4+ stars!

Mysterious. Gothic. Foreboding.

A family needs a fresh start and moves into a crumbling mansion, Cross House, that has been vacant for years. Soon after moving in, they feel another presence.

I loved this book! It was tension-filled and paranoia inducing. I was gripped by the storyline from the very start and completely engrossed throughout. The author does an amazing job creating an eerie, dark, palpable atmosphere that had me feeling like I was right beside the characters.

The characters themselves were unique and entertaining. The mother of the family is the narrator and I loved her personality and inner thoughts. I could relate to her from a mothering perspective in so many ways. Her grit and inner snark were highly entertaining.

The atmosphere was thick and foreboding. I felt enveloped within the claustrophobic walls of Cross House with the family. The mother’s panic was bleeding off the pages, causing my heart to race as I read.

This was a backlist NetGalley title that I’m sorry to not have picked up earlier. It was highly enjoyable and entertaining and I will be looking to read more from this author.

Audio rating: 4 stars! Though it did take me a few chapters to get used to the narrators strong accent, she greatly added to my connection and enjoyment. Highly recommend the audio!

*thank you to Netgalley, Bloodhound Books and J.A Baker for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*


2 stars.

This was only just ok. At best. I really really did not like the main character Faye. I just had no sympathy for her and I probably should have but I just didn't. Her and I just didn't click and I didn't like her personality at all. She was annoying and over dramatic and didn't seem to do a good job of raising her kids.

I wasn't too sure where this book was going to go and more than once got bored. It's classed as a mystery and thriller but it was also a touch of horror in there too.

None of the characters really interested me. The story at times seemed like it was leading up to something big but it wasn't. By the end up just didn't care too much and the twist wasn't that surprising.

I don't really have anything to say about this book because I'm left feeling like nothing REALLY happened.

Maybe if this was more a horror story and a lot more was added to it and Faye was toned down a lot, this could have...only maybe, could have turned out ok. But it didn't so unfortunately this isn't a book I would recommend.

Part ghost story part mystery, The Uninvited was hard to put down. I was thoroughly engrossed from start yo finish as I followed Faye and her family through their move into a new house filled with secrets. Overall, the twists kept me guessing right up until the end.

Such a great book. Makes for a wonderful read. I can not wait to read more from this author. I love books like this.

Stopped reading at 25%. A boring couple and their annoying kids buy an old house. That’s about it. The story is very boring.

When you're rooting for the evil thing that may be in the house to slaughter the main character so her family can be at peace, there may be a problem.

Yeah. I hated Faye. This isn't one of those things where you say, oh women don't have to be likable. No, they don't. But Faye - be she woman, man, or even vaguely human character - would simply be loathsome regardless. I hated this woman from page one and hated her in the last page.

Her husband is...there.

Her kids? They need to be removed to another family immediately.

Her friends/neighbors? They're...there.

The only thing that kept me reading was the mystery of the house. I actually liked the reason behind everything - until the author went for the absolutely unnecessary twist.

It's an okay book. I kept reading, if only because I was hoping the main character would be slaughtered mercilessly.

*ARC Provided via Net Galley

Wow what an oddly scary book!! Imagine moving into a new house and then someone is already living there.
Except you can't see them.... This was a gripping book, from beginning to end, and I really just had to see what secrets the old house held.
Recommended.

Enjoyed this book! I'm thankful to Netgalley for the copy. I felt the story was well thought out and kept me interested to keep reading. Finished in one setting.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Bloodhound Books and the author, J. A. Baker, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of The Uninvited in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion.
Well, I have ordered my paperback copy of this book. I loved it. I thought it was well thought out and written. The storyline promised a deliciously creepy read and it certainly delivered. I read this book into the early hours covered in goosebumps. 4.5 stars.
Well worth a read.

Such a spooky suspenseful book, lots of twists and turns. Love a book with secrets and old houses. Love the creepy feel.

I received an ARC from Netgalley for a review. This was a spooky read for me and I had to put it down and read it during the day. Faye and her husband Hugh move into a run down mansion with the intention of fixing it up. Plagued by noises and weird things going on in the middle of the night, Faye decides to hunt down the history of the house. It’s a creepy mystery with lots of things that go bump in the night!

