I became a fan of Eden Darry when she scared the pants off me with her debut novel, The House. I became an even bigger fan of hers when she had me in stitches with her campy horror/romance novel, Z-Town, about zombies overrunning Provincetown. Now with her current book, Quiet Village, she is again scaring off a necessary article of clothing from my anatomy.

Collie Noonan’s sister is murdered at the beginning of the story. Collie and her niece (Lana) decide to move to a small village called Hyam to escape the publicity. There they meet Emily Lassiter who is working as a teacher at the village school though that isn’t the only reason she is there. Collie and Lana are looking for peace and quiet. What they and Emily find is anything but peaceful.

When I started reading this story, I decided to only read it during the daytime. I knew if I continued to read after dark, I would be watching the light fade to black outside my windows, and would then be listening to the night breeze and the wild animals (I live in the country) rustling in the trees and bushes right outside. Then I would be sleeping with the lights on all night. It’s a good thing I did read during the daytime because the author created a world that could send chills up and down your spine, and have you looking over your shoulder. One of the author’s strengths is creating an atmosphere so creepy that even a sleepy little village in the country gradually seems like one of the most terrifying places to be. The characters are well suited for the roles they have in the story, and the romance between Collie and Emily gives the reader at least some break from the more frightening aspects of this tale.

This novel is first and foremost a paranormal horror story and a psychological thriller. It is filled with murder, monsters in the night, and a little romance. Just be prepared to leave the lights on if you read it at night…and hold on to your pants. I’m giving this book a 4.5 star rating.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.

Rainbow Reflections:
https://rainbowreflections.home.blog/

This was so much fun! I had a blast reading this. I didn't have very many expectations because I haven't read Eden Darry before, and this book exceeded everything.

Quiet Village focuses on the small village of Hyam. Following a gruesome murder of domestic violence, Collie is the new caregiver for her niece, Lana. Also living in the town is Emily, an undercover reporter desperately trying to find the truth about her brother's disappearance from the same village some months back. Collie and Emily are attracted to each other, but they each have too much on their plates to be able to support a relationship. In the midst of this, something is stalking them from the bushes. Something that isn't human.

I really loved the characters in this book. Collie and Emily are both interesting with fully-realized motivations for their behavior. I enjoyed seeing their progress (even if their prospective internal narration often got repetitive). I also really liked Lana. I'm not usually a big fan of kids in books so Lana was the exception. That being said, I'm not sure she really acted like a 10-year-old. I might have liked her so much because she was so mature. I also really liked the narration from the monster. Others have said they didn't care for it, but I think it added to the necessary humanity of the monster.

Overall, tons of fun! The romance itself was probably only a 3/3.5 for me, but the paranormal elements really brought it up and fulfilled the areas I thought were a little lacking. I'm excited to read more by Eden Darry!

**I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher!

I am a huge fan of horrors that take place in small, rural communities where something just feels a bit off. Therefore, the title of this book alone caught my attention and I prepared myself for a good creepfest.

When Collie’s sister Sasha is murdered by her violent ex, Collie becomes the sole guardian of her ten-year-old niece Lana. To get away from the press surrounding them, Collie and Lana move to the small village of Hyam in Suffolk. Emily is a former journalist turned teacher who has recently moved to Hyam in the hopes of finding out what happened to her brother Charlie who disappeared years before. But residents of Hyam aren’t friendly towards outsiders and as the Spring Fair approaches and very strange unexplainable things start happening, Collie, Emily and Lana all feel that someone -or something- is watching them very closely.

Darry does an amazing job of depicting a small, should-be-welcoming, village that really isn’t. Hyam is steeped in very ancient history and I could certainly feel that as I walked around it with the characters. I wasn’t quite sure exactly what was happening until quite near the end, which I really appreciated because it meant that I wasn’t waiting for a predictable climax to hit.

