This book began as a fantastic dual storyline book but as it got closer to, and then diverged from, the meeting point, it just got a bit messy. Didn't really keep my interest and, months removed, can't even remember enough about it to give it a proper review.

Alex is excited for the future. She has moved, with her two children, to an ecovillage called Pine Ridge, a place where she hopes she can make a fresh start and live a more nature-based life. When she arrives, however, she finds a strange box at her doorstep, a box which sets off a strange series of events, leading Alex to face some tough decisions while trying to protect her children. Is Pine Ridge as idyllic as it seems, or are there buried secrets?

Renee lives on a farm with her husband, Michael, and her son, Gabriel. They have faced many challenges recently, especially a drought, but with the arrival of rain the future is starting to look bright again. When Gabriel disappears Renee’s life is flipped upside down, her desperation to find her son growing with each passing day. Will Renee ever find out where her son is, or what happened to him?

The Shadow House was a twisted thriller that I really enjoyed. Told from the viewpoints of two women, Alex and Renee, the two different perspectives and personalities wonderfully tell the story, playing off each other and coming together perfectly at the end. I liked that there are so many strong, fierce female characters in this novel. I also loved all of the mysteric aspects of this novel, as well as how they all connect to each other by the conclusion of The Shadow House. There is a lot of mirroring throughout the story and Downes presents it so well.

I highly recommend The SHadow House by Anna Downes; it was a page-turner that I could not put down. Be sure to check it out when it publishes on April 5th. Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for gifting to me a digital copy of The Shadow House, given in exchange for an honest review; all opinions are my own.

I enjoyed The Shadow House and think that it will likely be pretty popular come pub date.

I do have to say though - it was a VERY slow build and I kept losing interest/attention. I would pick up my phone/go do laundry/check the TV and that is really unlike me while reading.

I think my issue was the pacing of the story, not the story itself, because that I really enjoyed!

Though I was excited to read this book, given all the glowing reviews, and despite the premise that sounded very intriguing, it never really captured my attention and took me so long to finish. I'm not sure if I was just restless, reading this while following the disturbing and distressing developments in the war in Ukraine, but I just couldn't connect to the story of the characters. That being said, the writing is good and the setting very evocative. It may simply have been a case of bad timing for this one, unfortunately.

I loved the fact that the seemingly idyllic is teeming beneath the surface. Alex , looking to start over relocates to Pine Ridge to a house with secrets it is willing to harm to protect. Alex is no cowering shadow of a women and is prepared to meet whatever the house has to see that she and her children are protected.

I really enjoyed The Safe Place so I was excited to read another novel by Anna Downes. Unfortunately I wasn't as impressed with this one. It was so slow moving and took a really long time to get into. I liked the dual timeline and the hints at the mystery witch in the woods but it just was a little anti-climactic for me once we found out what was really going on. Overall, I felt like a lot of the storyline could have been skipped and we would have ended at the same result without so much dull reading. I would still read another novel by Anna Downes when she comes out with one. This one just wasn't it for me. Thank you Netgalley and Minotaur Books for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I recently read The Shadow House by Anna Downes, a creepy, atmospheric page turner that pecks at all a mother's worst nightmares.

A newly single mother, Alex, moves to a new little rural community, where she is determined to start a new life with her teenage son and baby daughter. Life wasn't always perfect but she loves her children and will protect them at all costs. Strangec things start happening, the town has a strange history, there is talks of a witch that will bring bones, then dolls, and finally blood before they go missing. Will Alex be able to protect her children here, well the towns eerie history be solved?

I was hooked to this one right from the start, told in a dual narrative of two women. I was captivated by the towns history and how both the two women's stories came together to uncover what occurred years ago. This thriller is tense, twisty, creepy, addictive unputdownable that you'll definitely want to add to your spring reading list.

I really enjoyed this author’s first book so I was excited to read this second one. It wasn’t a bad mystery/thriller, but it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. I liked the two timelines, but I felt like they were a little misleading as I felt like the past timeline was further back than the few years it ended up being. The writing was good and it started out with excellent creepy vibes, but the ending felt a bit anti=climactic and the romance ended up being a bigger focus than I would have preferred.

