I did not read the first book so was a bit lost. Sophie was a subdued sort till she became bold and completely focussed, no obsessed about her husband.

The story for me was a bit convoluted. Also not a genre I go for, but once in a while I try to step out of my comfort zone and go for a different kind of read. This was a little too way out for me but that is my problem, not the authors.

This is the sequel to “House of Shadows” and in my opinion- this was way better than the first! The beginning was kind of slow but it definitely picked up. There was a huge difference in character development in this book! It seemed like I actually got to know the characters and their personality a lot more. And also seem to be a lot more of a thriller than the first book was! I will be doing a monthly reading wrap up on my YouTube if you would like to hear more of my thoughts! Kwellsbooks

Thanks so much to #Netgalley and the publisher for an e-copy of #HouseOfSecrets.

Having read and enjoyed the first book, House Of Shadows, I have to say this book was disappointing. While I kept turning the pages, it just fell kind of flat for me. It was not really spooky at all.

My best advice is this: If you read and enjoyed the first book, give this one a pass.

Another darcy! Will never get tired of reading all the books. I love the fact that the characters did well in this book. That is most important. Very passionate.

Sophie and Joseph have escaped Northwood, but they aren’t free of the Grimlock. Elise is now under its control and they must find a way to save her. Through this new twist of their story follow them and see if they can defeat the Grimlock.

Thank you NetGalley, Darcy Coates and Poisoned Pen Press for this edition and hearing my honest review. Looking forward to reading more with you
#partner

The love story of Joseph and Sophie continues. Their quest to kill the horrid Grimlock takes them to a forlorn relic of a manor called Kensington where they join with Joseph's uncle and niece. A manor whose former owner never left even after death. An abandoned derelict town whose only inhabitants are ghosts. House of Secrets by Darcy Coates has kept me enthralled for the past two days. I finished the first book and quickly moved on to the second. I wish there were a third book! I would love to read more about Joseph and Sophie. Their love is so endearing and together with the remaining members of Joseph's family they would be a formidable foe for any monster that comes their way!

Every book I read by this author dies not disappoint. What I love is that her books will scare you because of the plot yet make you want to read more. In this book the thrill is there, the plot too. I read it with breaks because it was captivating. Highly recommended!

Review for 'House Of Shadows' by Darcy Coates

Read and reviewed via NetGalley for Poisoned Pen Press

This is the second book that I have read by this author. The first I have just finished is called 'Hunted' which I enjoyed. I am looking forward to reading more. This book is the first in the 2 volumes 'Ghosts and shadows' series.

I was originally drawn to this book by its intriguing cover and blurb which both worked very well with the storyline. I am also a fan or horror and have enjoyed a book by Darcy Coates before.

This novel consists of 39 chapters and an epilogue relatively short in length so perfect for 'just one more chapter', like that ever happens for me, more like 3 or 4 more!!

This book gripped my attention from the beginning and kept me sucked into the plot all the way until the cliffhanger ending. I will definitely be moving straight onto the next book in this 2 part series.

I really enjoyed the gothic romance and all things gothic, macabre and almost labyrinth feel about this creepy, disturbing horror.

The book is very well written throughout with fantastically gory descriptions which builds the picture up easily for readers.

The plot kept me on the edge of my seat and turning the pages. It is filled with horror, suspense and tension and is perfect for fans of any of these types of books.

The characters were all strong and quite well developed. There were enough of them needed to build the storyline and not too many as to lead to confusion. I also really enjoyed the personality growth of Sophie. I'm looking forward to reading more about them in the next chapter 'House of Secrets'.

I would love to see this being made into a movie especially with the fact that it is set in older times, brings some uniqueness to it, that as well as the whole storyline.

I would recommend this book to fans of horror, Darcy Coates and suspense.

294 pages

Free on kindle unlimited or £2.99 to purchase. I think this is a very good price for this book.

Rated 4/5 (I enjoyed it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.

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A short, quick read that continues the battle against the "beast" that has taken possession of too many family members to be a coincidence. The battle must be fought before any more people die. A horror story that contains all of the hallmarks of a nightmare in the making. It's amazing how spooked you will be by this story.

***Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***

Somewhat entertaining, but unfortunately DNF.

Follow up to House of Shadows and didn't improve on the story. I would only recommend this to serious Coates' fans.

Sophie and Joseph having survived an attack by a mythical creature whose curse has claimed mire than one of Joseph’s relatives seek refuge in the home where Sophie grew up. Joseph thought that leaving Sophie at her fathers insured she would not be victim to the Grimlock’s grasp. A head strong woman she follows her husband to his Kingsington property yo find the beast has inhabited the body of his niece. A mysterious seed that offers a cure and a journal left by a former housekeeper,amateur scientist provide the tension and the heart of this story. The fight in the end is full of deadly beings of the spectral kind and a monster black, shiny, and fearsome. Happy reading

House of Secrets is book # 2 in the House of Shadows series.
I read the first book a week or so ago and loved it. so I couldn't wait to read House of Secrets.

Anyway, this was a short (169 pages) and quick ghost story that was just fantastic. I really like the author's writing.

I do recommend.

There is a kind of books, regardless of the genre to which they belong, that leave the reader with a soft and sweet feeling that everything comes to an appropriate end: evil is defeated, good prevails, help comes from where you least imagine , lovers live together and happily ever after.
House of Secrets is, at least for me, one of those books. After a spiral of emotions, where sometimes everything seems lost, Ms. Coates, the author, achieves an impressive ending which leaves the reader wanting to read her other books, which I will probably do very soon.

