If you’re building or renovating a home and like to repurpose old architectural features, this novel will make you think twice about those great finds you bring home. This is not your typical haunted house story. The unsuspecting couple doesn’t move into a haunted house. They build one.

The Invited is the story of Helen and Nate, a happily married couple from Connecticut who come into some money after a death in the family. They resign their jobs as teachers, sell their condo, and head north. Vermont, they decide, is the place for them.

They buy land that is primarily bog, but there’s a nice dry patch to build on. As their new dream home starts to come together, creepiness ensues. A young neighbor who spends much of her time around the bog doesn’t want them on the property. It seems other forces might not either.

Helen is into history and Nate is into nature. They’re pulled in different directions. Helen is drawn to the legend of Hattie, a supposed witch who was hanged on their property in the 1920s. Nate is determined to photograph or capture video footage of a white deer he’s been following on the property.

Building a home isn’t easy in the best of circumstances. Add new obsessions, things that go bump in the night, suspicious townsfolk, and their relationship begins to fray.

Other than referring to my beloved Connecticut as if it’s one big suburban strip mall, I absolutely loved this story. It is one of the most unique and believable ghost stories I’ve read. It’s also a powerful historical suspense novel that explores family dynamics and violence against women.

I lived a year in New Hampshire so this made it all the better for me! I could just picture the scenery and area. I love a good haunted story and this one does not disappoint. There is nothing creepier than when your significant other starts acting weird and doing strange things. I would never sleep! I received an ARC for my review. I recommend this book if you are ready for a creepy story that will keep you up reading and looking around while doing so to make sure nothing is in your house!

Helen and Nate bought a piece of acreage in the New Hampshire countryside and are building their dream house, doing most of the work themselves. What they don’t know, though, is that 90 years ago, Hattie Breckenridge was hanged on their land as a witch. Since then, the property is said to be haunted, especially the nearby bog.

Next door, 14-year-old Olive resents the newcomers. Her mother ran off a few months before, and her father, Dustin, has gone off the rails a bit. He keeps renovated rooms in their house but not finishing them, telling her that her mother will love the house when she returns. Olive has been searching the bog for Hattie’s treasure, rumored to be on the neighbor’s land, something her mother had been doing before she left. Olive thinks Helen and Nate will get in the way of her finding it, so she has been stealing things from their trailer and work site, hoping to drive them away.

Helen gets interested in the story of Hattie. After she and Nate incorporate an old beam from the tree on which Hattie was hanged into their house, Helen comes to believe that Hattie is trying to tell her something.

Jennifer McMahon is known for her spooky thrillers set in New Hampshire. This one is fairly good, even though some of her others have been scarier. Although you are led to wonder about Helen’s sanity, I didn’t really doubt that there would be a ghost. More is going on in this book than that, however.

A solid 4.5 star read. Absolutely loved the characters. Nate and Helen who have just bought land and started building a house (a dream of mine). and of course Olive who was so heart breaking and heart warming.

I have long been a fan of Jennifer McMahon and always look forward to a new release. This book did not disappoint. Spooky and tense but steeped in history that made it feel so real. I got swept up in the atmosphere of this book. Jennifer McMahon surely knows how to create an element of suspense with her spooky atmospheric writing. I enjoyed the dual perspectives between Helen and Olive—they both provide something that the other cannot, helping us learn the full picture of Breckenridge. When the pieces finally come together I definitely wasn’t disappointed. Highly recommend if you’re looking to be equally creeped out and intrigued!

This was a fun spooky read that reminded me of sitting by a campfire telling scary stories! Unfortunately I predicted the end pretty early on so it made the last half a little slow going for me. It was overall a fun read and something I may revisit in the fall since it would be a fun October read!

I am a fan of Jennifer McMahon, so I was super excited to be approved for review of this novel. Unfortunately, this McMahon novel fell flat for me. I was expecting all of the thrill and chills that I have come to know and love, and instead I was annoyed by a woman who kept adding objects to her new home that she had to know (within reason) were cursed & her equally annoying husband who was being driven mad by a deer that only he could see. I did like Olive, who was a teenager looking for her mother who mysteriously disappeared, and her Aunt Riley. I was also very interested in the story of Hattie Breckinridge, the witch who lived and died on (and subsequently haunts) the land before the annoying couple began building on it. That was the real saving grace of this novel. I won’t let this one book ruin me for McMahon’s future novels, but this one was definitely not one of her best in my opinion.

