This was a good read that explored a lot of trauma and the impact it has on women, written with a feminist touch. The secluded setting made for a creepy, haunting read. While the protagonist was well developed, I felt some of the supporting characters were a bit one-dimensional. The story was intriguing and even paced, but the ending felt a bit unfulfilled. Three Stars.

Thank you, Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for this ARC.

ARC by NetGalley and the publisher.

Sarah Carpenter is finally getting a fresh start after leaving behind her narcissistic ex and abusive mother.Trading her tumultuous life for the secluded artist colony of Tranquil Falls.Sarah can’t think of a better place to reconnect with her love of pottery than the isolated location.Just as Sarah begins her artistic journey she stumbles upon the body of a women buried in the grounds.Sarah notices that all around her everyone is behaving odd,add in the fact glass shards were found in her clay she begins to question how safe she is.Her nightmare fueled nights make matters worse as she wonders if she’s losing her mind.With questions begging to be unearthed Sarah begins a dangerous investigation into the chilling past.

It Will Only Hurt for a Moment is a dark and twisted gothic horror that will have you feeling all the female rage that Dawson excels at creating.This was fast paced, horrifying,and immersive as we follow Sarah unravel the the haunted history that taints the surrounding area of Tranquil Falls.From start to finish this book was one wild dark read that is equal parts thriller,paranormal story,haunted history, and feminist horror. One aspect I truly enjoyed was how easily I could picture the setting with its isolated forest scenery and abandoned resort which truly added to eerie paranormal elements. This book does have quite a few tough subject matters that should be noted such as DV,misogyny, multiple references to SA, suicide,animal cruelty,and self harm. Dwason’s use of these themes are explored to show how women have historically been used and abused all throughout history to even today,as well as the disgusting nature of medical spas and asylums of the 1800s. While this subject matter was a bit hard to read at times I still found that I was able to continue reading because I was fully invested in the revenge that I wanted to see play out.Overall this was a fast paced intense horror that at its heart is a battle cry for women’s empowerment and reclaiming your sense of self.If you are not easily turned off by trigger warnings I definitely recommend this one for a spooky fall read.

It Will Only Hurt for a Moment comes out October 22nd,2024.Thank you NetGalley and Del Rey for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Pretty good thriller with some good characters. The setting seemed idyllic, minus the spooky abandoned hotel! Definitely worth a read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the early read.

Delilah S. Dawson does it again!!! I highly recommend checking this one out!!

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. This was the PERFECT spooky read, it was dark, atmospheric & unsettling. I couldn't put it down, and really liked the twists. I didn't love the romance as much, but it was a smaller subplot at least. A more formal review will be available on my IG/TikTok and Goodreads. 3.75 stars

Delilah Dawson does an amazing job of character development. I loved the book “The Violence” which seemed to have some similar characters so I was excited to read this book too!

Without describing the synopsis in my own words I’ll just say this: read this book!

"It will only hurt for a moment" is the second book I've read from Delilah Dawson. I really loved "the Violence". Her new book is an atmospheric thriller, set in an artist village at the old Tranquil Falls resort. The main character Sarah escaped from an abusive, narcissistic boyfriend and an alcoholic mother. In Tranquil Falls, she hopes to reconnect with her creativity. She once studied ceramics and loved to throw on the wheel. From the beginning, the caretaker of the artist village, Gail, seems to be a bit strange and hostile towards Sarah. She tells her that Tranquil Falls was a posh spa resort for rich people in the 19th century. Then suddenly Sarah discovers a body and her fellow artists are behaving more and more strange..

I liked the concept of the book very much. Unfortunately, I figured out the story quite soon. The end was unexpected, but very unrealistic. Still, this book was a real page turner for me. I liked how Sarah investigated and found corpse after corpse. I would have loved to know how Sarah managed to escape from her narcissistic boyfriend. This surely was not easy.

What a perfect, spooky read for fall!

