Tagged: Book Review

Articles / Reviews

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Epeolatry Book Review: Ruthless Creatures by J.T. Geissinger

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​Title: Ruthless Creatures
Author: J.T. Geissinger
Genre: Mafia Romance
Publisher: Bramble
Date: 7th January, 2025

Synopsis:Five years ago, my fiancé disappeared. He left me with a wedding dress I’d never wear. Left me with the kind of scars that can’t be healed. The man I built my future on vanished like a ghost. All that remained were my broken heart and a million unanswered questions.
Until a mysterious stranger arrives in town.
Tall, dark, and dangerous, Kage is as full of secrets as he is sex appeal. Though I know he’s hiding something, I’m drawn to him like a moth to flame. Heat crackles between us with every look, desire flares into passion, and I fall hard, helpless to resist.
But then I discover he’s been sent to collect on an unpaid debt from my missing fiancé….
And that debt is me.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Cold Snap by Lindy Ryan

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Our reviews may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through the links in this article we may receive a small commission or referral fee. This happens without any additional cost to you.

​Title: Cold Snap
Author: Lindy Ryan
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Titan Books
Date: 15th October, 2024

Synopsis: A grieving mother and son hope to survive Christmas in a remote mountain cabin, in this chilling novella of dread, isolation and demons lurking in the frozen woods. Perfect for fans of The Only Good Indians, The Shining and The Babadook.

Two weeks ago, Christine Sinclaire’s husband slipped off the roof while hanging Christmas lights and fell to his death on the front lawn.
Desperate to escape her guilt and her grief, Christine packs up her fifteen-year-old son and the family cat and flees to the cabin they’d reserved deep in the remote Pennsylvania Wilds to wait out the holidays.
It isn’t long before Christine begins to hear strange noises coming from the forest. When she spots a horned figure watching from between frozen branches, Christine assumes it’s just a forest animal—a moose, maybe, since the property manager warned her about them, said they’d stomp a body so deep into the snow nobody’d find it ’til spring.
But moose don’t walk upright like the shadowy figure does.
They don’t call Christine’s name with her dead husband’s voice.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Charybdis by Suzanne Craig-Whytock

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Our reviews may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through the links in this article we may receive a small commission or referral fee. This happens without any additional cost to you.

​Title: Charybdis
Author: Suzanne Craig-Whytock
Genre: Psychological Thriller; Woman Sleuth
Publisher: Jane’s Studio Press
Date: 28th February, 2024

Synopsis: When Greta Randall stumbles across a rare volume of Victorian poetry in a local antique market, she could never have imagined that it would take her on a journey through time. The secrets she discovers along the way may shed light on the book’s mysterious young author, Louisa Duberger, but at what peril?

Award-winning writer Suzanne Craig-Whytock is the author of four previous novels, Smile, The Dome, The Seventh Devil, and The Devil You Know, and two short story collections, Feasting Upon The Bones and At The End Of It All, as well as the humour collection What Any Normal Person Would Do. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous literary journals, and she regularly publishes essays focused on life’s absurdities under the pen name ‘Mydangblog.’ She is also the Editor of DarkWinter Literary Magazine, an online journal which publishes short stories and poetry from both emerging and established writers, as well as the founder of DarkWinter Press and Baxter House Editions. Charybdis is her fifth novel.

Praise for Charybdis:

“Monsters come in many forms — from mythological jealousy to Brontean obsessive misfires of the mind. In Suzanne Craig-Whytock’s beautifully crafted literary mystery, the past and present are swept up in a whirlpool of their own making as a modern-day English literature student attempts to unravel the dark secrets and desires of an obscure Victorian Canadian poet.” Rod Carley, author of RUFF. Twice long-listed for the Leacock Medal for Humour.

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Incubations by Ramsey Campbell

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​Title: The Incubations
Author: Ramsey Campbell
Genre: Horror, Supernatural Thriller
Publisher: Flame Tree Press
Date: 26th November, 2024

Synopsis: A collectable hardcover edition for Ramsey Campbell’s 60 years in publication.