Honestly, I’m glad they changed the cover up for this release. I never would have requested this ARC if it had that old cover. It just doesn’t look appealing to me at all. It has a sort of Victorian-Twilight thing going on that I don’t personally find at all appealing. So, I’m really glad that the cover got an update.

Did I read book one, you might wonder? No. I sure didn’t. Yet again, I missed that I was requesting a sequel. But, in this case, it didn’t seem to matter. This is a really short book (165 pages), but a surprising amount of that is devoted to recapping what took place in book one. I mean, there’s still a good amount of story here, don’t get me wrong, but it definitely didn’t seem to have hurt me to have not read the first one.

The Grimlock is definitely an interesting monster – I like that he’s physically a big icky (that’s a technical term), but also that he can (and does) possess and control people, which I imagine is a useful skill when one is a big scary monster. He can even reanimate the dead!

I just wish that I liked any of the other characters as much as I did the Grimlock. The closest I got was Mrs. Bishop – the ghost of the previous occupant of Kensington, and a distant relative of Joseph’s. She seemed like she was probably an interesting lady. She tried during her own lifetime some 100 years before our heroes arrived to conquer the Grimlock, but clearly she did not succeed.

I found all of the other characters to be pretty flat. I wish the book was longer so that maybe they could have been fleshed out a little further. Although I have to imagine that if this was what we had by book two in the series, maybe additional length wouldn’t have changed anything. It seemed like Sophie wanted one thing: Joseph’s love. Joseph at least had two motivations: Sophie’s safety and killing the Grimlock. Garrett and Elsie, despite figuring heavily into the storyline received very little attention.

Here’s a spot where added length would have been really beneficial: tell me more about what it was like for Elsie, being all stuck up inside herself with the Grimlock! I bet that would have made for some interesting reading – I can’t imagine she just calmly took it. There had to have been some internal battling going on. That could have provided some much needed meat to what was otherwise a pretty bare-bones story.

About the Author:
Darcy is the USA Today Bestselling author of Hunted, The Haunting of Ashburn House, Craven Manor, and more than a dozen horror and suspense titles.

She lives on the Central Coast of Australia with her family, cats, and a garden full of herbs and vegetables.

Darcy loves forests, especially old-growth forests where the trees dwarf anyone who steps between them. Wherever she lives, she tries to have a mountain range close by.

Rating:

⭐⭐⭐

Ultimately, I just wanted more story. I feel like this story had a lot more that wanted to be told than ultimately was.

When a family is cursed, escape is never easy; maybe impossible. It doesn't seem to matter that the family home is gone, the ancient monster won't be avoided. Sophie and husband Joseph are in for more terrifying adventures, potentially fatal encounters.


I enjoyed the clever creation of the "monster " and the spooky events. However, I found Sophie's co-dependence on her husband annoying. After all she's been through, before marriage and at the family estate, Northwood, ought to have built character and independence.

Another gripping and entertaining by this author. I loved the atmosphere, the great plot and the characters.
I couldn't put it down and I strongly recommend it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

So I read House of Shadows (the first book in this series) in one day, and as soon as I finished it, I had to go straight on to this book. Normally if I'm reading a series, I like to take a break between each installment but for this I just had to know what happened. The ending of House of Shadows was a cliff hanger and I just had to keep going. House of Secrets is just as good and spooky. I managed to read it all in one day and now I need to find more from this author.

Many thanks to Net Galley, Poisoned Pen Press and Darcy Coates for a chance to read and review this book.

House of Secrets is book # 2 in the House of Shadows series, and as always with me and my craziness, have missed reading book #1. Well, honestly, as I read book 2, never felt like I missed much but had a strong desire to know what has transpired in Northwood and their fight against the Grimlock. And the only Grimlock I have heard is from Transformers and thereby pictured it exactly like that in my mind.

Sophie and Joseph have won the war against Grimlock and is recuperating at Sophie’s father’s house when they are summoned by Joseph’s uncle Garrett to Kensington as the nightmare has reared its ugly head again. The much feared and dreaded Grimlock which Sophie had believed to be destroyed after the Northwood burned to the ground is not actually dead but has attached itself to Garrett’s daughter Elise. Arriving at the dead town and seeing the dilapidated and crumbling mansion that is Kensington, Sophie becomes adamant in her decision in helping Joseph and Garrett defeat the monster. And Kensington is the place to be as the late Miss Bishop has devoted her life to the study of this creature and its destruction.

House of Secrets is a fast-paced story with incidents happening one after another with the discovery of ghosts and decayed bodies in the collapsed part of the house and the dead town coming back to life with resurrected ghosts. The ending of the story was action packed thrill with everyone including the young Elise playing a part. The location and the menacing atmosphere add to the chill factor but I would have still loved to have more ominous and sinister occurrences with the Grimlock. The still developing romance between the newly married Sophie and Joseph was beautiful but Joseph’s hot and cold approach was confusing even with the reasons explained.

In all, a quick read that was immensely enjoyed.

House of secrets is my second read from Darcy Coates. My first read was House of shadows.. House of Secrets picks up the story from the end of house of shadows.. was not much impressed about the romance.. but felt good to be spooked and thrilled! Gotta love Darcy’s writting.. its clean, gothic, horror and non gory novel! Read it for an amazing goth experience..
Thank you NetGalley, Darcy Coates and Poisoned Pen press for the ARC. This review is my own and is not influenced in any way!