I did not read the first book so was a bit lost. Sophie was a subdued sort till she became bold and completely focussed, no obsessed about her husband.

The story for me was a bit convoluted. Also not a genre I go for, but once in a while I try to step out of my comfort zone and go for a different kind of read. This was a little too way out for me but that is my problem, not the authors.

This is the sequel to “House of Shadows” and in my opinion- this was way better than the first! The beginning was kind of slow but it definitely picked up. There was a huge difference in character development in this book! It seemed like I actually got to know the characters and their personality a lot more. And also seem to be a lot more of a thriller than the first book was! I will be doing a monthly reading wrap up on my YouTube if you would like to hear more of my thoughts! Kwellsbooks

Thanks so much to #Netgalley and the publisher for an e-copy of #HouseOfSecrets.

Having read and enjoyed the first book, House Of Shadows, I have to say this book was disappointing. While I kept turning the pages, it just fell kind of flat for me. It was not really spooky at all.

My best advice is this: If you read and enjoyed the first book, give this one a pass.

Another darcy! Will never get tired of reading all the books. I love the fact that the characters did well in this book. That is most important. Very passionate.

Sophie and Joseph have escaped Northwood, but they aren’t free of the Grimlock. Elise is now under its control and they must find a way to save her. Through this new twist of their story follow them and see if they can defeat the Grimlock.

Thank you NetGalley, Darcy Coates and Poisoned Pen Press for this edition and hearing my honest review. Looking forward to reading more with you
#partner

The love story of Joseph and Sophie continues. Their quest to kill the horrid Grimlock takes them to a forlorn relic of a manor called Kensington where they join with Joseph's uncle and niece. A manor whose former owner never left even after death. An abandoned derelict town whose only inhabitants are ghosts. House of Secrets by Darcy Coates has kept me enthralled for the past two days. I finished the first book and quickly moved on to the second. I wish there were a third book! I would love to read more about Joseph and Sophie. Their love is so endearing and together with the remaining members of Joseph's family they would be a formidable foe for any monster that comes their way!

Every book I read by this author dies not disappoint. What I love is that her books will scare you because of the plot yet make you want to read more. In this book the thrill is there, the plot too. I read it with breaks because it was captivating. Highly recommended!

Review for 'House Of Shadows' by Darcy Coates

Read and reviewed via NetGalley for Poisoned Pen Press

This is the second book that I have read by this author. The first I have just finished is called 'Hunted' which I enjoyed. I am looking forward to reading more. This book is the first in the 2 volumes 'Ghosts and shadows' series.

I was originally drawn to this book by its intriguing cover and blurb which both worked very well with the storyline. I am also a fan or horror and have enjoyed a book by Darcy Coates before.

This novel consists of 39 chapters and an epilogue relatively short in length so perfect for 'just one more chapter', like that ever happens for me, more like 3 or 4 more!!

This book gripped my attention from the beginning and kept me sucked into the plot all the way until the cliffhanger ending. I will definitely be moving straight onto the next book in this 2 part series.

I really enjoyed the gothic romance and all things gothic, macabre and almost labyrinth feel about this creepy, disturbing horror.

The book is very well written throughout with fantastically gory descriptions which builds the picture up easily for readers.

The plot kept me on the edge of my seat and turning the pages. It is filled with horror, suspense and tension and is perfect for fans of any of these types of books.

The characters were all strong and quite well developed. There were enough of them needed to build the storyline and not too many as to lead to confusion. I also really enjoyed the personality growth of Sophie. I'm looking forward to reading more about them in the next chapter 'House of Secrets'.

I would love to see this being made into a movie especially with the fact that it is set in older times, brings some uniqueness to it, that as well as the whole storyline.

I would recommend this book to fans of horror, Darcy Coates and suspense.

294 pages

Free on kindle unlimited or £2.99 to purchase. I think this is a very good price for this book.

Rated 4/5 (I enjoyed it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.

