Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic aristocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets. . . .

From the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow comes “a terrifying twist on classic gothic horror” (Kirkus Reviews) set in glamorous 1950s Mexico—“fans of classic novels like Jane Eyre and Rebecca are in for a suspenseful treat” (PopSugar).

After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.

Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.

An Amazon Best Book of July 2020.

The title of the novel tells us what it is. It is a Gothic story set in the country of Mexico in the 1950’s. And it is a good one, moving slowly up the fright ladder logically until an ending that is a good conclusion to a finely written story.

Noemi Taboada is the young daughter of a well-to-do family living the good life in a growing Mexico City. The period is one that has brought money to Mexican businessmen due to investments in the United States recently at war and the emerging oil industry. Noemi has nothing to do but have a good time, go to parties, and husband hunt for a suitable young man. She already has a dowry with funds she has been given by her family.

A letter arrives from Noemi’s cousin Catalina who has recently married and is living in a rural area with her husband and his family. Catalina writes that Noemi’s father has to come and rescue her since her new husband is poisoning her. Her father decides to send Noemi to investigate the situation which seems a little drastic for a newlywed. Party-going Noemi is really not at all suited for investigating that which Catalina alleges. She does go and finds a strange family living in a huge mansion that has seen better days in terms of its condition in a fairly isolated area. Facts come out about what is going on slowly but surely.

Catalina’s husband makes it obvious that he resents Noemi’s visit. He and his family put restrictions on her movements and her habits. A strange attraction seems to draw Noemi to her brother-in-law and is the epitome of a love-hate relationship. But at the same time, she meets the younger brother of Catalina’s husband. He is shy, somewhat withdrawn, not the real physical specimen that Noemi is normally drawn to.

A well-done picture of events by the author shows Noemi facing many adverse factors, facing them and morphing into a woman rather than the young girl she came as when traveling to visit her cousin. The novel is certainly a draw for the reader and that is not just a horror story designed to create an atmosphere of terror. Moreno-Garcia is not a first-time author and has ventured into the world of science fiction and fantasy. Mexican Gothic is a novel that showcases the author’s literary talents and will certainly cause her readers to look for her future books.

One of . . .

Huff Post’s “10 Of The Most Anticipated Book Releases Of June 2020” • Good Housekeeping’s “The 35 Best Books of 2020 to Add to Your Reading List” • Travel + Leisure’s “20 Most Anticipated Summer 2020 Books” • PopSugar’s 17 Most Anticipated Summer Thrillers • Working Mother’s “The 20 Most Anticipated Books of 2020” • Newsweek’s 20 most anticipated summer reads • Publishers Weekly’s “Summer Reads 2020″ • BookPage’s “2020 Most Anticipated Thrillers and Mysteries” • Today.com’s “16 highly anticipated summer reads” • The Star Tribune’s “Great Escapes” summer reads • BookPage‘s “Private Eye July”

In the latest thriller from New York Times bestseller Riley Sager, a woman returns to the house made famous by her father’s bestselling horror memoir. Is the place really haunted by evil forces, as her father claimed? Or are there more earthbound—and dangerous—secrets hidden within its walls?

What was it like? Living in that house.

Maggie Holt is used to such questions. Twenty-five years ago, she and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a nonfiction book called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling The Amityville Horror in popularity—and skepticism.

Today, Maggie is a restorer of old homes and too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father’s book. But she also doesn’t believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don’t exist. When Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her father’s death, she returns to renovate the place to prepare it for sale. But her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the past, chronicled in House of Horrors, lurk in the shadows. And locals aren’t thrilled that their small town has been made infamous thanks to Maggie’s father. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself—a place filled with relics from another era that hint at a history of dark deeds. As Maggie experiences strange occurrences straight out of her father’s book, she starts to believe that what he wrote was more fact than fiction.

Alternating between Maggie’s uneasy homecoming and chapters from her father’s book, Home Before Dark is the story of a house with long-buried secrets and a woman’s quest to uncover them—even if the truth is far more terrifying than any haunting.

Riley Sager gives us a very well done ghost story. Things do go bump in the night and the reader will understand the fright of the people involved in the action described. But wait, is it really a story about haunted houses and ethereal entities or not?

Two positives as you read this book. You will enjoy an exceptionally well done novel and not being able to sleep until it is finished, and also not being able to readily answer the question of is it a ghost story or not?

Maggie Holt and a partner are involved in the business of restoring old run down houses and then selling them at a profit. Maggie comes across a Victorian estate located in the Vermont woods which fits the parameters of homes suitable for her partner and herself to fix up and sell. It is coincidentally one that she and her parents had bought twenty-five years ago, lived in for a short time and then fled the premises. Maggie does not recall the reasons for her family suddenly fleeing the house with her memory on that score drawing a complete blank. The only thing she recalls other than fleeing the house is her father, an author of note, had written a book about the mansion that became a best seller and made the family a good deal of money.

When moving in Maggie’s parents had arranged with a sixteen-year-old girl living close to them to babysit for their daughter, and a mystery evolved when that girl suddenly disappeared from home never to be found. The supposition about the mansion being haunted revolves around the girl that vanished and now haunting the house looking for “something.”

Events happen that support the evidence of a ghost, or rather three of them, that are in the house. Maggie notices that things start vanishing and checking looks like no one has entered the mansion. She also revives childhood memories about being visited by three unknowns and told that she will die in the house; with repressed memories that remain with her throughout the years after fleeing it with her parents.

Readers will be caught up in the apparently otherworldly things that have happened over the years to two families involved with the events described. It is a five-star mesmerizing novel and another set of kudos to Sager.