Hotel Ruby by Suzanne Young

Genre:  YA Mystery/Contemporary/Horror

Suzanne Young's website

Expected publication date:  November 3, 2015

Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads

Description (taken from Suzanne Young's website):

"Stay tonight. Stay forever."

When Audrey Casella arrives for an unplanned stay at the grand Hotel Ruby, she's grateful for the detour. Just months after their mother's death, Audrey and her brother, Daniel, are on their way to live with their grandmother, dumped on the doorstep of a DNA-matched stranger because their father is drowning in his grief.

Audrey and her family only plan to stay the night, but life in the Ruby can be intoxicating, extending their stay as it provides endless distractions--including handsome guest Elias Lange, who sends Audrey's pulse racing. However, the hotel proves to be as strange as it is beautiful. Nightly fancy affairs in the ballroom are invitation only, and Audrey seems to be the one guest who doesn't have an invite. Instead, she joins the hotel staff on the rooftop, catching whispers about the hotel's dark past.

The more Audrey learns about the new people she's met, the more her curiosity grows. She's torn in different directions--the pull of her past with its overwhelming loss, the promise of a future that holds little joy, and an in-between in a place that is so much more than it seems...

Welcome to the Ruby.

Audrey's father is taking her and her brother across state lines to live with their grandmother.  It seems no one is able to deal with the grief from losing a loved one in this family.  And in the middle of the road trip, Audrey's father takes them to the Hotel Ruby.  An intoxicating and inviting hotel smack-dab in the middle of nowhere.  But once they check in, will they ever want to leave?

Before going to her room, Audrey decides to explore the amenities of the hotel.  She meets a guest named Elias who offers to show her around.  But when night turns to day, she realizes something is a little off in this place.  And as more guests talk about the invitation-only event that happens every night, Audrey begins to wonder why she's the only one who's not invited.  And as her father continues to extend their stay, she wonders if they'll ever be able to leave the Ruby.

I had this pegged from the beginning.  And this one's a tough one to describe because I don't want to give it all away even though it's at the tip of my tongue.  This story just builds off of a web of lies and dreams, and it all captivates you.  The only thing that kind of haunts me is the ending.  I'm not sure I liked that.  It's definitely one I'm going to be thinking about for a while.

This book is a definite for Suzanne Young fans.  And if you haven't picked up her books yet, this would be a good mystery for you.

Thanks goes to Around the World ARC Tours for providing me a review copy.

The Rules by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguié

Genre:  Mature YA Horror

Nancy Holder's website

Debbie Viguié's website

Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads

Description (taken from Debbie Viguié's):

Narrated by alternating unreliable narrators, this dark thriller will have readers on the edge of their seats. No one is safe and everyone is a suspect. It’s Saw meets I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Junior Robin Brisset has no idea what she’s in for when she accepts an invitation to one of Callabrese High’s most exclusive parties. And when the trademark scavenger hunt begins, Robin must go against every rule she’s lived by to survive.

August is hosting the rich kid's party of the year.  Only thing is he's seeking vengeance from the snobby kids who contributed to his sister's death last year.  You've got the jocks: those on steroids as well as though trying to succeed on skill alone.  You've got the drama geek, the cheerleader, and the girls who want more in life.  There's also the rock band, the drug user, and the gangster involved in this party.  But one girl, Robin, finds very quickly that she doesn't sync with this in-crowd and she's crashing the party.

The party consists of a scavenger hunt, and whichever team can find all of the clues first wins.  And August's prizes are worth sabotaging other teams over.  But once the clues begin to hit a little close to home and the scavenger items become a little morbid, the teenagers realize there's a vendetta at this party.  And when people go missing, everyone begins to suspect the host.  But he's just as lost as the rest of them.  One by one, they realize someone's out for blood and the prize for the night is your life.

So you know those awful teen horror flicks that have come out in recent years that have been absolutely terrible?  Like in the fact that it makes you ashamed to admit you were ever a teenager?  Pretty much sums up this book.  While trying to keep the who-done-it mystery alive, ridiculous back stories were thrown across the pages.  And they were typically only specific to one or two characters.  So it wasn't really a story you could guess at.  Once everything's revealed in the end, you're left wondering how far back the train derailed off the tracks with this story.

Obviously, I didn't care for this story.  I think there was an attempt to make an awesome story about a novel concept: rules, but it fell short.

The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco

Genre:  YA Ghost Story

Rin Chupeco's website

Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads

Description (taken from Goodreads):

You may think me biased, being murdered myself. But my state of being has nothing to do with the curiosity toward my own species, if we can be called such. We do not go gentle, as your poet encourages, into that good night.