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A short, quick read that continues the battle against the "beast" that has taken possession of too many family members to be a coincidence. The battle must be fought before any more people die. A horror story that contains all of the hallmarks of a nightmare in the making. It's amazing how spooked you will be by this story.

***Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***

Somewhat entertaining, but unfortunately DNF.

Follow up to House of Shadows and didn't improve on the story. I would only recommend this to serious Coates' fans.

Sophie and Joseph having survived an attack by a mythical creature whose curse has claimed mire than one of Joseph’s relatives seek refuge in the home where Sophie grew up. Joseph thought that leaving Sophie at her fathers insured she would not be victim to the Grimlock’s grasp. A head strong woman she follows her husband to his Kingsington property yo find the beast has inhabited the body of his niece. A mysterious seed that offers a cure and a journal left by a former housekeeper,amateur scientist provide the tension and the heart of this story. The fight in the end is full of deadly beings of the spectral kind and a monster black, shiny, and fearsome. Happy reading

House of Secrets is book # 2 in the House of Shadows series.
I read the first book a week or so ago and loved it. so I couldn't wait to read House of Secrets.

Anyway, this was a short (169 pages) and quick ghost story that was just fantastic. I really like the author's writing.

I do recommend.

There is a kind of books, regardless of the genre to which they belong, that leave the reader with a soft and sweet feeling that everything comes to an appropriate end: evil is defeated, good prevails, help comes from where you least imagine , lovers live together and happily ever after.
House of Secrets is, at least for me, one of those books. After a spiral of emotions, where sometimes everything seems lost, Ms. Coates, the author, achieves an impressive ending which leaves the reader wanting to read her other books, which I will probably do very soon.

Wait!! I just realized this is book #2 haahahaa I got accepted for the first book too goshh why I didn't realize this? 😅 When I read this book it feels like something is missing. I wanted to know why Sophie and Joseph got married if he acted cold like that but then pftttt no wonder la lol
This is a fast-paced book except for the first few pages.

I like how Sophie's character develop confidence and become braver throughout the story. Ohhh and I like how smart she is finding what they are searching for. She is the only one who can think clearly in this book lol

Thank you Netgalley for House of Secrets ARC! I'm going to read the first book next 🤣

Honestly, I’m glad they changed the cover up for this release. I never would have requested this ARC if it had that old cover. It just doesn’t look appealing to me at all. It has a sort of Victorian-Twilight thing going on that I don’t personally find at all appealing. So, I’m really glad that the cover got an update.

Did I read book one, you might wonder? No. I sure didn’t. Yet again, I missed that I was requesting a sequel. But, in this case, it didn’t seem to matter. This is a really short book (165 pages), but a surprising amount of that is devoted to recapping what took place in book one. I mean, there’s still a good amount of story here, don’t get me wrong, but it definitely didn’t seem to have hurt me to have not read the first one.

The Grimlock is definitely an interesting monster – I like that he’s physically a big icky (that’s a technical term), but also that he can (and does) possess and control people, which I imagine is a useful skill when one is a big scary monster. He can even reanimate the dead!

I just wish that I liked any of the other characters as much as I did the Grimlock. The closest I got was Mrs. Bishop – the ghost of the previous occupant of Kensington, and a distant relative of Joseph’s. She seemed like she was probably an interesting lady. She tried during her own lifetime some 100 years before our heroes arrived to conquer the Grimlock, but clearly she did not succeed.

I found all of the other characters to be pretty flat. I wish the book was longer so that maybe they could have been fleshed out a little further. Although I have to imagine that if this was what we had by book two in the series, maybe additional length wouldn’t have changed anything. It seemed like Sophie wanted one thing: Joseph’s love. Joseph at least had two motivations: Sophie’s safety and killing the Grimlock. Garrett and Elsie, despite figuring heavily into the storyline received very little attention.

Here’s a spot where added length would have been really beneficial: tell me more about what it was like for Elsie, being all stuck up inside herself with the Grimlock! I bet that would have made for some interesting reading – I can’t imagine she just calmly took it. There had to have been some internal battling going on. That could have provided some much needed meat to what was otherwise a pretty bare-bones story.

