Kinda loved it to be honest. Wasn't with high expectations when I started but the more I read the more I found it intriguing. It kept me on my toes that's for sure. Kinda excited to see were the next one takes us.

This was such a freaky read that I didn't think that I was going to be able to sleep for a week! Pick it up if you need help staying up.

Kinsley just turned 18 years old and graduated highschool. To celebrate, she and her friends are off to her parents lake house for the summer holidays. Paranormal activity starts to happen as soon as they arrive at the house. Something grabs Kinsley and she teleports to another place. When she returns back nobody has noticed that she was gone. She soon starts to question reality and is no longer able to discern what's real, and what's not.


The book is twisted, but the storyline overall is brilliant. Great start of a new series!

Intriguing read, great for young adult readers, and was one that kept me wondering how it would end..

A sincere thank you for providing me a copy of “Phantom Reality” in exchange for an honest review. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to read this tale and leave my review voluntarily.

Spooky and gripping…. Rich in evocative detail - the complex supernatural mystery kept me guessing right up to the last page

Phantom Reality was a great read! If you’re into paranormal and mystery, you will enjoy it. It isn’t my usual genre, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. The cover is so beautiful and it was a fun read. And that ending! I was not expecting it and it made so much sense. I will definitely read book 2, I’m curious to know what happens next.

[This review was posted on GoodReads, StoryGraph and Instagram on August 28th, 2022. Links are attached. It was also posted on Barnes & Noble and it’s waiting to be verified.]

I really enjoyed this book once I got into the story. It’s one that messes with your head a little as lots of things don’t add up and make sense. I worked out most of it quite early on but still enjoyed finding out what happened and who did what and I did have a couple of surprises along the way!

My favorite character was Kinsley and I liked Gunner’s energy too, I mean, who doesn’t like dogs in books?!

Later on, this story had a Final Destination kind of feel to it so I would highly recommend it to any FD fans!

This worked so well as a dark fantasy and as a horror novel. It was beautifully done and it worked as a start to the series. The characters were what I was hoping for and can't wait to read more in this series.

I love horror stories, Especially ones set up like this. It’s one of those that really gets you feeling like an edge of your seat, campfire story, told on Halloween at midnight.
Basically, I loved it. The author created an eerie, atmospheric book that gives the reader the creeps. Brilliant!
Thank you to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for my arc.

Phantom reality by Laura C Reden.
The phantom series book 1.
Kingsley drowned in the lake of secrets. Her life will never be the same again.
Brilliant read. Loved the story. Loved Kinsley. Can't wait for book 2. 5*.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All these opinions are my own and are not biased in any way.

Release Date: August 2022
Rating: 5/5
Age Rating: 13+

“The truth was a nebulous line between fact and fiction. Reality and illusion.”

Plot: Oh wow, I just love thrillers taking place at the lake. So basically, this follows Kinsley and her friends going to Kinsley's lakehouse in Baylor for the summer holidays as a celebration that they are now done with school and are officially adults. The action happens immediately in the first few chapters. Weird stuff starts happening; she feels a hand grab her and when she comes back for air, she's at a completely new place. When she returns, no one, not even her best friends, has noticed that she was gone.

Characters: Kinsley was an okay character, and even though a lot of the decisions she made stressed me out, I knew that she had to make them, especially since a lot of the time she doesn't know what's real or not. I really liked Noah, and felt kind of bad for him. I thought something was off about Walker, and still think so.

Elements/genres: This is a YA thriller set at a lakehouse (my favourite!), with the occasional fantasy and mystery elements.

Likes: Basically everything, but especially what happened at the plane. That was cool. Scary for Kinsley, but really interesting to read and think about.

Pace: This book was fast paced right from the first chapter. After that, some parts were slower, but the pace was still consistent and didn't dwell on any boring parts for too long.

This book reminds me so much of a book I read a couple years ago as a kid, The Sign in the Smoke by Carolyn Keene and a book I read at the beginning of this year, The Lake by Natasha Preston. So if you liked those, or just lakehouse thrillers in general, I HIGHLY recommend this!