We also get passages narrated by the monster, as it waits in bushes for its prey to come close enough. These parts really chilled me and it felt as if it was silently stalking me as I moved through the pages. The fact that it wasn’t actually seen by anyone until the final showdown only made it scarier. Although I picked up on the Red Riding Hood references and I had my suspicions that it was some kind of wolf, I wasn’t familiar enough with local folklore to fully understand exactly what it was until it was revealed.

As part of the Spring Fair celebrations, Hyam villagers display incredibly creepy scarecrows in front of their houses. There’s a scene towards the end of the book involving Emily’s scarecrow that I know will haunt me for a very long time. I honestly didn’t know that I was afraid of scarecrows -I possibly wasn’t before reading this book!

One thing I didn’t like was the romantic element. It’s quite unusual for a horror book to have a romance embedded in it, let alone for both parts to be done well. Collie and Emily play this uncertain will-they-won’t-they game but the way that they talk about each other wasn’t terribly convincing to me. Both of them talk about each other to other people but something about these conversations didn’t really ring true as real conversations that people have -at least not adult women.

Both Collie and Emily also seem to consider all other women of appropriate dating age in terms of their romantic eligibility. I am not a lesbian, so perhaps I’m wrong but I’m sure that just because a woman is attracted to other women, it doesn’t mean that she is attracted to all other women. Unfortunately, the repetitive flirting with almost every briefly mentioned female character gave off this impression and it got really tired quite quickly.

Before he disappeared, Emily was in regular contact with her brother Charlie over e-mail. Just before he stopped replying to her, he seemed incredibly anxious and convinced that something in Hyam was out to get him. Reading these little snippets of e-mails was so harrowing and added to the claustrophobic, unsettling atmosphere surrounding the village.

Quiet Village is a very scary, folk horror story with some scenes that will imprint themselves on your mind for a long time after you’ve finished reading. The ending is satisfying but something about it felt a little too neat. I would have liked an extra epilogue that completely ripped apart the nicely tied up loose ends. It is violent and unsettling but it features a lovely cast of diverse characters. Although I wasn’t a fan of the romance, I’m sure other readers will be. I still enjoyed it for the genuinely scary horror it is.

This is my first book by this author. Well Done!
There's nothing like mystery in a small Village/ Town. It was a bit creepy but I enjoyed the book. It turned out to be quite a page turner. The characters were great. 4 Stars I recommend.


Thank you NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I was really looking forward to reading this, as horror and queer romance are my two favourite genres, and I was keen to see how they were combined. Ultimately, I don't feel they were combined all that well, unfortunately. The horror parts weren't particularly scary, the parts from the "monster"'s point of view felt a little silly, and the final reveal was obvious. The romance also felt unconvincing to me, mostly as the character weren't fleshed out enough for me to fully believe in them or care whether they worked out. Still, it was fun seeing a merging of these two genres.

3.5 stars. After reading the blurb of this book I was not sure what to expect, but I generally enjoy paranormal and thriller/horror stories, so this was an easy choice. The story overall was entertaining, not the most surprising, but fun if you’re looking for some escapism.

The book starts with a bang, the brutal death of Collie’s sister and Lana’s mother, Sasha. Collie now gets custody over Lana and they decide to move from London to the countryside, to get away from all it all. But Hyam, their new hometown, turns out to be a small, unfriendly, and creepy town. The storyline piqued my interest from the beginning. Almost immediately you get to know the villain of this story, but the fate of our mains and the role of the townspeople (if any) remains unclear. The story slowly builds towards the last 20% were all the action happens and especially this last part grabbed me. Parts of the story were not that hard to guess, but there was some good tension build-up and creepy moments.

The romance storyline between Collie and Emily (Lana’s teacher and secretly an undercover reporter) starts with some immediate attraction. They both have their reasons why they shouldn’t date, which gives some nice push and pull, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of the romance. I thought there was slightly too much internal dialogue and I didn’t really feel the chemistry between them.

