Amazing read - hightly recommend.
Creepy motel. Inquisitive 20 year old young woman searching for her missing aunt. Towns people with shady pasts.
Lyrical romance language, with creepy horror.
Loved it.

This book has been everywhere lately and with good reason! I have been a fan of Simone St James for quite a while. I read The Broken Girls a couple of years ago and then quickly binged the rest of her books, loving each and every one!

When I saw that this book was coming out, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it! This is one of those authors and books that received a ton of hype and while sometimes I am weary of overly hyped books, this was one I was sure to love. All of her books have been great and I knew I had nothing to fear from this new release!

I sat down one afternoon and read it so fast that I was shocked to look up and find that it was dark outside! Not to mention I was cold and that wasn’t because it was cold in my house….this was a spine chilling book!

Summary
The secrets lurking in a rundown roadside motel ensnare a young woman, just as they did her aunt thirty-five years before, in this new atmospheric suspense novel from the national bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls.

Upstate NY, 1982. Every small town like Fell, New York, has a place like the Sun Down Motel. Some customers are from out of town, passing through on their way to someplace better. Some are locals, trying to hide their secrets. Viv Delaney works as the night clerk to pay for her move to New York City. But something isn’t right at the Sun Down, and before long she’s determined to uncover all of the secrets hidden (summary from Goodreads)

Review
In my opinion, St James is the queen of Gothic suspense right now. All of her books have so much atmosphere and Gothic elements that fans of the genre can really sink their teeth into! She always writes such spooky books. I mean eery book of hers I have read has kept me up at night and given me the creeps and I absolutely love it! This book was no different!

If you haven’t read St James before, be advised this book is spooky and creepy! When I first read The Broken Girls, I had no idea it was going to be as spooky as it was, the same with her other books. Before St James, I rarely read spooky books but she does such a good job at balancing the right amount of creep with mystery that now I love spooky books!

While reading this book, I was so stressed out and worried for the characters! It was so well written with lots of suspense! I just couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen and found it difficult to put a bookmark in once I got going. I don’t want to give anything away with this one because it’s literally so incredible and I can’t stop telling everyone I know that they need to read it! I also have a giveaway for this one up on my Instagram because I just want to share it with everyone!

The hype is real but with good reason! This is one of the best books I’ve read all year and if you are even considering reading this one just do yourself a favor and read it already. It might be a little spooky but even me (who is a chicken when it comes to that sort of thing) loved this one and the balance between mystery and creep factor was perfection!

Book Info and Rating
Hardcover, 336 pages
Expected publication: February 18th 2020 by Berkley
ISBN 0440000173 (ISBN13: 9780440000174)
Free review copy provided by, Berkley Publishing, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and in no way influenced.
Rating: 5 stars (can I give it more???)
Genre: mystery/thriller

The Sun Down Motel is creepy, and chilling, and one of those books you just can’t put down. St. James weaves together the story of Viv and Carly masterfully. I can’t recommend this book enough!

A bit repetitive as the same information is uncovered as it jumps between two timelines and it lagged a bit in the middle. But there were parts of it that were thrilling and a good twist.

The Sun Down Motel is Simon St. James’ latest novel, a paranormal thriller worth reading (and remembering. We’ve all read the story of a girl gone missing – this is that story, but with several dramatic and surprising twists.

Carly has spent her whole life knowing that her aunt went missing one day. Even though this is an aunt she never got to meet – Carly is determined to solve the 35-year-old case. She needs the close. But more than that, she is enraged at the idea of her aunt just being forgotten so easily. That anyone could go missing and not be found. Or even searched for.

Viv Delany had big dreams for herself. She wanted to get away from home. Maybe even get all the way to New York City. Instead, she ended up in Fell – a small town in the middle of nowhere. But there’s something captivating about Fell, even, or perhaps especially, considering the mysteries and murders of the area.

“It wasn’t fair that Vivian was forgotten, reduced to a few pieces of newsprint and nothing else.”

Warnings: The Sun Down Motel has a lot of typical thriller elements. But some are especially worth noting/warning about. There’s kidnapping, rape, and murder all within these pages.

The Sun Down Motel was an intensely brilliant read. It has been a long time since I’ve read a paranormal thriller, and I had honestly forgotten how much I love them. So for that reason alone, I am truly grateful for this novel.

But don’t worry! There are plenty of other reasons to love this novel as well. I promise. This is a tall full of mystery, intrigue, deception, and righteous rage. The town of Fell has been rife with mystery – from murdered girls to missing women. There’s a lot of tension in the air, and Carly is about to add to it.

