Book Review: The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

The Hacienda
by Isabel Cañas

May 3, 2022

Publisher: Berkeley
ASIN: B09CD81MFZ 

ISBN: 9780593436691
Mexican Gothic meets Rebecca in this debut supernatural suspense novel, set in the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence, about a remote house, a sinister haunting, and the woman pulled into their clutches...
During the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father was executed and her home destroyed. When handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife’s sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security that his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost.
But Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she imagined.

When Rodolfo returns to work in the capital, visions and voices invade Beatriz’s sleep. The weight of invisible eyes follows her every move. Rodolfo’s sister, Juana, scoffs at Beatriz’s fears—but why does she refuse to enter the house at night? Why does the cook burn copal incense at the edge of the kitchen and mark the doorway with strange symbols? What really happened to the first Doña Solórzano?

Beatriz only knows two things for certain: Something is wrong with the hacienda. And no one there will save her.
Desperate for help, she clings to the young priest, Padre Andrés, as an ally. No ordinary priest, Andrés will have to rely on his skills as a witch to battle the malevolent presence haunting the hacienda.

Far from a refuge, San Isidro may be Beatriz’s doom.

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Beatriz marries Don Rodolfo Solórzano and travels with him to his hacienda. There she learns that his first wife had either been abducted by bandits or something else, but she ignores the rumors, feeling she finally has a place of her own.

 

But visions and voices began invading her new safe place, making it dangerous for her. Rodolfo’s sister, Juana, makes fun of Beatriz’s fears, and yet, Juana never steps inside the place much. Her husband says she can contact the local church for help. The young priest, Padre Andres, agrees to help, even though he was once told to leave that place and never return.

A tense supernatural thriller of a house seems alive reminding me of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, where a house haunts the people inside it. If you enjoy a good ghost story, forbidden romance, and historical novels, Isabel Cañas has written a story that combines all three into one scary package.

I gave The Hacienda 4 sheep.

Reviewed by Pamela K. Kinney

About the Author:

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Isabel Cañas is a Mexican-American speculative fiction writer. After having lived in Mexico, Scotland, Egypt, and Turkey, among other places, she has settled (for now) in New York City, where she works on her PhD dissertation in medieval Islamic literature and writes fiction inspired by her research and her heritage.

Sarah Lampkin: Living in a haunted house -How the Dead came to Life + giveaway

The disembodied voices that whispered throughout the halls of my childhood home were always there. I didn’t know what life was like without them. Though I do not know their names, the civil war spirits who lived in my home were pretty much part of the family. My parents only thought my sister and I were making them up, creating imaginary friends, but there are some things that you just can’t explain. 

But it was these three spirits that lead to my life as a writer.

I left for college in the fall of 2008 and it was not only a culture shock but a mental one as well. My dorms weren’t haunted…there were others across campus, but none where I lived and that was strange to me. It took me a while to figure out what was bothering me about living away from home, but once I did, I figured out what to do to handle it: Write.

Coming up with the concept of Dead Dreamer was one of the best decisions I made. Not only because it helped me coped with being away from my haunted home, but it led to a resurgence of a passion I had temporarily forgotten about. I went with the concept of the spirit of a human leaving their body when they fell asleep to join the world of the Dead. This concept gave me the connection I needed to the spirits in my life.

To this day, I still don’t know their names. But the Dead Dreamer series allowed me to give them names and imagine what their stories were. It allowed me to create a special connection to those who were next to me unseen as I grew up. Though they tend to come in go now, sometimes I still feel their presence when I go home, and it gives me comfort knowing they are there.

The dead gave me the will to live with passion and put it out there for the world to see. The dead came to life in my stories. The dead are my influence and comfort. I hope they can be yours as well through the Dead Dreamer series. 

To Reap the Spirit (Dead Dreamer, #3)

by Sarah Lampkin
October 13th 2020

Genres: New Adult, Paranormal
The third installment in the haunting Dead Dreamer series.

