I can’t imagine moving into a big, old, decrepit house that is obviously the home of some deep dark secrets and memories created by the previous owners! First of all, Hugh is a boob. There I said it. Instead of supporting Faye and helping her get to the bottom of her fear and suspicions of the dead lurking around in the wee hours…he mocks her, despises her outbursts and insists on scheduling counseling sessions for her to work out her hysteria! Ugh… boob! Faye is forced to keep her cool around Hugh so he doesn’t suspect what she fears.
Anyway, in the meantime, Faye works to uncover the truth lying behind each and every creaky wall in her new “home”, the Cross House. There’s a reason no one has lived there in a very long time right? Wouldn’t that be enough of a red flag? But there are no such things as ghosts though. I mean really!!! Get with it Faye! Maybe Hugh is right. Chill out! Or is he?
Well after you read on and witness the unraveling of this crazy plot, you may soon realize that nothing is as it first seemed. There’s a story behind everyone’s story! But who’s story is the right version? This is a great twisted tale of how one house, past family secrets, and a night “visitor” are enough to drive a person mad! And just when you think all is well… problem solved…you realize, maybe it’s actually just the beginning!

Nothing better to start afresh than a new house! Right? I can’t say the contrary, I moved a few weeks ago and couldn’t be happier. My dogs and myself have been through what Faye, Hugh and their kids experienced! The boxes, the mess, the planning of everything… But the similarities end here. I moved to a smaller place, while they fulfilled their dream of a big family house in a small village, ready to give Cross House a new life. Also, no big drama forced me to get away, I just wanted to be close to the airport, haha! The novel quickly indicates that something happened, something so traumatizing that Faye still bears scars of it on her mind.

I immediately felt good with this family. It was easy to imagine them, their personalities being defined pretty early in the book. Faye appeared to me to be fragile, vulnerable, like a precious glass. Told from her voice, the narration is tinged with a wary undertone. Not just the worry of a woman, wife and mother about to embark on a new adventure, no, it runs deeper than this. Names from the past are dropped before we leave their previous home and a sort trepidation took hold of me. Along it came questions. What I love about first-person narration is that you have no other choice than to rely on the character who is seeing, thinking, watching. You don’t have any other way to experience what the book holds, which makes things exciting and dangerous. Can we really trust what we’re told? Unreliable characters are my favourite. I had a feeling Faye would take me places. I didn’t know how right I was!

A new house, a new place; it can be spooky, especially when you’re settling in an old house (gosh I am so glad I moved to a newly-built apartment!!!). What did the house see with its previous owners? Who walked the corridors? Who took a shower right where you stand in the morning? I know myself, those thoughts would definitely cross my mind should I find myself in Faye’s situation. I was surprised that from the excitement of the first pages and the deal on the house, she rapidly got down to seeing the house in a different light. But isn’t what sleep-deprivation and the tasks that come with moving do?

If the title was an invitation to lose some sleep, I admit I didn’t see the effect coming until I had the wonderful idea to read The Uninvited at night! Have you ever woken up with the feeling someone was in your room? I did. Always have hated it. I like to be alone!!! My biggest surprise was to truly live this awfully nightmare with Faye. In fact, the entire book had me walking on the line between real and … whatever else is here. Now, I am a non-believer in supernatural things unless it’s in Buffy the vampire slayer, but there were enough details in what Faye felt, looked, imagined(?) that I was intrigued and had no other choice than to depend on her to find out the truth. I didn’t agree with all her decisions and sometimes I rolled my eyes at her actions, frantic and desperate, undermining what she was trying to express to her husband. I couldn’t help but understand his reluctance to trust his wife. I mean, her history means she is prone to stress and we all know what it does to our brain. But … But I wasn’t entirely convinced. After all, I was with Faye when something breathed near her… Just the thought of it makes me shiver! I took a step back and wondered how I would react. No idea, and I don’t want to know!!!