Alex has left her abusive boyfriend Stuart and brought her two kids teenager Ollie and 8 month old Kara to an eco-community for a fresh start. It also seems that Ollie had gotten into some trouble at school and needed to start over. Alex feel the community is perfect for them but then she starts to get strange “presents” like a dead bird and a creepy doll. She hears the children talk about a witch that will send you presents before taking someone away. Alex becomes really concerned when she realizes a boy did disappear before and she is frantic to find out what happened then so she can determine if her children are safe.

I thought that this book was way too long, I especially had trouble getting into it at the beginning. In her author's note, she mentioned that the book was about fear, and there was certainly plenty of that. But I felt it was more about the main character having to grow up, stop running from her problems and start acting like a mother. And in addition to that, I really had a hard time feeling anything for any of the characters.

“The bones come first. A gift, but nothing wanted. Next, a doll: a likeness, a promise. And the blood marks the choice. It finds a face, and then you know.”

The Plot: Okay, Alex suddenly decides (because of reasons) to move with her teenaged son and infant daughter to a…well, her son calls it a “hippie commune,” but it’s an ecovillage. This is a trial-run kind of a thing. Alex has three months to decide if she’d like to build a home and permanently relocate to the…place.

Right off the bat, things are unsettling. There’s a farmhouse that is rumored to be haunted. And where there are rumors of ghosts, there are…dun, dun, dun…shadows. Cue the book’s title. Roll credits.

Shadows are followed by rustlings in the woods, strange symbols, terrifying dreams, shriek-worthy “gifts,” and more! Eek! As is so often the case, present questions find their answers in the past.

Gracious, I was baffled, uncomfortable, a little freaked out, and loving every minute of this experience. I was glued to the pages from start to finish. Seriously, the only noises I made were the occasional screams of “What. Is. Happening?!?!”

Do yourselves a favorite, read this one ASAP, and keep Anna Downes on your auto-buy lists!

Such an atmospheric read!

I love when a book sucks you into the feel of it. I felt like i was in this place with the characters.

I will say though the first half or so was a bit slow. It was a lot about the every day life of the family. Which was relatable for me… but not particularly thrilling. But it did set the tone i think. Relevant tho to explain the family dynamics and how they got there and in these situations.

The second half really gears up and was a bit twisty! I flew through it at this point. I wasn’t expecting the few reveals that popped out. They did shock me.

There was many layers to this. Many things happening. I loved the two perspectives that made this more of a mystery and puzzling. And just a hint of romance in here too.. which i liked! It wasn’t too much, just enough.

Overall, while the beginning was a tad slow, i ended up really enjoying this book!

The Bones, The Doll, The Blood.

A mystery thriller set in an eco village in Australia. This book a good mystery for an afternoon or an evening read. It kept me guessing.

Alex flees an abusive husband and lands in an eco village in Australia. She is raising a teenage son and a baby daughter. Things are not good between her and her son but she is trying. She makes friends with the neighbor and everyone seems friendly. She thinks she will like it here and maybe can lay down some roots.

Then strange events start happening and they parallel what she has heard from others in the community. There is talk of a witch and the disappearance of a young boy. She thinks the community has her back until she doesn't . Suddenly she is afraid for her children. She knows she will do anything to protect them.

There are a lot of secrets in this small eco village. Some are not who they seem. Alex is totally confused, nothing is as it seems. Those she thought were friends suddenly are not. The real story is more shocking that anyone could imagine and the person terrorizing her family is someone that would never be suspected of doing so. There are a lot of secrets in this small eco village

This was a good mystery and I would recommend it to those that like mysteries.

Thanks to Anna Downes for writing a good mystery, to St. Martin's Press for publishing it and to NetGalley for making it available for me to read and review. All opinions are my own.

When Alex and her teenage son move to Pine Ridge, a rural community, they are going for a new start. When bizarre events start occurring, she finds out the same events happened years ago and ended in tragedy.

For some reason I had the author wrong and thought she had wrote a book I didn’t like so I wasn’t super excited about this one. Then it blew it out of the park for me. Then I did my research and realized she wrote The Safe Place, which I also enjoyed. It took some time to pick up, but once it did I couldn’t put it down. There are two perspectives and you’re not quite sure how they come together but the story will get there. And when it does, be ready because it’s exciting!

“It was just one problem after the next,
Like Hydra’s heads. You chopped off one and two more sprouted immediately in its place.”

The Shadow House comes out 4/5.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Minotaur books for sending me an early copy of The Shadow House by Anna Downes. I really enjoyed The Safe Place, also by this author so I was excited to read it.