Somehow Brenna Whit has survived to her junior year at Nephesburg College. Despite all odds, she’s fought against the Gatekeepers and lived. But the battle for the Fade has only just begun.

New pieces have been added to the board.

The Fade opens to the Veil.

And a Shade from the past returns.

With Brenna’s secret out, everyone is after her: dead and living alike. Those from across the sea have come and they’re determined regain control of their broken faction.

Questions will be answers
Fires will be lit
Chaos will reign

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To Dream is to Die (Book #1) 

To Wake the Dead (Book #2) 

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A native of Richmond, Virginia, Sarah Lampkin is a 2015 graduate from Lynchburg College [University of Lynchburg] with a master’s degree in English. Since graduation, Sarah now lives in Northern Virginia working in the IT field as a Technical Writer while continuing her research for her graduate school thesis. When she isn’t working, Sarah continues her Celtic mythology research and Gaelic studies, while working on the Dead Dreamer series.

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Digital collection of the Dead Dreamer series (Everyone) 

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Double Book Review: Fountain Dead by Theresa Braun

Fountain Dead

by Theresa Braun
November 18, 2018
Genre: Mature YA/ Horror/ Paranormal

Publisher: Unnerving
Length: 68,000 words (187 Kindle pages)

ASIN: B07H9KBK2P 

ISBN: 9781989206058
Mark is uprooted from his home and high school in the Twin Cities and forced to move with his family into a Victorian in Nowhere-ville. Busy with the relocation and fitting in, Mark’s parents don’t see what’s unfolding around them—the way rooms and left behind objects seem alive with a haunted past.

Of course, Mark keeps his ghostly encounters to himself, all the while sinking deeper into the house's dark, alluring, and ultimately terrifying history. As romantic entanglements intensify, the paranormal activity escalates. Past and present come together. Everything is connected—from the bricks in the walls to the hearts beating in their chests, all the secrets of Fountain Dead are finally unearthed.

Reviewer: Pamela K. Kinney

I gave Fountain Dead 4 haunted sheep

Fountain of Dead is a coming-of-age story woven into a ghost story. Mark moves with his father, mother, and sister into a Victorian house in the Eighties. At first, only Mark seems to have encounters with ghostly apparitions, shadows, and other supernatural happenings in the house. 

Using alternating chapters, the story of a young woman in the 1800s is told.  Her mother was poisoned by an evil man. Her father and one of her brothers blames her for her mother’s death to distract from their own dark changes. Her father feels he can do anything in the basement of his house…the dungeon. But his mistreatment of the Indians in his mad experiments will bring the spirits down on him and his…but not all of them are bad.

If you enjoy YA stories, coming-of-age mixed with creepy haunted house tales, this novel will fit the bill for you. 

Reviewer: Jeanie G

Getting 3.75 (get out of the house) sheep!

I think this type of storyline is hard to pull off. Two time periods, and 2 (or more sometimes) POV’s make for a “PAY ATTENTION READER” format. Teresa Braun did a great job of trying to keep the reader engaged in the story without a lot of frustration.

Looking back, I think this might make for a good movie screenplay. A house haunted by ghosts of a tragic past (not an original theme) reenacting or influencing actions to try and save a tragic ending to a romance.

You must try to piece together the similarities to grasp the current objective of the haunting and I have to admit, in the beginning the connection is a little thin. But, hey, hang in there and I think everyone will get the clear picture by the end!

Some of the cultural biases may be disconcerting but was probably true to the time period. I was appalled and saddened. It definitely gave more horror to the story and made me root for the young main character to “solve” the mystery and save his family from a repeat tragedy. I enjoyed the read and applaud the author for navigating a complicated storyline with aplomb.

Excerpt
Emma sensed the shockwaves of the earthquake before it struck. The air fizzled with rage.

If Sasha hadn’t run off to get married while Emma was away, the maidservant might’ve proven a heroic buffer to what was to come. Emma missed working alongside her assistant. Now even more than ever.

