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Close to Home
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson comes an atmospheric and riveting novel of suspense that uncovers the horrifying secrets buried within a ramshackle house. . .
Vowing to make a fresh start, Sarah McAdams has come home to renovate the old Victorian mansion where she grew up. Her daughters, Jade and Gracie, aren't impressed by the rundown property on the shores of Oregon's wild Columbia River. As soon as they pull up the isolated drive, Sarah too is beset by uneasy memories--of her cold, distant mother, of the half-sister who vanished without a trace, and of a long-ago night when Sarah was found on the widow's walk, feverish and delirious.
Ever since the original mistress of the house plunged to her death almost a century ago, there have been rumors that the place is haunted. As a girl, Sarah sensed a presence there, and soon Gracie claims to see a lady in white running up the stairs. Still, Sarah has little time to dwell on ghost stories, between overseeing construction and dealing with the return of a man from her past.
But there's a new, more urgent menace in the small town. One by one, teenage girls are disappearing. Frantic for her daughters' safety, Sarah feels her veneer cracking and the house's walls closing in on her again. Somewhere deep in her memory is the key to a very real and terrifying danger. And only by confronting her worst fears can she stop the nightmare roaring back to life once more. . .
Vowing to make a fresh start, Sarah McAdams has come home to renovate the old Victorian mansion where she grew up. Her daughters, Jade and Gracie, aren't impressed by the rundown property on the shores of Oregon's wild Columbia River. As soon as they pull up the isolated drive, Sarah too is beset by uneasy memories--of her cold, distant mother, of the half-sister who vanished without a trace, and of a long-ago night when Sarah was found on the widow's walk, feverish and delirious.
Ever since the original mistress of the house plunged to her death almost a century ago, there have been rumors that the place is haunted. As a girl, Sarah sensed a presence there, and soon Gracie claims to see a lady in white running up the stairs. Still, Sarah has little time to dwell on ghost stories, between overseeing construction and dealing with the return of a man from her past.
But there's a new, more urgent menace in the small town. One by one, teenage girls are disappearing. Frantic for her daughters' safety, Sarah feels her veneer cracking and the house's walls closing in on her again. Somewhere deep in her memory is the key to a very real and terrifying danger. And only by confronting her worst fears can she stop the nightmare roaring back to life once more. . .
432 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2014
2289 people are currently reading
17671 people want to read
About the author
Lisa Jackson
271 books9,585 followersLisa Jackson is the number-one New York Times bestselling author of over ninety-five novels, including the Rick Bentz and Reuben Montoya Series, the Pescoli and Alvarez Series, the Savannah series, and numerous stand alone novels. She also is the co-author of One Last Breath, Last Girl Standing, and the Colony Series, written with her sister and bestselling author Nancy Bush, as well as the collaborative novels Sinister and Ominous, written with Nancy Bush and Rosalind Noonan. There are over thirty million copies of her novels in print and her writing has been translated into twenty languages.
Before she became a nationally bestselling author, she was a mother struggling to keep food on the table by writing novels, hoping against hope that someone would pay her for them. Today, neck deep in murder, her books appear on The New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly national bestseller lists.
With dozens of bestsellers to her name, Lisa Jackson is a master of taking readers to the edge of sanity—and back—in novels that buzz with dangerous secrets and deadly passions. She continues to be fascinated by the minds and motives of both her killers and their pursuers—the personal, the professional, and the downright twisted. As she builds the puzzle of relationships, actions, clues, lies, and personal histories that haunt her protagonists, she must also confront the fear and terror faced by her victims and the harsh and enduring truth that, in the real world, terror and madness touch far too many lives and families.
Visit http://www.LisaJackson.com where you can find a Media Kit with photos and more information.
Before she became a nationally bestselling author, she was a mother struggling to keep food on the table by writing novels, hoping against hope that someone would pay her for them. Today, neck deep in murder, her books appear on The New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly national bestseller lists.
