I have to say Kelley Armstrong's The Haunting of Paynes Hollow was a very interesting and new to me take on the Headless Horseman tale, I love how she combines different lore and legends into her stories, adding a different twist to the depth of the characters that make them more than just appealing. In The Haunting of Paynes Hollow a young woman trapped in a life of poverty and missed opportunities due to her ailing Mother's sickness is given the chance at a fortune when her Grandfather dies and leaves her the path to understanding and millions by leaving her the property that her father killed himself on after murdering a young teenage boy many years before. Sam has to stay on the property for 30 days before she can inherit the property that is worth 10 million dollars. Her time is spent with her best friend and Aunt Gail and the disgruntled property manager Ben, the older brother of the teenage boy her father murdered all those years earlier. During her stay Sam sees lights in the water and at night she can hear a horse running down the beach. As her memories start to return she has to figure out what is true and what is myth. I have to say that Kelley Armstrong is one of (if not my number 1) authors, I love her stories with their unusual twists and turns.

“The Haunting of Paynes Hollow” by Kelley Armstrong is a chilling and atmospheric ghost story that kept me on the edge of my seat and reading through the night. The story is loosely based on the Legend of Sleepy Hollow and tells the story of a woman who is forced to return to her family’s remote cottage to collect her inheritance by her deeply twisted deceased grandfather. She faces her traumatic childhood memories where she thinks she remembers her father burying the body of a childhood friend. The will forces her to spend one month in the house without leaving the property for more than 1 hour a day, and she must wear an ankle monitor to track her every movement or forfeit the inheritance. The house has been kept intact since the day she left it 14 years ago right down to the same bedding!
Without giving more away, the author does a fantastic job of creating a spooky environment with old crumbling cabins, deep dark woods, a lake that contains scary and supernatural things and a story with constant twists and misdirections. I recommend this hauntingly good book to everyone, it’s the perfect fall read.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Loved the spooky Sleepy Hallow vibes. A perfectly paced book. Perfect for a fall/October read - I wanted to light my pumpkin spice candle and wish for rain while I read this!

A decent horror mystery with a splash of romance and tragedy with a healthy dose of dark family drama. If you like your mystery with some supernatural suspense thrown in this is definitely for you.

Really, really good book. I've read another Kelley Armstrong book and didn't like it. But this one was clever in its current setting but with supernatural at play. There were a few times I skimmed because being in the characters' heads was getting overdone and boring and slowing the pacing down a bit. But other than that, I'd recommend this to friends.

There are some surprising things that I really liked about The Haunting of Paynes Hollow. I’ve been reading Kelley Armstrong books for years and I can always hear her voice now, the very matter of fact and logical way her characters think even in the face of the impossible. Her characters never react like a dumb horror movie protagonist who calls out “hello?” while the killer is standing right there in the dark with a knife—no, they’re too smart and cautious for that, which is something I enjoy. It usually leads to less stupid mistakes on the character’s behalf. I think what I liked most, is that while there was a potential for a romance in the midst of the events of the story, there isn’t one, and that really lets the mystery and supernatural elements of the plot shine. This book has mythological elements that haven’t been explored in any of her other novels, and it’s fun to see her dabbling in yet another new area of mythology and folklore. I enjoyed reading it, and I think this would be a great read to bring up to the cottage by the lake while you’re surrounded by trees and animals and things below the surface of the lake that you can’t see… you know, to add to the atmosphere of the book. It will definitely have you peering into the trees or at the lake thinking “….but what if?”

At certain points of this book I was actually pretty freaked out (because reasonably looking out my window and seeing something supernatural is a fear of mine) also add in the spooky setting of creepy cabins near a lake and I can definitely relate to that. It was a fun and quick read, but I found the ending kind of spoiled the rest of the book for me as it was overly complicated.

Kelley Armstrong is one of those authors I don't read on the regular, but when I do I always have a good time, and the Haunting of Paynes Hollow is a good time. What I liked about the book was the setting, the creepy stuck in time family cabin filled with family trauma made the emotion a lot stronger. I also liked how creepy everything was, especially at night. I did like the back and forth between Sam and Ben, and I liked how their relationship was left open in the end. Josie was a good character too,, I just felt her death was unnecessary and had little impact, especially after the death of Gail.

Where this book lost me was the ending because I felt like it was overly complicated. I find sometimes when things have to be that complicated (spells, dead bodies, servants) then something needs to be revisited. Sometimes the easiest explanations are the best, For example, the adding of the Headless Horseman story was too much in an already spooky plot. The simpler plot would have been:

1) Sacrificing someone every 5 years to the nekkers by the *chosen* Payne family member
2) the whole town was in on it and the whole town prospered because of the sacrifice (Josie trying to stop it and still dying would have also had a bigger impact)
3) Sam refusing to give a sacrifice, leaving, town prosperity dies
4) Mom still being OK with the sacrifice because it benefited her

This simpler story without the second lore of the Horseman still carries the same spookiness, has more emotional impact, and is just less complicated.

