I enjoyed reading Broken Girls last year so I was excited to read another Simone St. James. Unfortunately, the one thing that bothered me about Broken Girls was also an issue with this book.

I find that you really need to believe in ghosts in order for St. James' books to work for you. If you're like me and looking for an explanation for any ghostly behavior then you'll just end up frustrated and disappointed. If you can get past the ghosts then this is a fun thriller, especially for women who are also true crime fans. The entire premise is that girls are uniquely prepared to solve crimes because of how easily they can identify with the victims and see themselves as potential victims.

Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second book I have ready by Simone St. James and it is another winner! In 1982, Vivian Delaney works as the night clerk for the Sun Down Motel in creepy Fell, NY. Unexplained things happen while Viv works there - the doors to the rooms open on their own, she smells cigarette smoke when nobody is around - you get the picture. One night, Viv disappears with no explanation. Years later, Carly arrives in Fell to try and piece together what might have happened to her Aunt Viv. She too begins to work as a night clerk at the motel and observes for herself the odd occurrences that regularly seem to happen at the Sun Down. Told in alternating chapters of Viv and Carly, this is an intriguing creepy story with just the right amount of ghostly apparitions and eeriness. I loved this book and couldn't wait to find out what happens in the end. Creepy, eerie and very satisfying!

Carly left college for a "few" days so she could head to Fell, New York, to see if she could find anything out about how her Aunt Viv died or where she might be.

Viv disappeared from The Sun Down Motel where she worked in 1982 and was never found.

When Carly arrived and checked out The Sun Down Motel, she couldn't believe her aunt would even think of working there.

It was a creepy, out-of-the way place, but Carly surprised herself and took a job there on the same shift that her aunt worked.

Carly saw strange things and knew she should leave, but she stayed. She had to find out what happened at this motel and what happens now at THE SUN DOWN MOTEL.

We follow Carly as she investigates and as Viv’s story is told back in 1982.

Besides the creepy town and motel, we meet ghosts, creaky doors, weird guests, odd sounds, and no way to contact anyone not on the hotel grounds.

We learn about the hotel and the murders that took place in the town of Fell as well as the connection to The Sun Down Motel.

Each chapter got stranger and stranger as the motel seemed to come to life and have a life of its own.

If you enjoy tense, creepy, spooky story lines that include unsolved murders from years ago, THE SUN DOWN MOTEL will be your perfect read.

Be careful with the motel you choose, and especially do not stay at a motel that has anything remotely close to the name of this motel.

The entire book and the ending are twisty and brilliant.5/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, Simone St. James did it again, in writing a well developed, chilling story! The characters were done in a way, you could connect and want to see what was going to happen to whom and when! Chilling, thrilling, unputdownable book, which is sure to send shivers down your spine and keep you flipping the pages! A must read for those who love thrillers with a bit of supernatural mixed in!
Will make sure I buzz it up!

The Sun Down Motel was an excellent book!! I couldn’t put it down. I loved the writing style, and mystery. It was creepy and unpredictable. The twist at the end was a surprise. I wish we could find out more about Heather though, I will definitely recommend to anyone that would will listen!

4.5 stars!

A dark, engrossing, chilling, gothic, suspenseful, atmospheric, mysterious thriller! Loved it!!!

After her mother’s death, Carly moves to the small town of Fell, to investigate the disappearance of her mothers sister, Vivian. Decades earlier, Carly’s aunt Vivian took a job as the night clerk at the remote Sun Down Motel. Unexplained strange things happen at this motel including the disappearance of Vivian from her shift one night. Police investigation provides no answers as to what happened to Vivian. Haunted by the tragedy that happened before she was born, Carly begins her search at the Sun Down Motel, only to be offered a job as the night clerk. Carly finds herself in the same role that her aunt Vivian had before she vanished. Will Carly be able to uncover the long buried secrets and get the answers she hopes for?

I loved this book! The atmosphere was thick! I felt every spine-tingling scare that Carly felt. I was with her there in that run down motel, holding my breath in anticipation of what would happen next. The author, Simone St. James, created a storyline that completely engrossed me within the suspense and mystery. I felt like I truly knew the characters, the small town and the motel. The story is brilliantly narrated in two timelines/perspectives - through Carly in 2017 and her aunt Vivian in 1982. Loved the pace and flow - it kept me curious and hungry to read “just one more chapter.” My one tiny critique is that I felt a couple things near the end were a stretch for me to accept.

I will warn you that this novel is quite ghost-y. I am not one who generally attracts to ghost-y type novels, however, this story simply felt so real and kept me fully immersed and invested that I never doubted the supernatural element.

I read and loved Simone St. James’ previous novel, The Broken Girls. This book was just as good! I’m a huge fan and look forward to what this author comes out with next! I must make note of how much I LOVE THIS COVER!!

Thank you to Berkley for sending me a physical copy to read and review with The Traveling Sisters!

Expected Publication Date: February 18, 2020.

