I'd actually happily give this book 4 1/2 stars were in possible, I've thoroughly enjoyed reading it!

When Terri takes a job restoring the old, dilapidated (but rather beautiful!) Vandermere Manor, she and her daughter move into the Manor for a year, whilst restoration is underway. With a rather unusual employer adding to the mix, it isnt long before Terri and her daughter begin to experience some rather strange happenings at the Manor.

The Restoration immediately draws you in, and wastes no time with getting the scaring underway! A whole host of interesting characters feature in the book, I especially loved the character of Terri - although being far from perfect, and making a few questionable choices - for me, this occasional self doubt, and flawed decisions helped in making her more likeable to me. I especially loved her witty one liners and sarcasm that featured throughout,

If I were to be extremely picky, I would've enjoyed just a wee bit more back story in places, even of our main characters Terri & Dallas - it's difficult, because the quick pace and no nonsense is one of things I actually enjoyed about the book ... I didnt hang around waiting for the action to start - we got straight into it! (A little Stephen King / Susan Hill esque potentially?) But at the same time, I would've loved to get maybe a little more feel of some of the characters, particularly The Vandermere's.

Overall, I've really enjoyed this - this will be perfect dark evening reading with your feet tucked under a blanket and ambient lighting! I'm excited to read more from J H Moncrieff.

Thank you to Flame Tree Press & Netgalley for the eARC copy of The Restoration, I've really enjoyed exploring the events of Vandermere Manor!

Trigger Warnings - N/A - an easy read horror with very mild gore

Single mom Terri is hired to restore the infamous old Vandermere Manor back to the glory of a century ago. Desperate for the income, Terri moves in with her young daughter, Dallas, and weirdness ensues.
Lonely Dallas immediately makes a new friend. He’s an odd boy who speaks and dresses in an old fashioned way and it isn’t long before Dallas also discovers he has a short temper and can be a bit mean spirited.
Imaginary friends are part of childhood, sure they are. Terri soon begins to believe that Dallas’ friend is real....as real as the deep scratches the little guy left across her face during one of his tantrums. It appears that her daughter has befriended the long dead Niles Vandermere.
Niles has a one other friend on this earth, that would be Gertie the former caretaker for the property. Gertie is convinced that Niles was murdered and is obsessed with solving the crime. Terri is convinced that Gertie is insane. Dallas is just plain scared.
The story twists and turns and comes back again. We find that Niles is just full of surprises, and so is Terri’s employer, Niles’ 100 year old sister.
I enjoyed #Restoration quite a bit. Thank you #netgalley and #FlameTreePress for allowing me to read and review this ARC.

"Sometimes I will, then again I think I won't." The words to that classic rock 'n roll song come back to me as I think about how to review The Restoration. I was drawn to this book because I love old houses, too, just like the protagonist. Disclaimer: My husband is a professional (and gifted and award-winning I might add) preservationist. So I came to this story knowing what it takes to restore a home of this size and quality.

Here's why I both liked and didn't like the book. I'm not going to quibble about the restoration part because one person can't restore a house like that in a year and for less than a few million bucks and without a crew. For the sake of the story, we'll pretend Terri can. What I liked about the book is that it was a good mystery with lots of red herrings. The reader has to figure out who got murdered, who murdered who, if anybody else got murdered, and why the ghosts talk like they lived in the 1820's instead of the 1920's. The psychopathic kiddo ghost would have been saying "bee's knees" instead of talking like a stiff (even though he was a stiff.) So far, so good.

But, I'm a mom. Terri, the mom in the book, was so annoying and immature. For instance, during a Ouija board conversation with a violent, deranged ghost, Terri says she's bored, even though she's forever worrying that her kid will say she's bored. Even though the ghost has already smashed things, Terri has to goad him over and over...because she's bored. Predictable smashings result. Who would endanger her child like that? I know this would really shorten the book, but the first time a ghost tried to clobber my kid with antique books and toys, we'd be out of there!

All kinds of terrible things happen, the ghost molests and tries to kill a woman, he slashes Terri's face, he breaks things, although he occasionally cleans up after himself. Will miracles never cease? Still, Terri stays on with her daughter there...after the ghost molests and attacks another character. I'd have a child away from a predator ghost before he could say, "Boo!"

I know a reader doesn't have to like the protagonist, but I couldn't respect this protagonist.

I'm torn. A good mystery but I disliked the main character. She usually acted more like a child than her child did. Don't get me started on the eye-rolling and lip biting. With the mom being like a teenager, and with all the eye-rolling and lip biting, I thought I was reading YA. I'll give this a 3.5, but I would have liked it better if the adult acted more like an adult.

I love haunted house stories and can’t get enough of them, so I was really looking forward to reading this. Unfortunately I found it a little disappointing. The characters were not compelling, the story felt unoriginal, and the villains’ dialogue in particular came across as cheesy. There’s so much fresh new ground to cover with haunted house stories, so it’s a shame when writers just do the same old thing.

'The Restoration' feels like a very classic, go-to haunted mansion story. It's an easy read and sets the tone pretty early. Due to its length of 250 pages the story moves at a rapid pace. Conflict escalates too fast to appear genuine. I'm missing desciptions of the house and the environment; I have no idea how the house looks and the book therefore couldn't create a great atmosphere for me. Sadly this novel isn't very spooky, it quickly develops into a mýstery with slasher elements. The ghosts also just come by and tell the characters all they need to know. The main character stays pretty one dimensional and becomes more and more insufferable over the course of the story. I like the exploration of the mother-daughter-relationship though.
If you seek a simple ghost story, you might still be entertained by this novel. For me it missed the mark and I give it a 2.5 stars.