Not sure what I was thinking when I got into this, I'm not one for paranormal novels. I stuck it out, and I'm glad that I did. There is a lot of backstory and information to take it, and I found that a bit longwinded at times. Overall I thought this was very well done.

Jennifer McMahon once again delivers a good old fashion ghost story & mystery all wrapped up in one great read! I love her books - they are the back to basics mystery!

The prologue chapter was intriguing. The next few chapters were filled with backstory with no mystery/thriller or action. I found it tedious. I'd skip this one.

What can I say about this book? Jennifer McMahon is a master story teller. She draws the reader into her world and doesn't release you until she's good and ready.

This book was a bit different than others I've read from her. There is still the spooky, I might be going a little bit crazy, aspect that I know and love about her books. But there was also a lot of technical jargon that I don't remember being a focus in previous books.

This book is told in varying times. Each time you visit correlates to an important part of the story. Primarily, this story follows Helen, a middle aged woman who decides to upend her life and move to an isolated swamp and build her own house (accompanied by her husband). And Olive, a young teenage girl whose mother has run off on her and her father. Throw in some local legends about hauntings and ghosts and you have a wonderful adventure ahead of you.

The technical jargon comes in the form of house building and wildlife. McMahon definitely did her research for this story and I found myself perusing her Instagram feed to see the inspiration she had for this story. The house building was interesting. I didn't dislike it, it just felt like a lot. Which probably lends well to that feeling of being "in" the story. I feel as though I built a dang house. I also enjoyed learning about swamp wildlife. I would take to Google to look up photos of any creature or plant mentioned in the book.

Though the story felt as fractured and disjointed as the lives and homes attempting to be rebuilt, by the end, all questions are answered. All walls are erected. You are left feeling a sense of pride and accomplishment. I gave this book 4 stars.

I really enjoyed this book! It was a great suspenseful, paranormal, ghosty read! It keeps you up all night! Perfect for around the fire! Highly recommend!

This unique ghost story blends specters and mystery as Helen and Nate build their dream home on the land once owned by suspected witch Hattie Breckenridge. Soon they are joined by their treasure hunting teenage neighbor and find themselves in danger they never imagined.

I loved the idea and execution of building a haunted house. As the house becomes more solid and Helen's marriage begins to fracture, we are given glimpses into the tragic past of a strong group of women. As the house becomes complete a mystery years in the making comes to a head in a surprising manner. I will be looking for more of McMahon's work in the future.

Loved this book. Mixes suspense with historical fiction, and throws in a splash of witchy paranormal. I didn't care so much for Nate, but otherwise the characters were well written, and it was an easy plot to fall into. I didn't want to put this down.

I don't usually love supernatural stories, but I have read McMahon's works before so I requested this thriller and I'm glad that I did. Super fun supernatural read about Helen and Nate who have uprooted their lives to build a home in the woods of Vermont. Helen is drawn to the land and as the story goes on, she finds herself drawn in by the spirit of a woman who once lived on the land and was killed there. The story is told through time, starting with Hattie's death and it alternates between characters. The story is also about a young girl name Olive, whose mother has gone missing and who is dealing with a lot of confusion about that loss. Her goal is to find her mother and to keep Helen and Nate away. Through some strange circumstances, Helen and Olive begin to find a common ground and their worlds become more and more twisted together. Overall this was a great mystery, I am grateful to netgalley for the advanced arc in exchange for my honest opinion!

I enjoyed this book. It was unique. It was creepy and suspenseful. I loved the writing style. It really kept me entertained from the very first chapter!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

Entertaining but not quite up to par with McMahon's previous novels.

The sense of atmosphere-normally so chilling and macabre in McMahon's stories-mostly felt flat. There were moments that touched on the spine-tingling thrill common to Gothic horror, but mostly what I felt was the book *trying* to achieve that. When you can feel the effort behind a novel it usually doesn't play well, and that was unfortunately the case here. The building dramatic tension felt more tedious than creepy.

The book alternates narrators, mostly using Helen, new to town ex-school teacher and wannabe 19th century cosplay enthusiast, and Olive, troubled child with a missing mother and some eerie family connections to the town in which the novel is set.

Olive is pretty convincing and mostly likable, but Helen and her husband oscillate between wooden and overly sincere, neither of which makes them particularly endearing or compelling.

Perhaps most disappointing, the villain feels fairly obvious almost from the moment you meet them.

The book gets a lot better once you pass the halfway point and has some good moments, but it's a lesser animal than what I normally expect from McMahon. I was reasonably entertained, but the book isn't a standout in the genre, or among McMahon's oeuvre.

Thank you to Netgalley for approving my request to read and review this book! 📖 it comes out in April of this year!
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This is a novel about a woman and her husband who move to Vermont, and not only do they have a haunted house, but they’re building one from scratch. They abandon their jobs and home in Connecticut to live sort of “off the grid” and that’s pretty much all I want to tell you 🤓 (you of course can go read the rest of the synopsis somewhere if you wish).
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Jennifer McMahon really knows how to write characters, and settings. It was beautiful, and the characters; I found myself loving each and every one of them. I especially loved our main characters, Helen, Nate, and Olive. At some point I wanted to smack each and every one of them, but I still loved them to bits.
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I think this is a very unique story, it’s a very slow burn. Like very slow, but the slow burn seems very necessary, for the ending with the twist I only half expected.
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Some parts did feel like it dragged and I found myself feeling a little bored, and it wasn’t as scary as I thought it was going to be, which was a little disappointing, but overall I still really enjoyed the book. I definitely recommend it.

If you enjoy a great ghost story, you are in for a treat. McMahon is a master at thrilling tales that involve the mystical and supernatural.