The writing invites the mind to wonder, to fight with reason. I didn’t find anything too unbelievable, this is why I liked reading this novel. Had it been too far-fetched I would have turned my back on it. But the combination of hard facts, sunlight, previous traumas, hints, and the constant need to protect this family had be gripped to my Kindle until the end.

While weird things happen, real and tangible events occur too! Old diaries that spooked me as much as what the night held, for example. I really enjoyed the balance the author put in her novel so the reader can never be sure of what’s happening.

Chasing the past and unearthing events is challenging, but Cross House is worth it. Old and once so grand, it holds the key to a family mystery and oh I can’t resist this kind of secrets frozen in time. The author did a great job at throwing red-herrings, hints, and other obstacles to keep you firmly on that blurry line of what could be and what is. I was happy to see part of my theory validated while getting a couple of surprises.

The Uninvited is a good novel to grab on a cold night if you’re looking for a compelling story with a door to escape reality…or slam it on your face!

ps: COVER LOVE.

Spellbinding mystery that keeps the twists and turns coming. You can't stop wondering what is real and what is of the other world. Highly recommend!

The Uninvited by J.A. Baker will give you high anxiety and scary moments, but it cannot decide if it is a supernatural horror story or a psychological thriller with logical explanations all the way until the last page.

It was an entertaining read, but the main characters did many things that were stupid-to-me responses and not once during all the scares and abuses they are put through with two children to protect do they ever go to the local law enforcement officials.This was not a logical response to me even in a fictional story.

This is just one of those books you will either love for the scares and ambiguity or not

Thanks to Bloodhound Books and Net Galley for allowing me to read this eARC.

The Uninvited by JA Baker is a suspense, thriller with a supernatural overtone. The story follows Faye, and her husband Hugh and their two children Aidan and Poppy. The lived in the city in the UK, but their home that they occupied for so long becomes unlivable after the family endures a series of traumatic episodes. Faye is pushed into therapy and slowly slipped into an emotional meltdown that took a lot out of her and her family. Hoping for a fresh start, Faye and Hugh, sell their city house and relocate to an old fixer upper located in a small country town. Cross house is an old house with a lot of history, and a lot of repairs. Faye and Hugh are desperate for a new start and are determined to make their new home work. Inspire of herself Faye soon starts to experience some unsettling occurrences at night. She senses a presence in their new home, and she seems to be all alone, as her husband doesn’t perceive the same force at work. A wedge is soon driven between the couple as Hugh accuses Faye of dragging their issues from the city with them to the country. He does not believe there is a force or presence in the house, and Faye is left to investigate the history of the house on her own. Her isolation doesn’t last long; however. Hugh awakes her one night to say that her sees someone in the room. No longer alone in her resolve to get to the bottom of what is going on with their new house, Faye pushes back hard to get information. And she uncovers that her house is not the only place or person that has secrets.

The Uninvited is a engaging,fun read overall. I did sympathize with Faye as an emotionally delicate character who does not find support from her family as she blows the whistle on the strange occurrences in their new home. The implication is that she is too damaged to be taken seriously or believed. Novel provided by Net Galley.

This was a good book but for me it was not a great book. I had some difficulty connecting with the characters. The story was well written though. I definitely would try this author again. Thank you for allowing me to read this book.

I think I'm getting harder to please the older I get. Where do I even begin?

We've got Faye and Hugh a married couple with two children. They recently purchased a dilapidated mansion called, Cross House. The reason for the move was due to the family being stalked by two separate individuals with two separate motives. I guess this was the authors way of explaining why our narrator, Faye, is so unstable. Personally, she could of left all of this out. Moving our narrator into a *possible* haunted house would of been enough to bring out her paranoia and psychosis.

