Thank you for allowing me to review this book. I am giving my rating based on my own personal opinion and not that of any other party.

As much as I wanted to love this book and be hooked, I just wasn’t. Idk if it felt weird how the story progressed or what. It just wasn’t for me. I do love an asylum though which is what really drew me in!

I loved the concept of this but wasn’t crazy about the execution. I was hooked in right away by the setting, but then once things turned a bit romantic, I started to disengage. Normally I love a romantic subplot, but I just think I couldn’t really connect with the characters much.

Overall, it was okay, but a bit disappointing.

I sadly wanted to love this book but it just didn’t work out for me. I think it was a mixture of feeling too stiff, heavily dense with information and not a whole lot of character development I usually enjoy with a 5 star slow burn. But I’m curious to see what else the author has in store in the future!

This book had all the making for a good thriller! The setting for this book was creepy and the perfect back drop for the plot! The book had good pacing and decent dialogue but could’ve been a bit scarier! I think that the local lore of the “haunted” asylum could’ve been much darker but overall the story was good!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review and feedback.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

This was okay! I liked that we didn’t know who did it until the end. I liked the ghostly encounter but i wish there was more.

An old, spooky hotel with a dark past, rumored hauntings, and that was initially built and used as an asylum??? Plus a murder + curse that has the whole town on edge and weary of ever going near the place… needless to say, I was quickly hooked!! Although there is a spooky vibe related to the subject matter, the tone of the novel itself was not super spooky and didn’t really leave me feeling on edge or uneasy. The writing was quite atmospheric, and I felt like I could picture the setting so well that the Seabrink Hotel itself almost acted as an additional main character due to the role it plays in shaping the story and how vividly it was portrayed.

However, I did find the pacing a bit slow at times, and I was definitely more intrigued by the historical mystery storyline than by the present day murder mystery - I think the motive for the modern day murder could have been stronger and a little more twisty than it ended up being.

Overall, I enjoyed this read but I would have enjoyed it more if it were a bit twistier and/or unsettling. I also think that if the connection between the characters had felt stronger or I had cared about them more (especially the murder victim), it may have felt a bit more compelling.

Thank you to Berkley for the gifted eARC!

2.5 stars
I was expecting more from this book. The execution just was not there for me. There was not a whole lot going on. It was very slow paced and did not catch my attention. I did like the characters and how they all fit in and tied together though. I wanted more haunted and ghost in this book. I did not figure out the twist and liked that aspect. It was a descent book all in all.

I want to thank Netgalley, Berkley Publishing, and of course Juliet Blackwell for an Arc!

special thanks to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for an e-arc of this book.

We have an abandoned hotel, a couple of youtubers and a mysterious death.
Is there a ghost in the hotel? Where did one of the youtubers go? Just missing or dead?

The book is very atmospheric, who doesn't love a good ghost story in an abandoned building.

I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery/ghost story. It kept you guessing. All in all a very good read.

Thanks to Netgalley for an e-arc of this book.

I was able to read a physical copy of this book and it was such a great little thriller. I enjoyed the plot and characters and was finding myself reading at any free moment. It's been a while since I've done that with a lighter thriller. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a good thriller that is very atmospheric! 3.75

This book was different than I expected but I enjoyed it. I find myself loving more paranormal thrillers and this is how I would describe this book.
Aubrey Spencer loves old abandoned buildings, when she finds herself photography the infamous Seabrink Hotel, she meets Petroff, a YouTube star who films abandoned sites for his channel. They soon hit it off after spending a night together , he is found dead the next morning at the bottom of a cliff, the police are quick to rule his death as a suicide, but Aubrey believes his death might be connected to the hotel. You see this is not the first time someone interested in the hotel was killed. Locals insist it is haunted by the ghosts of two young women who died there. Wanting answers Aubrey digs deeper into the property’s dark history (and its origins as an asylum). But someone is determined to keep her from discovering the truth—at any cost.

I love a paranormal mystery with an eerie setting such as this one- an old, haunted hotel on the edge of a cliff. The premise sounded so promising, but unfortunately, the author seemed to struggle with the execution. I expected paranormal activity along with jump-scared and shocking moments, but sadly, there weren't any. It's just a book filled with dialogue and not much action. A lot of time is spent discussing the history of Seabrink Hotel, with not much paranormal activity going on. I also found the side stories odd and a bit unnecessary (the best friend and stalker ex, Dimirti's past..) I can't say I really enjoyed this one. 2.5 stars rounded up.
Thank you NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group, and Juliet Blackwell for this ARC.

"I've always thought of life and death as a bit of a courtship - a dance, if you will. And in the end, we finally embrace our lethal lover. It's nothing to be afraid of."