Sarah arrives at an artist residency program called Tranquil Falls after getting away from her abusive ex boyfriend. The longer she spends at Tranquil Falls, the more she starts to realize her fellow artists aren't exactly who she expected. When a dead animal appears on Sarah's bed, she is forced to figure out what has been going on at the resort for years, and what to do about it.

Fans of gothic horror will love this one, but beware of extreme animal and human violence!

I ended up taking this in bigger and bigger chunks towards the end of the book because the suspense was ramping so quickly that I had to know how this was all going to turn out. You have a woman going to an artist retreat in the woods as the first step in her escape from her shitty abusive ex, and it turns out that the artist retreat isn't just a neat hotel in the woods, it also used to be an asylum for inconvenient women. Things are uncovered and unravel at a hell of a pace, and it was a great read. Highly recommended spooky fall read.

-Delilah S. Dawson is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I vibe with her storytelling style.
-An intricately plotted story with strong character development. Easy to invest in their fictional lives
-An ensemble cast of quirky characters in an adult camp-like setting, so that's fun
-Follows that trope of strangers gathering at a recreational resort full of secrets or something sinister
-Feminist
-Adjacent to Gothic horror
-Exploring an abandoned, possibly haunted resort/hotel
-Artists/Creatives
..
More soon
Be careful!
-Scenes of SA (sexual assault)
-Domestic violence
-Animal cruelty/harm

This book includes depictions of domestic violence, rape, spousal rape, and emotional abuse. I wouldn't normally include that at the beginning of my review, but those topics are central to the book's themes, and I understand some readers like to avoid those topics. I will say the abuse isn't gratuitous or male-gaze-y.

I really liked this book. The main reason it wasn't a 5-star read for me is that I felt like there were too many unknowns left. In gothic horror, it's common for there to be doubt, but there was so much plot left to interpretation that it just felt messy instead of interesting. I also thought the inclusion of Sarah having a negative relationship with her mom was unnecessary. It didn't further the plot and was such a blip in the story. I think it was included to make it easier for Kyle (the abusive ex) to isolate Sarah, but really it didn't add anything. The mom could have just been absent, and it would have served the same purpose. Honestly, it would have been more insidious if the mom had been supportive and dismissive of any concerns Sarah had with her boyfriend. In some cases, that would have been more realistic. The only other issue is the timeline; I had a hard time figuring out how old Sarah was and what her background was. At one point, I thought she had an undergrad art degree and had been in a master's program when she met Kyle, but then it mentions she was actually a junior in college. Maybe I misunderstood, but that part was wonky for me.

Sarah arrives at an artist residency program to escape her abusive ex and start over. The residency program is at Tranquil Falls, a defunct medical spa. While the old hotel and spa is off-limits, the artist residency program is on the grounds of the old facility. There are whimsical cabins and historic buildings; everything seems perfect until someone puts a dead bloated possum on Sarah's bed. From there, the story escalates as Sarah discovers the horrors of the so-called medical spa and her own past.

Part of why I liked this book is that it really outlines how far people are willing to go to turn the other cheek. Multiple characters are willing to aid or ignore the abuse that is going on around them. Not just men, but women are willing to ignore or outright aid in the emotional or physical abuse of others. There's also the disgusting nature of medical spas and asylums, which I could write whole novels on.

If you like gothic horror, I think you'll enjoy this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House, all opinions are my own.

Having loved "Bloom" by this author I was really excited to get into this one. I was a bit skeptical because of its length but I went in optimistic. Dawson did a great j0b at setting up the atmosphere and vibes. You had haunted hotels, creepy ghosts and a dual timeline which I tend to really enjoy. Dawson's writing style is also really great, and despite not loving this one I will continue to pick up her works. However unfortunately that is where my enjoyment ends. There were a lot of loose ends, a lot of things brought up throughout the story were left unanswered. There weren't enough twists or big events happening to keep me intrigued or wanting to continue. I also think the small romantic subplot just wasn't necessary.