You see, Carly’s character is actually somebody that many of us can empathize with. She’s well and truly angry at the idea of anyone going missing, especially when nobody really bothered to look for her. She’s tired and hurt, and looking for resolution.

There’s something poignant in her journey, something that I personally resonated with. I know that I’m not the only one that will feel that way, which is why I’m recommending this book so heavily.

The Sun Down Motel is broken into two perspectives, set 35 years apart from one another. One is the story of Viv Delany – the aunt that goes missing. The other is obviously of Carly. Seeing the events unfold in this manner, bouncing back and forth each chapter, allowed for a steady buildup, as well as some creative twists along the way.

Everything I’ve mentioned so far is enough to make this an interesting thriller. But I haven’t touched the paranormal elements. That’s part of what made this novel so unique – the inclusion of ghosts. It certainly made the run down motel a whole lot more interesting. It also added a fair amount of obfuscation, which was surprising – but very well done.

I really enjoyed reading The Sun Down Motel. I can honestly tell you that I haven’t read anything like it in quite some time – though that is something I intend to fix. I foresee a whole lot more paranormal thrillers in my future.

In remote Fell, New York, the Sun Down Motel awaits weary travelers, and each night, the occupancy swells to include a few specters with unfinished business. Can anyone else smell the faint aroma of cigarette smoke or hear the doors opening and closing?

In 1982 Viv Delaney finds herself in Fell, New York and takes a job as the night clerk at The Sun Down Motel. Some thirty-five years later, her niece, Carly, takes the same job at the motel. However, it is not a coincidence. Carly is searching for answers to her aunt’s disappearance.

I enjoyed the two strong female lead characters in this dual- POV, dual-timeline mystery. The author created two similar characters but gave them each a distinct voice making them entwined and distinctly interesting. Simone St. James’ evocative writing creates an incredible sinister atmosphere. From start to finish the eerie sense of foreboding is palpable. The descriptions of upstate New York made me feel like I had visited the area.

Gothic mystery or horror? The Sun Down Motel is a not-so-cozy cold-case mystery investigated by the missing woman’s niece more than thirty years after the fact.

HOT DAMN! This was SO GOOD!

Creepy, chilling, atmospheric, brilliant. Bravo Simone St. James! This book will make you believe in ghosts. Lights turning on and off, doors opening and closing, the smell of cigarette smoke in the air, a hint of perfume, a woman in a floral dress telling you to “run“. After the death of her mother Carly heads to upstate New York with the intention of solving a family mystery. In 1982 Carly‘s aunt Vivian disappeared from the town of Fell, New York never to be seen again. 37 years later and Carly finds herself not only living in the same apartment as her aunt, but also working at the same motel and encountering the same ghosts.

Told in dual timelines from the perspectives of both Carly and Viv. I loved how the two stories mimicked one another but they both had a unique voice to them. I thought that St. James did a marvelous job of showcasing how almost The same investigation was executed 37 years apart. All the technical advancements, computers, cell phones, Internet, however the Sundown motel seems unchanged. Loved puzzling the Mystery together with both Carly and Viv. I have to say these ladies were either much braver or much stupider than me, because I would’ve been so out of there the minute I saw those doors opening and closing! They both really did put themselves in ridiculously dangerous positions, it’s like when you’re watching a scary movie and hoping the person just runs out of the house. I wouldn’t say this book was scary necessarily, but it was a whole lot of creepy! Exceptional storytelling that completely sucked me in and would not let me go until the last word.

This book in emojis 🏨 👻 📓 🚪 💼

*** Big thank you to Berkley for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

“The Sun Down only looked empty. But it wasn’t.”

This was a really entertaining “haunted motel” story with an intriguing mystery. A young woman, Viv, went missing while working a night shift in 1982 and it seems that no one put that much effort into looking for her. 35 years later, nearly everyone is afraid to speak about the woman’s disappearance. Viv’s niece feels that something doesn’t sit right with all of this, so he opens an investigation of her own.

The writing is clear and descriptive and I thought the author really perfected the dialogue style. The story shifts between 1982 (when Viv Delaney went missing) and 2017, where Viv’s niece investigates her disappearance.

I thought the book could’ve been trimmed down a bit in order to avoid the repetitiveness which at some point made me skeptical about the outcome of the story, but if that aspect doesn’t bother you, then you’re in a treat. The identity of the perpetrator regarding the murders in the story was guessable because the list of suspects wasn’t very broad, BUT the final chapters had some pretty gasp-worthy revelations, especially the truth behind the disappearance, and I think the ending is absolutely satisfactory.

