Have you ever read a book so good that you feel you need some recovery time after its finished? That is what this book did to me. It made me feel the way I feel when I read Jennifer Givhan's book River Woman, River Demon, which was the best book I read all year. This is a close second. It was just eerie and magical. It has a touch of that magical realism I love so much.
This was gorgeous and sad and weird and I could not get enough of it. It was perfect. I will likely buy it and put it on my bookshelf.

This is a debut author so I wasn’t sure what to expect going into it. This was a good psychological thriller that is fast paced and a quick read! I was constantly frustrated with Maya and the last 3rd of the book dragged on for me.

I wouldn’t say it was my favorite but, I enjoyed the writing style and the first half of the book was great. The second half…. The big twist came it was a little too off the wall for me to really buy into it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Grouping Dutton for this free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Maya is trying to solve two strange murders, one taking place in the present, one in the past. In the present Maya watches a YouTube video where she sees a girl mysteriously die, without being touched, while sitting in a diner with her ex Frank. In the past, 7 years prior, Maya witnessed the same mystery when her best friend dies in front of Frank, again without being touched. Maya then decides to travel back home, to find Frank, to try and solve these murders.

The novel moves between the present and various times in the past. This became very confusing. I would have liked it better if the chapters were labeled as such. For instance “Then” and “Now” to ease the confusion. The transitions between the chapters isn’t very smooth, I had to flip back and forth to figure out what timeframe I was in in the book.

I didn’t care for all the historical and environmental lessons. It was pushing a narrative that didn’t relate to the story and wasn’t needed to add depth to the mystery. I also felt like Maya’s Fathers book was completely unnecessary. It made absolutely no sense to me and wasn’t needed to develop the storyline.

Overall, the book was a quick read and I did want to know what this mystery killing was all about. So an extra star for that, but, unfortunately, I wouldn’t recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

The House in the Pines is a good debut novel. Reyes tells a compelling story that incorporates magic realism and plenty of suspense. I look forward to more from this author!

This was a slow-burn mystery that intrigued me from the beginning. The premise was definitely a different one for me and I was intrugued!

The story shifts back and forth from past to present to fill in gaps in the story, but the shift was a bit disjointed and confusing. There was no delineation between chapters, so when there was a time switch, I had to start the chapter to figure out if it was present time or past.

Overall the core subject matter was something that I'm not familiar with but did interest me enough to wonder if that was really possible when I finished the book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ana Reyes for the ARC in exchange for my honest review

The House in the Pines is a fast paced thriller focusing on Maya, a somewhat aimless young woman who is going through Klonopin withdrawals. She sees a YouTube video of a woman dying and recognizes the man in the video— Frank. She suspects Frank of murdering her friend Aubrey years earlier. This leads to Maya traveling back to the House in the Pines in search of the truth.
I enjoyed this novel and look forward to seeing more from the author. The story had an ominous feel to it and kept me engaged.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advance review copy in exchange for this honest review.

Maya lost her best friend at 17 years old - she just suddenly tips over and dies while she was talking to the guy Maya was seeing. Maya always knew Frank had something to do with her best friend's death, but she could never prove it, not even explain what had happened. Years go by and Maya is still processing Aubrey's unexplained death while trying to quit the anti-anxiety meds she has been self-medicating with in addition to all the alcohol for several years. Then a youtube video goes viral - another woman suddenly dies on camera while sitting at a diner with Frank. Maya returns to her hometown to get to the bottom of Frank's lies and to finally uncover the truth behind her best friend's death.

It started off really slow and it took me a bit to get into. The chapters alternate between past and present timelines and the story picked up once we read more about how Maya and Frank met and the events leading up to Aubrey dying in his presence. Then, the ending lost me. While the "truth" was inventive and unique, I just felt like there was all this build up just for the conclusion to leave me hanging wondering more - as if the author rushed to wrap it up.
3/5 stars. Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Group/Dutton for offering me a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review. The House in the Pines is set to be released in January 2023.

3.5

This is a book that gets creepier the more you let the premise/twist sit with you, as the implications of what has happened to these characters has long lasting effects. I'll get into that further down.

This debut by Ana Reyes is a strong thriller. There is an interesting premise -- girl dies on camera but no one touches her -- and it turns out this death is very similar to a death witnessed by our narrator back in her youth. Seeing the video sets Maya on a path of discovery, and rediscovery, to try and solve the mystery that is Frank Bellamy and her best friend's death.

Maya is, to be frank, unreliable. She is often drunk or on the verge of being drunk, she is suffering from Klonopin withdrawal, and her memory is shoddy. All of these things melt together to give us a narrator that we don't know whether to believe or not. I'm a sucker for an unreliable narrator, so I enjoyed this.

I also enjoy the narrative structure, weaving the story back and forth between the present and the events leading up to Aubrey's death in the past. It allows the information to be doled out at a nice, even pace, while also leaving the reader to wonder, many times, WTF.

While not the most radical twist in a thriller i've read, I believe Reyes handles her idea with care, and it therefore works.

I always feel bad leaving a not so great review, but this book wasn't for me.
The premise is very interesting. Maya's best friend Aubrey, died under suspicious circumstances a week before Maya was leaving to go to Boston University. 10 years later, and Maya is still struggling, masking her pain with drugs and alcohol. When she happens across a YouTube video of the same man with Aubrey when she died, seemingly doing the same thing, she begins to investigate.
The timeline was very confusing, and the magical realism doesn't seem to fit well in this genre. It moved very slowly, and I really struggled to finish.

