This wasn't a fantastic book for me. Having said that, I really did like the premise, I thought it was different. I enjoyed the storytelling of three generations and those differences.

The ghost story concept was interesting but not exactly well thought out. The plot seemed a bit all over the place as well.

Helen and Nate decide to leave their cushy city life and head for the quiet of the countryside. They plan to build the house of their dreams themselves, board by board. After finding the exactly perfect piece of land in Vermont and buying it for a rock bottom price they feel like things just couldn’t be better. Until they’re not.

As soon as they move onto their property and begin building the town starts to talk. Helen is told about the woman, Hattie Breckenridge, who lived on the land over a hundred years ago and met a violent end. Things begin appearing and disappearing, money, phones, food, talismans.

Helen taught history and is very conscious of the life force she feels in found objects. She is determined to find old things to incorporate into their home and if she can find objects that came from their area all the better. She finds a beam from a school, bricks from an old mill for their hearth, and in an antique shop, a mantel. And with these objects the life forces Helen is conscious of begin to appear to her and she is even more determined to learn about Hattie and her descendants. She is living on their land and the beam and bricks and mantel are telling their story, Hattie’s story, sometimes desperate, sometimes mysterious, sometimes scary, sometimes hopeful.

As I read this I often looked around the room at the things I’ve acquired at antique shops with new eyes. You never know who you are inviting in.

Whenever I read a Jennifer McMahon book I feel like I need to preface it by saying it's normally something I would never gravitate towards, but I always end up really enjoying her books. This one is about a couple who buys land to build their dream house knowing there are rumors that the land is haunted. This was spooky without being graphic or gory and I loved how the different storylines all weaved together. I had a feeling about who might actually be bad/to blame for a few things, but it wasn't obvious and kept me guessing through the second half of the book.

MY THOUGHTS:
I'm a little bit conflicted about how I feel about this book.

I liked the story.

I liked the history that was incorporated in the story.

I liked the idea of the haunted bog - a place where people could hide things and people could easily get lost. I liked the idea that a "witch" was hung there in the past, making the bog even more ominous as it is believed to be haunted.

I liked the story of Olive and her dad and his continual renovations to avoid his heartbreak. It somehow reminded me of the Winchester Mystery House... but more romantic as well as more destructive.


The things I didn't like were...
I felt like the characters fell flat. Their backgrounds were unique and should have meant that they would each be unique themselves with singular voices and goals and opinions. But they all just kind of felt the same to me. Conflicts were easily resolved, almost everyone had each other's best interests at heart, people admit when they were wrong... Blah blah. Sorry, but that just doesn't ring true to me. When people get caught in real life, they get defensive. Not everyone has the same moral code or cares about other people or apologize when they are wrong. In my experience when people are proven wrong, they will dig in their heels against the evidence. People suck sometimes.

At least one of the women that we were supposed to feel sorry for was actually really a bad person. *SPOILER*
I mean kind of a spoiler? You find out pretty early on that Hattie's daughter set fire to the school which kills three children. This is not her only incident.

I prefer a witch story where a woman is accused of being a witch for being too unwieldy - too smart, too unconventional, too unwilling to conform. These women were literally witches. However, I was aware of that from the start, I just always feel like historical witch stories would be so much better if they were realistic.

So....

MY RATING:
Entertainment Value: 3.5-4
Characters: 3
Voice: 3
Plot: 3.5-4
Overall: 3.5 stars

See all my reviews @ www.mamaneedsabook.blogspot.com
<i>Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!</i>

Wow! Awesome book. If you are looking for something spooky to read...this is it!! I literally had to download a nightlight app on my phone at one point haha. I will say - I am NOT into SYFY at all so towards the middle of the book, I found getting annoyed with all the talk of ghosts and spirts (hence the 4 star rating). If you also aren't a SYFY person, buy it and just keep reading!!! The suspense and conclusion of this story make it well worth it (I can't say anything more without spoiling it).

I don't typically read paranormal novels but this sounded intriguing to me. Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for providing an ARC. I liked the storyline, I thought the characters were well developed and her writing is excellent. I believe I will take a look at some of the other books Jennifer McMahon has written, perhaps I've found a new favorite author!