The writing is easily readable, although it was a bit repetitive during the first part of the book. The book is written in third person with multiple POV’s. I liked both mains and I especially liked the POV of Lana, she’s such a sweet kid. It was interesting to see how the death of her mother affected her decision making on how to interact with Collie (I found it quite sad really). I have to note though that she doesn’t appear not to grieve for her mother, which was very strange, and for a 10-year old she’s probably too mature and responsible. A POV that did not work well was the one from the villain, the insight it gave didn’t really add much to the story for me, if at all, it reduced some of the tension. Luckily, this POV only makes up a very small portion of the book.

All in all, an entertaining creeper story to get away from “normal life” for a few hours.

Excellent, totally terrifying read!! Not really my genre, but I was intrigued. I'd encourage anyone to check this out. Stalking monster, disappearances, a village with a VERY messy past.

After her sister's murder, Collie and her now-orphaned niece move to the rural village of Hyam - niece, Lana, literally picked it out off the internet. Neither knows anything about the mysterious disappearances, but the village instantly makes them both uneasy. Emily is a journalist - under-cover as a teacher - who is investigating the town after her brother disappeared there. All three - and Collie's awesome BFF, Tony - are in for a horrific ride as the town's Spring Festival approaches.

**I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

As in all horror books (although this would be more a thriller than horror in my opinion) the actions of the main characters often makes you wonder why they would do/wouldn't do *that*. There were a little too much of these moments in this book combined with some other thing that didn't seem all that realistic. Mainly the mental condition of a 10 year old girl who recently lost her mother due to an abusive boyfriend. But well, a scary creature is also not very realistic so I was able to overlook it. The thriller part definitely had some creepy moments and even though you're able to figure it out rather quickly it was still a nice read. The romance part was ok, if you like a lot of internal dialogue about how they shouldn't do anything coupled with longing glances and an overall lack of communication.
It was not a great read, but I will still round it up to 3 stars since it managed to keep my attention with the creature storyline and the last 20% of the book it picked up in pace and action. Just don't pick up this book if you are mainly going for the romance, if you like a nice enough thriller with a not too complicated plot this could be a book to enjoy in your downtime.

***An ARC was provided by Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. ***

I received a copy of this e-arc in exchange for an honest review thanks to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books.

Wow! What a book!

It’s classed as horror but I thought it would be more of a thriller. However, it certainly met the horror expectations. I could picture this as a film as I was reading it.

This book has some rather creepy moments. Creepy where it makes you jump at the slightest noise whilst you’re reading it. It probably didn’t help that I was reading outside, at night, where it was silent.

I found it very gripping, I pretty much read it in one sitting.

The synopsis led me to believe that the romance was just sprinkled in but in reality, it was pretty prevalent throughout the entire story. I wasn't too captivated by this story.

Yup! Read this in one sitting! Probably one of the better horror books I've read in a while... but I must say I am a fan of Eden Darry! If you're not into this kind of genre then id give this book a miss... if you've not read a horror book before then I highly recommend Eden Darry books. Quiet read Village is a page-turner, has great characters, and has a good storyline. Even tho it's a horror, there is a mix of some romance there too.

I've given Quiet Village a 4 star. Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this story.

Quiet Village by Eden Darry is an easy book to read, with plenty of mystery to keep you turning the pages, while there's plenty of good chemistry between the main characters. I love the small town feel, and new resident to a small town in a novel always results in mystery, questioning, and eventually (maybe) getting to know them. This was no exception.

I'm a fan of crime/ thriller and some horror, much less so paranormal, but this one had enough of the other elements to keep me interested!

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book just reaffirmed that I am REALLY not a romance fan. My star rating is therefore based on my personal preference. I don't really feel like it's my place to review this as I found myself growing bored and skimming most of it.

