I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. I was able to find the audio version through my local library. I love horror stories, but it is SO hard to find a good one nowadays. This story had potential, but sadly it was just a hard pass. How are these main character in their later 30's and they act like teenagers. This one was mostly the MFC that got on my nerves. I felt really sorry for the husband. His wife was so annoying and hateful she just got on my nerves and was very unlikable.. Why keep it a secret that she got a business deal from a famous author to draw a book cover...why keep that a secret from her husband for months and months? Why can't they just sit down and talk to each other instead of just wondering to each other. I could see this with a newly married couple in their early twenties but not a couple pushing 40. I also didn't feel like the scary parts were well..scary..or suspenseful. Man I wish someone could write a good horror/paranormal story without the dumb woke politically correct crap that was thrown in here. Also the writing felt very sloppy and this felt like more of a young adult theme book.

It's been a few days since I finished this book, and I just don't know how to feel about it. The majority of the characters are horrible- I liked Monica in the beginning and then she had some sort of personality 180 and I ended up hating her, too. Cooper and that whole relationship was really weird and confusing.

I am so exhausted and bored and frustrated by the whole gaslighting- you're off your meds-my wife is crazy trope. Especially after having a newborn- Though so many points to the author for portraying a less than perfect pregnancy. Showing that for some- being pregnant isn't this beautiful magical perfect experience. That was really refreshing. Miles' homophobia and general awfulness led me to almost DNF- and yet...the story drew me in. (Not all characters need to be likable)

Without going away too many details- this one is more or less your average haunted house story but this book ended in a way that I found completely unexpected and that really stuck with me. I can't say that I liked it, but I also can't stop thinking about it.

This particular book wasn't for me, but the writing kept me engaged and coming back so I'll definitely check out something else by this author.

Trigger warnings: pregnancy, pregnancy loss, infertility, traumatic birth, postpartum depression.

I will be short with this book, because I feel like I wasted enough time on it.
Idea of it was great, but the execution was very poorly.
We have a couple who are just miserable together, but the author tries to convince us, that they somehow are in love.
We made to believe that both of them wanted a family, but actions and inner dialogue tells a completely different story.
The miscommunication was above and beyond, to the point where it made this story ridiculous.
The constant bickering, gaslighting, judgment was tiring to say the least.
The decisions made by MCs were questionable to say the least.
I guest the ending almost immediately, so there was no surprise at the end.
The only thing that surprised me is that it’s not the debut novel, because it definitely feels like one.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for allowing me to read the ARC of The House on the Cover of a Horror Novel. Overall I would give the book a 2/5 stars. It was okay but it was different than what I expected. I definitely expected thriller, but this was more paranormal than I am a fan of.

This was a bit of a miss for me! I was struggling with the book and decided to seek out the audio, which helped a lot! The husband and wife were caricatures of a suburban, white, couple. Well, at least the husband was! He was so grating it became distracting. I wish we could have learned more about their ‘why’s’. Story lacked character development. I liked the second half of the book when we started to understand the house more, but i was a bit exhausted by then. 2.5 stars because i did like the idea of the story.

The House on the Cover of a Horror Novel is a chilling and clever meta-horror that blurs the line between fiction and reality. The novel follows a group of characters who become entangled with a haunted house that seems to exist only in the pages of a horror novel—until it starts to invade their lives. With a sharp, self-aware narrative, the story examines the tropes of the genre while still delivering plenty of suspense, eerie atmosphere, and dark twists.

The book plays with the reader’s expectations, offering both a tribute to classic horror and a subversive take on it. The house itself is an almost tangible character in the story, with its creeping menace and unpredictable nature, while the characters struggle to escape the grip of something that shouldn’t be real. A masterclass in unsettling, The House on the Cover of a Horror Novel is an eerie, thought-provoking read that will haunt readers long after the last page.