 Leo Parker’s stay in Alphafen seems idyllic, but after he leaves, the nightmares begin: an airport turns into a labyrinth, his own words become treacherous if not lethal, and what are those creatures in the photographs he took? Even the therapy Leo undertakes becomes a source of menace.

 Perhaps Leo has roused an ancient Alpine legend. Even once he understands what he brought back, his attempts to overcome its influence may lead into greater nightmares still…

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Parliament by Aimee Pokwatka

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Our reviews may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through the links in this article we may receive a small commission or referral fee. This happens without any additional cost to you.

​Title: The Parliament
Author: Aimee Pokwatka
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Tordotcom
Date: 16th January, 2024

Synopsis: The Birds meets The Princess Bride in this tale of friendship, responsibility, and the primal force of nature.
“Murder owls are extreme,” Jude said. “What’s more extreme than murder owls?”
Madigan Purdy is stuck in her hometown library.
When tens of thousands of owls descend on the building, rending and tearing at anyone foolish enough to step outside, Mad is tasked with keeping her students safe, and distracted, while they seek a solution to their dilemma.
Perhaps they’ll find the inspiration they seek in her favorite childhood book, The Silent Queen….
With food and fresh water in low supply, the denizens of the library will have to find a way out, and soon, but the owls don’t seem to be in a hurry to leave…
The Parliament is a story of grief and missed opportunities, but also of courage and hope.
And of extremely sharp beaks.
At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Madness from the Sea: The Dreamlands by Jonathon T. Cross

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​Title: Madness from the Sea: The Dreamlands
Author: Jonathon T Cross
Genre: Occult Horror
Publisher: Independent
Date: 6th September, 2024

Synopsis: Finn came of age knowing nothing of the world that once was. Cthulhu was released prior to Finn’s birth, and madness has since loomed over humanity. 
Although Cthulhu never left R’lyeh, his call continues to lure victims by the boatload.
On every continent, societies prepare their young against Cthulhu’s telepathic reach. Teaching them to resist the allure of R’lyeh, lest they be swayed to their doom.
Bad dreams and monsters under the bed are no longer scoffed at, they are active threats to humanity’s survival.
No one is exempt, no location is beyond reach, not even the depths of one’s mind are off-limits.
The frailty of humankind has never been on grander display.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Ghost Apparent by Jelena Dunato

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​Title: Ghost Apparent
Author: Jelena Dunato
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Publisher: Ghost Orchid Press
Date: 24th September, 2024

Synopsis: Betrayed, deposed and presumed dead.

When her father is killed in a bloody coup and her uncle seizes the city, Orsiana pleads for help with the only power still willing to listen, unaware that the gods will use her as a pawn in their own game.

Thrown back on the streets of Abia, armed with the gods’ double-edged gifts, Orsiana must thwart her uncle’s plans and learn what it takes to rule a proud, stubborn city that thrives on artifice and wit. She will plot, fight and use lethally tuned verse to stir a rebellion. But just when her uncle’s Machiavellian schemes start to topple, a new player will enter the game, and the gods will raise the stakes. It’s easy to fight an enemy you hate, but how about an enemy you fall in love with? If she wants to win, Orsiana will have to risk the last precious thing in her possession: her heart.

A story of revenge and recovery, Ghost Apparent blends the history and folklore of the Eastern Adriatic with the bloody treachery of the Renaissance courts and is a perfect read for the fans of dark political fantasy.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Dark Tide Book 18: Blood and Bullets by Keith Lansdale, Michael Knost, James Aquilone

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​Title: Dark Tide Book 18: Blood and Bullets
Author: Keith Lansdale, Michael Knost, James Aquiline
Genre: Western Horror
Publisher: Crystal Lake Publishing
Date: 25th October, 2024

Synopsis: Prepare yourself for a chilling journey through the American frontier with Blood and Bullets, an anthology featuring three gripping novellas that blend horror, paranormal elements, and the harsh realities of the Old West.

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