With dozens of bestsellers to her name, Lisa Jackson is a master of taking readers to the edge of sanity—and back—in novels that buzz with dangerous secrets and deadly passions. She continues to be fascinated by the minds and motives of both her killers and their pursuers—the personal, the professional, and the downright twisted. As she builds the puzzle of relationships, actions, clues, lies, and personal histories that haunt her protagonists, she must also confront the fear and terror faced by her victims and the harsh and enduring truth that, in the real world, terror and madness touch far too many lives and families.
Visit http://www.LisaJackson.com where you can find a Media Kit with photos and more information.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 950 reviews
October 26, 2016
This book was FAN FREAKING TASTIC!!!! Five stars for sure. Terrifying plot surrounding a family mystery and disappearance, a manor that might be haunted, a single mom with two teenage girls, and a kidnapper on the loose. Seriously, can it get better than that?!
The characters were written to perfection, each one likable or (un) likable. Hell- even the bastards were likable in this book... they were written so well that you loved to hate them.
The scenery, the land, and the house played a HUGE part in this book and I could picture it in my mind the entire time I read. What is it about spooky old houses that give you goosebumps? Whatever it is.... Blue Peacock Manor had it. This old home held so many mysteries and terrifying conclusions that you have to read the book to find out what.
Go read this book! Go get it from the library, buy it online, or download it to your reading device. Read it ASAP. I'm not sure how I will move on with my life now that I've read this. I could literally kick myself in the ass for letting this book sit on the shelf for two years before picking it up. What in the hell was I thinking?!
The characters were written to perfection, each one likable or (un) likable. Hell- even the bastards were likable in this book... they were written so well that you loved to hate them.
The scenery, the land, and the house played a HUGE part in this book and I could picture it in my mind the entire time I read. What is it about spooky old houses that give you goosebumps? Whatever it is.... Blue Peacock Manor had it. This old home held so many mysteries and terrifying conclusions that you have to read the book to find out what.
Go read this book! Go get it from the library, buy it online, or download it to your reading device. Read it ASAP. I'm not sure how I will move on with my life now that I've read this. I could literally kick myself in the ass for letting this book sit on the shelf for two years before picking it up. What in the hell was I thinking?!
October 23, 2014
The only horrifying aspect of this book was the fact that it was under the "Best Seller" section at Barnes & Noble. There is an abundance of potential here to create a plot with strong, admirable, and solid female characters ranging from the mother, Sarah, her two daughters, the head officer of the case of the missing girls, to the missing girls themselves. However, it is a typical case of "let the man do that for me." Clint Walsh, a man with no depth at all (I think there's more insight into the character of his stereotypical cowboy dog, Tex), must ultimately encourage Officer Bellisario to rush to the scene of action, as she's clearly more interested in gathering her thoughts and standing on the side of the road. Luckily, one teenage girl, Rosario, was the only worthwhile character in the book, but even she is grade-A boring and predictable. Cliché flashbacks revealing a mysterious past incident concerning the protagonist, a haunted house that literally seems random and without purpose, kidnapping girls to be sold to MOUNTAIN MEN (??) and a hot burning romance with no romance... Hmmm I think I would rather do laundry. Now THAT is terrifying!
January 29, 2021
Sarah McAdams returns to her childhood home, Blue Peacock Manor in Oregon, along with her two daughters, 17-year-old Jade and 12-year-old Gracie. Sarah hopes to renovate the rundown mansion which will be a big undertaking. Her memories of the place are not happy ones. On top of that, there is a possible ghost haunting the house; her ex-boyfriend lives next door; and local teenage girls are going missing. Sarah begins to question if this move was the right thing to do.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I loved the setting with the rundown mansion and surrounding property which included the family cemetery. It provided a terrific atmosphere for the story. There was such a colorful cast of characters, so well written, all with distinct personalities. Sarah’s family was interesting in that they were so unbelievably messed up, not only in the present day but also back in time throughout the family history. The ending was awesome. A fantastic read that held my interest throughout.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I loved the setting with the rundown mansion and surrounding property which included the family cemetery. It provided a terrific atmosphere for the story. There was such a colorful cast of characters, so well written, all with distinct personalities. Sarah’s family was interesting in that they were so unbelievably messed up, not only in the present day but also back in time throughout the family history. The ending was awesome. A fantastic read that held my interest throughout.