Kelsey 18, just graduated High School, goes with her friends for a couple of weeks at her parents lake side lodge. She should be very afraid. If you read this well written fantasy story you should be very afraid too! Adrenaline will flow and your heart rate is going to rise! Perfect reading for a horror story junky. This story had me doubting myself a few pages in until the last paragraph, and I’m still not sure. Okay, I’ve settled a little bit writing this review. So now I’ve read the book, and calmed down, I’m off to read book two in the series! Oh finally, read the books in order. Thanks to Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

All Kinsley planned for the summer was to party with her friends in her grandmother’s cabin. It was their last holiday before college and the responsibilities of adulthood, and they wanted to use the time well. But everything changed after she nearly drowned in the lake. Saved by a handsome stranger, she returned to the cabin to find out that nobody was looking for her. Nobody even realised that she had gone missing. And that is only the beginning of mysterious events…

Phantom Reality is a simple read filled with action and mysteries. You will love this position if you like stories about teenage friends gossiping, having fun, fighting over boys, and solving puzzles. Although I enjoyed the supernatural side of the plot, the strange events only Kinsley remembered and the recurrent appearances of her grandmother’s ghost, I was annoyed by Kinsley’s friends and their behaviour. There are too many descriptions of their parties and drunken escapades and not enough of actual character development. Spending your summer with twelve friends sounds fantastic, but this means that none of them is complex or well-written.

The novel reminded me of a television series aimed at teenagers, where the focus always remains on friendships and budding romances. It wasn’t for me, but I believe the book will find a faithful audience among teenage girls.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC copy.

I found this book hard to get into and that it didn’t have huge plot point until about 1/2 way through the book. It seemed there wasn’t a lot of build off from the synopsis of what was actually happening and where this story was going. The story is one that makes you question what is going on and whether you can trust the MC. A twisted ghost story about a group of friends at a lake house. This book left me questioning some things. What is reality and what isn’t? How does our subconscious play into our dreams?

Definitely read like a teen horror book, a lot of juvenile thoughts that seems realistic.

An enjoyable dar and twisty read that left me not knowing what was real and what wasn't. A creepy atmosphere woven all the way through the book made for good reading.

A dozen teens spend the summer at lakeside cabin only to be terrorized by missing people, ghost stories, and bizarre events that have them questioning reality.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review- and this will be quite an honest review.

Phantom Reality is a horror novel about a group of twelve teenagers (and one dog) who go to a lake house for the summer after graduating high school. From the first night, weird things begin to happen that only Kinsley seems to notice. Time and weather begins to move weird, and the lake begins to attack her.

This book has the exact feeling of a teen lake house horror movie, including a ghost story told around a camp fire and a mysterious, charming man that saves the main protagonist and teenage relationship drama. That is not inherently bad, and the predictability of such a story can be fun. However this book did one stereotypical thing that really bothered me and that was having the main character make incredibly stupid decisions that make no sense, especially for an 18 year old girl. Obvious clues are given, and she cannot pick up on them even when she is explicitly told the answer. She puts herself in danger multiple times. Also, many of the side characters just did not react realistically to events around them. This was explained away by the lake doing weird things to memory and emotion, but it just felt like the author wanted to move forward with the plot rather than focus on the characters.

Another large problem I had with this book was the character of Big Jimmy. Jim is the only person described as fat in the book, and he also just so happens to be described as crazy, violent, and putrid smelling. There is even a description of the smell of "unwashed folds". Honestly this fatphobia was disgusting and completely unnecessary to the book, and seems to follow horror's trend of using "fat" and "crazy" as stand-ins for evil. The book lost a star solely for that.

The only thing I liked about this book was the description of setting. Reden makes great use of metaphor and color throughout the book. However, the rest of this book made it truly not worth recommending to me.

The phantom series book 1

From the moment I drowned in the lake of secrets, I knew my life would never be the same.

All I wanted for my eighteenth birthday was a kiss and a summer to be remembered before heading off for college. What I got was so much more.

I wasn’t just trapped at a lake house with a group of my rowdiest friends; I was trapped in another dimension. A dark one, where dreams are manifested before your very eyes, fears are conjured in the cool mist, and the dead are living side by side.

One thing I was certain of, the only way out . . . is in.
Really enjoyed this book totally gripping and so well written totally captivating and totally recommend
Thank You NetGalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-Op
I just reviewed Phantom Reality by Laura C. Reden. #PhantomReality #NetGalley