Emma’s underarms dampened, despite the chill seeping in through the windows. Her trembling hands fiddled with the tray of bandages, ointments, and miscellaneous implements as she mimicked organizing them. When would she get Jonathan alone to update him on her trip? She wondered if having already spoken to him would’ve done any good at the moment.

The door thwacked open.

Riley stormed into the room and menaced beside her.

She straightened her spine to avoid cowering.

His gravelly voice indicated a control of his anger. “Remember what I told you?”

As he neared, Emma’s knees locked, her eyes closed. Where was Jonathan? The entire house had fallen eerily still. God, where was Hugh? Was he ever returning home?

“You’re coming with me.”

His directive left no room for resistance.

“This is as good a time as any to tell you your precious brother’s dead. So you can get it out of your head that he’ll come rescue you. He ain’t ever coming back. And, Pa, well—”

Emma still hadn’t turned to acknowledge him. Even if she did, he’d merely be a haze of color through her tears. The need to know what happened to Hugh attacked her like a swarm of bees. A desperate sadness was the brutal sting. Could the news be accurate? Or was it the cruelest invention meant to debilitate her? She shamefully wished Riley had been the one to die. Tempted to rectify that, she lamented her pistol lay back in her bedroom.

When she didn’t move, he seized her by the arm.

Noticing her attention on the dark object in his other hand, Riley raised it to her face and twirled it between his fingers.

It was Jonathan’s pipe. Had he not taken it with him that next morning? Did Riley discover it in her room? Is that what this was about?

When her brother jerked Emma away, the tray of medical supplies crashed to the floor. Her feet stumbled along through the dining room, into the kitchen, and then down the stairs into the basement. The Mason jars of blood, fluids, and organs stared at her from the shelves, in commiseration, or condemnation. She couldn’t fathom either.

The metal door to the safe gaped wide like a broken jaw.

Her arms and fingers numbed.

Riley shoved her sidelong through the open maw, into the remnant of daylight within.

Praying he’d have a last minute change of heart, Emma faced him, her eyes pleading.

“You better not be carrying that red-devil’s spawn—or I’ll do you like I did that squaw. Don’t think I won’t.”

What was he talking about? One of his war atrocities? Could she be pregnant—the thought hadn’t occurred to her.

“Please,” she begged as the door banged shut, the light snuffing out.

“Think about what you’ve done, you whore.”

He spun the combination lock. The clatter and clicks equaled the lit fuse on a stick of dynamite.

Emma battered the door. “Let me out.”

Riley’s stifled yelling thundered on the other side.

“Please.” Her cheek smashed against the frigid iron.

The tramping of his boots overwhelmed her sobs.

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Hmmm. What’s this? Looks like Ms. Braun left her computer on and her Goodreads bio open.

This should be fun.

What can we say about Theresa? I mean other than the fact that she’s weirdly obsessed with smiley faces :-). Like, seriously obsessed >:-*. It’s kinda scary :-O.

I think she thinks she’s from Renaissance England or Venice or something. I never could figure out which one it was. (She’s really bad at doing accents.)

She likes romance novels and crime TV, which are pretty much the same thing when you think about it. Ha! Am I right?

She has a hell of a singing voice. Seriously. It’s, like, seventh circle of hell bad.

She likes editing. A lot. Just wait till she gets a load a this.

Cats. Shoes. Chips and salsa. In that order.

Yeah, that last part didn’t make sense to me either.

Michele PW Guest Post - For Sale: The Witch House (It Began with a Lie)

[Seen in the latest copy of Haunted Real Estate …]

For sale: Historic, four bedroom, two and a half bath house (also known as the "Witch House") on a huge, nearly two acre lot.

This over 100-year-old house is nestled on a very private corner lot, flanked by lonely rows of cornfields and a dark, easy-to-get-lost-in woods. It's perfect if you hate having nosy neighbors watching over you.

But, having your privacy doesn't have to mean you'll be lonely! With not one but two documented ghosts, (well, maybe three if you count the previous owner, aka The Witch, but it's not clear if she's actively haunting the house or not), you'll never lack company.

