

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Synopsis

John Lester is returning to a place he never really considered home to begin with, a place that he has not seen in years. But what he does not realize is that what went on in this house was much less homely than he thought as he unearths something dark about his family.”Welcome Home” is a short story approximately 6600 words.

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Welcome to My Monday Minis.

This is where I review short stories and flash fiction.

For today I’ll be telling you about The Basement

by Chad P. Brown

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My Review

I’ve seen the movies. I’ve read the books. But, I just can’t say it enough. Don’t go in the basement! There’s always something bad just waiting to make you dead.

So the story goes, Heather takes a dare and enters the Blackwell House. Everyone knows it’s haunted, and really bad things happened. But, like the foolish girl she is, I guess she figures it can’t happen to her. She’ll show her friends there’s nothing to be afraid of and that’ll be the end of it.

Not quite. Heather doesn’t run into the Blackwell family ghosts. Instead, she’s confronted by her dead mother.

What the author did really well was hook me in right from the beginning. This isn’t a new scenario. I’ve read many similar stories, but the author made it different. The ghost Heather thought she should be worried about isn’t the one that appeared.

The atmosphere is set, from the door slamming shut after she enters, to the creaking and moaning of the old house settling.

Another thing that I liked was how the author let me into Heather’s head as she tried to dispel her own fears and find logical explanations for what was occurring. It enabled me to feel her fear, her disbelief, and finally her terror.

Kudos to Chad for his surprising ending. After I read the last sentence I said to myself, “Got ya!”

3 Stars

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About Chad P. Brown

Chad P. Brown was born in Huntington, WV. Once he outgrew his childhood fears of haunted houses, clowns, and toy monkeys with cymbals (although those still creep him out a little bit), he discovered a dark love for writing and an affinity for macabre and eldritch matters. He holds a Master’s in Latin from Marshall University and is an Affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association. In October 2011, he released his first horror novel, The Jack-in-the-box. He has appeared in the anthologies SPIDERS (August 2012 by May December Publications) and Gothic Blue Book Vol. 2 – Revenge Edition (October 2012 by Burial Day Books). His current projects include a recently released zombie novella, Messiah of the Zombie Apocalypse, and various short stories, as well as a dark fiction novella, The Pumpkin House, which is in submission.

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Welcome to My Monday Minis.

This is where I review very short stories and flash fiction.

For today I’ll be telling you about The Haunted House On Wheels

by Dennis E. Yates

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Brothers Jerry and Mark have taken a long summer trip to visit their cousin Cindy. When Cindy insists that they go see a haunted house at a traveling carnival, the boys are skeptical at first. It’s not until they actually see it for themselves that they begin to change their minds.

Even after hearing the chilling stories Cindy has told them about the man who built the house, they only have an inkling of what awaits them inside.

Little do they know how those stories barely scratch the surface, that there are angry ghosts within who have other plans for them!

And it’s way too late to back out now, never mind a refund.

Because it’s beginning to look like there’s no way out!

My Review

I was first drawn to this book by the title. When I saw the fun cover art, that sealed the deal.

I breezed through this in about an hour, without taking a break.

It’s a fun, fast read with lots to keep you entertained. The characters are lively and genuine and written with individual voices making them easy to tell apart.

You have Cindy and Jerry, kind of pushing each other to be the bravest and go inside the haunted house.

Then you have Mark, younger but maybe wiser in his fear that something bad will happen.

Regardless, they all go inside the creepy house on wheels and sure enough, things go very wrong.

They are trapped in the house, and they aren’t alone in there.

It’s nice to have a story that you can relax with, breeze through, and just have fun with. While it may be written for a young audience, I found it took me back to my younger years and brought back memories of how things looked and felt then.

The characters came forth as speaking and acting as kids their age would, making them real and making you connect. The situations were exciting and scary and there are some twists to keep you engrossed.

Especially the ending. It wasn’t what I expected. A few of the characters surprised me, probably just what the author was going for.

I would recommend this book to all ages. The young will connect to the characters easily and us older readers will step back in time and remember the apprehension and excitement of going on a scary adventure.

4 STARS

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Dennis E. Yates

Dennis Yates

Dennis Yates (born 1963) is an American writer of novels and short stories. He is a native of Portland Oregon, and a fan of long road trips, animals, engaging literature and independent films. He often dreams of escaping the Oregon rain clouds to the scorching sun and red canyons of the American Southwest.

Dennis enjoys writing psychological thrillers and dark comedy. On the lighter side, his quintessential, quirky road-trip novel The Teriyaki Samurai was a quarter-finalist in the 2013 Amazon Breakout Novel Award contest. Dennis draws deeply from his love of nature and the American landscape, which he firmly believes must play an important character in all of his writing.

He is a huge fan of such authors as Daniel Woodrell, Cormac McCarthy, Annie Proulx, William Gay, Frank Bill, John Rector, Blake Crouch and many others.

Dennis can be reached at yates.author@gmail.com and on Twitter at @YatesScribe.

Amazon / Goodreads

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I learned about this new author from Sherry at Fundinmental.

