Title: The House on the Lake
Author: Holly Hill Mangin
Publication: 16 March 2021
Format: Kindle ebook via NetGalley & BooksGoSocial
Amazon Description
An island is the last place Eve Beckett ever thought she’d end up. Deathly afraid of water, she has no memory of arriving at the foreboding Lakeview Manor on the Isle of Esse. Her love for a good mystery, however, especially when it comes to strange houses and the paranormal, has her second-guessing her desire to leave.
But there’s something odd going on at Lakeview. Dark and dusty rooms shift location, and there’s a mysterious woman only Eve seems able to see . . .
When Eve’s mirror twin shows up, also with no memory of how she arrived on the island, and the property manager warns them away from his brother — one Eve has no wish to avoid — the number of mysteries surrounding Lakeview becomes too much. As she learns more about the manor and its inhabitants, the question becomes not just how but if Eve will ever leave the island.
Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff
I had absolutely no intention of buying any books or making any sort of ARC requests or grabbing any "Read Now"s on NetGalley until after I return from my upcoming mini-vacation next week.
That cover, though.
All the gothic feels and heebie-jeebies and I just had to have it.
I haven't had a ton of luck with NetGalley picks lately. For every one that I've really loved, like Deanna Raybourn's Killers of a Certain Age (yes, that is a shameless plug for my own post), there have been several more that I've given up on ... or, have at least wished that I had given up on. I hesitated clicking the button for this one for a split second.
That cover, though.
Once I let myself stop swooning over the cover long enough to begin actually reading, the awe continued.
By 5% I had already highlighted 7 passages.
I do so love gothic heebie-jeebies and this has them oozing out of the dark and musty woodwork from the secret passageway to the creepy attic right out of a Dickens tale.
Holy crap I love this book.
I even switched from the Kindle to the phone and back depending on whether I would be stationary or mobile while reading. I didn't want to put it down until I had gone through every twist and turn. There were times when I thought I knew what was going on. I love that I was horribly wrong.
[Have I mentioned that cover yet?]
The highlighting of passages became few and far between shortly after I hit this at 16%:
One would think I would turn around and find Lyn immediately. But no. I'm the girl in the horror flicks running up the stairs instead of running out the front door, the girl who picks up the stranger in the middle of nowhere after hearing there is a maniac on the loose killing everyone in his path, and in this particular case ... yeah, I'm the one who follows the creepy dripping girl like an idiot.
I did not stop highlighting because I wasn't completely enthralled, but because I was so enthralled I didn't want to pause reading long enough to even highlight. Besides, I had already decided that it would be a Book Beginnings & Friday 56 post (and grabbed a random 56% blip) because there was absolutely no way I would be able to narrow it down for a Tuesday Intros/Teaser Tuesday or even an I'll Sleep When I've Read...
That cover, though.
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& Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader
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