Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Hello.  I hope you're having a great day.

The holidays often make me think of the people I've lost, like my grandparents.  I was blessed to have fantastic, loving grandparents on both my maternal and paternal side.  My maternal grandfather was a very pious man, he also was extremely outgoing. He was modest but he was also a politician.  He was mayor and actually secured the land that later became the town's only mall. My grandparents traveled around the world going everywhere but Russia, where they wanted to go but never got the chance.  Every year they went to Hawaii for my birthday...without me...and called me from the pool, while I was in cold New York.  Being the way he was, my granddad knew the name of half the population of Hawaii, and they knew him.  My poor demure grandmother went along with it all.  She surprised me when I got married by giving me the advice to "train him (meaning my husband) right from the beginning".  That makes me think she ran the show more than she let on. Sadly, hubby has proven untrainable.

One time my grandparents moved to the boonies near my hometown.  They were near a swampy area, by a State Park.  When there, they became avid bird watchers. They had a tiny little book, which my sisters and I always fought over, that identified all kinds of birds.  It was so prized, it not only survived decades but was given to my niece when she was little.  For a while, my whole family knew the names of many birds, now sadly they are just known as the mean blue one, or the gray one with the yellow tail.

I recently read Starling House by Alix E. Harrow.  This is the story of Opal, a down on her luck, hard life kind of girl.  She lives in the town of Eden where everyone seems cursed.  She keeps having dreams of Starling House, a local mansion.  Starling House was the home of Elizabeth Starling, who, in the 1800s, wrote a book called The Underland and then disappeared.  Drawn to the house, because of her dreams, Opal meets the rude and brash current owner, Authur.  Opal tries to find the reason for her odd dreams of the elusive house, and why in the dreams the mansion feels like home.  As she does secrets become unraveled, some not only dangerous but life-threatening.

This book was lots of fun.  It was a fast pleasant read.  It is an odd bird (get it...bird...Starling), as it's kind of a gothic horror without being scary, it has a bit of romance, lots of mystery and suspense and a fair amount of thriller thrown in for good measure.  One thing about the way this is written, I usually hate, but is done so effectively here, that I loved it.  I dislike when things are said over and over, I feel like the author is trying to increase book length and is wasting my time.  In this case, it is on purpose and very useful.  We hear the story of Starling House from several points of view, from people with experience with the building, land and family.  The closer we get to the end, the closer we get to the truth.  So entertaining.  I literally could not put this down, reading until my vision was blurring.

I've been on a roll lately.  The last several books I've read have been so creative and fantastic.  Christmas has come early! 

The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz

Hello everyone.  I hope your day is going well.

Hubby and I are house people. We bought our first home, a townhouse, a month before we got married. Then we bought our haunted Victorian that had been divided into apartments, which we restored to single family. Next, we built a house, having fun getting the lot then picking the floor plan and finishes. We decided to do one more restoration, so we bought our current masterpiece, which is a classic craftsman. I think our next one will be a one story, it's the only thing we haven't done yet.  Anyway, I am frequently looking at real estate listings.  A couple of years ago, I saw the neatest house, well, estate in the mountains of New York.  This mansion had been empty for a long time and was in poor condition.  My husband was unimpressed with the dirty, but elaborate, woodwork, the large stable and garage both with living areas on top.  To be fair the old black slimy pool was terrifying and straight out of the movie Poltergeist.  I almost had him convinced that it would be a fun project until he saw the pictures with floating sheer white mists.  I argued it was the photographer's breath, but he refused to believe it.  He branded the house rambling with ghosts, surely hiding the worst of the Scooby Doo villains, and refused to look at it further.  To be honest, it was out of our price range, but a girl can dream. 

I recently read The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz.  This is the author's debut novel.  This is the story of several women who go on a writing retreat.  Told from the perspective of Alex, a writer who has just about given up on her dream of becoming a published author.  The retreat is sponsored by Roza Vallo, a world-famous author.  Roza has restored a huge spooky, Manderley (Rebecca) type house.  Several young women are invited but only one will be given a million-dollar publishing deal.  They must write their novel, from start to finish, during this month-long retreat.  As the young story tellers try to keep up with the pace set by Roza, tempers flare.  The stress builds and the history of the old mansion and its connection to a demon becomes front and center.  The generous host becomes even odder, making the girls play bizarre games.  Happenings start to reach a frenzied pitch and one of the girls goes missing, making everyone wonder what is really going on at the retreat.

I enjoyed this entire story idea.  The plot moved along at a nice pace, keeping me interested.  The characters were well defined but not too much, they are all possible suspects for the odd occurrences.  The writing was interesting.  Words and sentence structure was more sophisticated than is often seen in thrillers.  I loved the atmospheric setting, which became enhanced as it becomes even more isolated.  The only thing that bothered me a bit, was that the story seemed to slow slightly at the end.  Usually, the end on a high note but this story seemed to peak a bit early using more of the end to get out of predicaments and a wrap up.  Honestly, although the slow down bothered me a smidge, I cannot think of any other way it could be written.  Really, a fun read.  I can't wait to see what the future holds for this talented author.

One thing is for sure, I won't be buying any house previously owned by an author!

**I uploaded this review just a few minutes ago.  Wondering what became of that house I liked, but hubby thought was Casper's dream, I googled it.  It's being investigated by multiple paranormal teams.... darn it.  I will never hear the end of how he was right!