*Thank you to Wild Rose Press, Lucy Naylor Kubash, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

After the death of her grandmother, best selling author Jane Stuart returns to her childhood home in the Smoky Mountains to decide how to proceed with the home that has been left to her. Living in New York City for many years, Jane hopes to find the peace and quiet she needs to heal after a brutal attack from an intruder robbing her apartment. While driving into Laurel Cove, she passes a strange ghost like lady on the side of the road. She begins delving into the local legends and there is even a little romance. I really enjoyed this novel. Kubash's characters are definitely multi-layered and I enjoyed some of the other mini-plots throughout the book.

Overall, an atmospheric, cozy mystery with a side of romance.

If there was ever a novella that was a Hallmark movie, it’d be this one! It definitely had a cozy mystery vibe, with some minor haunting moments. I’ll admit it was very predictable and the romance too insta/fast for me, but it is a novella. The strength of this book was in its writing and the absolutely gorgeous descriptions of the atmosphere.

A fun, easy read for those who like a taste of spooky with their romances.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

-A

I enjoyed this book so much! It felt like I was back in one of my favorite vacation spots! What a beautiful area it is! I know exactly where the American Indian Museum is in Cherokee N. Carolina is.
I didn't want to come home after the book ended it was good!
Best read now book there is!
I loved the many secrets that this wonderful novel held. My favorite thing in this story
I felt so sorry for Cissy! My heart mourned her and her losses. She did the right thing in my opinion though.
I can relate to her son the most.
Family dynamics were definitely a plus in this book. The author has done well with this. This is what made me keep turning the pages
Family is everything to the mountain people. It showed very strongly in this book
5 stars for a job well done! I highly recommend!
My thanks for a copy of this book. I was NOT required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own.

A fun quick read. The descriptions of the Smokies were superb. I loved unraveling the Cissy mystery.

This one was strange. It was more of a Hallmark-y type mystery with some romance interspersed throughout it. I really appreciated the twists and turns and I was for sure not expecting that twist at the end!

While I did feel that the romance was a bit too rushed and I didn’t feel like I truly had time to connect with the main characters, again, the Hallmark type vibes of it explained that away.


* Received e-galley from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

The Haunting of Laurel Cove by Lucy Naylor Kubash, this was a new author for me and overall I found this to be a very enjoyable read. When Jane goes back to stay for several weeks in the old cabin left to her by her grandmother she encounters a woman beside the road, and then she disappears. Jane is a author and recovering from a traumatic event, and hopefully the Smoky Mountains will help her to overcome what happened to her. I loved the way the author could make you feel like you were in those mountains surrounded by all the beautiful area. Jane starts to investigate the life of a woman that lived in a run down cabin in the woods, and finds out interesting things. I would recommend this book to others.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and The Wild Rose Press, I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thoughts: I thought this was a good book. I had a little trouble getting into it in the beginning. It just wasn’t drawing me in, but I kept reading, and am glad I did because I was captured by the story of Cissy the witch and Jane’s fascination with her. The characters are realistic—especially Jane’s PTSD reactions. And the setting beautifully done (though I did have a couple issues with some minor things). Still, we could see the curtains blowing, the mists covering the mountains, the smell of lilacs and laurel. The author put you right there in the mountains.

The conflict was also very real between the environmentalist and the developers. And the mystery of Cissy was fascinating. I didn’t understand why Jane did some things the way she did, but that might just be me. Overall, I enjoyed the story, though I did know who the villain was halfway through.

Recommendation: a decent paranormal romance mystery. And relatively short.

Disclaimer: I received a final and/or advanced reader copy of this book with the hope that I will leave my unbiased opinion. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and my opinions are just that… My Opinions. I am posting this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

This is a G-rated version of a very boring Hallmark holiday movie, in which a "broken" young woman moves home and falls for a handsome guy out of her past, all while untangling family secrets. There aren't really any secrets, and there's no chemistry between the characters, who are one-dimensional and dull as dirt. The whole thing is pablum.

For a cozy mystery with a hint of paranormal, this book is a good choice. I'm so surprised by the way how the writer weaves a story around an old Smoky Mountain legend. She conjures a spectacular story of an old romance and murder.

The main character; Jane goes back to the rural cabin that her grandmother left her after her death last year. Jane is an author and after a traumatic event while living in New York, feels the need to get back to her cabin in the in Laurel Cove. when strange things start happening and she drawn to a cabin in the woods, she needs to find out why, what happened there, and why she keeps smelling laurel flowers.

I love how this book was so quick to breeze through but also gave me the full story without any unnecessary details. I love how Jane is investigating an old murder case while she is supposed to be relaxing during her time away from the city. The ending wrapped everything up and didn’t leave me wondering what happened.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read this eARC!

It was okay... certainly not that impressed. I was hoping for a spooky read considering "haunting" is in the name but it was more of a mystery...and it was a just okay mystery. The first chapter started out really good and then it was really boring. I got to 60% and was completely underwhelmed. It has the atmosphere but the characters were dull and the plot was meh.

Jane Stuart, a novelist, returns to Tennessee and the house she inherited from her grandmother after she's brutally mugged in her NY apartment. In Laurel Cove, Tennessee, she becomes absorbed in local legends involving an alleged witch and her cabin. Jane begins to uncover family secrets and rekindle old romances, but when she and her family begin receiving threats, she's not sure who she can trust.

THANK YOU NetGalley and The Wild Rose Press for the opportunity to review this book! It's a quick page-turner (I finished it in one day) that left me guessing until the end. I assumed from the title that this would be a spooky ghost story, but there's way more dimension to it than that. I think that my favorite part of the story itself was that Jane, while battling personal ghosts after the trauma she's endured, finds solace in another ghost - the ghost of Cissy Oliver. This could have easily been a "woman is wronged in the past and turns into a vengeful spirit that terrorizes a small town" story, but the true villains in this novel aren't ghosts at all. It's a story about secrets and family, trust and trauma.

