I love Dawson's brand of horror and this was no different. I really enjoyed the setting. I honestly need more books about these kind of medical spas they use to have. I loved how the past and future were weaved and connected together. I wish we got more of the spooky horror and less real life man horror.

This one hooked me from the moment our main character Sarah arrives at her artist retreat. You definitely get the weird vibes from the beginning, and they get more and more intense as the story moves forward.
Especially once Sarah uncovers the body and the dreams begin.
I loved the moments Sarah and Ingrid spent in the abandoned hotel, each time they visited they uncovered more and more strange and disturbing things. And the vibes got creepier and more unhinged.
I loved the vibes this book gave along with Sarah and Ingrid. And when it was over I found myself wishing there was more.

Thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Sarah leaves her abusive ex and mother behind to start a new life. She attends an artist's retreat in the middle of nowhere, so she can find herself again and reconnect with her pottery. The moment she arrives, strange things start happening to her. Sarah thinks that something sinister is going on, especially once she finds a corpse when digging a pit for her pottery. Things escalate when the other artists start acting strangely, and more bodies are found.

This was my first book by Delilah S. Dawson, and it definitely won't be my last. The eerie, dark atmosphere is exactly what I look for when reading gothic horror. It felt ominous the entire time, and with some supernatural occurrences, it just created this perfect, creepy setting for the plot. It almost felt like the artist's retreat was its own character. There were also moments of shocking violence, which I felt helped the story flow well, along with a few twists I didn't see coming. I also thought all the characters were well-developed and interesting, so it was very easy to keep track of everyone, and I did end up having connections with several of the characters and their relationships with each other.

I feel like this book is underrated and not talked about enough in the bookish community. The feminine rage was so satisfying, and the growth that Sarah experiences is very empowering. I felt every emotion possible while reading this. Overall, it was a fantastic story, and I can't think of anything that I would change. If you enjoyed movies like A Cure For Wellness and What Lies Beneath, and books like The Garden by Clare Beams, this would be an excellent read for you.

Delilah S. Dawson's books have been hit/miss for me. Luckily this one was a hit. The atmosphere was so creepy and kept me sucked in. I couldn't stop reading this book and finished it in one sitting. I enjoyed the MC and some of the side characters. The plot was interesting and definitely gave me women's rage vibes. My only big complaint was the twist at the ending. I'm not sure that's the direction I wanted the story to go in but I'm glad the MC got her revenge.

This was the perfect book to read for Halloween season!

I read Delilah’s The Violence and loved it so when I heard about this one, I knew I had to read it.

In It Only Hurts For A Moment, Sarah is hiding from an abusive ex-boyfriend and is accepted to an artist’s retreat for 6 weeks which takes place next to the very old ruins of a “wellness hotel” where the very rich would go “to take the waters”.

Within the first day, Sarah finds a coffin with a skeleton buried in the woods. Things only get creepier from there.

This was a fun, gothic, paranormal read where nothing was what I expected.

*Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for the eGalley!*

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher Del Rey for providing me with an eARC of this book!
Release date: October 22, 2024

I’ve thought about my review for a little bit now and I have finally decided on my thoughts. I absolutely loved the haunting atmosphere of this book. The horrors in this book are all too real and hit all too close to home for some of us out there. For that reason I suggest you check trigger warnings for this one!

With that being said, I adored this book & I couldn’t put it down! We follow our main character Sarah who is escaping an abusive ex-boyfriend. She decides to join this art retreat at a remote location with other fellow artists so that she can restart her life & tap into her artistry again. Little does she know that the horrors that lurk under the surface are begging to be seen.

This book had such a wonderfully creepy and eerie atmosphere. As I said, the horrors are all too real & that was super effective for me! I do think that the point of the book is so necessary & it drives home the fact that female presenting people put up with a lot of shit in relationships sometimes. And often at the expense of our sanity, personality, & autonomy. Sarah is trying to piece together who she is after this relationship, all the while creepy things keep happening at this remote art retreat. We have an abandoned hotel surrounded by individual cabins, all in the middle of nowhere, as our setting & let me tell you it’s super effective as a backdrop for all the creepy, spooky things happening.

This book drives home the fact that female presenting people deserve bodily autonomy & that they shouldn’t put up with abusive, shitty relationships. Gaslighting is a big theme, as well as choice, bodily autonomy, narcissistic relationship, and so much more.