About the Author:
Darcy is the USA Today Bestselling author of Hunted, The Haunting of Ashburn House, Craven Manor, and more than a dozen horror and suspense titles.

She lives on the Central Coast of Australia with her family, cats, and a garden full of herbs and vegetables.

Darcy loves forests, especially old-growth forests where the trees dwarf anyone who steps between them. Wherever she lives, she tries to have a mountain range close by.

Rating:

⭐⭐⭐

Ultimately, I just wanted more story. I feel like this story had a lot more that wanted to be told than ultimately was.

House of Secrets takes up immediately where House of Shadows left off. Not even a second is missing and I jump right into this read after finishing House of Shadows, excited about what could happen next. It held so much promise to continue its dark, gothic atmosphere that I couldn't wait.

What this read ended up as was a slightly less tension-filled version of the first book. You still have the horrors and frights but the anticipation of those scares and what is going on, isn't quite as strong in this book. It might be because we already know most of the tricks of the "Big Bad" and a little bit of the fact that Sophie, though learning to be strong in her own right, constantly struggles with the insecurities of her relationship with her husband. It has only been three weeks but it seems she has developed a bit of codependency that I really struggled with.

I did enjoy the digging for information and the connections that were formed around the horror storyline, I just struggled a bit with the romance getting in the way.

When a family is cursed, escape is never easy; maybe impossible. It doesn't seem to matter that the family home is gone, the ancient monster won't be avoided. Sophie and husband Joseph are in for more terrifying adventures, potentially fatal encounters.


I enjoyed the clever creation of the "monster " and the spooky events. However, I found Sophie's co-dependence on her husband annoying. After all she's been through, before marriage and at the family estate, Northwood, ought to have built character and independence.

A Worthy Sequel!

I would like to thank #netgalley, #poisonedpenpress, and #darcycoates with providing me a copy of this ARC of House of Secrets. I am very grateful to have been given the opportunity to read and review this title!

House of Secrets begins right where House of Shadows left off. Again you are plunged into the Argenton family affairs by Darcy Coates! It was very interesting how the story began with Joseph and Sophie. The first half was a bit slower moving, but Coates pulled through and blew it out of the water!

There were several aspects at the start of this novel that I was not a fan of. However, these aspects were explained later in the book. What I am referring to is some character’s behavior. I am not saying more, because I do not want to spoil the read! It is completely worth your time!

As House of Shadows left off Northwood is destroyed. Along with the ominous Grimlock presumably. However, Joseph is beaconed by his uncle Garrett to visit him at Kinsington. Which is another property the Argentons own. It appears the Grimlock survived, and Garrett needs assistance in a race against time to save his daughter!

As I stated the first half of the book had aspects I disliked, and it was slow moving. However, I loved Sophie’s character development! She has grown much stronger, and is a great protagonist! As she was brave in House of Shadows, she takes it a step further in House of Secrets!

Darcy weaves a wonderful narrative with ease and intellect! After completing the novel the first half of the book made complete sense. Coates really knows how to tie a bow on an ending!

The second portion of House of Secrets is very fast paced, a lot of suspense, thrills, adventure, and battles! Once I reached this portion, and the end, my opinion of the novel became more positive than prior. Sophie does some serious physical feats in the latter portion of the book that are amazing!

Overall, I think that House of Secrets is a perfect sequel to House of Shadows! If you are a Darcy Coates fan, or haven’t read any of her works, check out both of these titles. They are amazing and worth the read! House of Secrets and House of Shadows will be available on 05/05/2020 in physical form. You may also find Coate’s works on Kindle, and some on Kindle Unlimited.

I give House of Secrets a solid 4 🌟’s out of 5 🌟’s! Although I disliked the first half Darcy tied it all together in the end perfectly! Excellently executed! Definitely a must read for Gothic Horror fans!

Another gripping and entertaining by this author. I loved the atmosphere, the great plot and the characters.
I couldn't put it down and I strongly recommend it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.