From Such Small Things was FREE at the time of my  posting.

I had such fun I grabbed more books by Brian Harmon and have already read three of them.

Go HERE to get yours. They may still be free!

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Strange noises. Phantom footsteps. Wrapping on the walls. Ear blasting shrieks. And a closet door that won’t stay closed.

This and more is happening at Allen and Selena’s house.

At first, they put it off as the house settling. But as more strange things happen, they have to face facts.

For some reason. after all the years they’ve lived in their house, it is haunted.

Whatever is haunting them is getting stronger, more territorial, and dangerous.

Something has to give.

I know what I’d do. I’d be out of there.

I’m not easily scared, but I don’t think I could handle what happens in this house.

Something that can reach out from beyond and hurt you is not to be messed with.

As the entity got stronger and more vicious, my shoulders tightened up, my head drew in to my shoulders, my elbows tucked snug against my body, and I braced myself as I kept on reading.

 The author had me connecting with Allen and Selena , wondering why in the world they didn’t just leave. I was afraid each time I turned a page that the worst was waiting for me.

So much dread from so few words. I recommend you read this after dark, preferably on a stormy night. It’s meant to scare you and the mood should be set. Just keep a flashlight handy. Wouldn’t want to be left sitting in the dark.

What’s that noise? Nope, sitting in the dark, our mind will imagine all kinds of things. Is the closet door closed?

I was very lucky and got this as a free download. Thanks Brian. I can’t think of a better way to discover new authors.

5 Stars

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Brian Harmon

Brian Harmon is a writer of horror fiction, suspense and dark adventure. He grew up in Missouri and currently lives in Southern Wisconsin with his wife, Guinevere, and their two children.

You can find Brian and all of his books HERE.

I’ve got a special treat for you today.

Taylor Dean is here to tell us about how she got started writing paranormal romance.

Then I have reviews for Lancaster House and The Middle Aisle.

But that’s not all. Taylor has a very special giveaway.

So, please welcome Taylor Dean and feel free to say hello!

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Taylor Dean

What inspired me to write a paranormal romance?

I write romance in all of its many sub-genres: paranormal, suspense, contemporary. The main theme is always ROMANCE. It’s what I love to write. My daughter called me one day and challenged me to write a paranormal story. It’s her favorite genre—and she doesn’t really enjoy romantic angst in other forms.

“Mom,” she said, “Let’s both write a paranormal story and see what comes of them.” I responded with, “My mind just doesn’t think that way.” Truth be told, I didn’t really want to write anything paranormal and I kinda dismissed the whole idea pretty quickly, even though I found myself promising her I’d think about a plot as we hung up.

Paranormal? Really? No way, I thought, I write about sweet ROMANCE, not things that go bump in the night. Not going to happen, I told myself. This was during the Twilight craze (has that ended?) and I figured the world had seen enough paranormal! Although I love Twilight, I admit it. Okay, back to the story. At about this same time, I was ridiculously addicted to American Idol. With the crazed excitement of a groupie, I watched every minute of the Season 8 finale.

And then it happened.

Who’d of thought that an American Idol performance could inspire a 90,000 word novel? Not me. But it did. Go figure.

How the heck did an American Idol performance inspire Lancaster House?

Good question. I’m not really sure myself, but somehow the visual kicked my imagination into overdrive. Season 8 of American Idol blew me away. I thought Adam Lambert was amazing in every single performance. During the finale, Adam once again sang his haunting rendition of ‘Mad World.’ Even my husband was impressed by this performance, and that’s saying a lot because he isn’t usually impressed by singing performances. (Ever) Adam performed while wearing vampire-like garb on a fog-shrouded stage.

This link is a very poor video of the performance. I couldn’t find another one and I’m surprised that there are not more links to it. I own a perfect copy of it that I purchased through iTunes. I watched it umpteen times as I wrote Lancaster House.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEQyz0acKNo

It’s a haunting performance—like Twilight, the Musical or something! I remember saying to my daughter, “Now that’s how I pictured Edward.” My daughter, a book-a-holic, immediately corrected me. “That’s not how Edward is described at all, Mom.” She was right and I knew it, but I have this nasty habit of picturing the hero of the story the way I want to picture him, no matter how the author describes him. Adam wasn’t Edward. Not by a long shot. But, he was how I pictured Edward. There was only one thing to do.

Write my own story.

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The visual of Adam rising up out of the stage amidst fog and then pausing before he began to sing, the way his movements were slow and dreamlike—all of it left me intrigued. It screamed paranormal story. What if a man appeared in my home looking like that? (sans the microphone!) What if he was a ghost? I would be scared and fascinated all at the same time. It was at that moment that Lancaster House was born.

It wasn’t quite that easy, of course. My hubby and I spent an entire car drive to Idaho (driving our daughter to college) hashing out all of the details of the story. By the time we arrived home, I had my story in my mind, beginning to finish.

And it was all due to one amazing performance sparking my imagination.

Thanks so much for sharing with us Taylor.

And now for my reviews.