Started off slow but eventually picked up. Was more of a mystery than a ghost story, and not very chilling. However, the writing was solid and it was the author wrapped up the ending satisfactorily.

I have been reviewing for almost ten years now, and when people ask me who my favorite authors are, Jennifer McMahon is always at the top of my list. Her Island of Lost Girls was one of the very first books I featured here, and what I always say about it is this: don't make the mistake of taking it on vacation with you because you won't want to do anything else but read! With The Invited, McMahon continues with that creepy, haunting vibe she does so well in her books.

Helen and Nate decide to chuck it all and move from the comforts of their Connecticut home to rural Vermont. At first, everything is exciting to them: they buy a piece of land and begin building their beautiful new house. As the days pass, however, they discover the dark history of their land, which includes the hanging of a supposed witch, Hattie Breckinridge. Helen becomes consumed with learning everything there is to know about Hattie and her descendants. In her quest to use salvaged materials with history to design her new home, Helen also inadvertently builds her own haunted house.

McMahon's use of short chapters makes The Invited positively addicting. Readers will be caught between a rock and a hard place: you won't want to know what happens next but you won't be able to stop reading. As far as I'm concerned, McMahon is the queen of the dark, creepy book.

MY RATING - 4

I really love a haunted house ghost story and reading about things that go bump in the night. The Invited was a unique take on this concept. It’s a spooky story without the really gruesome elements that are common within the horror genre. I think I was expecting a bigger scare factor, but this was more of a mysterious slow burn. Fans of Stephen King may find this to be too PG, but readers looking for some mystery and who enjoy haunted house vibes will like it. Overall, I enjoyed it and thought the storyline was very original. I think it would make a cool movie

Talk about a book that will keep you on the edge of your seat! I read this book in two days and was a nervous wreck the entire time I was reading...I HAD TO KNOW what was going to happen next. This book definitely keeps you thinking and I love a good "history mystery" which this book most definitely is!

I love a good ghost story--a book that gives you chills and keeps you up at night.

"The Invited" has all the right elements for a good read: interesting characters, a creepy setting, a dark history, and an unsolved mystery. It pulled me right in and kept me reading late into the night.

I wouldn't say this is a "creepy" book, not really. The ghosty elements weren't scary. But it had just enough mystery and layers to keep me hooked. I especially loved the historical aspects of the book, and the flashbacks to the Breckenridge women through the generations.

Overall, a solid and entertaining mystery/ghost story.

This was an interesting book, but ultimately didn't really do it for me (maybe like a 3.5).

I think I went into this book expecting it to be a scary ghost story. While there are indeed a few ghosts in this story, they don't make many appearances. Ultimately, the book is more of a mystery--one the humans are solving at the behest of ghosts. That may seem like a small distinction to make, but it made a difference in my level of enjoyment. There is much more focus on human elements than supernatural ones in this story.

Overall, this book is very solid (it wasn't the book I was looking for, but I enjoyed it anyway.) I liked the shifting character perspectives (although, it does give you some big clues about where the story is heading.) Helen and Nate have interesting character arcs, but I did feel like the book ended with some major elements about them unresolved. Over time I found Helen's whole hunt for artifacts related to Hattie to be a little too contrived, but I found her quest compelling nonetheless.

I felt like Olive was really the heart and soul of the story and enjoyed her sections the most. (I wondered at times if the book even needed the Helen/Nate storyline.) I really rooted for her character and hoped that she found resolution about her mom.

So, overall this was a fine book about two women each on a quest to find answers about a woman's death and her family's subsequent bad luck. If you're looking for a book like that (with some slightly spooky elements) you'll likely enjoy this book. I just wouldn't go into it expecting big scares.

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve always been interested in the paranormal. It might have started when I was old enough to realize that I had a grandfather even though he died before I was born. There is a painting of him in my parents’ house; and when I was little, I would dream of him leaving the painting to play with me. He was someone I never met, and yet I felt such a strong connection to him.

My mom and I would watch television shows about ghost hunting and psychics. I grew up hearing a lot of secondhand “ghost stories” that members of my family had experienced. Basically, the paranormal has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.

Recently, I’ve been interested in witchcraft. Specifically, I’ve been researching the history of witchcraft (shout out to all the history databases I have access to at work!) and how the idea of it has been used to basically criminalize women for centuries. Therefore, I was so excited when I was approved to read and review The Invited by Jennifer McMahon, which is expected to release on April 30 of this year.

The Invited is told from different perspectives, all women, which was an element I really enjoyed. The good and the bad of each character was somewhat relatable; and I found myself really caring for each of them, which is something I actually haven’t felt in a while.

The story follows Helen and her husband Nate as they move to a plot of land in a small town where a witch was supposedly hanged in the 1920s, but not before she hid a mysterious treasure. Helen and Nate intend to build their dream home on the land; and as Helen begins to add interesting pieces from various spots around town to the house, she encounters some visitors.

The other side of the story mainly comes from Olive, a fourteen-year-old who has lived in the town her whole life. She is afraid when Helen and Nate move to the witch’s property, and she isn’t sure what these new inhabitants might stir up. Additionally, she has been looking for the witch’s treasure for years, and Helen and Nate living on the land where she has been looking is only going to make the situation more difficult.

This was such an entertaining book, and I’d recommend it to anyone who is looking for an easy read with themes of witchcraft and paranormal activity.


https://bravenewlibrarian.com/2019/01/23/the-invited-review/

I really liked this ghost story It started out pretty slow for me but it picked up and kept my interest. I did kind of see the ending coming but, overall this was a very enjoyable read and I highly recommend!