(And think of how much you'll save on a security system! Who would rob a haunted house?)

Plus, only two ghosts and four rooms means there's plenty of space for a family to spread out comfortably.

And, no haunted house would be complete without either an attic or a basement. The Witch House has both! Plus, a murder/suicide ghost story. Think of how popular you'll be at cocktail parties with a tale like that up your sleeve.

But, it gets even better. The Witch House is located in a picturesque little town called Redemption. Don't pay any attention to those stories about people disappearing without a trace. No one can prove anything.

Besides, even if someone DOES go missing, there's a rugged, sexy cop who is more than happy to investigate for you. If he can't get to the bottom of it … well, let's just leave it at that.

I have no doubt he'll uncover a perfectly logical, rational explanation for anything that seems … off. After all, ghosts aren't real.

Right?

And, things never are as they seem in Redemption.

To schedule your very own personal guided tour so you can decide for yourself how haunted the Witch House is, contact Michele Pariza Wacek.

It Began With A Lie (Secrets of Redemption #1)

by Michele Pariza Wacek
September 10, 2018
Publisher: Love-Based Publishing
Genre: Psychological thriller, romantic suspense, paranormal
Page Count: 282
A fresh start. That was what Becca hoped the move from New York to Redemption, Wisconsin, would be for her troubled family—a way to get her crumbling marriage back on track, and to bond with her difficult 16-year-old stepdaughter.

But instead of a new beginning, Becca is thrust into a mysterious past she barely remembers … a past that includes complications from interacting with her teenage crush, Daniel, as well as living in her aunt's old house (aka "The Witch House," according to locals).

But is the house really haunted? Or is there something far more sinister out to destroy them?

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Michele Pariza Wacek (also known as Michele PW) taught herself to read at three years old because she so badly wanted to write fiction. As an adult, she became a professional copywriter (copywriters write promotional materials for businesses, nothing to do with protecting intellectual property or putting a copyright on something) and eventually founded a copywriting and marketing company. She grew up in Madison, Wisconsin and currently lives with her husband and dogs in the mountains of Arizona. You can reach her at MicheleParizaWacek.com. She’s published two novels, “The Stolen Twin” and “Mirror Image,” both psychological thrillers/mystery/suspense books.

Book Review: The Shatter Point by Jon O’Bergh

The Shatter Point

by Jon O’Bergh
April 16, 2018
Publisher: BookBaby
ASIN: B07C7TXS8M

ISBN: 9781543931051
Jada Mercer is used to getting her way, and she loves danger. When she meets Asher Williams, a sensitive musician in a band, she pressures him to prove himself through the rigors of an extreme haunt known as Horror Place. At the same time, the haunt's owners, Phil and Donna Woods, are locked in an escalating feud with neighbor Ruth Littleton. The terrifying consequences unfold step by step as the characters are pushed beyond the breaking point. Weaving layers of truth and fiction, the story challenges our sense of reality with unexpected twists and turns.

I received this horror novel from the author for reviewing only. The Shatter Point begins with the line that everyone has a breaking point. For some, it takes quite a bit before they lose it. While others, it doesn’t take much at all. Couple Phil and Donna Woods move into a house where a murder happened some years ago. Phil, a Halloween fanatic, starts working on a Halloween haunt for the neighborhood children. Then he learns most of the families in the surrounding homes are retirement age or with children in college, except for maybe a couple of them. Donna’s adult son, Billy, from her first marriage, convinces the couple to build an extreme haunt. The kind where people must sign waivers and all bets are off, anything goes. While their haunt is happening, Billy and Phil use social media to help ramp up interest. Other interesting characters in this book are Asher, a guitarist for his girlfriend's, Jada, band. Ruth Littleton lives across the street from the Woods.

Asher is a nice guy, into music, but interested in Jada. Jada has a high opinion of herself, that no man is immune to her and that she is very beautiful. She also craves extreme excitement. For a while, she was happy to have a sweet and kind boyfriend, but grows bored and tries to convince Asher he should try the extream haunt and survive. That it will make him sexier in her eyes.

