Loved it! Could not put it down. Lackluster ending though. Was hoping for a big gotcha moment for Gail and co. Also what the hell happened to Kim and Reid. Too many unanswered questions for my taste. I understand that those answers are not important for the message of the book, but it bothers me none the less.

I’ve read quite a few of this authors stories and I love how she tells the tale of unique and strong women.

The main character, Sarah, is running away from an abusive relationship. She’s found sanctuary at an artist’s retreat in the mountains. Things aren’t right from the moment she steps into her new home. An abandoned hotel/asylum, long dead corpses and ghosts.

Very much a slow burn book, but picked way up around the halfway mark and I plowed through to find out the secrets of Tranquil Falls.

3⭐️ this is not my usual genre of book so it was quite the palette cleanser! I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that! This book has a lot to offer. A multitude of characters and an uncanny ability to draw suspense. I did not find the story line predictable. At times it was a bit dark, it reminded me of books like Verity and If We Were Villains. If you enjoy a spooky, thriller, mystery book- I think you would enjoy this book.

Thank you to NetGallery for the opportunity of my ARC read.

THE CREEPIEST!
Dawson has created a perfect storm of thriller and haunted tale in this isolated camp setting for artists. Sarah has run from her abusive relationshiop to reignite her passion for pottery at the Tranquil Falls artist colony. She meets a cast of characters including an adventurous punk young woman that has her exploring the desolated hotel property next door.

It's the perfect place to reinvent yourself except Sarah keeps running into horrible signs - a dead possum, an unmarked grave and the proprieter seems to dislike her. Dawson has brought in plenty of known scares in unique and interesting ways to make this a book you should only read in the daytime. Dawson has the knack for taking the truth about women's lives and shining on it - is it horror, or is it real life? #randomhouse #ballantine #itwillonlyhurtforamoment #delilahsdawson

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! This was a fun read. No gore (saying this for those of you who have read Bloom and were expecting something like that). I enjoyed the artist residency angle, and the no WiFi isolation of it all. If you’re looking for a paranormal thriller you’d likely enjoy this.

It went completely differently than I was anticipating. Warning spoilers ahead.

I 100% thought the MC killed her boyfriend and was the one injuring people and blocking it out (and was going to realize and have a Bloom moment. I also thought this was going to be where the no WiFI came into play - that’s how she wouldn’t know she was wanted for murder). I think that would’ve actually been cool, but I can always get behind a vengeful ghost who turns out to be real.
This book did a good job illustrating how little the plight of women has changed. How easily their freedom can be taken just for having needs and emotions that the men in their lives can’t handle.

I just finished reading this book, and while it had some great elements, I’m left with mixed feelings. The setting was one of the highlights for me, with its magical and supernatural elements that really drew me in. However, the plot started off very slow, and it wasn’t until about 30% into the story that things started to pick up. Once it did, the pace became more consistent, which kept me engaged.

That said, there are a few things that I found hard to overlook. The ending felt abrupt, leaving several characters, like Reid and Kim, incomplete. I understand that the author might have intended to keep with the mysterious theme of the plot, but it felt more like the story was cut off rather than adding to the mystery.

Another thing that bothered me was the lack of explanation behind Emily’s actions. Her motives were never fully explained, and I felt like every character was underdeveloped. Take Ingrid, for example. She was a crucial part of the plot, helping to start and end Sarah’s journey, yet I finished the book feeling like I knew nothing about her. She felt like an empty shell, and I wanted so much more from her character.

Despite these flaws, I would still recommend this book to fans of ghost stories and mysteries. Just be prepared to overlook some of the incomplete aspects of the storyline. There’s a lot to enjoy here, but don’t expect all your questions to be answered by the end.


I would like to express my deep gratitude to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for their generosity in allowing me to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was the third book I’ve read by Delilah S. Dawson and it was my least favorite out of the three, but it was one of those books that made me feel like I had physically gone somewhere. Dawson is great at atmosphere and world building, and even if this book didn’t quite hit as strongly as the other two in the end it was still an experience.

I loved the vivid way she described the artists’ retreat. I really understood the layout of the place and felt like I had been there before. Dawson appeals to all of the senses with her writing. This story took place in the Fall and the retreat was located in the woods, so that added an extra layer to everything, also. I think that Dawson is very skilled at visualizing her stories and where they occur, then translating that for the reader.