Faye, while unpacking, comes across a diary. We have a few pages of her saying I should read it, no I shouldn't, yes I will, No I can't possibly.....blah dee fucking blah. Come on! This is your house now and your debating whether or not to read a 20 year old diary of someone you don't even know. I'd of popped popcorn, got on some comfies, and cracked that thing open without even the slightest bit of guilt. Anyhoo, the diary reveals some pretty disturbing secrets of the past residents and Faye is determined to find out if it's true.

All the while she begins to hear raspy breathing in the night and the shuffling of footsteps on the landing. Her husband of course thinks she's lost her mind even though their own daughter has admitted to hearing the same. The answer for him is simple. Get your wife to a psychiatrist immediately. It is only once Hugh hears it for himself that he finally believes his wife.

Faye has taken to wandering the town square where she befriends an elderly woman Gwen as well as Zoe, the mother of her sons classmate at school, because both seem to know secrets about Cross House.

When Faye is not wandering around trying to solve the mystery of the past residents she is also to be found gasping, sweating through sheets or clothes, whispering, holding back bile, and rinse & repeat for page after page. Faye really irritated me.

Finally Hugh manages to *nearly* catch their nightly intruder ~ At this point it's easy to discern what's actually going on. I just shook my head thinking REALLY? THAT'S IT?

Nope! There's more!!! The epilogue will leave you scratching your head. It was as if the author couldn't decide what kind of story she was writing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloodhound Books for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for

THE UNINVITED by J.A. Baker is a psychological thriller with a difference. It's a little bit of mystery, a little bit of ghost story and a tad creepy.

Faye and Hugh move into Cross House in Brackston, North Yorkshire for a new beginning after a somewhat disturbing year. The house is an old delapidated sprawling structure on around an acre of untended and overgrown land. Needless to say, it requires a lot of work to make it remotely inhabitable. But despite this, they tidy the house up enough to live in and undertake the renovations themselves. It becomes a bit of nightmare living in a near warzone when it's discovered the entire house needs rewiring. But regardless, Faye and Hugh remain upbeat and make it a bit of an adventure for their two children, Aiden and Poppy.

But then strange things begin to happen. Faye wakes in the night to the sound of heavy breathing, a kind of groaning and the sound of shuffling in their bedroom. She tells her husband but he dismisses her concerns as paranoia in the aftermath of the reign of terror they were subjected to the previous year. She is even more enraged to discover he has made an appointment for her to see her psychiatrist. If anything, he should be supporting her not writing her off as psychotic and bundling her off to therapy. She decides she will not confide in Hugh anymore regarding her fears surrounding the house.

Then one night Hugh wakes Faye suddenly, claiming that there is someone in the house. He could hear them breathing and shuffling through the room. He even caught a glimpse of the silhouette shadowed by the night as he chased them out the door. All of a sudden, he believed Faye in her tales of nighttime visitors. She wasn't paranoid. It was real. He heard and saw them too.

But what distubed Faye were the pictures she found in the old summerhouse that Poppy had drawn. Pictures of what appeared to be a monster in her room. Faye put it down to bad dreams. Surely Poppy hadn't seen anything. But Poppy is adamant. There is someone who lives in her room with her.

When Faye discovers some old diaries in the back of an old wardrobe, she begins to spend time reading them and learning about the family who lived in Cross House before. Obviously the property of the previous owners, she feels a little voyeuristic reading their secret thoughts but she finds she can't help herself as she endeavours to learn more about them. Most of the diaries appear to be that of a teenage girl and Faye is shocked to discover the horrid cruel detail of some of the entries which went beyond normal teenage angst.

Faye discovered the family who had lived there were the Wentworths. Adrian, his wife Hilary, their teenage daughter Tammy and someone called Peter who appeared to be unwanted. They had a sad and tragic history. Adrian went missing only to be found dead five days later on the moors. Hilary, a chronic sufferer of bronchitis and breathing problems, fell to her death down the stairs in Cross House. But when she searched, she could find no information on either Tammy or the boy called Peter. What had happened to them? Faye made it her mission to find out. What really happened at Cross House almost 40 years ago? Why did Adrian go out onto the moors? And did Hilary really fall down those stairs...or was she pushed? And where were Tammy and Peter now?