In IT WILL ONLY HURT FOR A MOMENT, Delilah Dawson gives us another Good For Her angsty read of female-rage, and I am here for it! This read felt very nostalgic for me, having spent some time at artist colonies, which added to the flavor of the story. I enjoyed Ingrid, but wish we'd seen more of Sarah's relationship with Kyle for the climax to hit harder. Still, another great book from Dawson.

I read Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson back in January and LOVED it. As soon as I saw she was coming out with another book this fall, I knew I had to read it. And I was lucky enough to get an e-ARC through NetGalley.

This is the haunted fall artist’s retreat to Bloom’s bloody whirlwind summer romance. And as such, it brings all the spooky fall vibes with a huge dash of haunted history. I was immediately invested and stayed invested and captivated throughout.

The vibes:
- Fall art camp
- Haunted history
- Haunted houses and abandoned hotels
- Old “wellness retreats” of the 1800s
- The treatment of women in recent history and current day
- Feminist

The synopsis is as it presents itself: Sarah is an aspiring potter who's recently escaped an abusive relationship (and is running from a toxic mother she thought she cut off years prior). She's attending an artist retreat to get back into pottery and find herself again, but as soon as she gets to the artist's retreat, ominous things start happening. And as she digs into the weird happenings, the history of the abandoned hotel and "wellness retreat" the artist retreat sits on starts coming to light, revealing some truths about Sarah's own life at the same time.

The novel gets into the creepy mishaps right away, and as it progresses it gets creepier and creepier. If anyone else is as interested in old hotels from the 1800s as I am, you know that hotels and “wellness retreats” really aren’t that. It’s code for something else. And this novel delves into that and delves into it hard.

One of the elements I loved most was the continuous commentary of the horrors women have to face every day from so many sources (husbands, significant others, coworkers, parents, strangers, other women) and in so many ways, both blatant and in microaggressions. Women’s empowerment and reclaiming a sense of self was a huge message and theme, and horror that explores this is my favorite. This didn’t disappoint in that respect.

Despite my enjoyment of this, there were a few things that made this a not-quite perfect read. The biggest was that the ending felt rushed and not entirely wrapped up. The climax and resolution take place in the last 3-5 chapters, so for a novel that was building up to something for so long, the ending felt too quick and I was left with more plausibility questions than I anticipated. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but if there had been more build up throughout the novel and then a few more chapters to work through the consequences of the climax, I think this ending really would have stuck. Even as is, however, it didn’t take away from the ultimate message/theme of the book or my enjoyment of reading it, but it did leave me a little disappointed.

But in all, this was a spooky tale that both satisfied my love of the included horror tropes and settings and gave a satisfactory (and important) commentary around what it feels like to be a woman with all the horrors that are directed at us when we’re just trying to live our lives and what it takes for some to regain control. (Also, just gonna say it… when we learn where the title comes from, it’s both a sucker punch and then an empowering battle cry. Loved it.)

So in all, this isn’t a flawless novel - it has some execution and resolution issues in the last ~5% of the book. But I enjoyed it thoroughly, and adored the spooky vibes, haunted history, and the female empowerment that’s at the core of the novel. And yes, I did preorder this to have a copy for my personal library.

If you like the vibes, can stand the trigger warnings (below), and don’t mind an ending that's not 100% buttoned up (vibes over perfection!), then definitely give it a read.

TW:
- Animal harm/death
- Rape and abuse (sexual and emotional), including from a partner - some scenes are on the page
- Suicide
- Gaslighting

There was a lot of promise when before I read this book. After reading it, I’m a bit iffy on some of it. I felt like it could’ve been shortened, some details were not needed. Not a fan of the end, couldn’t predict it, but it felt off with the rest of the book. And, the characters were not relatable.

It Will Only Hurt for a Moment definitely falls into the Good for Her genre for me, so therefore it was an automatic yes because I LOVE cheering on women, especially women who have been made to believe they aren’t worthy. With that in mind, there are some definite content warnings I’d like to mention for anyone picking up this creepy, feminist thriller, including depictions of verbal and physical abuse, sexual assault, gaslighting, and men just being terrible humans in general.