This story was really good. The spook factor was at a 10. I can honestly say that reading this story gave me chills. It actually got to the point where I was kind of scared to turn the page. The romance between Collie and Emily was hot, but I would say the creepy village was the main focus. There was some really strange and spooky things going on in that place, but I'm not going to give any spoilers. I loved how Collie and Emily were so family oriented, Emily ,because she's searching for her brother Charlie who's missing and Collie who took over the care of her niece Lana, because of the horrific murder of Collies twin sister Sasha. I am really looking forward to what this author writes next, her books keep getting better and better. I would definitely recommend this book to my friends and family.

I missed that this was a horror-slash-romance book and only saw it advertised as horror, thus was not expecting the romance bit, which is a genre I dislike. The horror bit has a good premise, though I wasn't fully satisfied by the ending. The story centers on Collie and Emily, the former who has custody of her niece since her sister was murdered, and the latter trying to figure out what happened to her brother, who disappeared. Both end up in the same small town, where villagers are unfriendly and there is clearly something going on. The POV shifts between both women, interspersed with chapters from the unknown villain.

The book had definite creepy parts. It was a bit of a slow burn, but when it call came to a head, I wished that there had been more build-up and additional background on what had happened in the past to bring it all together. The creepy scarecrow was a great touch and I wish there had been more of that too.

I am not into romances anyway, and was particularly frustrated with the fact that a lot of time was spend on internal dialogue where Collie and Emily were bemoaning the irresponsibility of getting together based on everything else that was going on in their lives, despite their clear attraction to each other. There was more time spent on internal dialogue than actions, in my opinion.

Overall, I found this more romance than horror, though the horror had a decent premise. It's a fairly fast read with some creepy bits throughout. 2.5 stars for me. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Quiet Place had the makings to be a great horror/romance. The characters were likable and well defined. The setting and backdrop set it up for a really intriguing read. Unfortunately the balance was off. There was a bit of redundancy in the the build up during the first 80%. The last 20% of the book was action packed and great, but it took awhile to get there. The love story played a more minor role in the book and was approached almost as if it were an after thought.

Quiet Village’s book blurb led me to believe this was a paranormal horror story with a bit of romance squeezed into it. In reality the romance plays a much larger role in the book which is fine with me. I stand on the squeamish side of the scale when it comes to horror so I enjoyed the emphasis being spread around.
Due to a family tragedy Collie Noonan packs up her ten year old niece Sasha and leaves London to settle into village life. But a quiet life is not what she finds in the village of Hyam. Something not of this world is stalking Collie , Sasha and Sasha’s school teacher Emily.
There is no build up of suspense as to who is the stalker as the information is easy to piece together early in the novel. The actual suspense is when will they attack and why is the town so weird to all three of them. I will not lie that I was very frightened throughout the story but remember I am lightweight when it comes to horror.
I am not a fan of the internal dialogues Collie, Sasha and Emily had throughout the novel. It felt to me that writer Eden Darry was taking the easy way out to further
the storyline. When the internal dialogue became crucial to the story it had less impact due to its over use.
There were a few other issues I had with the storyline pertaining to Sasha’s response to the family tragedy. She seemed just too well adjusted and handled things better than her Aunt.
The thing I really enjoyed was the budding romance between Collie and Emily. It was paced and timed perfectly with plausible reasons why it should not happen. The tug and pull back was very realistic.
Overall I found the novel entertaining with likeable characters and I am willing to overlook my minor issues . Some books are just meant to scare and entertain you. Getting too bogged down on realistic issues not being up to snuff is a fool’s errand. After all how do we know what is realistic in Hyam with a snarling, limb tearing beast hidden in their woods.
3⭐️ but a fun read if you take it as it is.

Thank you to Net Galley for sending me a free Arc for my honest opinion.