My only complaint with this book is that I think it drove home the point of how women have been scorned for centuries, a little too much for my taste. But again, that’s just me. I highly recommend you read this book if it at all sounds interesting to you!!

“Now look. I have been terribly patient with you. I brought you here for your honeymoon, and it is not cheap. You have tasted the finest foods, enjoyed the waters, had your every need met. And now you must meet my needs. That is how a marriage works, sweetness.”

This is a really atmospheric thriller. A woman's body is found and everyone at the artists colony of Tranquil Falls soon starts acting strange. Sarah, who is running away from an abusive ex, starts having dreams about the woman every night.

This is my second read from Delilah Dawson who I've been lucky enough to discover from netgalley and I definitely will continue to read her books. Thank you random hoise publishing group ballantine for giving me an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book disappointed me so much and I am big sad about it. I really enjoyed Bloom.

There is so much description to the point where the book could have been half the length and just as (in)effective. There is literally a paragraph describing rain that wasn't even actually happening in the story. I ended up skimming most of it. I also felt like the author put all of her potential purple prose phrases into one sentence in a draft but never went back to edit it to make it sound coherent. I think this author should stick to shorter books (Bloom is 203 pages and this was 368).

The pacing was terrible. It took 50% for anything interesting to start happening and even then there were many things that never got an explanation at the end. Admittedly, I did not finish this book but I did read spoiler reviews to find out what happened and I'm so glad I didn't waste my time trying to push through. They explained that everything towards the end felt rushed and the ending was unsatisfying.

There's a lot of triggering content, including on page sexual assault, that felt gratuitous and unnecessary to put on page. It did not feel "feminist" to me at all.

Overall, I do not recommend this book.

Great take on a dual timeline historical fiction utilizing paranormal elements and a true crime feel. The events keep you on the edge of your seat while the characters keep you invested. I really enjoyed the spooky setting, the cool artistic influences and the great reveals.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy. These opinions are my own.

**My thanks to Random House Ballantine for providing me with an advanced review copy via NetGalley**

4 stars

It Will Only Hurt for a Moment is a horror novel that works on multiple levels, even featuring a bit of a dual timeline story that keeps me invested in both the past and the present narratives. The plot progresses at a nicely paced slow burn, gently ramping up the creeps until you’re left unsure just how things got so terribly out of hand.

If you enjoy isolated settings for your horror, you’ll love Tranquility Falls, the off-grid artist’s retreat set on the same land as an abandoned 19th century health resort. If you like small groups being picked off one by one, you’ll also enjoy this narrative. Each side character is distinct and memorable, so I never mixed them up, and I loved the creeping dread as fewer and fewer people were left as buffer between our protagonist Sarah and the haunting landscape.

My only complaint relates to the ending. After the brilliantly executed crescendo of the previous 90% of the book, the last few chapters left me a little cold; they felt far more rushed and less deliberately paced than the rest of the book. That said, I was still satisfied with the conclusion of the plot and left with a positive impression of the book overall.

CW: on-screen depiction/memory of rape/sexual assault.

It Will Only Hurt for a Moment was a beautiful complex story. I was instantly sucked into Delilah’s writing, like I always am. She has such a way with storytelling that I can’t get enough of. I really loved uncovering the complex mystery in this one. The Authors note at the end was very eye opening. Some parts I wanted more of a conclusion on but overall I really enjoyed this one.
4/5 Stars

Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for sending me an arc copy in exchange for my honest review.

I’m a big fan of creepy buildings in my horror books. Mix in a secluded setting, an interesting cast of characters, and long buried secrets and I think Dawson crafted a winning formula!

This is definitely a tricky story to talk about without giving any of the plot details away, so I’m going to try and stay as vague as possible with my thoughts.

Our main character, Sarah, is the focus of the story in that we need to know about her past, her present time at the retreat, and be able to use her as a vessel into the past in order to find out what really happened at this abandoned hotel. In addition to Sarah, the reader is able to get to know a handful of secondary characters. I really would have enjoyed getting to know the artists staying at Tranquil Falls more, but recognize that this might not have added to the plot.

I think what really sold my love for this book was the atmospheric writing from Dawson. The story dripped with eerie vibes thanks to how vividly Dawson crafted the setting. I felt uncomfortable and like someone or something was going to creep out of the shadows several times as the story progressed.

⚠️There are several trigger warnings in this book, particularly those dealing with sexual assault and domestic violence. As always, I recommend checking out a full list on Storygraph.