There were a few points in this story that I wanted a little MORE from... I thought Jed's ending was a little abrupt (maybe that's on purpose??? SEQUEL????) and I would've loved some element of flashback or dual narrative to see some of Cissy and Sheridan's life (we get a little of that in her diary entries but those left me wanting even more!!!). Overall I enjoyed this quick read - it was unique, spooky, and suspenseful!

Jane Stuart, now a best selling author of paranormal books for teens returns to her roots in the great Smokey Mountains to the home where she grew up in and now she has inherited from her grandmother. Jane lives in the city and must decide what to do with the home in the small town of Laurel Cove but the real reason she returned is to get much needed quiet and rest to get her bearings back after a horrible, physical attack that has left left her quite shaken and her self-confidence in pieces. Jane is also fascinated by some local legends and decides to follow up on a sixty-five year old murder case where it's said that there is a ghost still haunting the grounds where the tragedy took p!ace. Soon after Jane arrives back in Laurel Cove, named for the infinite beautiful laurel blooms growing throughout the cove and the mountains, she sees a mysterious woman in different places and she can't seem to forget about the woman while also experiencing other subtle, strange events with haunting nightmares night after night destroying any chance of getting the restorative rest that she was hoping for. There are other major situations occurring in town where Jane innocently gets involved in that soon become a threat to her safety and unknown to Jane someone wants her out of their way permanently.

This was an enjoyable, little ghost story that was not scary but it was very interesting. The author had a way with words with her descriptions of the Smoky Mountains so it kept the story very atmospheric which I appreciated. For romance lovers there is some light romance that seemed very compatible with the story. When I picked this book up I was hoping for something a little.darker with some tension and scares but that's just me and I still found the story entertaining and it had some surprises in the last quarter that were unexpected. The parts I didn't care for were that many clues to the mysteries were right in Jane's face and she wouldn't make the connections in many instances until much later and that would bother me a lot because it made her seem too naive. Also she made quite a few silly, impulsive decisions for my taste, but that's just my opinion. Although I normally prefer darker crime and horror stories this book was a nice little change of reading for me and I found it enjoyable and well-written even with some of my peeves. I guarantee many readers will love this book! I recommend this novella to any reader who enjoys a good mystery with a touch of the paranormal with some romance thrown in.

I want to thank the publisher "Wild Rose Press, Inc" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this story and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 3 SMOKY MOUNTAIN 🌟🌟🌟 STARS!!

The Haunting of Laurel Cove was a great quick read. I was constantly guessing "whodunit".

There was just enough supernatural elements to the story to make it interesting, but not over-the-top.

The characters were well written, as was the story itself.

Because of the shortness of this book, I was left feeling like there were a few blind spots, if you will... However, the writer did a great job at touching on the little details throughout.

Honestly, I'd probably read this one every year during spooky season!

Solid 4/5 stars.

Thank you NetGalley, publisher, and author for the ARC. I enjoyed it!

A nice and spooky read! I felt at the edge of my seat after every chapter, the characters are explained very well and had a great purpose throughout the book. Overall, a great story that and I recommended it to my coworkers!

I wanted to like this book but I could not get into the story and found the plot to be hard to follow. The characters were also a bit dull for me.

It wasn't exactly spooky, but it didn't need to be. This was an enjoyable mystery honestly. I very much liked it. Thank you, NetGalley, for the chance to read and review.

This well-written novel drew me in from the beginning and wouldn’t let go. As a discriminating reader, I particularly appreciated the intriguing plot, the expert pacing, the well-developed setting, and the rich sensory details (e.g., “The sun poured down like warm honey…”; “the river…shimmering like black satin…”). The cold-case mystery was skillfully juxtaposed against the present-day conflict, and there were some twists and turns I did not expect. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mysteries, ghost stories, or romances.

[ Review time ]

Title: The Haunting of Laurel Cove
Author: Lucy Naylor Kubash
Genre: Mystery/Thriller/Romance/Spooky
Release Date: December 6th 2022
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟

When I read the synopsis of this book I just knew I had to read it and I’m so thankful for getting the opportunity to do so!

Even if it didn’t reached 5 stars from me it was a very good story! Lucy is an amazing writer and the way she described the surroundings was PHENOMENAL. Definitely one of the best books when it comes to details and it really felt like I was in the Smoky Mountains myself!⛰️

I wished I felt a better connection to the characters but It can’t happen in every book I read am I right?☺️

Overall I thought it was a beautiful book, with a very good story!✨

A big thank you to NetGalley and The Wild Rose Press, Inc. for letting me read this ARC for an honest review.
And of course a big thank you to Lucy for writing this book!💖

I thought that this would be more of a spooky book by the description, but it wasn't. The main premise of the book is that the main character works to solve an old mystery with a bit of romance thrown in.. Great read on a cold winter day.

The Haunting of Laurel Cove is a book much more than it appears. It is a statement about local businesses vs. conglomerates, environmental activism, family, and romance, with a healthy dose of mystery thrown in. I enjoyed this book, and getting to know the characters and their motivations. The setting is ethereal, taking place in the Smokies, and the descriptions make it a character of it's own. The book moves along at a clipping pace, and that, if anything, is my one complaint with this book. I would have loved for the tension to be a little more drawn out, to explore the themes more, but that's the sign of any book worth reading isn't it? Not wanting it to end quite so soon. Overall, a slightly different romance, a mystery with heart, and secrets that tie everything together.