A dead girl walks the streets.

She hunts murderers. Child killers, much like the man who threw her body down a well three hundred years ago.

And when a strange boy bearing stranger tattoos moves into the neighborhood so, she discovers, does something else. And soon both will be drawn into the world of eerie doll rituals and dark Shinto exorcisms that will take them from American suburbia to the remote valleys and shrines of Aomori, Japan.

Because the boy has a terrifying secret - one that would just kill to get out.

We have a corporeal girl looking for vengeance.  This is our narrator and who we will follow throughout this tale.  She's a girl obsessed with numbers and filling a need that can only be filled by spilling blood.  But when a boy catches her attention, she'll put her vengeance on hold to protect him.  For he bears a curiosity that we're dying to figure out.

Tark has recently moved to Applegate where his cousin, Callie, lives.  There's been plenty of strange happenings with him, and he's trying to put his past behind him.  But as Callie tries to encourage her cousin, she notices something quite peculiar following him around.  And when she realizes it's a ghost that's following him, she's determined to keep her from hurting Tark.  So begins their journey into the realm of spirits and Japanese folklore.

For being a ghost story told from a dead girl with OCD (the numbers!), I thought this was a good read.  I was captivated pretty early on and kept going with the flow.  I saw so many correlations to those Japanese scary movies that I watched as a teen, and I think it was cool to read about something instead of watching it.  My imagination went wild.  But in the end, it's still a ghost story with a happy ending (how'd that happen?).

If you're not one strictly into Japanese folklore and are looking for a ghost story, I think you'll enjoy it.  It's a fun story that gives an introduction to a well-known ghost story (just like adaptations of fairy tales but it's ghosts here).

Blog Tour and Giveaway: Hellbound by Su Halfwerk

Welcome to my stop for the Hellbound tour.  It features my review of Hellbound, the book trailer, Su Halfwerk's bio, and a giveaway for the ebook and a $25 Amazon certificate.

Hellbound by Su Halfwerk

Genre:  Adult Horror

Su Halfwerk's website

Amazon | Goodreads

Description (taken from the Blog Tour):

One-way ticket to Hell.

Bart is a greedy morgue attendant with money on his mind. He gets more than what he bargains for when he chances upon a pain-letter, one he must pass on or bear the consequences of his inaction.

Stan is a chiseler, a fake medium, preying on his unsuspecting clients’ earnings through bogus channeling sessions. When he meets mysterious Joanna Stark, he believes her promises of powers beyond his comprehension, powers blessed by the Netherworld.

Jenna gives up her old life and career to settle down as Troy’s loving wife. He is a God-fearing man who will consent only to marriage. Except fate maps a different ending to their love story, a conclusion that takes them both down and never up again.

Bart, Stan, and Jenna are destined to go on a long and abominable journey that sinks them below their expectations and forces them to endure pain and anguish beyond their worst nightmares.

On the paths leading to the depths of Hell, their sins don’t matter!

This short novel is actually a collection of three people's journey to Hel.  We have Bart the greedy mortician, Stan the lying medium, and Troy the do-gooder-wife-beater.  And let me tell you, their stories on how they ended up in Hell aren't pretty.

The best comparison I can give this book is comparing it to the Final Destination movies.  I love those movies only because of the bizarre outcomes (and the special effects).  This book definitely has a lot of bizarre outcomes, and it is very descriptive.  There were definitely some parts where I was laughing (instead of cringing) because the description was a little too gruesome to imagine.

All in all, I enjoyed this book.  I'd recommend it to people who like horror or reading gruesome details. It definitely makes you think twice before deciding to be a 'bad' person.

Author Bio:  Su Halfwerk

Su Halfwerk writes in the horror and paranormal romance genres. From a tender age, the written word left a strong impression on her, later on terrifying, blood-chilling books became the object of her interest. Su’s style in horror combines shuddery terror with elements of surprise; some would even call it an enigmatic twist. In the world of paranormal romance, she transforms the desire to scare into a quest to seduce and tantalize.

Other books by Su Halfwerk:

• Seeker ~ Book 1 in the Unsettled Series (Paranormal Romance)
• His to Possess (Finalist in 2011 EPIC Awards in the Paranormal Romance category)
• Zuphreen (Horror/Urban Fantasy)
• Intricate Entanglement (Horror/Thriller)

The books are available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other online outlets. When not writing, Su is designing book trailers for herself and other authors.
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