1931, Mother Superior Agnes offers sanctuary to a desperate young woman fleeing for her life. Only to wake in the morning to discover a terrible fate has befallen one of the Sisters – in a room locked from the inside. Agnes can’t help but fear that she has allowed a great evil to enter the convent, but she has no idea how far reaching the consequences of that one fateful night will be…

Over 80 years later, Kate Parker, divorced, alcoholic, and broke, moves into the dilapidated old convent she dreams of turning into a bed and breakfast, whilst changing her life. Although the locals refuse to go near the place at night, Kate is determined to stay while the renovations take place. But when she starts to hear strange noises at night, and the crucifixes she had removed reappear on the walls, Kate starts to suspect she is not entirely alone in her new home.

A chilling and disturbing new novel from the bestselling author of The Ghost House.

*******

My thoughts:

This story was one I almost did not finish. I had some issues with it but I rallied on. First I’d like to mention what I did not like about it and then get on to the not so great things.

I did like the dual timelines of the present and past. I felt that was nicely done and helps the mysterious aspects of the story along. The idea of a woman buying a house that was once a Convent to turn it into a bed & breakfast is pretty interesting. There were parts to the story that was chilling, atmospheric and had “some” tension. However, I do need to mention I did get a bit spooked in certain scenes. That was cool.  Do these things alone give it a high rating for me? The answer is no. There were too many other issues with the story.

First off, the characters are clearly older than twenty but the story and the character’s language feels a bit-young adult like to me. As I said above, there were parts of the story where there was tension but it wasn’t built up enough to make it powerful-if you will. The plot line of the “a terrible fate” of the nuns was not strong enough to me. Too wishy washy. Which is disappointing because that could have been really fantastically gruesome. There are a few details about the plot that needed to be fleshed out more and wasn’t. Details I can’t mention without spoilers.

I really wanted this story to grab me but it didn’t happen. I did sympathize with Kate somewhat. To a point. The other characters were not remarkable. I am-actually-really shocked I continued to read the story. But in a way I am glad I did. The second half of the story became more interesting and the dialogue got a little better. Just a little.

I am rating the overall story two and a half stars.

I am rating the cover, four stars.

Stephanie M. Hopkins