Like The Broken Girls, The Sun Down Motel is another perfect mash-up of ghosts and murder-mystery. This is the story of a run-down motel, the murders of several young women, and two family members trying to figure it all out, 35 years apart. If you're a fan of a good ghost story or haunted house and true crime (it's dedicated to murderinos!) or enjoyed The Broken Girls, this is the book for you! The Sun Down Motel is the perfect creepy setting. It reads like one of those scary movies I love to scare myself by watching. You want to scream at the main character, "Don't go in there!" yet you're compelled to know what happens, as much as they are. This is told in alternating timelines. The two narrators have such similar voices, it was at times hard to distinguish between them. The perfect, spooky read for October!

Interesting plot, lots of twist, do you believe in ghost? St James does a good job with a ghost story told as history and present.

Bestselling author Simone St. James has established herself as an author of paranormal mysteries set in post-WWI England. In The Sun Down Motel, St. James departs from her traditional setting and takes the reader to Upstate New York, with an alternating timeline that moves between the 1980s and the present day.

Carly is the niece of Viv, who disappeared in the 1980s while working as the night-shift clerk at the seedy Sun Down Motel. After the death of her mother, Viv’s sister, Carly travels to Fell to find out more about her aunt’s disappearance. When she takes on her aunt’s old position as Sun Down’s night clerk, Carly discovers that the Sun Down is not just creepy but also haunted. Her investigation of Viv’s disappearance leads Carly to uncover the Sun Down’s secrets.

As a current resident of far northern New York, I felt that the setting was familiar, and Canadian St. James had a knack for evoking the lonely and slightly behind-the-times feeling of living in the tiny hamlets of New York’s Upstate region. Like main characters Carly and Viv, I know the feeling of being an outsider in a place where everyone knows who belongs. And I also know the frustration of running into a local culture that can be a bit weird and unwelcoming. St. James did a great job making this real for the reader, and her choice of setting complemented the spooky paranormal storyline. While this book won’t be released until February 2020, I must say that having the opportunity to read it in October, just before Halloween, was a great experience.

I appreciate that St. James can create a spooky atmosphere in her writing without taking the reader all the way into scary territory. I enjoy being a little thrilled, but true horror writing is always too graphic and frightening for me. As a tender reader, the level of detail was just right, keeping me on the edge of my seat without keeping me up at night.

I found the Sun Down to be an enjoyable, atmospheric thriller, a good fit for those that enjoy murder mysteries with female protagonists, a genre I seek out quite often. While some of the plot twists are a bit predictable, and I wish some of the wrap-up went a little differently, overall, this was a book that kept me reading. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to others.

This is my second by Simone St. James and I thought this was such a perfect, creepy, fall read! I thought the paranormal was great, and not too heavy, since I'm not a huge fan of paranormal in general, but this was normalized well.

This is a dual timeline story revolving around Viv and Carly. Viv is Carly's aunt and had worked at the Sun Down Motel in 1982 but that year working on shift. Her body was never found, but other women's bodies were found as other murders occurred in this town previously. Carly decides she wants to find out what happened to her aunt and gets a job at the Sun Down Motel, same as her aunt.

The story lines were similar so it was occasionally tough to remember what happened when, but I really enjoyed how they uncovered the murders and what happened next. Slightly predictable in places, but overall, a good, solid read.

St James always does an amazing job creating a dark and tense atmosphere for her characters to populate. The Sun Down Motel is a known hot spot of bad activity in a town seemingly forgotten by time. The tale is dark and compelling and makes for perfect October reading.

This old, seedy roadside motel setting had me running to grab this one!

This creepy, haunted motel has a past that it won't let go... slamming doors, traveling salesmen, and many unanswered questions.

I loved the atmospheric setting and couldn't help but think of the Bates Motel. The same type of place you wouldn't necessarily want to check into! I was also picturing the Scooby Doo van about to roll up at any moment to help this girl Carly out.

The two timelines meshed together to solve a 35 year old mystery made this an entertaining who-dunnit. Carly was the amateur detective and was determined to get answers.

While it was a spooky read, I was hoping for a little more spine-chilling twists and creepy turns. For me this one was more of a spooky adventure where Carly is on a mission.

If you are looking for a unique crime read with some ghostly happenings, this one is quite entertaining and perfect for the season.

The Sun Down Motel is Simone St. James' next release following 2018's The Broken Girls. Similar to The Broken Girls, Sun Down Motel has an element of ghosts/supernatural running through it. In fact, at points, this book is downright creepy! This is told through two narrators, Viv, in the third person, and Carly in the first person. Viv's story takes place 35 years earlier, in 1982.
Viv is Carly's aunt and had worked at the Sun Down Motel in 1982 but disappeared in November of that year. No body was ever found, and Carly decides she wants to figure out what happened. Carly drives to the odd town of Fell, New York and also gets a job at the Sun Down Motel. Carly's story parallels Viv's in an number of ways and at times, it is hard to remember which events occurred in which timeline because they are so similar.
With a cast of interesting supporting characters in both timelines, the story of the Sun Down Motel, the town of Fell, New York and the people that get sucked into the town and never leave is revealed. The conclusion of the book wraps up everything in a nice, satisfying way. While some of the revelations were predictable, the story itself was captivating!