I wasn't sure what to think when I started reading this book since it's not my usual type of book to read, but I truly enjoyed it. It's part ghost story and part mystery and the story is woven together so well, it keeps you guessing until the end.

Nate and Helen pack up their lives to move to Vermont and build their dream home, but the land was previously owned by a woman believed to be a witch and who died in a horrible way. Helen becomes obsessed with finding out about her much to Nate's chagrin. Nate meanwhile becomes obsessed with a white deer he claims to see, but no one else does. On top of that, they meet Olive, a teenager dealing with her mother's disappearance and trying to find the alleged treasure the witch had left behind when she died.

This is the first book I've read by Jennifer McMahon and I look forward to other stories from her.

Thanks to the publisher for a review copy via NetGalley.

Ever wonder about the history of a place you’ve decided to live in? After reading The Invited, I’m now a bit concerned I’ll get visits now.

I’m not easily scared when reading, but this story is disturbing and thrilling. It keeps you in the edge of your seat and twist after twist.

Searching for hidden treasure, generations of females murdered for being “witches”, and a couple trying to build a house. How does one join a small town when everyone hates newcomers?

Grab this book for a great story to take you on a ride.

I love Jennifer McMahon. Don’t Breathe a Word was my very first review on the blog waaay back in 2011. Since then, I’ve reviewed multiple books of hers and ever featured her in a GoodReads Recommends post. She’s an auto-read author for me – though by auto-read I mean, ONLY during the day when Matt and both dogs are in the house AND every single light is on…and chances are I’ll still jump at the tiniest sound. She’s that good. So naturally when I heard about her upcoming novel, I jumped at the chance to read a review copy.

Helen and Nate give everything up – their high-paying jobs, their comfortable home, their circle of friends – to build a dream house in the woods of Vermont. It’s only after construction begins that they learn of a local legend: Hattie Breckenridge, a woman who owned their property a century ago, was deemed a witch by the townsfolk and viciously murdered. Though Hattie lived in the woods, her family had been the richest in town, and it was said Hattie buried her fortune. Since then, treasure seekers and kids on dares have taken to the woods looking for gold – or Hattie’s spirit.

I wish this wasn’t the case (and I certainly toughed it out far longer than I would have had it been any other author), but The Invited was a DNF. I don’t know how a story full of ghosts, witches, and possibly-cursed treasure could be so boring, but it was a struggle to get to 67% and by then I had to call it quits. This was one of my most anticipated books of the year and it ended up being one of the biggest disappointments.

Helen. Come on now. You can't be this dumb. Continuing to pile dark and sinister objects into your house to bring out the ghosts is like facing a pack of wild hyenas and thinking, if I just talk softly to them and bring treats they will let me pet them and squeeze them. Every time you see the ghost you are filled with dread and your head is filled with screams and when it speaks the sound is like ground up glass. But you just keep going back. And looking for friends for it...
The story is not bad, but I had a few problems with it. There's way too much profanity, especially the f* word. Helen and Nate are each falling into growing obsessions, and it's tearing them apart. They each think the other is going slightly off the deep end, but unlike most supernatural stories, there's not a lot of indication as to whether it is the ghost making them insane. If it is, I wish there was a little more foreshadowing, and if it isn't then I'm back to "Come on now Helen, you can't really think this is a good idea..." It generally makes the story better when you are shown with little things along the way that it is the haunting that is pushing them to the edge.
I like the side story of Olive and her search for her mom, and I pretty much liked Riley and Olive, but I really don't like Helen. She just comes across as whiny and selfish. And I wish the ghost had been more present throughout the story.
I really did not like the ending, I felt like half the story had been one big red herring. In the last 25% of the book everything just takes a complete turn and it really didn't go where I was hoping it was going.