A dream home becomes one of nightmares for a husband and wife attempting to start a new life in the woods of Vermont. Board by board, stone by stone, tragic events of the past creep toward the light in this delicious slow burn of a haunted tale.
- J.D. Barker, International Bestselling Author of THE FOURTH MONKEY and DRACUL

FOR THE PUBLISHER - Feel free to use the above wherever it might be helpful.
Best,
jd

What a creepy premise. The execution wasn't quite up to where I wished it was, but I still really enjoyed this unique take on hauntings and would recommend it to anyone tired of the same domestic thriller tropes.

Jennifer McMahon’s The Winter People is one of my favorite spooky reads so I was so excited to get an early copy of The Invited!
This book combines a lot of my favorite things - ghosts, history, and genealogy - and wraps them up into one creepy, heart pounding package.
Helen and Nate decide to quit their jobs as teachers at an elite private school and build a house in the middle of nowhere, Vermont. She’s a history teacher and he’s a science teacher, so this is a fulfillment of both of their dreams, She explores the history of their land and the little town of Hartsboro; he explores the land itself with its many animal and agricultural wonders. But when strange things start happening, Helen finds herself immersed in the local lore of Hattie, a supposed witch who lived at beginning of the 20th century. Is she being drawn towards Hattie’s spirit? And for what purpose?
Fast-paced and addicting, I was torn between needing to finish it and being afraid to! This novel made me imagine I was hearing all kinds of noises in my house at night; and isn’t that the best kind of spooky story?

DNF @ 50%. I guess it's just me. I have enjoyed another of this author's books and given the pretty great reviews on this one was excited to dig into a good creepy ghost story. But something just isn't resonating with me. I'm not sure if it's the characters or the writing or the story line but I am giving up. My interest had been waning a bit but when the author used a Ouija board to move the characters through the plot I felt like it was a quick cop-out, especially so because these characters were adults.

The Invited is a ghost story about haunted land and a family that experienced a tragic past. As with all ghost stories/movies, it’s starts slow, but that was OK for me because the writing was very atmospheric. The author transports you to this small town in Vermont, where a couple moves to allegedly haunted land and builds their dream house. I am a huge fan of supernatural movies and tv shows, but this was my first real paranormal book. I definitely want to read more paranormal and more from Jennifer McMahon.

Thanks to NetGalley and DoubleDay Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

A thriller of ghostly proportions. Intriguing story that keeps you reading until the end. I found is sometimes hard to keep reading as it seemed to drag. But I couldn't stop reading. Very interesting characters that kept you guessing ad to who to trust.

Wow! Whoa! First and foremost, thank you #NetGalley & Doubleday books for giving me the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. This gem is a fast-paced, suspenseful ghostly read! I’ve never had the pleasure of enjoying a Jennifer McMahon novel until The Invited but I’m definitely a fan. Ghost nor paranormal isn’t my normal read, so it was nice to step outside of the norm. To say I’m super excited about spreading the word about this book is an understatement, I don’t like to read or give spoilers but this is a must for anyone’s TBR list! Btw, just when you think you’ve figured it out think again!

Loved it! Really well written. My first Jennifer McMahon novel. I have The Winter People and I'll need to read it soon. I was drawn in to this one by the characters and the plot, specifically the historical and detective aspects. I didn't mind the back and forth in the timeline. It added to the story.

I love a good ghost story and that's what this is. It sucked me in and left me wanting to know Harris's whole story! There's lots of twists and turns and ends up being a surprising ending. Helen and Nate have a relationship that is so lifelike and Olive is a great character as well. This is the first Jennifer McMahon book I've ever read and I enjoyed her writing. It wasn't as spooky as I was expecting though.

Jennifer McMahon’s The Winter People became one of my favorites when I read it last year so of course Rachel let me know the second she saw it on Netgalley and I requested it immediately. McMahon’s books combine my love of horror with my love of all things Vermont (and New England) and I’ve been meaning to pick up more of her books for quite some time now. Rachel actually lent me a copy of The Night Sister, which I’ve got sitting in my physical TBR pile. Unfortunately, while I enjoyed The Invited, it just wasn’t as strong a book as I had hoped for.