THE UNINVITED is written solely from Faye's perspective so we get to see, hear and feel everything as she does. I found her a little grating at times but not completely unlikeable.

Personally, I thought the first half of the book was so long and drawn out I was almost ready to give up several times. I wanted to know what was happening but I didn't anticipate the long winded way it got there. For me, the book didn't even start to get remotely interesting until about halfway through and by then most people would have given up. I didn't care for the long winded story about Todd or Jeff only to find out they had nothing to do with it. Most of that could have been cut out and the story would have been far better and much more gripping. I mean, Faye spent an awful lot of time just wandering about the village not really doing anything. She is supposed to be a writer, but she didn't write a thing throughout the entire story.

The story started to get interesting with the introduction of Gwen. But then it tapered off into a tangent again, most of which (I say again) could have been eliminated. But once the story started to get interesting, it really did get interesting. However, I figured there had to be a logical explanation to "the bumps in the night", so to speak and I had long worked out who or what was behind it before Faye even got there. To me, it was logical. So there was no surprise or twist at the end for me. What did come as a surprise was that the entire house appeared to be complete after just two more weeks when, at the end, the final chapter is titled "Two Weeks Later" and Faye's friend Irena had previously stated she wouldn't come for drinks until the house was complete...and there she was!

THE UNINVITED certainly sounded appealing by the book description but for me it failed to deliver in its entirety. I did end up enjoying it, but it shouldn't take 50% of the book to get there. For me, it was OK but not great.

Many thanks to #JABaker, #NetGalley and #BloodhoundBooks for a free ARC of #TheUninvited in exchange for an honest review.

This review, as with all my reviews, are posted on my blog Confessions of a Bookaholic.

I received a free e-copy of The Uninvited by J.A. Baker from NetGalley for my honest review.

Faye and Hugh but their dream house in a small village. They move here to make a fresh start because Faye had suffered a trauma at their old house. Faye starts hearing strange noises and sees a shadow figure in the middle of the night. Her husband doesn't believe her and is concerned she might have another breakdown. Faye finds some old diaries and decides to investigate the previous owners. A haunted house or is Faye loosing her mind and seeing and hearing things.

A creepy and mysterious read that kept me up reading and tucked deep under my covers.

Hugh and Faye move their two children to a large house in a small village. They need a refresh after a long, hard year. Everything should be better - but then Faye starts hearing noises - specifically, she hears someone walking in her bedroom. Hugh writes it off as trauma from the year - but Faye isn't satisfied with that answer. She researches the previous owners and finds tragedy and unexplained death. Are Hugh and Faye living in a haunted house??

This book started out slow but quickly became a page-turner that I couldn't put down. It kept me up. Literally. I went to bed, and then woke up an hour later because I HAD to finish it. It's THAT good.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of The Univited to read in exchange for an honest review.

What happens when you move into your dream home and find that it's haunted? Faye and Hugh have moved into Cross House, a massive rundown home that they are planning to renovate into this dream house.

Soon after moving in Faye is woken every night to the sounds of someone walking about in their bedroom. Her family doesn't believe her and her husband books her an appointment with a psychiatrist thinking that she's heading for another emotional breakdown. Faye is worried about protecting their children - Aiden and Poppy.

As they renovate and clear the rooms in the house Faye happens upon some diaries and newspaper clippings left behind by someone that lived in the house before them and may be a clue to who the nightly visitor is.

The more she investigates, the more she realizes that she herself might be in danger as the former lady of the manor was when she fell to her death down the staircase.

An interesting thriller with a bit of a paranormal feel.