I will read any story that has a scary house as a premise, and this book did not disappoint. The eery dark halls of a spooky house are the exact trope I look for, I literally can read these stories year round. The story did not disappoint and gave a big spin on the classic haunted house story.

This is a genuinely haunting story that is one of the best books I've read this year! I won't spoil the ending but it's very tragic and haunting. If you enjoy books where the scares are psychological , then I think you will really enjoy this. Special Thank You to E.V. Knight, RDS Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

there was just too much going on in this book for how short it was. it was creepy, but not enough character depth and not a 'traditional' haunted house story.

The House on the Cover of a Horror Novel by EV Knight is a horror novel and ghost story. It's short but I think that actually hurts it. It needed to be fleshed out more than it is. It has potential, but didn't quite hit the mark for me.

Oof okay. So the story for this was really chaotic. The dialogue among the characters was kind of cringy with how much unnecessary swearing there was... I swear like a sailor, but it felt like the f bomb was being placed in the dialogue way too often that it didn't feel genuine. I didn't feel like I connected with the characters and their grievances, nor did I root for any of them. I did appreciate the dual POV's because it did help with perspective with Emily and Miles, but it still didn't feel like it was enough for me to really connect. Emily and Miles didn't communicate at all, which is one of my bigger complaints, because the miscommunication came off as childish. I think if some of these areas were corrected a bit more, it would be a better haunted house story, but the focus seemed to be on miscommunication rather than the house for the majority of the ride.

Emily is a talented artist and a loving husband. One day she is contacted by the renown author Cooper Yancy and asked to paint the cover for his next novel, a southern gothic horror.. Emily finds the perfect haunted looking house in Savannah, Georgia but barely gets in to tour the house when she starts bleeding badly and collapses. She is happily surprised to be told that she is. pregnant with a healthy baby boy. Such joy after years of trying with Miles.

However…Miles knows nothing about the commissioned work for Cooper (nor does he know of Emily’s bad feelings regarding the old,Victorian . So, he buys the house as a total surprise on the assumption that she loves the place. Emily does not love the place. Not one bit. When Miles unveils his big surprise Emily is giddy with happiness as he expected, Emily decides to make the best of it for the sake of Miles.

Of course…..strange things begun to happen. Scary objects are thrown away and then appear back in the house. After.a traumatic birth Emily is dismayed to not feel great love for Rhett in the beginning. Yet, as the haunt grows more threatening her love for Rhett suddenly blooms in a big rush and she know she will do anything-anything to protect her son from the house, it’s long dead first owners, or what ever it is that seems to want Rhett.

Fight she does and she fights alone as Miles thinks all,of this is stress. When Rhett is seriously in danger the police suspect her, Miles blows off her concerns about ghosts and an old house and her best friend even starts taking Mile’s side a bit. Finally, in full-on battle mode Emily gets to alone in the house with “it” and brokers a deal. Will Emily come out ahead on this deal and get her son back? We readers really root for her!

There is a sadness in this book that adds realism to what the main characters are experiencing. The haunting is well played and not overdone. I would recommend this novel to readers who enjoy the classic haunted house tale. Thank you #netgalley for allowing e to read #TheHouseOnTheCoverOfAHorrorNovel.

EV Knight masterfully blends horror, motherhood, and creativity in a tale that’s eerie, emotional, and impossible to put down. The ending? Let’s just say I’m still recovering.

This is a binge-worthy, haunting read that’s perfect for spooky season. If you love stories where the house feels alive and the suspense never lets up, this is your next must-read.

The cover of the book was what drew my attention. I think it is a beautiful cover and made me want to read the book. I thought it was going to be more a haunted house book but felt more like marriage issues. It was a good read but it took me a bit longer to read than what I'm used to. I wanted it to be scarier.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read it in advance.

This is a good horror novel with a satisfying end for those who love horror. This is a ghost story that could be a little more atmospheric. Old toys reappear, things go missing, people go missing. Where does everything go?