As with The Winter People, McMahon sets up alternating perspectives. We have Helen, an outsider who is building a house with her husband Nate on supposedly haunted property. We also have Ollie, a girl in her early teens who is searching for a treasure that may or may not exist. I sympathized with Helen and while I found Ollie a bit irritating at first, I quickly warmed up to her as well. I also adored Ollie’s aunt, Riley, with her dyed hair and many tattoos and love of local lore. At one point I briefly hoped that Helen would leave her husband for Riley, but alas, that was wishful thinking.

The plot itself is somewhat interesting: Ollie searches for the treasure and for traces of her mother who had left while Helen searches for more information about the spirit that may haunt her new home. McMahon puts her own unique twist on the classic ghost story, incorporating new elements and giving us just the right amount of red herrings. A lot of my nitpicks came less from issues with the story itself and more from inconsistencies in the writing and the difficulty I had getting invested until about a third in. Hopefully some of this gets pulled together better in the final copy.

Overall The Invited was interesting and enjoyable, but it unfortunately lacked the oomph that would have given it a higher rating and put it on my favorites list. Still, Jennifer McMahon manages to explore the storied history of New England and its comparison to modern-day life. I definitely recommend this to anyone who has read and liked any of her other books, as well as to those who like the exploration of relationships between women in horror.

Let me tell you something about this author! She weaves a tale that you will not soon be able to forget! Much unlike other books that I have read that are completely unmemorable, not so with Jennifer McMahon! I can remember each and every book I have read by her! So buckle up and enjoy the journey she takes you on dear readers!

Helen and Nate find the perfect place to build their dream home, or is it? They start hearing rumors about the property being haunted. Strange things start happening and things begin to disappear. Helen hears a horrible scream their first night in the woods and becomes completely unsettled. The history teacher in her wants to find out more about the woman that owned the property generations ago and starts researching the history of the land and the family. Are you intrigued yet ? Who was Hattie Breckenridge and why was she hung and killed in such a horrible way? What happened to her daughter Jane?

Deeply atmospheric with great character development! This book kept calling for me when I wasn't reading, I love when a book does that! A ghost story with family tragedy. I enjoyed hearing from both Helen and Olive, but especially Olive! I am a fan of Jennifer McMahon and suggest that if you have not yet read anything by her, that you do so as soon as possible!

A big thank you to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this fantastic book! 4.5 stars rounded to 5!

A haunting tale if there ever was one. This one kept me up at night. I'm always intrigued and drawn in by stories that include hauntings and tragic pasts where new growth is being made, all for the past to come drudging up no matter what. This had a pleasing twist that fit the story.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have a couple of books by this author sitting on a bookshelf but I had yet to actually read anything by her at the time I received this ARC. I went into the story with no idea what it was about or what to expect. The beginning of the book grabbed my attention. After that, the book is kind of a slow burn with a subtle creepy factor. Still, I found no degree of suspense to keep me wanting to continue reading. There was no danger, no urgency that had me unable to put it down. But it was a steady story, written well, flowed nicely and the characters are easy to like and identify with. The book picks up speed about 70% in. I am not huge into ghost stories and overall, I enjoyed it. One thing which was a huge plus for me – the story has an end. It may (or may not) be the ending the reader wishes for – but at least it doesn’t leave one up in the air, forced to buy the next book to see some type of closure. It is for this reason I round my 3.5 rating to a 4.

Nate and Helen decide to leave their life in the city and buy land to build their dream house. They settle in an area known to be haunted by Hettie, an alleged witch who was hanged from a tree nearby. Helen and Nate both become somewhat enchanted with the history, Nate more interested in the wildlife and Helen more interested in learning more about Hattie. As Helen learns more about Hettie, she is sure that she has a link with her and Hettie is asking her to find someone or something. The local residents are not happy that Nate and Helen seem to be stirring things up. A good spooky story!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.