I can't imagine moving into a big, old, decrepit house that is obviously the home of some deep dark secrets and memories created by the previous owners! First of all, Hugh is a boob. There I said it. Instead of supporting Faye and helping her get to the bottom of her fear and suspicions of the dead lurking around in the wee hours...he mocks her, despises her outbursts and insists on scheduling counseling sessions for her to work out her hysteria! Ugh... boob! Faye is forced to keep her cool around Hugh so he doesn't suspect what she fears. 
Anyway, in the meantime, Faye works to uncover the truth lying behind each and every creaky wall in her new "home", the Cross House. There's a reason no one has lived there in a very long time right? Wouldn't that be enough of a red flag? But there are no such things as ghosts though. I mean really!!! Get with it Faye! Maybe Hugh is right. Chill out! Or is he?
Well after you read on and witness the unraveling of this crazy plot, you may soon realize that nothing is as it first seemed. There's a story behind everyone's story! But who's story is the right version? This is a great twisted tale of how one house, past family secrets, and a night "visitor" are enough to drive a person mad! And just when you think all is well... problem solved...you realize, maybe it's actually just the beginning!

Faye and Hugh and their two kids hve just bought a large property called Cross House in a small village. They've had a disquieting year and hopefully this mood will give them all a new start.

But then strange things start to happen. Faye begins to hear someone stealthily walking in their bedroom. She tells her husband but he thinks she's still reacting to the terror of the previous year.

Finding some old diaries, she spends time reading and learning about the family that lived in the house years before them. What she learns is that the Wentworth family had a tragic past ... that ended in death ... a death that has never been fully explained.

Are they living in a haunted house? Does a ghost walk at night? Or is the uninvited intruder much closer than she realizes?

What Faye discovers puts her and her family in great danger.

This is a well-written psychological thriller that may have me sleeping with lights on tonight. The characters are credible in this page-turner. The ending was such a shocking surprise.

Many thanks to the author / Bloodhound Books / Netgalley for the advanced digital copy of this thriller. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

This is a spine tingling compulsive Reid that will keep your nerves on edge...

This book kept me feeling uneasy throughout... A little bit ghost story, a little bit murder mystery, and a lot creepy! Can I just say if I were to wake up in the middle of the night and think someone was breathing over me and then I heard footsteps, i’d be saying, feet don’t fail me now!

Faye and Hugh moved to a new house for a fresh start... their new home is a big rambling house in need of some renovation... soon after moving in Faye begins to feel an unworldly presents... she feels someone breathing over her at night and then hears footsteps in the hall... at first her husband thinks she has gone crazy, but after he begins to since things as well he becomes a believer... so do they have a ghost? What is going on? After Fay finds some diaries, she learns that the former mistress of the house died in the house... but did she really fall down the steps, or was there something more sinister going on?

This was an addictive scary story that I almost finished in one sitting... it was seriously tents and definitely sped up the old heart rate! The entire book I was just thinking why don’t they just get the heck out of there, but I guess then we would’ve have had this wickedly warped story... a deliciously creepy Gothic ghost story with quite the twist...

Absolutely recommend to anyone who enjoys a extremely well told story that will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout!

*** huge thanks to Bloodhound Books for my copy of this book ***

The Uninvited by J.A. Baker is a psychological thriller with a hint of supernatural thrown in.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Bloodhound Books, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

My Synopsis:
Faye and her husband Hugh have moved into a new house with their two small children. Although the house is rather run-down, it is enormous and the couple dreams of fixing it up. Both Faye and Hugh are now working from home. They have moved away from the events of the past year that have left them drained. They have moved away from Jeff, a co-worker of Faye’s who got a little too friendly with Faye. They have moved away from Todd, Hugh’s older son from a teenage romance, who became much too aggressive with both of them. Neither Jeff nor Todd were told about the move.

However, it seems like Faye and her family are still being haunted, although initially Hugh is ignorantly unaware, and ready to send Faye back to counselling. Faye on the other hand is stronger than he thinks. She is determined to find out more. Has Jeff or Todd found them? Or do the mysterious events that occurred in their new house play a part? Faye is determined to find out answers.