While the GR blurb for this book absolutely drew me in and made me want to read it, I do think it gives away too much about the plot. There are little details in there that don’t occur until pretty far into the story and would’ve been more fun to be surprised with as I was reading.

A mutual Friend/Reviewer on here recently mentioned that she is tired of seeing the “Goth girl is a bitch” stereotype in books, and honestly it hadn’t really occurred to me until I saw her talk about it but now I’m noticing it more. It totally happens in this novel. I kind of got the feeling that Ingrid was supposed to be a mean version of Lydia Deetz. (The book even references “Beetlejuice” at one point.) She did end up growing on me a bit by the end. But the timing was humorous and that Reviewer was absolutely right.

The plot takes a bit of a turn in a surprising direction that I was not expecting. It gets very dark, and then even darker. Part of me was hoping that the story would stay focused on the art aspect because I love art horror, but I didn’t really mind the other stuff that was going on, (though heed the trigger warnings.) The book straddled the line of feeling like two different stories stitched together, but the author made them harmonize for the most part. Just as main character Sarah was determined to explore her creepy and moldy surroundings, I was intrigued to find out just how deep this horrific plot would go. By the end, though, it did feel like one of the plot lines was left hanging and with a few gaping holes. As I read other reviews, I realized more and more threads that were left dangling. Based on “Guillotine,” another Dawson book that I just read an ARC for recently, I feel like she typically gives a lot of thought to her plots so honestly this surprised me.

The action also got a bit repetitive after a while, with Sarah doing the same things over and over but for different reasons. There was a lot of “Once she made it back outside into the sunlight, she could breathe again” or variations of that sentence.

Parts of this story were admittedly tough for me to read. There isn’t much that gets to me when I read horror, but the specific things that I don’t care for were there in this book and they were handled in a graphic way.

I was mostly having a good time with this read overall until I got to the last ten percent. The ending was just a big jumble of disappointment. I felt like Riley Sager suddenly took over. (Sorry for the shade!) I took a whole star off because of it. Sarah seemed to be doing things that were very out of character, after everything I had come to learn about her and after this little journey we had taken together, and it felt like a betrayal. A big reveal occurred that wasn’t surprising at all. There were those big questions left unanswered and two things happened out of nowhere, partially for the sake of plot convenience. But I found them difficult to believe or accept. All of this also made the ending overall feel a bit abrupt and unfinished. *I thought the book deserved a better conclusion. There was so much buildup to what amounted to a mixture of over the top villainy and a long passage of telling rather than showing in the aftermath. (“Let me catch you up on what happened in this dialogue.”)

I liked “Bloom” and “Guillotine” quite a bit, and this one had a lot of potential but didn’t quite hit the mark for me. I think a different ending would really elevate the story. But I’ll definitely continue to read more from this author!

2.5 rounded up because I really did like it until the ending.

Thank you to Netgalley and to the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.

TW: Substance Abuse, Animal Death, Sexual Assault, Domestic Abuse, Misogyny, Self-harm (graphic), References to Abortion

This was such a fun read as a Georgia native. At the beginning of the novel we find the main character, Sarah Carpenter, returning to her home state of Georgia to reconnect to her artistic roots at an artist's collective program in the remote Georgia mountains. This novel initially reads as a mystery and quickly turns to thriller as paranormal elements begin to entwine themself into the story.
I have an aunt who is an established southern potter, giving me extensive knowledge of the process of making pottery, and I must say Dawson successfully spoke to so many elements of this artistic form with such clarity and depth that I could envision the pieces being formed in my mind.
The ending was unexpected but felt a bit rushed to combine all the loose threads from the story. Overall, this book is a fantastic read and perfect for spooky fall evenings.

So, first off... please put a trigger warning or content warning in this book. It was a very darkly overwhelming read with absolutely 0 warning.

The setting and atmosphere are gorgeous, but....the plot was a major let down. Especially the ending. For someone so set on moving on, Kyle was the major point of Sarah's entire personality. We only got glimpses of her in terms of how Kyle made her, but rarely a glimpse of who she actually was. I feel like the story would have been more impactful if only Sarah had been impacted, which really takes out the creepier elements of the story.