Alex, a single mother who is running from her past, settles in a rural community with dark secrets of its own. Most of the residents are welcoming, but not all. After receiving disturbing packages and notes, Alex is suddenly not feeling so welcome and must protect her family.

This one took me a while to get into but once I did I couldn’t stop reading it. I would say this is more of a slower paced mystery that amps up with a fast-paced and unsuspecting ending. The book is told in alternating povs and I liked each of the women’s stories. The author does a great job of building a creepy atmosphere throughout the book as well. Along the way a lot of weird and unsettling events occur and the ending connects them all perfectly. Another well written book by Downes! This one releases April 5th!

The Shadow House by Anna Downes

A house with deadly secrets. An mother who’ll risk everything to bring them to flight.

This book was all about fear and was fearful at times. The secrets had to be confessed and brought out in the open. Very scary characters. I recommend this book.

Thanks to Net Galley for sending me an advanced reader’s copy for my review.

Alex flees her abusive, controlling boyfriend, Stuart, who she was living with and takes her two children, 14-year-old Oliver and 8-month-old Kara to an idyllic commune-type community called Pine Ridge. Immediately upon arriving, weird and creepy things begin to happen. Oliver is stuck in his computer/gaming mode and is very disrespectful while Kara seems to cry all the time, so Alex seems to do a lot of yelling. I thought this was going to be a thriller but it has more of a paranormal creepy feel to it. The story kind of dragged a big in the middle but then picked back up and was a good overall read. I did feel there were some loose ends that were not quite tied up which left me with questions, but overall I enjoyed this book.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this very interesting and creepy read.

The Shadow House, by Anna Downes, is an enticingly creepy story about a woman determined to protect herself and her two children from an abusive situation by moving to a remote commune, of sorts, tucked away in rural Australian forested farmland. Upon arrival, she discovers that new, mysteriously unnerving dangers await them. The house and surrounding land seem to harbor dark secrets of their own that haunt the new residents.

This is an absolutely spellbinding, chillingly disturbing story that will have you flipping the pages to ease your tension and find out what happens. It’s unsettling, but mesmerizing, well-written and cleverly-plotted, and a gripping story for those who love suspenseful thrillers.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur and NetGalley for providing me a digital ARC of this book. The opinions are my own and freely given.

Told from the POV of Alex, present day and Renee 6 years ago

Alex moves Ollie and Kara to Pine Ridge, a new ecovillage built by Kit. Alex is escaping from Stu, Kara's father. Pine Ridge was a former flower farm, and the Farmhouse is still standing on the land. Alex falls in love with but soon learns that the locals think it might be haunted. The former resident, Renee, lost her 16-year-old son Gabe one night. He has been missing for 6 years. Alex begins to receive "gifts" from an unknown person who everyone says is "The Witch". Then Alex finds a letter at the farmhouse addressed to her telling her that my son was taken and yours will be too. Alex is so distracted with the story of Gabe and trying to find out what really happened that it appears she is neglecting Ollie, and the village things she is crazy.

I spent too much time trying to figure out if this was some sort of supernatural story. Although I did like this story it didn't WOW me. I had one moment when I learned what was really going on that my jaw actually dropped for a second, but just a second.

I really could have done with the storyline of Stu. The neighbor calling Alex to tell her what was goiing on. Although this did tie-in to the epilogue, it wasn't really relevant to me. And it wasn't a really long part of the book, just added in as an afterthought maybe, or to tie up and end that didn't have a beginning.

I will be posting my review on 4/3/22 on the following websites:
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/2435840467
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57693342-the-shadow-house
https://www.instagram.com/kuhlreads/
https://www.librarything.com/topic/338257#n7783366

I had very high hopes for this title, because I really enjoyed Anna Downes previous title. The plot and atmospheric location of this book reminded me a little too much of the secluded community in the A History of Wild Places book. I really enjoyed that one, because the pace was a lot quicker. The pacing of this novel was slow and I had a hard time keeping interested in the actual story. It was ok, but not my favorite.

I LOVED The Safe Place, but the main character in The Shadow House makes her sophomore book an absolute stunner. Alex is more grounded, rational & aware, in a world that certainly isn't making sense & events that are terrifying 👏👏👏👏

If you haven't read my review of The Safe Place on Novellives.com, please check it out. Both books are must-reads.