The main character, Cecily, was a little rough in the beginning but I really enjoyed watching her growth from a near recluse to a much braver woman running around Paris trying to solve a mystery. The secondary characters were a lot of fun and added a lot to the story. The wraith itself wasn't terribly frightening, but the story kept me enthralled waiting to see who she would strike next. I listened to the audiobook and I really liked the narrator. I will definitely be looking for more from this author and this narrator in the future!

Wraith by Mark Wheaton is a gothic ghost thriller read by Annalee Scott. Set between the Carolina wetlands and the French Woods near Paris. Cecily has a familial curse that spans generations. As a young girl she watches her mother die in a that is suicide. But was it really suicide or was the apparition hunting them to blame?

I like how the plot is setup with the generational tidbits that piece together a history as dark and decrepit as the wraith stalking the LeClercqs. I enjoyed the narration by Annalee, especially when she brings to life Rene. The horror scenes played out like a movie in my head. I do feel this fits more a thriller with touches of haunting dispersed throughout.

Some scenes were slow, or out of place but overall I enjoyed this edition to my Spooktober TBR.

2.5 stars
Witnessing the murder of your mother is a terrible fate. For Cecily LeClercq, who was an event that would shape her life. Cecily decides to hide herself away until she receives a missive from a stranger telling her a relative was dying and wants to see her.

She decides to travel to France but even before that she sees an apparition that seemed to bring menace. Little does Cecily know but this apparition, this wraith, was tasked to bring death and destruction to the LeClerq family. Why though was this the case?

While the narrator did a fine job with the story, the story itself had uneven times, some being promising and others being dull. Certainly, not what I was expecting from a story that I so wanted to set me in the Halloween mood.

Perhaps this story might make a decent movie, but for me it unfortunately did not work to well.

Thank you to Mark Wheaton, Annalee Scott (narrator) and NetGalley for the audio version of this story due out December 3, 2022

OMG! This is the perfect book for October@ Are wraiths real, or is it a projection from within yourself? This is the question that Cecily LeClercq must answer. A family curse and relatives she has never met send her to France to solve the question about the wraith. Along the way, people are attacked, people attack her, and she uncovers 2 caches of bodies on her family land. How does all of this tie together and is the curse for real?

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Mark Wheaton for providing me with a complimentary digital audiobook ARC for Wraith. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Cecily LeClercq knows what grief and trauma feels like. She saw her mother die when she was a child. Now she’s growing up in the remote Carolina wetlands. A stranger tells her she has a distant, elderly relative in Paris. She’s desperate for Cecily to visit her chateau deep in the French forest. Cecily makes the journal across to France and learns of an ancient familial curse. A wrathful ghostly wraith emerges when the death of a LeClercq occurs.

I really enjoyed this story! It was fun to listen to. It felt different because I haven’t heard too many stories featuring wraiths. The deep woods at a chateau was also a great setting. Cecily was a great character, but I think I would’ve liked a little more to the ending.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys supernatural tales!

**please note due to low rating I will not be leaving a public review for this book as I have not paid for it.**

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to give this a go. Unfortunately I just could not get into it.
Writing was beautiful but couldn't get into the story

So I kept flip flopping between a 2 star and a 3 star for this one. It kind of fell flat for me. It was not particularly scary, but, I listened to it. Although the narrator had a lovely voice, it wasn’t the voice, in my opinion, for a scary, spooky read. I’d love to listen to her read a different genre. I never felt on the edge of my seat. I can’t help but wonder if it would’ve been different had I read it myself.
I’d like to thank #NetGalley and #southboundfilms for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have been listening to audiobooks for a few years and have realized that the narrator is almost half the battle. If I don't enjoy the narrator I certainly won't like the audiobook. Thankfully that wasn't the case here. The narrator has a fluid voice and inflected the tones perfectly.

The story held my interest throughout, not gripping my attention all the time but enough to keep me engaged. I thought the characters and plot were both solid.

I gave Wraith a 2.5 rounded up to 3 stars because unfortunately it wasn't my favorite. Don't get me wrong, it definitely gave off creepy paranormal vibes with the curse that ran in Cecily's family but I just couldn't get into it. And if I wasn't listening to it I would have never gotten through it because the chapters were like almost 30 minutes long on 2x speed.

The ending left me wandering which didn't help because I would have liked some closure with the curse and how Cecily moves forward. I did enjoy the overall premise of the book and I think it would make a good movie!

I really hate giving low stars because I don't want to deter anyone away from reading it that could potentially enjoy it, so if you like paranormal activity I'd say give it a shot for the spooky season! Maybe I'm just in a reading funk.

Thank you NetGalley for this audiobook in exchange for my honest review!

Wraith is a supernatural gothic mystery novel that revolves around Cecily LeClercq and the curse that has followed her family for generations.

I enjoyed the authors writing style and the story in general. One of my favorite scenes was when Cecily was on the plane to France. It was creepy, chilly and had me on the edge of my seat. The tension was perfect in the scene, but unfortunately there were other parts of the novel that I struggled to stay engaged. I believe this book would definitely make a good movie as visuals would up the creep factor.

I loved the narrator. She captured the characters perfectly and distinctly.

I want to thank NetGalley, Mark Wheaton and Southbound for the e-ARC of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are honest, my own and left voluntarily.

