Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of The Haunting of Paynes Hollow by Kelley Armstrong in exchange for an honest review. This was a perfect book to read in the summer heat. I love how beautifully complex Armstrong writes her characters, even peripheral ones are fully fleshed out.
Sam is a woman whose father killed a local kid and then himself and a mother with early onset dementia. She has been cut of by her father's side of the family until her grandfather dies and leaves her in his will, with stipulations. She has to stay for a month in the family cottage where her family was destroyed.
This alone is enough for a really good story, but Armstrong doesn't stop there. She adds all these layers to the past and present that change Sam's world forever. This book is fantastic and I highly recommend it.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

The Haunting of Paynes Hollow by Kelley Armstrong started with an intriguing premise, all of the protagonist's financial woes can be left behind due to a financial bequest as long as she returns to her dreaded family home and stays there on the property for 30 days.

Although this seems easy enough, "the devil is in the details".

Despite this book's premise, which drew me in in, I initially thought this would be a rare DNF (Did Not Finish) for me, but I gave it another chance, and it turned out to be a decent very scary story (almost nightmare inducing). I have enjoyed many other books written by this author, her very fertile imagination never ceases to amaze me.

Overall, an entertaining read.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC. Time old tale of family dysfunction but with a supernatural twist. Love when a headless horseman is thrown in. The old country folklore is also something I truly enjoyed.

It's fascinating reading these reviews because this book really did not work for me. I found the writing to be very simple. For a book that should have had a lot of atmospheric horror, nothing was described in enough detail to give me any spooky or eerie vibes. I have not read this author before and it seems like she has quite a fanbase so if you've liked her writing before, you'll likely enjoy it again. Based on how this is written, I won't be reading more as prose is very important to me as a reader. Another important thing to me as a reader is characters. Again, the characters fell flat for me and I didn't find myself rooting for anyone. The mystery element is definitely the most interesting part and I can see readers really getting invested in the mystery and wanting to know what's happening. Unfortunately, since the other two elements were very dry for me, I wasn't super invested in solving the mystery. I ended up rating this 2/5 stars which appears to be it's lowest rating here on Netgalley but I do want to be honest! A 2/5 for me means that while I don't recommend this book I recognize that it has redeemable sections aka it's not terrible just really really not for me. I genuinely hope that readers who are into this type of book find it!

4.5 Rounded up

Wow. I did not know a horror novel could make me cry, but here we are. What a trauma dump, but in such a good way. I had many theories as I was reading the book, and none of them were right. I really enjoyed this read.

After her estranged grandfather's death, Samantha Paynes is to inherit her family's lake-front property worth $10 million. She is struggling financially and desperately needs the money to be able to continue her mother's care in a facility.
Of course there's a catch. Samantha must live on the property for a month. Even so that doesn't sound bad, right? A quiet cabin in the woods by the lake?
What should be a relaxing "vacation" turns out to be a nightmare when Samantha starts seeing and hearing horrifying things. Not to mention her Aunt that came with her goes missing.
Overall, I had a pretty great time with this book. It started a little slow for me, but things started to pick up and get intense and creepy. The last 20% of the book had me hooked, and the ending was extremely satisfying. I would recommend "The Haunting of Paynes Hollow" for any horror fan. It's scheduled to be released October 14.
Thank you to Kelley Armstrong and St. Martin's Press for approving me for this kindle advanced reader's copy.

First and foremost I want to say thank you so much Kelley Armstrong, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for allowing me to review this book in advance! When I found out I got accepted into SMP Early Readers I had to do a double take! Some of my all time favourite authors are published by St. Martin’s Press and this is an honour and a dream come true. Kelley Armstrong is representing Canada 🇨🇦 SO well and I will forever be a fan of hers!

This book was SO good but SO creepy! From the start you feel so bad for Sam the FMC.. her father murdered a boy and then committed suicide when she was younger and her mother now has dementia and is living in a long term home… all distant family is distant besides her aunt Gail! Sam put her whole life on pause to help care for her mother; which has left her in a horrific financial crisis. THEN her grandfather dies (who wasn’t nicest man to Sam) but has left Sam something that is hard for her to turn down…

This book had me guessing, and then guessing again what was going on! This book was SO well written and probably one of my favourite books by Kelley Armstrong now. The development to the plot in this book is totally chef kiss worthy! Not everything is what it seems in this book and be prepared to have a nightmare or two!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨/5

✨ Release Date: October 14th 2025 ✨

Will I be buying myself a physical copy of this beauty? Absolutely! And I think you should too!

