June wrap up part 2

I’m not sure why this has been such a full on reading month but I have smashed my yearly reading target. The part one of my wrap up can be found HERE. I actually completed my tbr which is astounding as it’s not something I do often. I’ve already talked about all the Tate James I’ve read this month as well, so I won’t repeat those, but if you missed it, you can find those HERE. I even managed to shove a fantasy or two into my schedule. They were rereads and I loved them more the second time around.

I don’t normally put star ratings on my blog, but because I’m not actually talking about any of the books, I figured this would be an easy way to give you an idea on what I thought of them.

A Season of Whispers by Jackson Kuhl

Welcome to my stop on the A Season of Whispers blog tour, brought to the world by the team at Storytellers On Tour. The creepy factor was high in this one, so it was perfect to read over Halloween.

Synopsis – In the summer of 1844, Tom Lyman flees to Bonaventure, a transcendentalist farming cooperative tucked away in eastern Connecticut, to hide from his past. There Lyman must adjust to a new life among idealists, under the fatherly eye of the group’s founder, David Grosvenor. When he isn’t ducking work or the questions of the eccentric residents, Lyman occupies himself by courting Grosvenor’s daughter Minerva.

But Bonaventure isn’t as utopian as it seems. One by one, Lyman’s secrets begin to catch up with him, and Bonaventure has a few secrets of its own. Why did the farm have an ominous reputation long before Grosvenor bought it? What caused the previous tenants to vanish? And who is playing the violin in the basement? Time is running out, and Lyman must discover the truth before he’s driven mad by the whispering through the walls.

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A Season of Whispers is a supernatural gothic horror novella coming in at 130 pages. On each page Kuhl paints a vivid description, pulling us into the story, setting the scene and ramping up the overwhelming feeling of impending horror. From the lush setting, to the exquisite characters, every part of A Season of Whispers is exactly how it should be. I loved the way the characters spoke and interacted, I could see them like I was watching a movie.

The story and time lines are weaved together in such a way that you have to keep your wits about you while reading. The writing is clever and I often felt like I wasn’t the exact reader needed for the book. Not because I didn’t enjoy it, but because I think there is a lot more to get out of the book then I was able to get. It flowed well, with each character fully fleshed out with their own voice.  It was a great read, which I think many are going to love.

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Released: 8th October 2020  –  Publisher: Aurelio Leo  –  Amazon

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Author Bio – Jackson Kuhl is the author of the Gothic novel A SEASON OF WHISPERS and the Revolutionary War biography SAMUEL SMEDLEY, CONNECTICUT PRIVATEER. Kuhl has written for Atlas Obscura, Connecticut Magazine, the Hartford Courant, National Geographic News, Reason, and other publications. He lives in coastal Connecticut.  You can find Jackson on Twitter  –  Website  – Instagram

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About the publisher – Established in 2016, AURELIA LEO is an independent publisher and bookseller. Located in Louisville, Kentucky, we specialize in diverse speculative fiction, namely: horror, science fiction, and fantasy. Our flagship titles are Helios Quarterly Magazine, Selene Quarterly Magazine, and Invictus: Quarterly Comics and Illustrations.

Grave Reflection by A. Lawrence

To celebrate Halloween eve (is that a thing?) I’m participating in a blog tour brought to you by the team at Storytellers On Tour.

Grave Reflection is a fun, creepy, inclusive read. Lots of ghosts, beautiful friendships and a town on the brink of mayhem.

Synopsis- Another Friday night, another trip through a potentially haunted house. Shay’s not a believer, but she’s willing to help her best friend, Max, with their amateur ghost hunting show. Little does she know she is about to be thrown into a world of witches and dangerous spirits.
With newly discovered abilities, Shay finds that she can both see and touch spirits. The downside is, the ghosts can touch her back, and it seems that they’ll do anything to get a hold of her.
She was never much of a ghost hunter. How will she do when she is the one being hunted?

I, Exile by David Samuels

Synopsis – Exiled into a wasteland because of a heist gone wrong, Emelith vows to hunt down the one responsible. Except not all is what it seems in the haunted realm of the Cauldron.