I expected a great novel, as I adored Simone St. James ' BROKEN GIRLS; and THE SUN DOWN MOTEL delivered on that expectation and far beyond it. This is a tremendously frightening novel, both in terms of the Supernatural scares (I thought my hair would turn white) and of the horribly-inhuman human frightener--who makes my blood run even colder. It also carries a tremendous impact in terms of Awareness: specifically awareness of how unsafe women and girls are. Yes in 2020 we are familiar with the #MeToo Movement and with the pervasiveness of "rape culture." But in 1982, one of the timelines in this novel, we weren't, unless we had personal experiences, or a loved one or dear friend had suffered. That a tiny little town like St. James' "Fell, New York," tucked off on a lonely highway almost to Canada, has such a HIGH number of murders of women, many of these rape-murders, and many unsolved "disappearances," is both mind-boggling and terrifying, especially that it's tacitly assumed and runs under the radar! Revolting!!


This is not a book to put the reader peacefully to sleep at night. This is a book to raise questions, incite pondering, and inspire activism.

By now, Simone St. James is an auto-read author. Though I still have several to go, I have a good portion of her backlist under my belt and 2018’s The Broken Girls remains a book I enthusiastically recommend. When I heard she had a new novel coming out after a long, long two years, I immediately marked it as To Read – though I had absolutely NO idea what the book was even about. She’s just that great.

Bouncing between New York in 1982 and 2017, The Sun Down Motel follows two young women: Viv, 20, with dreams of becoming an actress; and her niece Carly, obsessed with the story of her aunt’s disappearance three decades ago. Broke and with nowhere else to go, Viv found herself in Fell, a barely-there town that had once had grand visions of becoming a tourist hot spot after an amusement park was announced. The park never amounted to anything, but by then the Sun Down had already been built, its rooms anticipating the flood of families that never arrived.

Viv was hired on as the night clerk, covering the desk and phone from 11pm until 7am and right from the start she knew something wasn’t right about the Sun Down. It was more than the salesman with the creepy smile. No, it wasn’t just the motel room doors that was open as one – even when they had been lock. It wasn’t just the smell of cigarette smoke that would permeate the office, moving about in the wake of some long-gone smoker. It wasn’t even the pool, empty and fenced off.

With the recent death of her mother, Carly is left with just her older brother. Having grown up knowing her aunt had suddenly vanished – but never hearing the full story because her mother refused to discuss it – Carly had become obsessed, searching and looking for anything that might lead her to truths of what happened. Her search leads her to a tiny town off the highway and a seemingly quiet job as the night clerk at a motel.

Simone St. James has outdone herself with this one. I’m calling it now: The Sun Down Motel will ABSOLUTELY appear again on my Top Reads of 2020 list! This is a book I could truly go on and on about – but I don’t want to spoil a single second! In my review of The Broken Girls I mentioned that I’m a bit of a scaredy cat when it comes to things that go bump in the night. I will only read horror – or books that have even the tiniest whisper of horror – in broad daylight and stop well before dark, whether I’ve finished the book or not. When I was reading The Broken Girls, Matt was out of town. And by out of town, I meant in a totally different state. But I couldn’t stop reading. While Matt might not have been travelling this time around, The Sun Down Motel had me once again reading a book full of literal ghosts well into the night.

An odd string of disappearances has Viv playing amateur detective, a hobby that ultimately brings about her own disappearance. What Carly uncovers is a bunch of shoddy police reports, a person who wasn’t even reported missing for four days, and minimal time and effort spent searching before wiping their hands clean of things. As the book progresses, plots and details come together and – gah, it’s so hard not to talk about THIS or THAT!

The death of a little boy, a woman who still wanders the site where she died, a photographer-for-hire, a young woman desperately seeking answers about her missing aunt, and that missing aunt – so many voices came together to tell this magnificent tale. The pages flipped by all too quickly and, try as I might, I couldn’t slow myself down. I needed to know what the next page held, what the next chapter would bring. Readings new to St. James have come to the party at SUCH a good time and long-time fans are in for such a treat. This is a writer at the top of her game and I’m already sobbing at the thought of having to wait a year – or longer! – for her next book.

Thanks to a reading friend, I found out about this intriguing book. I had a ride like no other. The atmosphere and feel were like nothing I have read before. Worth the read.