The Invited wasn’t your typical haunted house story. The plot of land the characters decided to build on had some history, but the house was being built. The couple decided to build the house on their own based on their own design. As they moved onto the land and stayed in a a temporary trailer, they both grew increasingly curious about what happened in the town and why no one really talked about it.
Helen, the wife, was getting more and more involved in the story, and finding more items with gruesome history to feature in her home, something her husband did not approve of. Still, he had his own issues as he attempted to photograph this elusive animal that he kept missing.
Another POV was that of Olive, a girl in the town who originally attempted to scare the couple and then ended up working together with them to build the house and to uncover additional secrets about the land and history. I enjoyed Olive’s POV and felt like it added a lot more to the mystery of the town and what happened not only to Hattie on the land, but what happened to make Olive’s mom just up and leave her.
I enjoyed the story and the history as it unfolded.
I will also be honest and admit that I don’t think it’s one of the author’s best works and I find that I prefer her earlier books more, but this was still entertaining and interesting.

I love, love, love ghost stories. The Invited by Jennifer McMahon handles the idea of a haunted house a bit differently. Instead of moving into an existing house, Helen and Nate are building a house from scratch, doing all of the work themselves while they live in a trailer on the property. Once Helen begins researching local history and seeking out salvaged pieces with ties to the place, things start getting spooky. It's not a fast paced book, but the ghost is downright chilling.



Hattie Breckenridge was killed by her neighbors, her body sunk deep into the bog, and she's never left the land. If you like reading ghost stories late at night, I highly recommend this one.

Loved The Invited! A great horror story that I think would make a great movie. I loved the Authors writing style as I could picture each scene clearly in my head. I was shocked by the ending. Looking forward to reading more of this Authors work.

Review featured at www.books-n-kisses.com

This story is a little bit of everything when it comes to ghost story. There is a bit of mystery, a bit of suspense, a bit of old world and a bit of witchcraft.

I found this to be a quick read and one I really enjoyed. The ghost story of Hattie is interesting but it switches back and forth between old and current day and I enjoyed the mystery of the haunted land and the mystery of Olive’s missing mom.

The thing I didn’t really get is how someone builds a haunted house. Yes on haunted land but it seems the house becomes haunted too. Maybe I read too much into that, I am not sure.

But I think if you give the story a couple of chapters to catch your attention it really will. And it will keep your attention until the end.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The Invited by Jennifer McMahon is a highly recommended ghost story.

Helen and Nate Wetherell decide to leave city life behind and buy forty-four acres in rural Vermont where they plan to build their dream house by themselves. When they discover that the property has a dark past and a reputation for being haunted, former history teacher Helen begins to research the life of Hattie Breckenridge, the woman who lived and died there a century ago. Hattie is said to haunt the land and surrounding bogs. Helen not only researches Hattie's life, but that of her descendants too, three generations of "Breckenridge women." There seems to be more to their deaths than the locals are admitting... And who is trying to scare them off? While their neighbor, fourteen-year-old Olive Kissner, admits to some stunts, she is not responsible for all of them.

While this is a ghost story, it is also very much a mystery. And, while this is a ghost story, it is not a horror story, although horrific things do happen by the hands of the living. It is also the story of seeking a treasure, that may or may not be real, and this is also reflected on several levels in the narrative. There is definitely tension that slowly builds and the mystery and questions expand gradually, slowly building to a surprising, shocking conclusion.

McMahon is an exceptional writer and I always look forward to her novels. The characters are all well-developed and you will feel empathy for all of them. Following Helen's investigations and discoveries is just as compelling as following Olive's inquiries. The pacing is perfect. The disclosure of more information is closely tied to the incremental odd occurrences and new developments. The tension builds, not with nail-biting horror, but with a subtle feeling someone might be in the room with you, and what was that noise, and is that what I think it is? The real story behind the ghost story, is a tragedy and perhaps the truly frightening part of the tale. While I loved other novels by McMahon more, this is still a very good novel and a perfect choice for a rainy day and foggy night.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

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I really enjoy Jennifer McMahon’s stories. They are filled with rich emotions and gothic creepiness with unique supernatural twists. I have enjoyed everything I have read so far by her, with the exception of her last novel, Burntown. Even though I didn’t like the last book by her, as soon as I saw she had a new book coming out, I couldn’t wait to pick it up. The Invited sounded too good to pass up. A couple BUILD a haunted house? What an interesting idea! This author always takes a typical supernatural theme and turns it around in to something completely new.