Ruth lost her husband, Barry, three years ago and except for joining her neighbors and visits from her sister with one of her sister’s grandchildren, her only enjoyment is the roses in her garden. She meets her new neighbors at a get-together and does not like Phil off the bat. She grows unhappy about the noise from the building of the haunt, then from people coming to do it.

Each of these characters has their own storyline connected to one concerning the haunt, that will lead to something horrible. A mix of suspense with horror (ghosts), it shows how in today’s world of social media, extreme haunts, and different kinds of people with their own agendas, can lead to a breaking point that I never would have guessed for the ending.

I give The Shatter Point 4 sheep.

Pamela K. Kinney

About the Author:

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Jon O’Bergh is an author and musician. He was born and raised in Southern California and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from the University of California at Irvine. His latest novel, "The Shatter Point," is a mystery wrapped in a ghost story wrapped in a thriller. He has written two books that link music and stories, and co-authored "Elliptical: The Music of Meshell Ndegeocello." He has also released over a dozen albums in a variety of styles, including the atmospheric album "Ghost Story." After living many years in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., he now spends most of his time in Toronto.

Book Review: Hollow House by Greg Chapman

Hollow House has been recommended for a Bram Stoker nomination.

Hollow House

by Greg Chapman

July 8, 2016
Publisher: Omnium Gatherum Media
ASN: B01I2HIH6Q

ISBN: 9780692736067
No one in Willow Street pays it any notice, not the disgruntled Campbell family next door, not Alice Cowley and her suicidal daughter, or Mr. and Mrs. Markham down the road. Not even Darryl, the loner at number seventy, who is abnormal himself, thinks much about it. It is just the old Kemper House, forgotten and abandoned.

Until it makes itself known.

When the stench of death wafts from Kemper House through Willow Street, and comes to the attention of recent resident and newspaper reporter, Ben Traynor, it starts a chain of horrors that brings Kemper House's curse into their own homes and leads others direct to its door. Kemper House not only haunts its neighbors, it infects them with an evil that traverses time and reality itself.

Willow Street was a place where nothing interesting ever happened. People went about their everyday lives and didn’t pay attention to the abandoned house at the end of the street. That was until the stench of a dead body came from the old Kemper home. Suddenly the lives of everyone living on Willow Street are forever changed. As this is happening, the house begins to possess some people in the neighborhood and cause others to die. A newspaper reporter, Ben Traynor, whose home is across from the house, begins to investigate it, seeking a possible story connected to the finding of that corpse. He soon learns that this house and another like it in town, plus two other places, were built by a man for a good … no, bad reason.

This haunted house story does have an interesting premise. And the tale captured my interest at first. Though it does become confusing after a while. Maybe due to the many characters. Still, if you are looking for that scary haunted house story, you might trying reading this one.

I gave Hollow House 4 haunted sheep.

Pamela Kinney

About the Author:

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Greg Chapman is a horror author and artist from Australia.
After joining the Australian Horror Writers Association in 2009, Greg was selected for its mentor program under the tutelage of author Brett McBean.
Since then he’s had more than a dozen short stories published in magazines and anthologies in Australia, the US and the United Kingdom.
Greg Chapman is a horror author and artist from Australia.
After joining the Australian Horror Writers Association in 2009, Greg was selected for its mentor program under the tutelage of author Brett McBean.
Since then he’s had more than a dozen short stories published in magazines and anthologies in Australia, the US and the United Kingdom.
Greg is the author of the novel Hollow House (Omnium Gatherum, 2016), and five novellas: Torment (2011 and 2016), The Noctuary (2011), Vaudeville (2012), The Last Night of October (2013 and 2016) and The Eschatologist (2016).
His debut collection, Vaudeville and Other Nightmares, was published by Black Beacon Books in September, 2014.
He is also a horror artist and his first graphic novel Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times, written by Bram Stoker Award® winning authors Rocky Wood and Lisa Morton was published by McFarland & Company in 2012.
Witch Hunts won the Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel category at the Bram Stoker Awards® on June 15, 2013.
He also illustrated the comic series Allure of the Ancients for Midnight Echo Magazine.
His most recent illustrative work is the one-shot comic, Bullet Ballerina, written by Tom Piccirilli, for SST Publications in the United Kingdom.