1.5, not sure whether to round up or down. For enjoyment, it was a 1 but I could see other people enjoying it more than me so that would round up to a 2.

What I liked
-The beginning was a decent start. It set up the tension pretty well, though that tension fell off quickly afterwards.
-I liked creepy abandoned retreat setting. It was described well and it evoked an eerie feeling.

What I didn't like
-The book is supposed to be a horror thriller and even as a horror baby, I didn't really get any scary or creepy vibes after the first like 15%.
-The side characters all felt very stereotypical and we dont really get much depth from any of them. They seem like they were just there to add to the creepy vibes, but that didn't really work either.
-I didn't particularly dislike the main character but she also didn't really do much to make me like her either. It felt like the story was happening to her and the she was just kind of moving through it.
-There's some graphic content that I'm not sure was handled well. I admit to skimming the decently sized scenes because it didn't really feel like the details added anything to the story.
-The ending was so fast and there were a lot of questions left unanswered. I was hoping that there would be some interesting reveals but overall it was very unsatisfying.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of It Will Only Hurt for a Moment by Delilah S. Dawson in exchange for an honest review. I was so pulled in by this story, I read it all in one day. I am really enjoying the writing of Dawson and how she builds her characters and storylines. There is a great depth that has the reader plunging through the layers to find out the full story. This book is a keeper.

I unfortunately did not get along super well with this book. I really like Dawson’s The Violence from a few years ago and this premise really intrigued me. But from pretty much the beginning I was not vibing with Sarah and the story from there on just felt very repetitive. There would be a few pages sprinkled in that kept my interest but for the large majority I was slogging through.

I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House (Ballantine) for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book held the perfect combo of thriller and scary ghost story for me. The atmosphere is creepy and haunting and beautiful. The backstory and the main plot beautifully intertwine. The characters are unique and well built, even the ones barely on the page for long. While it will be a VERY tough read for anyone who has been in an abusive relationship, I thought it was very well handled. This is not an experience I’ve had so I cannot speak to how well the topic is covered but I felt it was done tactfully and beautifully.

I only read the first four chapters before deciding to dnf. I thought it was boring and it wasn't holding my attention. I read a couple of reviews saying that there are multiple graphic depictions of rape and animal cruelty and death. And that isn't something I'm interested in reading.

This book had me completely gripped and turning the page the whole time. Getting these glimpses of what happened to these poor women was absolutely horrifying and made me sick. But then between those flashbacks our main character is slowly piecing together her own past which is equally horrifying in its own way.
The atmosphere was great and so eerie, it definitely kept me on the edge of my seat. I think a bit more could've been done with the ghost aspect of it. She really only came in to go after men randomly for any reason and then at the very end. Feels like it could've been played up a little bit more.
My biggest gripe is the ending though. It wrapped up far to quickly and felt like a mess. It didn't feel like any of the characters or the ghost really got justice. You're just kinda left hanging there having to assume that something comes to light about the resort. Kinda lame and why I'm giving it 4 stars.

This supernatural thriller is not only creepy and filled with a building dread and a cast of characters that could be hiding anything, it's also a solid expression of feminine rage and the way that misogyny hasn't gone away but morphed over time. I really enjoyed the slow burn mystery of what is going on at the Tranquil Falls artist commune, as artist Sarah is trying to leave her broken life behind only to find herself in a dark mystery. A msytery involving a wellness retreat from the past and the way that women would be sent away if they were deemed inconvenient to society and the men in their lives. It's stark and pointed and at times a very hard read, but I really liked the comparisons between Sarah's own experiences with abuse and the abuse the women of the past had to endure. And Dawson definitely pulls out some really freaky moments. This is a highly enjoyable horror novel, and if you are looking for something to read before Halloween is over I would recommend this one!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Del Rey for this ARC Copy! 4.5. Stars

This is the perfect spooky season / fall book. When our FMC escapes her narcissistic by being accepted at an artists retreat it sounds like the perfect time to unwind and get back to herself away from her ex, but thinks just keep going wrong. Paranormal presences start to disturbed the peace and secrets that have long since been buried are starting to make their way back to the surface, and no one knows who will be the next victim, or if they are really even victims at all.

Also, there is a creepy old condemned hotel that is on the same property with its own secrets to hide, and a place where we learn that true horror of the whole story was just being a woman in the 1800's.