It was really cool the way the plot is told from two different points of view, on the same day(s). Helen, the adult, who moves in to a new town and begins to investigate the dark history of the land she is living on, and Olive, a 14 year old girl who is trying to figure out why her mom disappeared. Olive is Helen’s new neighbor and helps Nate and Helen build their house. It was interesting to see how both Olive and Helen’s stories connected when they didn’t even know what the other was up to. Sometimes you got to see the same event but from both views. I thought that was really interesting and very well done. It was addictive getting each clue and then watching the puzzle pieces come together. I couldn’t put down the book at all in the end when everything was finally snapping together in place! I was on the edge of my chair the whole time waiting to see what happened next. The Invited was a well written, suspenseful supernatural mystery. There were plenty of twists throughout the whole book. Very typical of McMahon’s lovely style. A little melancholy, but a beautiful story.

This author has a wonderful way of delivering raw emotions to the reader. It connects with anyone who has been the outcast at school, or the new face in a small town. It was hard not to get swept up in the enthusiasm Nate and Helen had for building their new home. Jennifer McMahon has such a way with words, you really felt all the happiness, sadness, rage, despair, frustration… every emotion, you feel it so clearly. It’s like a wave, starting small in the distance but growing larger and more powerful as it picks up speed until it crashes dramatically on to the shore, knocking you over.

I really enjoyed The Invited. If you are already familiar with Jennifer McMahon’s work, I don’t think you will be disappointed at all with her newest novel. If you have never read her work before, this is a great book to start with. Suspense that kept you wondering the whole time, what really happened or who really did what? There are plenty of red herrings to keep you guessing and a very surprising end. 😮

A heart pounding haunted house, ghost story like no other! This very believable story about a couple building a house on the same lot where a woman was hanged 100 years ago, will have you turning pages furiously!
The best part of it all was that the characters were intertwined so perfectly! I was constantly questioning the connections they all had to the history of this town! Jennifer McMahon did an excellent job slowly unraveling the plot. I became part of this story in a way that truly made my skin crawl! I LOVED how end came together and all of the suspicions I had were thrown out the window! The truth of the haunted mystery became shockingly clear and it was so awesome!
This is the first book I've read by this author and definitely not the last!

If this had been the story of Hattie and her ancestral line, with just a bit of peppering of Helen and Nate, this book would have been great. Alas, it was the opposite, and the book fell flat on almost all accords. First of all,this is my first Jennifer McMahon novel...and I almost fear it may be my last. The writing in this novel was...terrible. The dialogue felt like it was written by a first time writer who lived watching bad ghost movies, and then decided to use the dialogue from the bad films they watched in the first time novel, because they didn't know any better. That this is her fourth of fifth novel worries me. There was also I say too much about housebuilding, to the point where it feels like you're reading a how-to guide over a fictional ghost story.

The next bad thing, is that the story was quite predictable. I figured all of the connections, what happened to Olive's mom, etc. pretty early on. And any savvy reader can figure it out based on who gets chapters to themselves. And again, Helen and Nate felt like they were just around to get us from point A to point B of Hattie's story. If we could have gotten more from that lineage instead, this book would have been so much better.

In the end, I'd say skip this one. I have it two stars because I at least finished it and was hoping for a surprise ending. But alas...

Most of the characters are strong, interesting and likable; locale is perfect for a ghost story; writing is solid. I just felt the last 15% of the book was in rush to wrap up story lines and left me wanting more explanation on the sudden change of heart of several characters.

Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for the ARC to read and review.

Let me start off by saying that I went into this book thinking it was a horror story and boy was I wrong. I would say this is a light mystery/gothic ghost story. However, don’t let that deter you from reading this one as it is a good storyline with very likable characters that are well developed and you won’t forget about them. The cover intrigued me to pick this one up right away as how creepy it looked and the setting in this story definitely kept the eeriness going however I was maybe wanting a little bit more. This one is the story of a couple buying a large piece of land and building their own house with supernatural occurrences happening with a tad of a cliche storyline. However, I loved how this was told in ways of the past occurrences on the land and in the point of views of Helen and a young girl named Olive which kept the story interesting and making it a quick read. I felt this was more of a calm read wanting to know the secrets to the very end. This is my first book by this author and it definitely won’t be my last as I enjoyed her writing, it was very compelling and engaging.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review, all thoughts are my own.