Did ewe know...? Guest Post: Mandie Stevens (Caelum book tour) + giveaway

Did ewe know I grew up in a haunted house.. or a few? It was creepy, cool, and mostly my fault. Weird things happened periodically. Things would be moved and once my dad was in the bathroom and had realized he’d forgotten his lighter after he put a cigarette in his mouth. It lit itself and I’d never seen someone come out of the bathroom so quickly. He was barely holding his pants up. He was shaken up for weeks. Sometimes we’d see light sparks by the bar. I had assumed it was faulty wiring but I was so very wrong.

One day a little old lady on the next street over stopped me on my way home from the bus stop and asked me If I’d ever seen anything strange. I nodded, how would she possibly know? She told me that our homes were built on an Indian burial ground. I’d seen Poltergeist at that point and was completely freaked out but I didn’t quite believe her.

I told my step-mom and she suggested that I use the old Ouija board in our closet left over from the previous owners. Maybe we could reach the Indians and see what they wanted. Her grandmother had recently died and she really wanted to get in touch with her too. I did as she suggested and lit candles around the board. I had NO idea what I was doing; I assumed it was just a game. I think I was twelve or thirteen at the time and called out to her Grandmother. The flames instantly shot up ten feet high and the planchette moved by itself and that was enough for me, I packed it away but the damage had already been done.

Instantly the house was full of activity and most of it centered around me. I later learned that the Ouija board was amplified by the fact that I was a hormonal young girl (many young girls can see spirits anyway), which was amplified by the fact that we lived on the beach. The house sat on limestone, a crystal. I saw many spirits over the next few years, I saw Orbs (like portals), dancing lights that followed me and even felt emotions from the spirits. It was exhausting!! I thought I was going crazy and I had no empathy from the church I attended, the Decan I confided in thought I was evil.

One had even attached itself to me after I moved out. I wondered why my next house was haunted too! Another house I lived in downtown St. Augustine was haunted there too. It was cold and drafty in the winter so I hung a blanket up. I saw a face come through of an African man… I was home alone. After that I researched the house and learned it had previously been the slave quarters.

Downtown St. Augustine

I thought I was going crazy but after I sought some advice I learned it was ME! I did a cleansing and a religious friend from a church came and walked around the house with oils and chanted. We burned sage and oils to purify the area. We did this for months and It worked!

 Now I will NOT enter a room that has a Ouija board in it!

How does all of this lend to my books? I’ve learned a lot about the occult and I’ve always been a fan of history. St. Augustine is our nation’s oldest city; if any place here were to have supernatural beings it would be there.

Have you ever seen a ghost? 

Caelum – Olde City Angels Book 1
Eva doesn’t claim to be a good guardian angel, but she tries. After she loses two charges, the Powers That Be begin to doubt her abilities. To redeem herself, Eva sets out to rescue Elsie, granddaughter of the former king of the Fae. A demon has kidnapped Elsie to complete an ancient ritual that will allow him to slip through the veil between Earth and Hell during the Sturgeon moon.

Thomas, an angel liaison, finally lands his first mission. But when he’s paired with the angel responsible for his uncle’s death, he has to put aside their differences to get the job done. With unlikely friends in tow, Eva and Thomas are in a race against time. Save Elsie, save the world—oh, and save Eva’s job.

  

 

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Mandie Stevens has always been accused of living in her own world so she decided to put it to paper. When she isn’t writing you can catch her lounging on the beach reading. She has ridiculously little feet and would be happy eating seafood every day. Subscriber to her newsletter Follow on Enter to win a Caelum Prize Pack - Signed paperback, $5 Amazon or iBooks GC, and fun character inspired prize pack. Open to US residents 18+.

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