My Opinions:
Although I struggled with the first few chapters, the book then picked up speed, and I really enjoyed it.

I loved Faye’s determination to stay strong and protect her family, even when her rather weak husband tried his best to ignore events. Baker created characters whose depth grew with each turning page.

The story kept you guessing whether the events were the result of a human or supernatural being, and that made the reading fun. You didn’t know til the end….and I loved the ending.

This is the first book I have read by this author, but will definitely be looking for more.

This book was amazing it had the hair on the back of my neck standing up! Faye and her family went through some very traumatic events in their old one and decide to move into Cross House a big home that will need a ton of renovations but it’s a fresh start for them. While renovating Faye discovers some old diaries in one of the closets. The diaries reveal that the house has quite a dark past that revolves around the last family that had lived there before, was the previous lady of the house murdered or did she lose her balance and fall down the stairs was her husband murdered or did he lose his way on the property? After discovering the diaries Faye is determined to dig into the houses past. One night she wakes up startled after hearing deep breathing right over face while she’s sleeping and when she opens her eyes in the dark and the only thing she hears are footsteps down the hallway she rushes to check on her children but everything is fine, Her husband thinks she’s losing her mind until he starts hearing the same things , is it the ghosts of a restless soul who was murdered or are they both imagining the same thing. When her daughter starts claiming a dark figure is standing at the foot of her bed , and she hears breathing and it scares her Faye starts to realize something maybe wrong with their home. The book will pull you into Faye and her family’s terror of a possible ghost haunting their new home and their investigation into the past family’s dark secrets you will be quickly turning pages to find what’s going to happen next. I highly recommend this book and be prepared to spend a day reading!

I really liked the pacing in this book and was kept guessing about what was going on in the house until the very end. I liked the atmosphere and thought the character development was well done and kept the story intriguing. Thanks for the ARC, Net Galley.

The Uninvited by J A Barker was a suspense laden mystery. When Faye and Hugh move into a run down mansion with the intent of doing it up, they have no idea what is in store for them. Plagued by noises and shadows in the dead of night, Faye hunts down the history to the house.

I enjoyed this book, I read it in one sitting :) I loved getting inside Faye's head and understanding all of her insecurities and fears.

New house fresh start....or so you think. Except the house you buy has a dark past..was the previous lady of the house murdered or did she lose her balance and fall down the stairs? You wake up startled after moving in hearing deep breathing and footsteps...your husband thinks you are losing your mind again until he starts hearing the same things...is it the ghost of a restless soul who was murdered or is she losing her mind again?? I enjoyed this book it had a depth of creepiness to it that developed along until the end. It leaves you wanting to sleep with the lights on. Thanks to #netgalley for the ARC #bloodhoundbooks #ajbaker #tea_sipping_bookworm #netgalley #goodreads #litsy

The Uninvited
by J.A. Baker
2018
Bloodhound Books

After the Wentworth family moved from the Cross House, in North Yorkshire, it stood vacant for many years. It was a huge but dilapidated house, with a huge yard, overgrown but well laid out. It would need a complete rehab, but held promise.
It seemed perfect to the Morgan family, searching for a pace to make a fresh start and raise their two children, Aiden and Poppy. Hugh had a long commute to work in Scotland and wanted more family time. He had done well and wanted to start his own engineering consultant business and work from home. Faye had been seeing Dr, Schilling, a psychologist, but was doing well and looking forward to her future and new beginning. They bought Cross House for a steal, and hired a construction crew to begin the extensive rehab.
All houses have a history. All houses hold their secrets and soon the Cross House would become the Morgan families cross to bear....
J. A. Baker has developed a spine tingling story with brilliance, and exciting plot and interesting relatable characters. This is a psychological thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat with suspense.
Thank you to Bllodhound Books and NetGalley for this e book ARC.
#NetGalley #TheUninvited