October 31, 2014
Stupid stupid ending. Not only did the author resolve everything in 2 pages, but the bad guy was such a minor character that when it was announced who it was I went,"who?" And then had to page back through the book to find them. You learn virtually nothing about the back stories of any characters. I'm giving it 2 stars only because it had such potential and was pretty good until about the last 1/3 of the book. Don't waste time on this one.
February 27, 2015
Is this really the final version of this story?
There is so much going on—too much. And there is editing to be done.
And who said that this has any romantic elements? The romance (as weak as it is) swoops in at the last chapter and hits you over the head to convince you that it was there all along.
Jade is one of the most annoying and over the top brats of a teenager that I have read in a very long time.
Sarah is, in Clint’s own words:
"...the single most fascinating woman he'd ever met."
Really, Clint? Based on what? The fact that she could see ghosts and kept denying it from fear of being thought of as crazy and talked about? The fact that she sucked as a disciplinarian to her oldest child? The fact that her idea of turning down a man was to go out with him multiple times? The fact that she could not, for the life of her, seemingly stand up to her siblings and psychopath of a mother?
And to add insult to injury, the story drags on from the beginning. It took me fifteen chapters to begin feeling any sort of interest—thank God I’m pretty stubborn, or I would’ve given up after chapter five.
I think that Gracie and Xena are the best things in here, and there was not enough of either one of them.
I haven’t had a lot of luck with Lisa Jackson’s books lately, so she’ll be staying on my shelf for a while.
There is so much going on—too much. And there is editing to be done.
And who said that this has any romantic elements? The romance (as weak as it is) swoops in at the last chapter and hits you over the head to convince you that it was there all along.
Jade is one of the most annoying and over the top brats of a teenager that I have read in a very long time.
Sarah is, in Clint’s own words:
"...the single most fascinating woman he'd ever met."
Really, Clint? Based on what? The fact that she could see ghosts and kept denying it from fear of being thought of as crazy and talked about? The fact that she sucked as a disciplinarian to her oldest child? The fact that her idea of turning down a man was to go out with him multiple times? The fact that she could not, for the life of her, seemingly stand up to her siblings and psychopath of a mother?
And to add insult to injury, the story drags on from the beginning. It took me fifteen chapters to begin feeling any sort of interest—thank God I’m pretty stubborn, or I would’ve given up after chapter five.
I think that Gracie and Xena are the best things in here, and there was not enough of either one of them.
I haven’t had a lot of luck with Lisa Jackson’s books lately, so she’ll be staying on my shelf for a while.
September 12, 2015
A fast pace mystery with a paranormal twist. A mother of two young girls moves back to her small town to remodel an old family mansion after splitting from her husband. I thought it was going to be the same as many other tell tale, starting over stories, but when a heartless villain is added it gets interesting. Young girls in this quiet, small town start disappearing and we are privy to the fact that the abductor is hiding in plain sight but we are not told until the end who it is. There are a few holes in the story, for example the youngest girl falls over a dead body and even after the police arrive it is not discussed at all. The narrator did an okay job but her male voices sound like she is possessed. A daily deal so it was worth the time.
September 22, 2014
To mark this book as "read" is almost a fib. I read about 75 pages and just couldn't stand anymore. The story was so full of cliches (missing siblings, ghosts in the attic, old boyfriend living next door, blah blah blah) that I just couldn't stand anymore. I skipped ahead to the last chapter and what do you know? All cliches fulfilled as expected. A total waste of time to spend another minute with this clinker.
June 8, 2014
I just finished reading this book as part of All YOU book club. I had a hard time staying with it, it literally kept putting me to sleep. It is an ok read once you get thru it, but I don't feel the author was really successful with trying to keep all the twists and turns going. It actually at times made me very confused and I felt she was changing things she had just written.
