Month: March 2022

Home Before Dark + Review

Twenty-five years ago, when Maggie Holt was five, her parents moved into Baneberry Hall, an infamous estate in Vermont.
Only a few weeks later they fled in the dead of night, never to return.
Maggie’s father wrote about their experience in the house, a tell-all ghost story that swept the nation. Now, after 25 years Maggie is back at Baneberry hall, putting the pieces together to figure out what really happened the night her family fled.
I’m just going to say it. Hi, my name is Lindsay, and I’m a Riley Sager fan girl. Always have been always will be, and his books will always be a yes for me.
With that said, Home Before dark was no exception, and it checked every creepy, twisty mystery box that I love when I read psychological thrillers, and I will absolutely recommend NOT reading this book before bed. Don’t make the same mistake I did guys! What I loved the most about this book was that I predicted every twist and turn….I predicted them all so incredibly wrong. If you think you know, no you don’t!
P.S.-I love a strong female protagonist, and Maggie Holt did not disappoint!
Thank you @riley.sager for another Gem.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/10 would definitely recommend.
Go buy this book!

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People we meet on vacation

“I’ve always felt like, when someone sees me deep down, that’s it. There’s something ugly in there, or unlovable, and you’re the only person who’s ever made me feel like I’m okay.”

SWOON! Poppy and Alex forever!

People we meet on vacation is the first book I have read by Emily Henry, and all I have to say is YES to this slow burning atmospheric romance.
Poppy and Alex have been best friends for ten years. He is stoic, reserved, and slightly neurotic, while she is the complete opposite. Bright, loud, and hilarious. Every summer they take the most epic of vacations together, all the while falling deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole that is their complicated love.
I fell in love with the cast of characters in this book right away, and it had me laughing out loud before I finished the first chapter. I fell completely in love with Poppy, she is funny, charming, and the chemistry she shares with Alex is complete FIRE.
This book is a slow burn, which I have to admit, I am not used to when it comes to romance. I am used to the fast paced, falling in love happily ever after romance books, and I can tell you right now, this is not that. Okay, I digress, there IS happily ever after, just not how I predicted it, which I LOVED.
People we meet on vacation is written in a dual timeline, switching between each year’s epic summer vacation, to the current summer, which I thought gave the book and the characters evolving relationship a lot of depth. The reader really gets to know them, and the changing dynamics of their love story. We get taken on such amazing adventures with these two characters, Canada, Croatia, Nashville, Vail….honestly, the adventure and atmosphere of everywhere this book takes us one thousand percent makes up for the slow burn.
While I was sitting there thinking, OKAY LET’S GET TO IT, Y’ALL LOVE EACHOTHER LET’S MAKE OUT NOW, I was also swooning over every new place we would be swept off to, wondering where the author would take us next.

I loved this book. It’s the perfect book to read in the dead of winter, curled up with a cozy blanket and hot tea. It’s the perfect vacation!

The Sundown Motel

Viv Delaney disappeared from the Sundown Motel in 1982, years before her niece Carly was born. When Carly’s mother passes away, she decides she needs to visit the motel where her aunt disappeared all those years ago. When she gets to Fell, New York and finally sets foot into the roadside motel that her aunt disappeared from, she realizes that nothing has changed.

The Sundown Motel by Simone St. James is a very compelling ghost story. I read this book after a very long reading slump, and I wasn’t disappointed…. but I didn’t love it either. It was good. I was following this book all over instagram, I was seeing it everywhere, it was one of those “Bookstagram made me buy it” books. The world St. James delivered was nothing short of creepy and I thought she did an amazing job of painting the picture of a retro roadside motel.

When Carly moves to Fell, the similarities between her life and her aunt’s life are eerily similar, which I thought added a nice touch to the atmosphere and characters. It was interesting to see how the mystery of her aunt’s disappearance unfolded and learning about the characters secrets was one of my favorite things about this book. If you think you know the characters, no you don’t. The characters surprise you up until the end, which, honestly, I live for! I love a good character twist.

For me, the story fell flat at the end, it was pretty predictable, and I did end up predicting the ending, so that was a bit of a letdown, HOWEVER, I feel like the character twists made up for that a bit. All in all, I enjoyed this book. This is the first book I have read by St. James, and I would definitely pick up another.

If you enjoy a twisty-ghost-revenge-mystery story, this one is it!