This may be the first 'paranormal' genre for me! This book takes place in both 1982, following Viv, and in 2017, following her niece Carly. All Carly knows about her aunt is she mysteriously disappeared while working at a motel in New York. After her mother dies, she decides to head to Fell, New York and live the life her Aunt Viv did years ago - she gets a job at The Sun Down Motel and lives in the same building she did. She quickly finds out that this motel is stuck in the past, with untold stories waiting to be solved and Carly takes it upon herself to do the detective work. With the help of some unlikely friends from the past and present, she retraces all of her Aunt's steps until she can find peace.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story, even though I wasn't sure about a book about ghosts. I didn't find it cheesy or overly unbelievable. While it felt like a bit of a slow burn for me, it worked out in the end, because the story felt complete. At times, it felt a bit repetitive, but I think that was how the story was supposed to be. It kept my on the edge of my seat and I found myself desperate to know how it all played out, even when I thought I knew how it would. The novel was very well written! I will be picking up another one of Simone St. James' books soon.

Carly Kirk has wondered what happened to her aunt Viv who vanished in Fell, New York while working at the Sun Down Motel. She moves to the town and gets the same job her aunt held, night reception clerk at the hotel.

Ghosts of a murder victim who was dumped there while the place was being built, a young boy who fell into the pool and drowned, plus a former clerk who still smokes like he used to there, haunt the place still. Time and the way things are at the motel appear to remain the same as in the 1980s when her aunt was there. As Carly investigates what happened to Viv after she walked out the door one night, she becomes embroiled in the same mysteries her aunt had. Chapters alternated between Carly and Viv’s.

A chilling, unsettling mystery that is also horror with spirits will yank the reader into the storylines of both Viv and Carly.

4 1/2 stars actually.

Creepy motel thriller

I've always enjoyed movies, TV shows, and books about creepy motels, starting with PSYCHO. My husband and I recently watched an older CRIMINAL MINDS show that was really great about - you guessed it - a creepy motel.

The Sun Down Motel sits outside the small town of Fell, New York. It opened in 1979 but not before finding a murder victim at the construction site. Since then other deaths have been associated with the motel.

The story is told mainly from two points of view - Viv in 1982 who is the night shift clerk at the motel and then Carly in 2017, who is Viv's niece and wants to find out what happened to her aunt. She also takes the job of night shift clerk at the motel when she gets to town and starts her investigation.

This is a spooky story with some paranormal aspects but then also looks at a serial killer who has operated in the Fell area for years.

I loved this story and it had a surprising twist at the end that I did not see coming.

I received this book from Berkley Publishing through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

There were some things I really loved about this book a couple things I didn't love so much. This was my first book by this author and one thing I can say for sure is that I will be checking out her other works because the writing and the atmosphere were both fantastic! I loved both of the main characters and the alternate timelines worked really well in this book. I was pretty impressed that the author managed to blend ghosts and a human murder mystery into one story though I wanted a little bit more closure on the ghost stories. I also enjoyed the ending to the book. I knocked my rating down a bit because there was quite a bit of repetitiveness throughout the book which led to some skim reading on my part and there were some slow parts I didn't care for. I also felt that a few parts were a little predictable, which never really bothers me much but it takes a little of the fun out of the read. Overall this was an enjoyable read and I look forward to reading more by this author!

This book!! Wow!

I have been searching for so long for a mystery book that gave me the “heebie jeebies” and I have FINALLY found it! This book was so atmospheric and creepy, and I loved it so much. I am not one to scare easily, but I went to bed a few nights thinking “I may not sleep the greatest” thanks to the incredibly eerie and unnerving vibe this book had.

I was initially hooked by the cover, and was quickly sucked into the plot. I loved how Viv and Carly’s stories ended up mirroring one another and how we learned slowly learned things throughout the two timelines. It was a really interesting way of presenting the story, having Carly investigate and interview the people who knew Viv, while also simultaneously seeing their relationships with Viv in the past.

At first, I wasn’t sure if I would like the murder mystery plot combined with the speculative/paranormal element but apparently it was exactly what I’ve been looking for all this time.

This is the first book I’ve read by Simone St. James but it definitely won’t be the last.

THE SUN DOWN MOTEL by Simone St. James is so creepy it needs a warning label! Early on, I decided to read this one only during the day. It wasn’t until almost the end that I deemed it safe enough to read at night without succumbing to nightmares.

The book begins in November 1982 when twenty-year-old Vivian Delaney, who works the night shift at the Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York, disappears. Then, we switch to November of 2017 with twenty-year-old Carly Kirk, Vivian’s niece, who has always wondered what happened to her aunt. After her mother passes from cancer, Carly can’t sway her curiosity any longer. Only intending to stay a few days, Carly finds a trail that she can’t stop following. Will she become another missing link to evil?