This book had a strong start, but sort of starting lacking early on. While there was a lot of suspense and definitely chills, I do think that had it continued the way it started it would have been a much stronger book. As is, I would give it a 3-4 star rating and definitely recommend to others! Sometimes life brings us worse than we are trying to escape.
Will use in a challenge and tell members about this book in chapter chatter pub!

Faye and Hugh moved to a new house for a fresh start... their new home is a big rambling house in need of some renovation... soon after moving in Faye begins to feel an unworldly presents... she feels someone breathing over her at night and then hears footsteps in the hall... at first her husband thinks she has gone crazy, but after he begins to since things as well he becomes a believer... so do they have a ghost?

Spine tingling, riveting read. I loved the plot for this story, it is gripping and I was completely hooked from the start . The characters are great and work so well with the plot. It is a really creepy story and I loved it, I had the whole thing read in a few hours!

The Uninvited is a great psychological thriller that keeps you on your toes with twists and turns galore. I highly recommend it.

2.5 Stars rounded up to 3

This book was a bit of a rollercoaster for me. 2 stars in the beginning and end, 3 stars in the middle/

Faye and her family have just purchased an old run down monster of a house in a quaint little village. Excited to turn over a new leaf after some recent hardships, they are looking forward to renovating the older house and seeing it sparkle again. While her husband renovates during the day Faye explores her new property and the surrounding village. She begins to learn that their new house has some dark history attached to it. She meets a neighbor who gives her some backstory, and she also finds some old journals of someone who lived in the house. Several times she wakes up with the feeling that someone is in her house. She doesn't mention it to her husband, and eventually he wakes up with the same feeling. Faye is determined to find out of someone is actually breaking into their home, or if ghosts of the past are refusing to leave.

The premise of this story was interesting. I liked the paranormal spooky aspect of it, but overall there were too many holes for me. The police were never called, the locks took forever to get changed, and the fact that Faye wasn't discussing the events with her husband were all unrealistic for me. Faye's daughter Poppy mentions someone being in her room and also draws someone in her room several times, yet no one really seems to care or follow up on it. The neighbor who knows exactly what is happening (and actually helps to make it happen) didn't sit right with me either. I can't see that happening. The story was a little slow to start for me, then I got really into it, and then towards the end it started to fall apart for me.

In The Uninvited, J.A. Baker does a great job of building the suspense in tense moments, when we find our main character, Faye, grappling with that she knows she is experiencing, no matter how irrational it seems. Those moments at night when Faye is hearing strange sounds in her house definitely had me on edge. In addition, the premise of a large haunted house with a previous owner who died mysteriously is enough to draw any reader in.

Unfortunately, there were more things I didn't care for than those I did. I found the entire part of the plot that focused on Faye's past trauma -- from two unrelated tormentors -- to be unnecessary. While I understand this was included to explain why her husband found her unstable and why she was already on edge, given that it didn't have anything to do with the main plot line, I felt it could have been left out entirely. The haunted house alone would have been enough for someone to be experiencing paranoia, and most people aren't going to believe someone who says they think there's an invisible intruder at night.

Lastly, I found the narrator to be incredibly annoying. The style led to too much description in some places about how she was feeling, continuing on well after the point had been made of her reaction to something. It made it difficult to get through at times because I just didn't care about her problems.

Faye and her family move into an old house that needs lots of work. Faye has had some trouble with two different guys before moving and she brings her worries into the their new place. Because of the past problems her husband Hugh finds it hard to believe her story when she thinks someone is getting into their new home. But Faye has found some written materials that disturb her nights.
This is very suspenseful and spooky. I would recommend this book if you like those two in a book. I couldn't wait to get to the end to see what happened.

Having just finished The Uninvited by J.A. Baker, I am left feeling confused. I found it an OK storyline to a point but then it became repetitive. 2 and half stars.