Please, someone take away the sheer number of metaphors used. AND why did Kyle just randomly pop up? If he had been manipulating things that may have made the ending more plausible, but it was just nonsensical and traumatic. Not knowing what happened to Reid was also strange. Gail would have had no reason to get rid of him, so it felt like cheap suspense to leave his ending unknown. Very reluctant 3 star read.

Sarah has left her abusive husband, heading to a secluded artists’ retreat with no cell service or internet, safe from her husband and free to resume her love for pottery. Soon after her arrival, while digging a pit for a kiln, she discovers the body of a young woman, apparently from the 1800’s. From that point forward, strange things begin happening at the art colony, and Sarah is in the center of it all. It Will Only Hurt For A Moment is a dark, eerie ghost story with a disturbing theme central to the plot, as Sarah discovers the more she delves into the sordid past of Tranquil Falls, the former location of a “healing spa” in the 1800’s that catered to the rich. The flawed characters, all artists like Sarah, add to the strange aura that surrounds the colony, and Sarah’s vivid, strange dreams help tell the story, and provides plenty of chills for the reader. I was pleasantly surprised by the direction this book takes, and except for a few plot holes at the end which need to be overlooked, I definitely enjoyed this one! I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I did actually enjoy this book quite a bit! It had a great pace and the atmosphere Dawson created through her narrative was spooky and intriguing. Ghosts, a haunted hotel/resort, dual timelines done well? Count me in. However, there are some loose ends that I feel didn’t get tied up and ya girl wants answers!!

Sarah is on a new adventure. Having recently left her abusive, narcissistic ex-boyfriend, she goes to a 6-week artists retreat in the mountains of northern Georgia. This retreat is hosted at Tranquil Falls, what was once a posh health spa/resort for well-to-do men and women in the late 1800s. Tranquil Falls is withholding a dark past and traumatic secrets that start to affect the artists staying in cabins built on the land south of the old hotel. It throws their work off center and Sarah starts having a lot of dreams associated with past guests at the resort where the secrets of the past start coming to light. Sarah then has to decide if she’s going to pursue justice for the ghosts of Tranquil Falls past or keep herself safe.

There are SEVERAL things that Dawson brings up throughout this book that aren’t resolved in the end. I’m going to wait to add in all those things in more detail when I have my computer and can format this so spoilers will be hidden 🙃🤪😂 some people in these reviews are complaining about stereotyping the artists, but that didn’t really bother me. What was getting on my last nerve was Dawson’s use of short hand in the prose! If it were part to the dialogue it wouldn’t bother me since that’s how people talk, but in the narrative itself saying things like “pic” instead of “picture” or “veg” instead of “vegetable” might be my new biggest pet peeve in writing. It was something I’ve never noticed in books before but DANG it happened a lot here and every single time I would get so annoyed lol.

Thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for the advance copy of this book!!

I loved the title and the book cover, but I really didn't like the book. The plot was really repetitive, and even good writing couldn't change the predictability this story or the one-dimensional characters.

3/5

Sarah Carpenter is starting over - away from her narcissistic ex-boyfriend who never had the best intentions for her. Headed to a secluded artists' retreat at Tranquil Falls with no cell signal or internet to distract her, she plans to fall back in love with her passion for pottery. However, while digging a hole for a pit kiln, Sarah discovers the body of a young woman who died in a disturbing way. This starts a series of events that makes Sarah wonder if someone is out to get her or if she’s losing her grip on reality. As she investigates the beautiful valley and crumbling resort that seems to be the center of it all, Sarah will unearth a chilling past of Tranquil Falls that can no longer remain buried.

This book was so frustrating. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit as I was reading it, and loved the atmosphere that Delilah S. Dawson created, but the ending annoyed me so much. There were multiple things that happened in the book that were left unexplained, and the ending wrapped up way too quickly. I feel like there should’ve been another few chapters to finish wrapping up the loose ends. This is mainly a vibes and character-driven book, which I normally love in fiction and horror, but the plot that was there felt repetitive and rushed - which led to that unsatisfying ending. The central theme of this book was emotional abuse and the power it holds, but this book could’ve done so much more. I felt like it was too safe and went in a direction that multiple thrillers and horror have gone before already, which was disappointing. I didn’t hate reading this, but because of the ending I would be wary of recommending this.