I devoured this book as I do most of Armstrong's works. Strong, but flawed characters carry the story and it took some unexpected turns. Another great page turner!

Thank you to NetGalley, Kelley Armstrong and St Martin’s Press for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very quick and easy read! I loved the supernatural aspect mixed into a thriller - it definitely felt like it was her old style mixed into a thriller and I was totally here for it. I did not see that ending coming but I loved it.

I was surprised to find that this was a horror book, and it is excellent. Kelley Armstrong outdid herself with this one.

Samantha Payne has had a lot of trauma in her life. She witnessed her father burying a child, and her father later committed suicide. Her mother developed a form of early on-set dementia, and Samantha has been working several jobs to keep her in her pricey nursing home. She was in a bad place financially when she learned that her grandfather had died and left her his island property, which included acres of land with valuable timber, and several lakefront cottages. This was a lifesaver that would allow her to support her mother and not live paycheck to paycheck.

She and the caretaker on the island - a cousin - do not hit it off at first. Her grandfather's will stipulates that she has to spend a month living on the prem
ises or she will not inherit the property. The cousin warns her not to go near the beach at the lake after dusk. Then one night she lingered, and found out why.

I received an e-arc from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This was probably my favourite horror novel that Kelley Armstrong has written. I'm the type of reader that doesn't see anything coming until they happen, this was no exception. I will continue to read everything Kelley puts out, she's an automatic buy for me. I usually stop reading books that I'm currently reading to read her books right away. I hope she continues to write books in this genre!

“The Haunting of Paynes Hollow” is one of those books that is hard to describe. The reason? It would be so easy to spoil it for another reader. Suffice it to say that Kelley Armstrong has written in a lot of twists and turns that go beyond conventional twists and turns.

Main character Sam (don’t call her Samantha) learns of her grandfather’s death. He was an unlikeable guy. She attends the funeral and then, reluctantly, the reading of the will.

Sam will get $10 million if she stays in the long-vacated family cottage on Lake Ontario. Can she do it?

“The Haunting of Paynes Hollow” is a page-turner. I couldn’t even imagine what was going to happen next. If I tried, I was wrong. I recommend it; it was definitely a change of pace for me!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance readers copy. This is my honest review.

I loved all of Kelley Armstrong’s previous books but this one fell flat. The mystery was a bit cheesy and the characters unlikeable. I wasn’t surprised or drawn in.

I enjoy Kelley Armstrong’s writing. I was introduced to her through her Rip in Time series (historical fiction with a smidge of fantasy, yes, please!). This is the second horror story of hers I’ve read and they are just as enjoyable.

The mystery kicked off the tale quickly and I spent the first 60% of the book trying to figure out which way the story was going and who was the insane one. Let me tell you, I did not figure out where this was going! Which, in my opinion is the hallmark of a great thriller/horror story. This is definitely for anyone who enjoys slow building tales with a few unpredictable twists!

Thank you for the opportunity to read and give an honest review. I’m such a fan of Kelley Armstrong!

A dark and twisty camping horror story, The Haunting of Paynes Hollow is sure to scare you a bit and keep you guessing what may happen due to all the twists!

I love Kelley Armstrong books. I was very excited to get the ARC to review.
The Haunting of Payne’s Hollow does not disappoint. It is a creepy perfect read for those who love ghostly tales and lots of secrets. Samantha Payne’s grandfather dies and she inherits the lakefront cottages in Paynes Hollow, but she has to stay there for a month. She is haunted by things that happened when she was a child. She was always told to stay away from the water and the woods at night. She will soon find out why.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Kelley Armstrong for the ARC for my review.

I am a big fan of Kelley Armstrong, so I was excited to dive into this book.

The premise is intersting. In order to inherit a large sum of money Sam has to spend a month living in her family’s ancestral cabin. That is the last place Sam wants to go, however. When she is last there, her father murdered a local boy and them killed himself. As soon as Sam gets to the cabin, she starts hearing and seeing things that defy belief. She wonders if she is loosing her mind.

The first half of the plot has good momementum, but I felt it stalled a bit in the second half. I enjoyed this book, but not as much as some of the sitcoms other works.

Thank you to St. Martins Press and Netgalley for providing me with a eARC of this book to read and review.

There’s something about Kelley Armstrong’s paranormal books that I just eat up. They’re always so gripping and fast paced and I just devour them and of course this one is no exception.

Small town secrets, old family lore, and a woman who isn't sure she can trust herself. This camping horror story drew me in and kept me guessing until the last page. Another page turner from Kelley Armstrong does not disappoint!

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

An amazing camping horror, full of monsters supernatural and human. Will make you question what in the world is going on. Dark, twisty and deeply emotional. I ate it up!