Raw, scary, and immersive. This slim volume somehow manages to be a slow-burn, expertly paced and creeping towards a shocking conclusion. Very excited to see what EV Knight does next!

Thank you so much to RDS Press for the e-ARC of The House on the Cover of a Horror Novel!

I am so so SO sad that I didn’t love this one. Knight’s writing tends to be a hit for me, but unfortunately — this one felt a little too unpolished.

I loved the idea, I loved the supernatural elements & I loved that I had no idea what was going on.

I didn’t love the pacing or the side characters — primarily Miles, the husband. The House on the Cover of a Horror Novel took me way too long to read, because I had lost all interest in reading it.

The House on the Cover of a Horror Novel is a horror novel about Emily Lawrence, an artist who receives a commission by a famous horror author to create something that will inspire his next novel. Emily soon finds herself fascinated by an old Victorian house in their town that draws her in as much as it terrifies her. When a sudden medical emergency and an unexpected, high-risk pregnancy, however, Emily’s husband Miles learns about her interest in the house, and thinking that it’s her dream house, buys it for their growing family. Living in the house, though, proves to be just as tumultuous as Emily suspected from the beginning. As Emily is overtaken with postpartum depression, Miles must keep the family together and safe from a force that he doesn’t fully understand.

It is such a horror trope of characters being willfully oblivious to the horrors hiding in a haunted house, and I loved the idea of the main character ending up in a haunted house despite her own self awareness. I ended up feeling quite impressed with the thought put into this house as well – it’s clear that the author had a consistent vision for how and why the haunting works the way that it does, and I enjoyed having those details revealed one by one. There’s an interesting twist to this haunting that worked out quite well too.

That being said, I feel like there’s something missing with the character development. All of the characters in this book feel like the author did at least try to add dimension – they have their own personal struggles that are firmly grounded in their experiences, and it was interesting to see how the very different characters interacted with one another. However, I still just feel like something is missing. Perhaps it is the lack of growth in any of the characters. Perhaps their drive is consistent from start to finish, but none of them seemed to have any great moments of clarity. Instead, they continued to clash again and again without any of them showing any real change.

The general plot of this one felt a little disjointed, and it was sometimes hard to follow what of the action is and isn’t real, and I definitely think your enjoyment of the plot is going to depend on personal preference. It’s fast-paced, and easy to get invested early on, but about halfway through it becomes difficult to distinguish the main characters’ delusions from their reality. There were elements of this that certainly worked well – I enjoy an unreliable narrator from time to time, and there was a strong foundation for this unreliability. However, I personally am a reader who wants a better grasp on the world, and I sometimes lost track of the plot because of it. Again, I don’t think this is a fault of the writer. I think this has much more to do with me as a reader, and I think readers with a little more flexibility are unlikely to have the same issues.

In all, I’ll give The House on the Cover of a Horror Novel a 7 out of 10. This novel is a fast-paced horror that has a lot to like, even if I struggled a little with the characters and clarity in a few places, and I think it’s a decent choice for horror lovers looking for a new read.

Emily Lawrence was an artist that made the art on the cover of books. She goes in the hospital with her pregnancy. Emily's husband buys a home he thinks she loves. There is something strange about the home.
Thanks to RDS Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.

I ate up this paranormal horror story that perfectly wove in threads of the difficulties of motherhood and womanhood.

Emily is an artist who is commissioned to find the perfect "muse" to create a cover of a horror novel that hasn't been written yet by Cooper Yancy. She finds the perfect house in her hometown of Savannah, GA. Her husband learns that she went to look at the home and thinks she fell in love with it so surprises her with buying it.

Once the couple moves into the home, Emily is in a high risk pregnancy and has a traumatic birth but things just get worse from there.

All of the characters are so real, raw and relatable. There are times I wanted to slap the husband up the head but he really was having just natural reactions to the situation before him.

This story gets gruesome, heartbreaking, palpable... I just really enjoyed every page.