I love Mark Wheaton‘s books and then this one we meet cc who when 10 they said her mom committed suicide but she knows and witness for herself the dark Spector stalk her mom down the beach in the hurricane. She is now a young adult and trying to live her life according to her own rules but when a fancy Frenchman shows up wanting to take her back to France to meet her grandmother at first she’s hesitant but then decides to go. Before she even gets off the plane the weirdness starts is the Horror and a threat accumulate it will all comes to a point and a fantastic ending. I really enjoyed this book and the narrator anyone who is familiar with Mark Wheaton knows the kind a hora he delivers in so you know this is a good book. The narrator did a pretty good job and overall I would definitely recommend this. If you love the paranormal and mysterious you love this Book by Mark Wheaton I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

I went into this with very little expectation and was pleasantly surprised by this supernatural tale. Not quite horror, more thriller,The Wraith left me constantly questioning what was real and what was the byproduct of a shared delusion, even to the bitter end. I thoroughly enjoyed the full cast of characters that were part of our narrator's journey to France to meet a long lost great grandmother, particularly Rene and Oberon who have my deepest affections. I enjoyed the narration and she did a wonderful job of making each character feel distinct. My only complaint was that, though she had a beautiful and varied French accent, the way she said the brand name Hermes brought me out of the moment.

Definitely worth picking up this spooky season!

It’s October. It’s time to listen to some spooky books. I loved this book! It hit the spot.

Cecily is whisked away from the US to France as a distant relative wants to meet with her before she passes. The creepiness comes from the escalating unraveling mystery surrounding an ancestral curse/wraith. The wraith has appeared to her family members for generations right before their passing.

What happens when Cecily sees the wraith …

I could relate to Cecily as she behaved in a way that felt natural & of course I loved a certain Frenchman! The story is short & flew by!

I enjoyed the setting & for such a short book the author really drew you in with lush descriptions & an occasional French word. This could be a movie.

I listened to this in one sitting, the narration is good.

This was an amazing story - I loved the history of it and the spookiness. It was very well written and kept.me engaged the whole time. Definitely would read this again.

I listened to this on my way to and back from uni this week, and the book managed to make a very boring 25 minute train drive entertaining. I really liked the characters in this one and their dynamics. Overall, I liked the family legacy aspects of this story and found it to be very entertaining.

A thoroughly absorbing look in to the other side of life, well written and carefully considered aspects of life. Great read and kept me turning pages!

Cecily LeClerq appreciated the company of plants over people, and would describe her social anxiety as being somewhere between an allergy and a phobia, depending on the situation. She avoided large crowds of any kind, and chose to live alone in a camper on the banks of the river outside Charleston, spending most evening sleeping under the stars. Those who knew her though felt that Cecily was living her best life though, especially considering the traumatic way she had lost both of her parents at such a young age.

Cecily’s father died soon after her birth, and her mother Sandrine never fully recovered. For much of her young life, the two were constantly on the move, traveling up and down the eastern seaboard every few months. Cecily didn’t know exactly what her mother was always running from, but she did know that her mother had never spent long anywhere since she had left France to come to America and that Sandrine was absolutely terrified of being around others.

Cecily was in her early teens when she witnessed her mother’s death, having been chased into the ocean by a horrifying ghastly woman that Cecily always thought was a figment of her imagination.

Ten years later, when a stranger arrives to inform her that one of her distant elderly relatives is desperate to see her before she dies, Cecily travels deep into the woods of France. There she will learn of an ancient curse that has been placed on her family, causing the death of many throughout the generations. The curse itself always personified by a terrifying wraithlike woman.. Will she finally learn the truth behind her mother’s death, and if so, is there anything she can do to finally break the curse once and for all?

To be completely honest, this book was not what I was expecting in a lot of ways, but that really ended up not being a bad thing at all. With plenty of horror, the mystery aspect of this shone through equally and I thoroughly enjoyed the fast-paced thrill of Cecily’s search for the truth behind it all.

Very well narrated overall as well, although the French accents were sometimes not the greatest, to put it kindly.

2.5 stars

Wraith is a horror mystery novel that I mistakenly thought was going to at least partially take place in the Carolinas. While it does start there the majority of the story takes place in France. This was disappointing to me due to the large paranormal lore associated with the Carolina coast.

The story itself is entertaining, but pretty generic as these things go. Cecily is plagued by a family curse (a family she didn’t even know she was part of) and goes to France to find some answers. Unfortunately, she’s met with more mysteries.

I think the ending is the largest issue with the story, without getting into spoilers there are still a lot of big questions left in the end and some of the actions seem totally disjointed with plausibility. There was also very little character growth which is always disappointing for me.

There was some level of enjoyable pose but I never felt connected to the story or any of the characters.

The narrator for this story wasn’t my favorite, not terrible but the rhythm seemed off at times.

Thanks to Netgalley and Southbound for providing me with a chance to get in on this book early. I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Difficult to get into. Difficult to read. Very choppy throughout. I stayed with it and was very disappointed in the ending. Great idea for a story about a family curse. I was left thinking “what did I just read?’ Thank you net calorie in publisher for providing this advanced copy audiobook to me

Amateur, choppy narration. It felt like the narrators first read through. The random cadence brought my attention to the disjointed sentences. Very difficult to become invested in the story. If this book were any longer I would have added to my DNF list.