It took me a bit to figure out why this book creeped me out so much. It’s a good suspense, filled with something evil, plus ghostly beings adding to the mix. It’s not really that scary, but the motel is very creepy. Maybe because I remember the 80s so well, and this motel reminds of places I knew from my travels. It reminds me of an old Alfred Hitchcock movie and I saw the book roll out in my head in black and white. In the end, I realized it was the atmospheric aura of the writing that gave me a sense of dread.

I wasn’t more than a chapter or two in and I was having nightmares. That’s when I stuck to reading only during the day until the very end of the book. By that time, I was really into the characters, even the ghosts, and I wasn’t afraid. As the characters got braver, I did too. To the point that I read almost all night to finish. Going without sleep was worth reading the end of this book in one sitting.

At first, the style of this novel didn’t pull me in completely like the author’s previous books. Whether it was the timeline switches, or the more modern story – this book just felt different. It was a slow build for me, but oh so good once the characters nabbed my attention.

Author Simone St. James is excellent at characterization and it’s my favorite part of this novel. Oh yes, she’s excellent at a gothic setting as well, but that’s like a backdrop to the way she dives into her characters’ psyche. I was so intrigued by all the characters, alive and dead. They really made the book for me. Their stories came alive bit-by-bit through the dual timelines back and forth. It’s that inching forward with tidbits that hint at what’s to come that makes this book so fun to read.

Completely satisfied by the conclusion, I could have read more about the main characters. They entertained me, and I would have gone on for a few more frightful episodes, or loved a peek into their future. But that doesn’t affect my opinion of the novel – it was great just like it was.

Simone St. James has earned her spot on my keeper shelves over and over. Her style has changed since my favorite, THE HAUNTING OF MADDY CLARE, but she’s so consistently entertaining that I can’t imagine not reading every book she writes. If you love a gothic spooktacular, a few shivers and screams, bumps in the night, and characters you’ll run with until the end, THE SUN DOWN MOTEL is waiting for you.

Review by Dorine, courtesy of TheZestQuest.com.

It is only January of 2020 but this will certainly be in my list of top books of the year. I could not get enough of The Sun Down Motel. With each page, each character I met, each story that came together, I was pulled more and more into the story. The ghosts and the visitors to The Sun Down Motel were all intriguing and kept me turning page after page. I couldn’t wait to see how Simone St. James would pull the storylines together at the end of the book.

The dual timelines were written perfectly. They told their own stories while overlapping just enough to not lose the reader's attention. I enjoyed how the characters were portrayed in 1982 and those that were still around in the present were kept similar. They kept their quirks, kept their attitudes, but showed how they grew up in the time that was between. The storylines were easy to follow, quick to read, and had twists and turns that kept me guessing at what would happen next.

The Sun Down Motel is a psychological thriller with a tad of paranormal sprinkled throughout the story. The spooky setting, the creepy customers, and the interesting people of Fells all made this book a must-read.

Simone St. James has become an author I look forward to reading. I previously read and reviewed The Broken Girls on my blog and it was such a good read. She has a way of mixing paranormal (a genre I don't usually read) and such a good plot that I can't help but say no. This book was no different.

There was just something I loved about the creepy, dark motel setting in the small town. The author does a wonderful job creating characters and describing the setting that I felt like I was right there. Yes, there were times I was reading and has to close my book because I got spooked, but in a good way!

I hate to give away and plot twists and clues into how this story ends, so I will just say READ IT! It is the perfect mix of suspense, thriller, paranormal, and mystery. Simone St. James has a way with words that will leave your spine tingling and heart thumping while simultaneously making you mind race with possibilities of how it will all end.

Lucky for you this book is available for purchase today! Get your copy now, you won't regret it! A 5 star read for me!

Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for allowing me an eARC to read and give my honest review.

Happy Reading!

The Sun Down Motel is my kind of mystery. I struggle with super graphic books in this genre and I appreciated that this was the perfect creepy reading ride while also not being gory. The suspense factor came from the simple chilling details and I loved that the Sun Down Motel was not just the scene for the novel but also one of the main characters. This book starts off slowly and builds up with both suspense and intrigue.

The dual timelines worked well for me and helped flush out all the details that made me feel invested and drawn in. While I am not normally interested in books regarding the paranormal, the balance was perfect here and this element was not offputting as I worried about when I heard there was a "ghost" aspect of this book. There was just as much of a murder mystery which is definitely more my style so if that is one of your hold-ups, don't fear!

This was my first book by Simone St. James and it won't be my last! Thank you to Berkley Publishing for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.