When Maya sees the latest viral YouTube video of a girl seemingly to slump dead out of nowhere in a diner booth across from a man in Maya’s hometown, it strikes a nerve not only because of the disturbing content, but because Maya has seen the exact same thing happen before, with the exact same man. Seven years earlier, Maya’s best friend, Aubrey, died suddenly in front of her eyes while talking with the man in the video. Aubrey’s death was ruled an accident, but Maya always believed the man - Frank - had something to do with it. Now Maya, with another death on her mind and trying to fight off demons of her own once and for all, is determined to find out what’s going on once and for all.

This book is told along two timelines: the present, with Maya investigating both deaths; and the past, detailing Maya’s relationship with Frank and the events leading up to Aubrey’s death.

This book starts out right with a bang: the video and the revelation that Maya has been here before. I loved that - we didn’t have to wait to find out anything, we were just really thrown into the action and picked up where we were going along the way. And the author does a great job of really putting together all the pieces and giving us good background information so that we get caught up really quickly. I never felt lot along the way. The mystery itself was really good and I found myself floating some theories along the way, though I did guess the ultimate answer, but there are some key twists that the author adds in there that left me interested up until the very end!

As I said, I very much enjoyed the ending, it was chilling and really packed a nice punch! It was a good ending to a book that relied on thrills to have an ending that was bit thrill-y - you’ll understand when you read it. A slasher ending wouldn’t have worked for this one, for example.

The character were also really well done. Maya has some subplots that were well developed and very interesting and added different layers to the book. I enjoyed getting to see her from a bunch of different sides throughout the book, in addition to just the mystery/thriller angle.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed this book. I highly recommend it to mystery/thriller fans!

This book starts off with such a great mystery

Genre: Thriller/mystery
Description: It's seven years after Maya's best friend Aubrey dropped dead in front of her and Maya still can't let go that some sinister happened that day. As she begins her search for the mysterious Frank, the only other person there on the day Aubrey died, Maya realises that Frank's influence over her runs deeper than she thought.
Opinion: This was in interesting take on a thriller, I enjoyed the mix of of an unreliable memory and the manipulation that was on the periphery.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to review this debut novel.
This one fell a bit short for me. It started off fairly strong abs then got rather boring.
Great try for a debut novel but just didn’t do it for me.

It started off with a lot of promise then halfway through started to drag and lose me. The timeline fluctuated so often that it had me confused until a few pages in. The premise was interesting enough to keep me curious to find out what happened to Maya. The book had unique twists and turns that were good, but storylines that didn't fit well or didn't make much sense overall to the story (they were never explained much either.) The ending just fell flat. Although I give this book 3 stars for originality, the execution of it felt like a mess. I finished this one feeling a bit confused and disappointed! Such an original plot, yet poorly performed.

Thank you PENGUIN GROUP Dutton and Netgalley for early access to this book in exchange for an honest review!

Special thanks to Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my own opinion.

This book was really not for me. Mary and Aubrey, best friends are in enthralled with a guy named Frank so much they almost lose their friendship because of jealousy over him. Maya starts a relationship with him, but one day as her friend is standing in front of Frank and just keeps over and dies.

Maya can't figure out why and there are gaps in her mind but she leaves Frank and gets on with her life. Then years later, she sees a video on the internet of a girl dying while sitting across from , oh no, Frank., btw he lives in the house in the pines.

I'm not giving this away, but this book was not for me. The dual time lines didn't flow, it dragged and I'm thinking if I only became an editor I'd chop out a lot of the dragging going. I feel like it was a drag and than raced to the finish line.

Thanks again for the ARC, but this book was not for me. I can't see myself recommending this. 2 stars

Good debut effort!! Quick and easy read, hypnosis is such an odd thing to read about though. Three and a half stars.

This was an interesting read. I found it to be a unique story that had an unexpected conclusion. The author really thought the characters out, which I liked. I found it to be captivating as I read, wanting to read more and more to see how it would end. I'd recommend this book.

This one starts out strong and then fades by the end.

I kept reading because I enjoy the past to present flips. I also appreciated the heritage representation. But the ending felt a little too over the top. I didn’t find it believable.

DNF @ 25% - I really don’t do spooky horror vibes thrillers. what started out so strong as a likable character based thriller quickly went off the rails. I didn’t even stick around to see what the train wreck looked like.

I enjoyed this one. It was mysterious, and I loved how it was written. The story centers on Maya, whose best friend Aubrey died suddenly while with the guy Maya was dating named Frank. There is something weird and creepy about Frank that Maya can’t put her finger on, but she is convinced he had something to do with the death. 7 years later she sees a video posted online where another woman seemingly just keels over and dies while also in Frank’s presence and Maya knows she has to get to the bottom of what Frank is doing to these people.

The book was told in a dual timeline, but for the first handful of chapters I couldn't figure out why, it didn't feel like it was adding to the story to have scenes from the past, but once it picked up it felt like the whole story was in the past and there was very little plot in the present day chapters. The book lulled a bit in the middle and then suddenly felt like it wrapped up very quickly at the end, so something about the overall pacing just felt off to me.

I felt it was a little long and could have used some editing.

3.5 Stars

The prologue is gripping. Sets the tone for a dark and ominous psychological thriller.
The story line / plot is fairly unique although easy enough to figure out. There are however,times in which the writing could be confusing;not knowing if the author was writing from past or current events.
I liked the addition of information about the main character's Guatemalan heritage,even if the information was on a surface level.
The antagonist,Frank, literally has a way with words which he uses to woo and control people. Scary to think one could have this much power of anther with words.
An interesting read that makes one think about just how delicate and impressionable the human psyche can be.

Thank for the ARC Netgalley.