“He is completely unaware, this man, her husband, that women always wake when danger is near. That they are always listening, always watching, that they can sense how the air changes when they are targeted. Like wild creatures their eyes pierce the darkness, taking in every detail of the approaching enemy. If only, like wild creatures they had ready claws. He does not understand women. He does not need to. You don’t need to understand a porcelain cup to shatter it completely.”

Thank you to Random House Publishing, NetGalley, and the author for the opportunity to read an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

It Will Only Hurt For A Moment is a gripping thriller about Sarah, the MC, who attends a secluded summer artist residency on the site of an old, abandoned hotel, in part to escape an abusive relationship. The director informs Sarah that the hotel was once a prominent and luxurious spot for the wealthy to visit for restoration and rejuvenation. Strange and unsettling things start happening from Sarah's first day at the residency, and we follow her through the mystery of the location and what is happening to the artists.

I was immediately immersed in this story, and while the overall theme of a thriller amongst artists isn't new to me, the details and characters were unique and captivating. I continued to guess at what would happen next and felt the ending was not fully predictable, which I really appreciated. I especially liked the growth of the characters and their relationships during the story. I think this book will be very memorable for me and I would highly recommend it to others.

Just a note that this book contains heavy content of sexual assault, abuse, and more related to those topics, so please be cautious picking up this book if needed. These topics are covered during the entire book and not just parts of it.

Overall I'd give this book a 4.5 as I really enjoyed it and it was a quick and engaging read.

I’m not going to lie, that cover is what initially drew my eye and made me want to read this. I haven’t read anything else by this author yet but I’ve heard amazing things about Bloom.

I’m not sure what I expected when I went into this one. I was initially intrigued from the beginning but it lost me a little in the middle.

I tried so hard to get into this book, but it was so hard to stay focused on it. It wasn't my least favorite book I've ever read, but it definitely wasn't my favorite. This was my first time reading a book from this author, and I was pretty disappointed. I'll still give their other books a try, though. Just because I didn't thoroughly enjoy this book doesn't mean others won't, so I'll still recommend giving it a try.

I heard absolutely nothing but rave reviews about Dawson's other novel Bloom and so I was pretty thrilled to try her new one out. All in all, what a let down. The descriptive SA and rape scenes and the overplayed narcissistic abuse was too much to handle. I mean, I get it, but it was almost sickly repetitive. My stomach couldn't handle much of it, there honestly should've been some heads up trigger warning there. I felt like this was a clumsy burn to the end and I was able to see it a mile away. Hopefully, this title will find it's audience, bit it just wasn't me.

2.5 stars.
I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley. This was my first ARC ever approved on there. I was super invested in the first half, then there was so many boring moments. I think I was just not the right reader for this book.

What I did like about this book was that I could relate to the FMC a lot, the messed up mother problems, the abusive relationships which I am no longer a part of but I've been there. The book is fast paced, very easy to read. The author has done well with the imagery descriptors. Getting lost in the book is no doubt very easy to do. There were just boring moments through out the book and so many conversations that annoyed me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-copy of this novel!

I thought this book was alright, but it took a while to really get going. I feel like nothing was really happening in the first half of the book and it was mainly just Sarah wandering around overthinking everything. I didn't mind this at first, but nothing was happening and I was beginning to wonder if there was even going to be anything supernatural in this book at all. It did start to pick up at about the 60% mark. I thought the ending was fine, but it left a lot of questions unanswered. Like, a lot a lot. Felt like there should have been another chapter or two to finish wrapping up loose ends.

Positive: It's moody and spooky and leans into the "most men are trash" vibes that are still very much in the zeitgeist. The side characters, especially Ingrid, are vibrant, and the author weaponizes the haunting landscape to add tension to every square inch of the story. All of the pieces are here to build something resembling a "lock-in" murder mystery, or a more ghost-oriented slasher fic, but unfortunately that's not the direction this headed in.

Negative: Coming after almost a decade of post me-too literature, I worry that the audience for this type of book has moved on. There's an over-reliance on therapy-speak and emotional trauma that, maybe before authors like Gillian Flynn, Tana French, and Amanda Montell, felt insightful. Here it does too much of the heavy lifting, and because we're so inundated with instagram slideshows breaking down the difference between love-bombing and gas=lighting, it felt more like reading through a listicle of red-flags to watch out for in your relationship that an actual mystery.