The Restoration by J H Moncrieff

Today is my stop and last day of the blog tour for book "The Restoration" by author J H Moncrieff, arranged by Random Things Tours.

About the author:

J.H. Moncrieff's City of Ghosts won the 2018 Kindle Book Review Award for best Horror/Suspense. Reviewers have described her work as early Gillian Flynn with a little Ray Bradburyand Stephen King thrown in for good measure.

The book is available to buy now, click HERE for Amazon UK.

For my stop I have my review, non spoiler as always, enjoy.

The Restoration by J.H. Moncrieff
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Pages - 256

Publisher - FlameTreePress

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

Inspired by the author’s overnight stay in a historical haunted house, The Restoration is a thrilling tale of intrigue, murder, and family secrets that refuse to stay buried.

It was the perfect opportunity…or so she thought. When Terri Foxworth is hired to spend a year restoring a crumbling manor house, she believes she’s hit the jackpot. She moves in with her young daughter and high hopes for the project’s success. As the restoration begins to go terribly wrong, she realizes dark forces won’t let her leave the house until its horrible secrets are revealed.

This job could very well be the death of her.


My Review

Terri Foxworth restores old houses, live in on the job and this house is perfect, Glenvale House. The only problem is she isn't the first to be hired, those who came before her have bolted because Glenvale doesn't just have beauty, it has secrets oh and a ghost. Not that Terri believes in ghosts however when her daughter Dallas has encounters with it she can't keep denying. Then things start to escalate, the owner has no time for these stories and some people just can't let the house or the past go.

The story moves at quite a fast pace, it is only 256 pages so you don't have loads of descriptions of the actual house being restored. As the ghost manifestations increase we delve deeper into a ghost story with twists and turns, terrifying a mother and daughter and a house that has secrets some people would rathe stay buried.

I didn't love Terri, I questioned her behaviour in a fair few moments but disliked characters often make for the best because you do a 180 (often) and root for them. The book offers ghosts, murder, mystery, spooky, secrets, relationships, family and then some! I needed a story that let me leave behind my life/dramas and step into another's, The Restoration provided that. This is my first dance with this author I will be having a nose at her other works. A ghost story to give you a wee creep or two and inspired after the author stayed in a historical house.



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Your Turn to Suffer by Tim Waggoner Blog Tour

Today is my turn on the blog tour, for my stop I have my review (as always non spoiler), enjoy.

YOUR TURN TO SUFFER
Tim Waggoner
Publication date: Mar 2021
“His ability to weave the surreal with the hyper-real is his greatest talent.” — Signal Horizon. Lorelei Palumbo is harassed byasinister group calling themselves The Cabal. They accuse her of having committed unspeakable crimes in the past, and now she must pay. The Cabal begins taking her life apart one piece ata time – her job, her health, the people she loves – and she must try to figure out what The Cabal thinks she’s done if she’s to have any hope of answering theircharges and salvaging her life.

Out to BUY in ebook, treebook and hardback from AMAZON or the Publisher website FLAMETREEPUBLISHING now.

Bram Stoker Award-winning author Tim Waggoner writes both original and mediatie-in fiction,and he has published over forty novels and four short story collections. He teaches creative writing at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio.

Your Turn to Suffer by Tim Waggoner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 256

Publisher - Flame Tree Press

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

“His ability to weave the surreal with the hyper-real is his greatest talent.” — Signal Horizon.

Lorelai Palumbo is harassed by a sinister group calling themselves The Cabal. They accuse her of having committed unspeakable crimes in the past, and now she must pay. The Cabal begins taking her life apart one piece at a time – her job, her health, the people she loves – and she must try to figure out what The Cabal thinks she’s done if she’s to have any hope of answering their charges and salvaging her life.



My Review

Weird eyes and a weird message "Confess and atone--or suffer." Lorelai thinks it is just a strange encounter with a woman with freaky eyes. Things however start to go wrong quickly, freaky happenings, people she knows behaving strange and things just get worse and worse, darker, more threatening until Lorelai realises this thing is bigger than her and if she doesn't "confess and atone" she will indeed suffer and she won't be the only one!

The thing about Flame Tree Press is the books are always dark, freaky and have dodgy happenings, Your Turn to Suffer is right at home. Some of the scenes are really dark, uncomfortable, brutal - things you often come to expect in horror books. Animal brutality, human brutality and duo world, ours and another you will go to with Lorelai to "help" her appreciate her predicament and work on her atonement/confession.

Super dark, gore fest at times but it has more than that to offer, some scenes are emotive, hard, shocking, echoes of a cult but like none we have ever seen. One for horror fans and if you go through a lot of horror, this will maybe offer you something different, fresh, 4/5 for me this time!

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