May 31, 2015
The start of this story is dark and spooky, however this is the highlight of the story. From here you are presented with a cast of unconvincing characters, multiple twists and turns which are virtually impossible to keep track of and a somewhat disappointing story which never lives up to it's initial promise. The whole thing is wound up in a couple of pages, which really does make the reading this feel even more of a waste of time. I've never read this author before and have to say that after this experience I am not sure I will again, it's all very meh and I'm really not sure why it took 420 pages to get to the conclusion. Not good.
November 19, 2014
I was a bit disappointed with Lisa Jackson’s latest book, Close to Home. I have read so many books by this author and have really liked most of them, but this one never grabbed me!!!!
Ghosts that haunt an decrepit mansion somewhere in the Northwest Pacific overlooking Columbia River that holds family secrets, unexplained disappearances, murders , kidnappings, serial killer on the loose......and a lot of all those unexplainable things!!!!
Sounds totally great.......yes, it does!!! But somehow, I found something missing in this story!!!! It didn’t pull me in!!!!
I felt a bit disconnected by the two mc’s...
Sarah Stewart McAdams, who has returned to her ancestral home with her two daughters in order to renovate the mansion – I am not sure if I liked her or not…..often found myself totally irritated by some of her actions…… and
Clint Walsh, who lives next door and has a past history with Sarah….I so wanted him to be more in the picture with Sarah and her daughters.
However, I adored Sarah’s daughters….Jade was so typical today’s teenager!!!! Loved her attitude and some of her lines were to die for!!!! And Gracie, the younger sister….she was so adorable with all her ghost hunting trips!!!!
The two of them made the book for me!!!!!
What did not make it for me....when the villain is revealed!!! What!!!! exactly.....my reaction!!!! It felt a bit flat for me.
Lisa Jackson is another author I like in the romantic suspense genre and although I liked this book, it wasn’t one of my favorite of hers.
Ghosts that haunt an decrepit mansion somewhere in the Northwest Pacific overlooking Columbia River that holds family secrets, unexplained disappearances, murders , kidnappings, serial killer on the loose......and a lot of all those unexplainable things!!!!
Sounds totally great.......yes, it does!!! But somehow, I found something missing in this story!!!! It didn’t pull me in!!!!
I felt a bit disconnected by the two mc’s...
Sarah Stewart McAdams, who has returned to her ancestral home with her two daughters in order to renovate the mansion – I am not sure if I liked her or not…..often found myself totally irritated by some of her actions…… and
Clint Walsh, who lives next door and has a past history with Sarah….I so wanted him to be more in the picture with Sarah and her daughters.
However, I adored Sarah’s daughters….Jade was so typical today’s teenager!!!! Loved her attitude and some of her lines were to die for!!!! And Gracie, the younger sister….she was so adorable with all her ghost hunting trips!!!!
The two of them made the book for me!!!!!
What did not make it for me....when the villain is revealed!!! What!!!! exactly.....my reaction!!!! It felt a bit flat for me.
Lisa Jackson is another author I like in the romantic suspense genre and although I liked this book, it wasn’t one of my favorite of hers.
April 5, 2015
Another amazing read by Lisa Jackson! This book is full of suspense. We have ghosts and family secrets that you won't believe.There are kidnappings and well, just a little bit of everything to keep you enthralled. Great flow throughout this book. This is a book that every fan of suspense should read. She is a master storyteller of the very highest caliber and one of my favorite authors. A riveting read that you don't want to miss out on. I highly recommend this book. Lisa Jackson at her best!
March 5, 2024
DNF 56%.
Szczerze, to minęła już ponad połowa książki, ja w dalszym ciągu nie wiem, o czym ona tak naprawdę ma być i ciągle musze sobie przypominać, że przecież słucham książki i wypadałoby się skupić. Jest nudno, nie mogę się wciągnąć i kompletnie nie interesują mnie losy bohaterów, a te wzmianki o duchach kompletnie zabiły moją ciekawość, także odchodzę zanim zniechęcę się do końca.