My favorite part of the book was the redemption arc of the main character Sarah. Trying to escape an abusive ex, the story begins with her taking refuge in an artists’ retreat in the North Georgia mountains, an artists’ retreat that also happens to be on the site of a historical hotel that has lots of its own thinly covered baggage. This setting was perfect for creepiness to ensue. I live near the North GA mountains, so I could easily picture the setting as I was reading. I loved that the story also had supernatural elements that keep the reader guessing throughout.

There were a few characters who felt a little stereotypical, but honestly I think that was the point. They were kind of background and secondary to the main character who was still trying to figure out who she was in relation to herself and to others, so it kind of worked that some of them felt a little flat. Sarah herself felt fully realized if not young and definitely on that journey of self discovery after being held down so long by her ex.

Overall, I really enjoyed It Will Only Hurt a Moment and found myself cheering on the last few pages. It’s an easy to read thriller with ghostly elements that takes you on a fun ride of revenge.

4 stars

Thanks to the Publisher and Netgalley for an ARC of It Will Only Hurt for a Moment.

This is my second book by Delilah Dawson, and I really enjoyed it.

Tranquil Falls seems to be the answer to all of Sarah's problems. She's on the run from her abusive boyfriend and her alcoholic mother. The artist retreat seems like a place for her to reconnect with her art and herself but things go sideways as soon as she arrives. As more things happen, Sarah feels compelled to find out the truth behind Tranquil Falls.

I enjoyed this book and I went in blind but the story line kept me hooked. I wanted to know what was going to happen next.

I do think the ending could have used a little more. I really wanted an epilogue to answer a few more questions.

This novel is dark, creepy and very messed up. It is also extremely engrossing and it was hard to put down. Sarah goes to an artists’ retreat to get away from her abusive boyfriend. The place sounds incredible, and the little houses where the artists stay, their studios and the woods surrounding them are so well described that they weren’t hard to picture. From the beginning, something feels off. Maybe it’s the volatile personalities of the artists forced to live together. Or, it could be the abandoned hotel next to the colony. Strange things start happening. As I’m trying to summarize the plot, I realize that it jumps a bit and the threads could have been a little more cohesive. While I was reading, though, I never even noticed. I liked the colorful characters, even if I never truly connected with Sarah. My favorite was Ingrid for sure, and I enjoyed the evolution of her personality. Lastly, this is a feminist book that makes a point without falling into the pitfalls of this type of novel. It never becomes preachy. The women here were really and truly victims of men. Not all the men are evil or stupid, and women can be bad too. This book may not be perfect, but I liked it a lot.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Del Rey.

I was a bit on the fence on this one. (Maybe like a 3.5) All of the elements were there, but they didn't necessarily add up and I felt like some things were left unresolved (like the fate of the rest of the artists).

The thing that surprised me most was that this book was not terribly scary (which is weird since our hero keeps exploring a decrepit sanatorium.) The problem is that as Sarah is trying to figure out weird stuff happening at this retreat, she's ALSO having visions of the life of a woman who died on the property a hundred years ago.

For me, this dueling POV took the fear out of the story. There isn't much that is spooky about a ghost when they're giving you play-by-play about their life story, feelings, and motivations. The result was I never really left like Sarah was in any sort of danger.

Overall the reader is left with some unexplained phenomenon in the present and no real sense if this is being caused by humans or ghosts. We're also not sure if anything ghostly is malevolent or just a warning to Sarah. Actually, the more I think about it, I have no idea for the motivation for a lot of things that happened in this book. (Who killed the animals? What exactly is the purpose of haunting artists...so your story gets told? Was everyone having these dreams?)

In other words, I didn't dislike this book. It was an interesting read. But it lacked some cohesiveness that left me with more questions than answers. Thank you to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

trigger warning: sexual assault

Rife with unexpected twists and turns, obscured from thought and prediction, Dawson delivers a thrilling tale with tension as thick as a concrete blizzard.