Aubrey is an architect and photographer who loves exploring abandoned buildings. When the chance to explore the isolated and abandoned Hotel Seabrink, a luxury hotel from the 1920s, turns up, Aubrey jumps on it. The hotel is said to be cursed, and when someone she meets while exploring the building turns up dead less than 24 hours later, Aubrey is determined to uncover the truth about the hotel and the reason behind the curse.

What to expect:
-Coastal setting
-Haunted hotel
-Paranormal activities
-Singular POV
-Sordid pasts

I really enjoyed Asylum Hotel! I'm always a sucker for thrillers with eerie and/or isolated settings, and this book did a great job capturing both. I had no idea what the truth was or who was behind the strange things happening in the places Aubrey was traveling to and from, and I liked that I wasn't able to guess what would happen in the end. There was some cringey dialogue between Aubrey and her friend at times that felt a little over the top for the situation they were in, but overall, this book was super creepy, and I was hooked! I could've spent more time exploring the hotel and its secrets if the author had chosen to go in that direction. I binged it in less than a day.

CW for death, violence, suicide, murder, grief, stalking, kidnapping, child death (in past).

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Berkley for the ARC of Asylum Hotel by Juliet Blackwell!

This was everything that I was hoping for and enjoyed in this books description and cover, it had that suspenseful atmosphere and enjoyed the supernatural elements to it. The concept was everything that I was looking for and loved the use of the Seabrink Hotel as a character itself. Juliet Blackwell has a strong writing style and was able to use the genre perfectly to tell the story that was needed in this. I'm glad I got to read this as it was everything that I wanted.

Aubrey Spencer is vacationing near the old Hotel Seabrink, indulging her hobby of photographing abandoned buildings of architectural interest. The hotel has a mixed history with a few deaths and is rumored to be haunted. She finds out more about its history when she runs into Dimitri Petroff scouting the location to feature on his popular podcast. Dimitri and Aubrey have an immediate connection and end up spending the night together. However, when Aubrey wakes up, she’s startled to discover Dimitri left sometime in the night and fell to his death from the cliffs outside her hotel room.

The responding deputy is convinced that Dimitri took his own life, but Aubrey can’t fathom it. He was excited about his new show, and they had an amazing night together. There’s also rumors that Dimitri died because of the curse on Hotel Seabrink. Aubrey is determined to get to the bottom of things. Her friend Nikki joins her to help. I liked their supportive friendship and the fun back and forth they had even in some scary circumstances!

Asylum Hotel was a fun mix of paranormal and mystery! I loved the misty Northern California coastal setting which gave it an atmospheric and spooky vibe! It sounded haunting and beautiful! The past and present collide in a page-turning, thrilling conclusion!

Thanks to Berkley for my copy.

If you love a small town, you’ll love this one! Our main character is adventuring around town to learn about the creepy asylum turned hotel. She meets lots of other characters and they all talk about one another. I also loved the California coastal setting.

However, there’s a lot I didn’t love about this one. It was overall a very simple read, I thought it was a debut at first, when this author has several previous works. The characters are very one dimensional. And there were soooo many info dump sessions between our two main characters.

I also loved being in the abandoned hotel but we were barely in there throughout the book, so definitely not very scary. This would be a good entry way into more spooky books. The characters do say some cheesy stuff tho so fair warning lol.

Def get this one from the library, and let me know your thoughts when you get to this read!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this ebook.

Reading the synopsis, this book sounded like everything I wanted. A young gal with a love of photography? Check. An abandoned haunted hotel in a small town? Check! Sign me up. Murder, mystery, suspense. It’s everything I could hope for. It should have worked for me. But, alas, it did not.

I just did not care for the writing. I had trouble keeping track of which gal is the stalker ex. And I know a lot of police suck but the way they portrayed the one in the book just rubbed me the wrong way. It started out pretty good but fell off for me when they ended up leaving the haunted area.

Asylum Hotel book has a solid start which kept me intrigued and wanting to know more of the story’s unraveling. As the book went in further though, I noticed the pacing started to be off with more slower moments than needed and consistently back to back which slowed down my interest for it. What helped was the pacing would kick back in and the plot would continue to take off, but it was up and down towards the later half of the book which is why I have this read at 3 stars. Main characters were good and interesting which helped as well.

I wanted to read this book because I love to explore and take pictures of abandoned buildings, just like the main character in this book does!

I thought the parts where Aubrey was exploring the hotel were pretty creepy! I liked the history behind it and that it was haunted. I just wish we had gotten more creepy vibes and ghosts throughout the book.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read, but I was hoping for it to be more on the dark and scary side.

3.5 stars

Sorry but this was a dnf. I didn’t like the writing and I didn’t like the characters. I don’t really have anything else to say. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest opinion.