Tales with Nicole

Happy Halloween!       I read some great scary novels in the past month but sadly did not get to read everything scary on my to read list! So I made this list based on creepy stories I still wish to read, along with a link to its goodreads page:     5. Flowers in the Attic by V. C. Andrews        4. The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler     3. The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty     2. The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lector #2) by Thomas Harris     1. TEN by Gretchen McNeil                                  

"Imagine Stephen King writing Little House on the Prairie."   - Cat Winters, author of In The Shadow of Blackbird   Amanda Verner is a sinner. When sixteen year old Amanda discovers she is pregnant, she is pleased to learn her family will be relocating from their mountain cabin to the prairies to escape the terrible winter ahead. Amanda feels it is the perfect start to a new life, away from the boy who left her with this horrible fate and the painful memories of last winter no one speaks about. When her family arrived to their new house on the prairies and discovers the inside of the house to be covered with blood, Amanda feels something is not right. Slowly worrying she is losing her mind, Amanda begins to hear and see some awful things. Amanda has so much guilt and sin collecting inside her, and must determine if these demons she's silently fighting are in the land of the prairies or inside herself.   As I finished this book, my heart was pounding. I was s...

Roux uses a lot of old photographs to help explain her story. These pictures really help bring out the creepy setting in the asylum.   Sixteen year old Dan Crawford arrives at New Hampshire for his summer vacation to attend College Prep school classes. Nervously excited to start the program and meet new friends, Dan is taken back after learning the dorms they are staying in used to be an old asylum. Dan and his new friends, Abby and Jordan, decide to investigate the history of the asylum but have no idea what they are on the verge of revealing. As other students begin getting attacked, Dan and his friends must uncover the truth about this place, and the connections they have to it, before more people get hurt or the program gets shut down for good.   I was a little nervous to read this book because I had heard very mixed reviews on it, mostly from goodreads. I have to say though I'm glad I got the chance to read it, I really enjoyed it. It was a horrifying October ...

Some exciting news for fans of Danielle Vega's fantastic horror debut The Merciless:       Last Thursday afternoon (15 October 2015) Vega announced via Twitter of 3 more Merciless books to be released, starting Summer 2016.     "Danielle Vega's two untitled horror novels, continuing the saga of THE MERCILESS and its forthcoming sequel THE MERCILESS II (July 2016), the first book will track the chilling origin story of Brooklyn, to Jessica Almon at Razorbill, for publication in Summer 2017, by Hayley Wagreich at Alloy Entertainment (World English).  - Quote from above link     So get ready for some new favourite horror books! Finally we will get more insight on the amazing characters Sofia Flores and Brooklyn Stevens. With her first two books (The Merciless & Survive The Night) Danielle Vega has quickly grown to be one of my favourite authors. I will be posting when her new beautiful cover for The Merciless II is rel...

"There is a right way and a wrong way to summon her."   When Jess McAllister suggest to her friends that summoning Mary is a fun idea, the consequences aren't taken too seriously. That is, until Jess, Shauna, Kitty, and Anna are trapped in a small bathroom with Bloody Mary tapping on the other side of the glass. Be careful not to blink, or you'll miss Mary's grey, decaying, arm come through the mirror, hungry for the scent of your blood. Mary Worth has marked her prey and soon you won't be able to escape her. She is everywhere. In the mirrors, behind the windows, even in the reflection on the door knobs. You cannot escape her. And no one is safe. Determined to stop Mary from killing her friends, Shauna must uncover the secrets of Mary Worth, and why her spirit is disturbed everytime the sinister rhyme is said in a dark bathroom, with four teenage girls sitting in a circle holding hands. You will be safe as long as you do not break the circle.. ...

If you're a fan of the Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland, then this is a book you'll enjoy. This Wonderland is dark and twisted, nothing is as you thought it was. You do not want to follow this White Rabbit, the Zombie Flowers want to eat you, and the Mad Hatter has no face. Lewis Carroll had a lot of things wrong, in this Wonderland it is a struggle to stay alive.   Alyssa Gardner has been unlucky to acquire the family curse of insanity, thanks to her great- great- great grandmother, Alice Liddell. Alyssa can hear the thoughts of bugs and plants and if she doesn't want to end up like her mother, who's been placed in an asylum, she has to go back to Wonderland and break the curse. With the help from a winged friend, Alyssa learns Alice messed up a lot of things while in Wonderland and its up to Alyssa to fix all of her mistakes. But Lewis Carroll's version of Wonderland is not at all what it's actually like. The real Wonderland is dark, and al...

Riggs uses a combination of peculiar photographs to help shape his story. It is definitely a creative personal touch.   After the death of his grandfather, grieving Jacob Portman pieces together parts of his life and develops questions about his grandfather's mysterious childhood. The answers to his questions are located at an orphanage on a small, isolated island. The island is a strange place with secrets the towns people refuse to share. As Jacob makes his ways to the orphanage to meet Miss Peregrine, he somehow gets tangled up in the peculiar children who live there and the dangers they hide.   Even after reading my own description of the book, I find the plot sounding intriguing. I was so excited for this, unfortunately I found it overwhelmingly boring. I kept waiting for the novel to pick up and get thrilling, it had so much potential, I have no idea what happened. I could not connect with the main character, Jacob, and found him to be a little exhausting and ...