Must romance fiction be dumb? Is insulting one’s intelligence a prerequisite to the genre? I don’t normally read this sort of thing, this was more of an experiment that turned out to be a confirmation of my theory that lamentably the answer to those questions might be a resounding yes.
I watched a documentary program about romance genre once, which actually heavily featured this publisher and these types of happily ever after slices of cheesy life and apparently there’s a huge market for it, but the appeal eludes me.
You’d think a creature feature with lesbians in it would have at least some redeeming qualities, but no. It’s at best a flat recital of a number of trite clichés, featuring cardboard characters unincumbered by either dimensions or development and ridiculously unrealistic (who lives/thinks/acts like this) scenarios. Yes, even for a creature feature, in fact the creature is more realistic than these pressed paper cutouts.
So, does this sound familiar? People from a large city relocate to a tiny village where the unfriendly villagers might be hiding a deadly secret? If it doesn’t…you might very well love this book. If it does, just wait, it gets dumber from there.
Collie’s beloved twin sister gets brutally murdered by an abusive ex, leaving her ten year old daughter alone. Now Collie has a kid (though because the characters here are written without so much as a basic grasp on psychology, the kid is perfectly well adjusted and ready to play matchmaker for her aunt, among other things, none of those traumatized orphans in this story)
to take care off and their first act is to leave London for the boonies. And they do this by essentially letting the kid do the internet version of spinning the globe and putting a finger down. Because that’s just the kind of thing Collie does.
And so they end up in a creepy village.
And then there’s Emily, who has more of a reason for being in the creepy village, she is investigating her beloved brother’s disappearance. She’s been at it for a while with nothing to show for it and meanwhile is making her living as a teacher in a local school with a creepy (of course she would be) giant of a woman in charge.
Collie and Emily meet. Sparks do that thing they do. And from there on there’s a laughably drawn out will they/won’t they situation going on. Except that of course you know exactly how it’s going to play out, because all roads lead to the happily ever after thing that is actually a requirement for these books.
Yes, there’s also a creature lurking in the woods, but who can pay attention to that with all the heavy panting the ladies are doing in each other’s direction.
And of course, each of them has a gay bff, one’s even trans, because why not. There are even more potential love interests right there in the village, because that’s what small creepy insular villages are known for, burgeoning gay life. And of course everyone gets along so nicely and the perfectly well adjusted kid adores them all. Will they defeat the evil creature? Will love conquer all? Well, not like there was ever a choice.
I’m sure I’m going to be a dissenting minority here, because one of the main things that romance documentary taught is that the fans of this genre have pretty low standards and will defend what they love vociferously, irrespective of obviously low quality of the material.
If you like your fiction unoriginal, predictable and unrealistic, your love stories covered in cheap cheese and your scares muffled…this banality might be right up your alley. It was readable, objectively. Technically readable and not offensively terrible, just, you know, dumb. And also too long for what it was. Maybe as a novella it would have just been a laughably silly distraction, but at a novel length, its shortcomings are difficult to ignore. Pass. Thanks Netgalley.

Collie's sister was mysteriously murdered and she is left to care for her 10 year old niece. She inexplicably decided to let Lana choose their new home and Lana chooses a small town, a village really in Hyam.
The villagers are close knit and seemingly rude to the new neighbors.

As Collie becomes interested in her niece's teacher Emily, strange things take place in and around the home.
It's a supernatural tale sure to cause goosebumps among those who enjoyed a gothic feel.

My one complaint is that the descriptions and writing was a bit simplistic. It was hard to me to really dive into the story. and connect with what was happening. Still, a good supernatural tale and worth reading. Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Quiet Village Review

Thank you so much Netgalley, Bold Strokes Books, and Eden Darry for this Arc, in exchange for an honest review!

Creepy scarecrow cult? Sign me up! I really love books that have that small village vibe to it and this was was very creepy. There were some times my heart was literally racing! Quiet Village was a 4/5 ⭐️ for me. I really enjoyed all the characters in this book. I would definitely consider this to be a bit of fantasy as well (brothers grim like). One thing that bothered me was the romance. I am not a romance reading girl, so I’m not exactly sure how it’s supposed to go. I felt like half of the book was just adjectives like hot, gorgeous, attractive, good looking, beautiful. We get it, the characters like/ are attracted to each other. I also thought that the last scene was really unnecessary. This book will definitely be a hard one to forget!