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To find out why Joy tried to kill herself, why she is under the care of Dr. Channing at Serenity HIlls, and why she is suspected of killing two men, we have to go back to the beginning.

When Joy first laid eyes on Lancaster House, she knew she had to have it.

She couldn’t wait to get started on the restoration. Couldn’t wait to bring the old house back to its former glory.

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The work was slow but rewarding. She was doing one room at a time. She would go to bed exhausted and rise to start again the next morning.

After five hours of scraping and sanding the bannister, she took a lunch break. When she returned to finish up, she couldn’t believe her eyes. It was finished!

She told herself maybe she was confused, being so tired and all.

But the next night it happened again. She didn’t get the wall papering done.

In the morning, when she came downstairs, it was finished.

Now she panicked, racing through the house, but no one was there.

Not one to be scared, she knows she can figure this out.

Stop standing here like a ninny and figure this out. There has to be a logical explanation.

But there isn’t. And she is beginning to think the former owner, Andre Lancaster, is still living in the house. Either that or she is going crazy.

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Mini Excerpt for ya.

“You can see me?” he asked again, his tone urgent.

“Yes,” she whispered, unable to find her voice.

For several seconds he simply stared at her, his eyes smoldering. She trembled under his gaze, her bottom lip quivering. One hand reached up, his motions slow, and cupped her cheek. He let out his breath and closed his eyes as if the feel of her did something to him.

“I won’t hurt you Zoe.”

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But how can that be? He’s been dead for many, many years.

A really fun part of this story is the language. The slang from the 1920’s is quirky and I enjoyed reading how Joy figured out what Andre meant by some of the sayings.

Stuff like giggle water is alcohol. Makes sense. And Bank’s closed which means no kissing.

After you finish reading Lancaster House you tell me what you think. Is Joy crazy?

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Did she just make up Andre and their passionate affair to keep from being alone?

 Is Dr. Channing right in that ghosts don’t exist?

So many questions and an ending that will let you decide, or not.

I adored Joy and Andre and want a Lancaster House of my own.

5 Stars for this haunting love story.

And it continues in The Middle Aisle

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Hmm, how do I tell you about this book without spoiling it. It’s hard to review the next book in a series.

In Lancaster House, you are left wondering if Andre is real or a ghost. Is Joy crazy as a loon, desperate for any kind of love, or is her house haunted?

In The Middle Aisle, you will still be wondering. You may think at some point, “Oh, now I see.” But then, as you read further, you are in doubt again.

Taylor Dean has written a series like none other. You are kept “in the dark,” figuratively, throughout both books.

I don’t recall ever being so unsure of my own conclusions in a book.

The love between Joy and Andre is very real and so endearing. But is Andre real? If he isn’t, then is their love real?

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Mini Excerpt

“You’re imagination intrigues and fascinates me, Zoe,” Wade commented, his voice cracking. He cleared his throat and ran his hands over his face. “Why don’t we take a break?” he suggested and quickly exited the room, stumbling on his own feet as he left.

It wasn’t possible, it just wasn’t possible, he thought, as his mind wandered to that moment…. Turns out it was possible, it just wasn’t real…

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And if Andre is real, then that makes the alluring, malevolent Adelle real as well.

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Aah! I can’t say I ever really figured it out. But, I don’t have to. I feel it is up to each reader to decide for themselves. And whether you figure it out or not doesn’t matter. It is still a love story for all time. One that goes beyond the physical, to the otherworldly.

5 Stars for keeping me wondering.

That makes a total of 10 Stars for Lancaster House and The Middle Aisle.

I had these books on my kindle, but when I saw a giveaway on Sherry’s blog fundinmental, I just had to try to win the paperbacks, and I did!! Thanks so much Sherry.

Since then, I’ve went on to read Taylor’s “i have people.” You can read my review here.

 And I’m getting ready to start reading Sierra. Next up will be the upcoming new release of Joshua’s Folly.

Thanks so much for your lovely books Taylor.

As long as you keep writing, I’ll keep reading!

Giveaway

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You could win this really awesome swag pack from Taylor. Check it out!

One winner will get signed paperback copies of both books along with a tote bag, book marks, and a “Believe it, Know it, Accept it” pencil.

US Only

AND

Five winners will get:

e-book copies of both books.

E-book Giveaway is International.

To enter, please leave your email address, specify whether entering for swag pack or e-books, and answer this question,

“Have you ever been in a haunted house?”

Giveaway ends May 3rd.

Good Luck ya’ll!

About the Author:

Taylor Dean lives in Texas and is the mother of four grown children. Upon finding herself with an empty nest, she began to write the stories that were always wandering around in her head, quickly finding that she had a passion for writing, specifically romance. Whether it’s paranormal, contemporary, or suspense-you’ll find all sub-genres of romance in her line-up.

Lancaster House & The Middle Aisle, available in print or eCopy
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For all of Taylor Deans books go here.

Lancaster House  The Middle Aisle (Lancaster House)

I Have People and coming soon! Joshua's Folly

Sierra

For all of my giveaways go here.

For a list of free e-books go here.