In 1987, Vivian Delaney fled her home in Chicago for fame in New York City but was sidetracked in the upstate town of Fell where she began working at the Sun Down Motel. There, she began experiencing strange phenomenon and meeting unusual if not frightening guests as she learned that the most dangerous thing in Fell was being a woman. After being ignored by the police, driven both by curiosity and a sense of justice, Viv begins an investigation into the murders of three of Fell's women. But then, Viv disappears from the motel, her belongings left in the lobby and her car left in the parking lot. She's never found.

Thirty-five years later, Carly Kirk, adrift after her mother's death from cancer, travels to Fell to learn what happened to her aunt Vivian. Carly begins mirroring Viv's life in Fell, unknowingly picking up the threads of her research, and putting herself in the same danger. Will Fell claim her as a victim, too?

A homage to true crime aficionados, The Sun Down Motel alternates between Viv and Carly's perspectives which maximized the suspense. I read lots of mysteries and thrillers, and this scared me like no other. I was terrified for Viv and later Carly, and I trusted no one.

Part of the book requires suspension of disbelief. I just went with it because it made the book that much more enjoyable. I also figured out one critical plot point early. It was still worth it to see how St. James uncovered it, but I think it would have been more satisfying had it been a surprise. I don't know if this was a function of the writing or the fact that I read so many books in this genre, I know a lot of the tricks.

If you enjoy psychological thrillers with strong female protagonists, or if you enjoy the thrill of a good scare, I highly recommend this book.

The Sun Down Motel is yet another chilling ghost story from Simone St. James, who just seems to surpass the level of shiver with each book. St. James’ style is an appealing blend of mystery and horror that straddles that gap between young adult and adult fiction. She consistently delivers some of the creepiest ghosts out there.

Here, the narrative bounces between present day with Carly and 1982 with Viv. Carly’s arrival in the small upstate NY town of Fell to search for her Aunt Vivian, who disappeared in 1982, uncovers old secrets and stirs up some vengeful ghosts at the Sun Down Motel.

This book will keep you hooked from the first chapter to the last.

I have read quite a few books by Simone St. James, and I am always excited when I have a chance to read another of her books. I had very high expectations for The Sun Down Motel, and while it wasn't my favorite St. James book, it was still a solid and an entertaining read.

The book is written in alternating chapters written in the present day and in the 1980s. The plot revolves around the creepy and most-likely haunted Sun Down Motel, and what might have happened to Carly's aunt Viv when she was working at the Sun Down thirty years earlier.

The different times and perspectives worked for me, letting the mysteries unravel slowly as different events unfolded in the past and the present.

I really love a good ghost story, which is one reason why I love St. James. The ghosty elements are very well-done in this book, spooky without being too scary or even silly.

This is another very good book by St. James, and one that I would recommend to others who enjoy mysteries and ghost stories.

I really enjoyed the first two-thirds of this book; there were even a couple times I had to put it down at night because I was finding it too creepy. But, I was disappointed with the last third, which I thought was a bit too predictable, and I felt that the final twist was a bit too rushed. Overall, quite enjoyed it though.

The Sun Down motel was the perfect October read! Scary but not toooo scary, and with two awesome main characters, in would highly recommend this for someone who wants a little fright and a creepy story for Halloween!

My first introduction to Simone St. James was reading her previous notel The Broken Girls, it was one of my top 10 books last year. I went into this with a crazy amount of anticipation and and hoping been another 5* read.

The novel revolves around a young woman, Carly, following up on her long dead aunt Vivian. The family never felt any kind of closure because her body was never found. She just disappeared one night during her late night shift at The Sun Down Motel. In order to understand Carly’s point of view we must be taken back in time to when her aunt disappeared. Meanwhile Carly will get a job at the Sun Down herself in order to try and find an answer.

Here begin some of my problems with this book. Lots of situations happened around the same time in the women’s timelines. I also found things were just too repetitive having to weave the two stories together. At first I was just a little confused about whose story I was reading. As I got into the story I did enjoy the ride but it wasn’t a page turner for me.

Ms. Simoe’s writing here is top notch and the story is a good one. I found the characters to be well described but I did have trouble with believability. I asked myself so many times, why didn’t she just quit? Why would they intentionally put themselves in such danger? In each storyline there is a good friend and a boyfriend.

This novel has Ms. Jame’s signature creation of a ghostly vibe and it’s a good mystery. There were lots of lights going on and off, doors opening and shutting on their own, “smoke scent in the air” and apparitions. Both Vivian and her niece Carly are looking for answers as to what is going on and putting themselves in grave danger.

The ending moved my rating up to a solid 4 and I can definitely recommend it. Ms. St. Jame’s followers won’t be disappointed.

I would recommend this as a “long sit” read in order to keep the timelines straight and to ratchet up the tension and vibe. This is a great Fall and Halloween read.

Publication is set for February 18, 2020.

I received a ARC of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.

Will post to Amazon upon publication.

My kind of scary story! Ghosts, murders, and some kick ass women doing detective work.

Reminds a lot of being a kid and reading Nancy Drew, though this was more disturbing and creepy.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkeley for the ARC!