When a woman is gifted a lakejoise that has seen a multitude of horrors, you are quickly drawn into to this deftly plotted and original story. A compelling, dark and sharp story. I hated to see it end.

This was such an unusual, fun mystery that had a very dark side to it. I loved all the family history, the setting, and the characters themselves. My only disappointment was that I wanted a more definitive ending, but the ending, the way it was, was also very much held to the way the whole story played out.

Overall, this was a great read and will be absolutely perfect for spooky season or just whenever you want a good dark mystery riddled with a little horror thrown in for good measure.

I actively avoided this one because I was quite sure, based on the synopsis, it would be a gaslighty gaslight piece of gaslighting shit. Then, when I started it I was like, oh no, we're going Turn of the Screw, how I long to avoid that. But. I am pleased to report neither of those horrible things actually happened.

Absolutely loved reading this book, I love all Kelley Armstrong books, and I'm glad that the timing worked out for this to be a birthday book. I can't be alone in wanting a special book on special days, like birthdays, Christmas and New Years? I'm glad it was this book, it was so fantastic!

The idea of your dad killing a boy-and that you caught him in the act, were turning him in, and he killed himself? That's a complicated, messy past. That her grandfather's will stipulations means that she'll have to go back to place where that happened? Yeah, that was pretty awful.

I really felt badly for Sam, that she was put in this position. And some creepy things start happening, and we learn more about what happened that summer, the tension was perfect, I had to know what was going to happen!

Learning what was going on, the history, and the truth, was pretty heartbreaking, I mean, that was pretty awful all around. Like every piece of new information came a realization of some misunderstanding, that thinking that was pretty disparaging when it turns out it wasn't true. It was so satisfying to see how things wrapped up!

Loved this book and I can't wait to read whatever Kelley Armstrong has out next!

Using a traditional opening where the protagonist must stay in a family home in order to receive an inheritance, Armstrong creates a character, Sam Paynes, who I genuinely root for. The tense atmosphere kept my attention and for once, there's no hint of romance to detract from the central plot - what is haunting the Paynes' land and why.

This was my first time reading a novel from this author and it was so so good! It's a very creative reimagining of a certain popular tale (I won't say which one.) I was immediately hooked by the MC Sam and the overall plot was immaculately well-written. This is a story perfect for Halloween that delves deep into the horrors of familial trauma.

I. loved. this. book.

I really thought "okay gothic haunted house vibes, got it." IT WAS NOTHING LIKE I HAD EXPECTED.

The house is a vacation cabin, first of all. So I wouldn't call the vibes gothic, necessarily. Secondly, there are folklore aspects to this that I ADORED. DEVOURED. LIVED FOR. I could have used a little romance, if I'm being picky. Just like. A kiss. But even without that minor detail, this book was INCREDIBLE. I don't want to give away specifics but think family trauma. generational curses. narcissistic grandfather.

All wrapped up in a lakeside cabin with an eccentric aunt and a townie sheriff. You definitely want to pick this up.

I'm not usually a horror reader, but this is the second time Kelley Armstrong has pulled me into the genre. Her atmospheric writing and storytelling skills pull you into the story. The Haunting of Paynes Hollow is cinematic and begs to be turned into a big screen adventure. The horror is suspenseful and the supernatural. It doesn't rely on gore and gruesome descriptions to scare. It was fast-paced and I couldn't put it down until I finished it. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a good scare!

Thank you, St. Martin's Press, for this ARC.

Loved this so much.

The Haunting of Paynes Hollow by Kelley Armstrong is going on my top horror of 2025. I devoured this one.

When Samantha Payne’s grandfather dies, his will requires her to spend a month at the family’s cottage. She hasn’t been there since childhood, when she discovered that her father murdered a boy.

Her grandfather wants her to prove that her father was innocent…but how can she when she saw him bury the body? And how does this tie into the local legend of a headless horseman who haunts the forest?

I loved this one so much — it’s a wonderfully fun spooky horror-mystery that combines mythology and murder.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for my review copy of his book.

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.