I can’t imagine moving into a big, old, decrepit house that is obviously the home of some deep dark secrets and memories created by the previous owners! First of all, Hugh is a boob. There I said it. Instead of supporting Faye and helping her get to the bottom of her fear and suspicions of the dead lurking around in the wee hours…he mocks her, despises her outbursts and insists on scheduling counseling sessions for her to work out her hysteria! Ugh… boob! Faye is forced to keep her cool around Hugh so he doesn’t suspect what she fears.
Anyway, in the meantime, Faye works to uncover the truth lying behind each and every creaky wall in her new “home”, the Cross House. There’s a reason no one has lived there in a very long time right? Wouldn’t that be enough of a red flag? But there are no such things as ghosts though. I mean really!!! Get with it Faye! Maybe Hugh is right. Chill out! Or is he?
Well after you read on and witness the unraveling of this crazy plot, you may soon realize that nothing is as it first seemed. There’s a story behind everyone’s story! But who’s story is the right version? This is a great twisted tale of how one house, past family secrets, and a night “visitor” are enough to drive a person mad! And just when you think all is well… problem solved…you realize, maybe it’s actually just the beginning!

Nothing better to start afresh than a new house! Right? I can’t say the contrary, I moved a few weeks ago and couldn’t be happier. My dogs and myself have been through what Faye, Hugh and their kids experienced! The boxes, the mess, the planning of everything… But the similarities end here. I moved to a smaller place, while they fulfilled their dream of a big family house in a small village, ready to give Cross House a new life. Also, no big drama forced me to get away, I just wanted to be close to the airport, haha! The novel quickly indicates that something happened, something so traumatizing that Faye still bears scars of it on her mind.

I immediately felt good with this family. It was easy to imagine them, their personalities being defined pretty early in the book. Faye appeared to me to be fragile, vulnerable, like a precious glass. Told from her voice, the narration is tinged with a wary undertone. Not just the worry of a woman, wife and mother about to embark on a new adventure, no, it runs deeper than this. Names from the past are dropped before we leave their previous home and a sort trepidation took hold of me. Along it came questions. What I love about first-person narration is that you have no other choice than to rely on the character who is seeing, thinking, watching. You don’t have any other way to experience what the book holds, which makes things exciting and dangerous. Can we really trust what we’re told? Unreliable characters are my favourite. I had a feeling Faye would take me places. I didn’t know how right I was!

A new house, a new place; it can be spooky, especially when you’re settling in an old house (gosh I am so glad I moved to a newly-built apartment!!!). What did the house see with its previous owners? Who walked the corridors? Who took a shower right where you stand in the morning? I know myself, those thoughts would definitely cross my mind should I find myself in Faye’s situation. I was surprised that from the excitement of the first pages and the deal on the house, she rapidly got down to seeing the house in a different light. But isn’t what sleep-deprivation and the tasks that come with moving do?

If the title was an invitation to lose some sleep, I admit I didn’t see the effect coming until I had the wonderful idea to read The Uninvited at night! Have you ever woken up with the feeling someone was in your room? I did. Always have hated it. I like to be alone!!! My biggest surprise was to truly live this awfully nightmare with Faye. In fact, the entire book had me walking on the line between real and … whatever else is here. Now, I am a non-believer in supernatural things unless it’s in Buffy the vampire slayer, but there were enough details in what Faye felt, looked, imagined(?) that I was intrigued and had no other choice than to depend on her to find out the truth. I didn’t agree with all her decisions and sometimes I rolled my eyes at her actions, frantic and desperate, undermining what she was trying to express to her husband. I couldn’t help but understand his reluctance to trust his wife. I mean, her history means she is prone to stress and we all know what it does to our brain. But … But I wasn’t entirely convinced. After all, I was with Faye when something breathed near her… Just the thought of it makes me shiver! I took a step back and wondered how I would react. No idea, and I don’t want to know!!!

The writing invites the mind to wonder, to fight with reason. I didn’t find anything too unbelievable, this is why I liked reading this novel. Had it been too far-fetched I would have turned my back on it. But the combination of hard facts, sunlight, previous traumas, hints, and the constant need to protect this family had be gripped to my Kindle until the end.

While weird things happen, real and tangible events occur too! Old diaries that spooked me as much as what the night held, for example. I really enjoyed the balance the author put in her novel so the reader can never be sure of what’s happening.

Chasing the past and unearthing events is challenging, but Cross House is worth it. Old and once so grand, it holds the key to a family mystery and oh I can’t resist this kind of secrets frozen in time. The author did a great job at throwing red-herrings, hints, and other obstacles to keep you firmly on that blurry line of what could be and what is. I was happy to see part of my theory validated while getting a couple of surprises.

The Uninvited is a good novel to grab on a cold night if you’re looking for a compelling story with a door to escape reality…or slam it on your face!

ps: COVER LOVE.