Szczerze, to minęła już ponad połowa książki, ja w dalszym ciągu nie wiem, o czym ona tak naprawdę ma być i ciągle musze sobie przypominać, że przecież słucham książki i wypadałoby się skupić. Jest nudno, nie mogę się wciągnąć i kompletnie nie interesują mnie losy bohaterów, a te wzmianki o duchach kompletnie zabiły moją ciekawość, także odchodzę zanim zniechęcę się do końca.
March 21, 2015
From all the bad reviews I had seen I thought this was gonna be a dud....
I should have known Mrs. Lisa Jackson would not disappoint!!
This was terrific!! It had everything Lisa Jackson is known for, good story, likes le people, places, drama, background, and twists!!!
I was very happy with this book!! As always I think she did great with this book! For a stand alone (I'm living her series!) Shiit way better then Inherent vice... (And I wanted to like that one SO BAD..... Oh well...) anyways if your a fan of Lisa Jackson get it..
I guess what I'm getting at is....
⭐If your bored and have a few extra $ get it
⚡If you love good story's regardless who wrote it...
☀ GET IT!!!! ☀
I should have known Mrs. Lisa Jackson would not disappoint!!
This was terrific!! It had everything Lisa Jackson is known for, good story, likes le people, places, drama, background, and twists!!!
I was very happy with this book!! As always I think she did great with this book! For a stand alone (I'm living her series!) Shiit way better then Inherent vice... (And I wanted to like that one SO BAD..... Oh well...) anyways if your a fan of Lisa Jackson get it..
I guess what I'm getting at is....
⭐If your bored and have a few extra $ get it
⚡If you love good story's regardless who wrote it...
☀ GET IT!!!! ☀
October 2, 2014
Guess the author forgot about poor Evan. After the little girl found his body, he was never mentioned again. He must still be lying in the cemetery!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 29, 2019
The story was good but just not really what I expected it to be....or what it really started out to be. It started out at the Blue Peacock Manor in the year 1924...with a manic chasing his wife throughout the house with an axe. I thought that this was going to be an exciting murder mystery with a lingering, maybe revengeful ghost. Instead it turned mostly into a modern day romance with a disgruntled teenager. Almost made me wish that I had an axe. I think the story just had too many plots.
February 22, 2017
***PROFANITY AND SPOILERS AHEAD***
ughh. Best selling author my ass. I have so many things wrong with this book, one of my biggest pet peeves is when authors mention something, foreshadow to something.... AND THEY NEVER ACTUALLY EXPLAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Plot Holes) Like dude, you had a whole f'ckn novel to clear up all this shit you mentioned before.
The Things That Miss Lisa Jackson Mentioned... But Just Left Hanging... AKA "Plot Holes"
- At the beginning of the book, there are numerous mentions of a falling out Sarah had with her mother. Jade thinks of it on more than a few occasions, this nasty fight she witnessed when she was younger between her mother (Sarah) and her grandmother........BUT we never actually really find out what the hell happened that Sarah hadn't contacted her mother in like a freaking decade! So we have no clue why Sarah and her mom hate each other.
- Evan Tolliver is killed and his body is thrown into the graveyard. After a few days, Sarah and Grace are exploring the cemetery and Gracie discovers Evan's body. Moments later she is captured by Uncle Roger, a few minutes later, police show up and take Roger into custody, (not before the truth completely is unleashed about Sarah's past.) Roger is taken, into custody-not to sound redundant- and as of the rest of the book, there is not a single mention of the investigation on Evan's murder. In fact, we do not even get an actual murderer, we are not even fully aware who the hell murdered him or what the actual fuck happened with his body. Dude, wtf, though it seems VERY highly unlikely, we as readers do not even know if the police even discovered his body, which again, is very highly unlikely, as they were all shrouded there in the graveyard to begin with and Grace had discovered the body like 10 minutes before they showed up. I personally, would have liked to know what Sarah's reaction would have been, because her pushy ex boss/not-really-boyfriend was murdered on her own land, in fact she HEARD the gunshots, so does she just not find out???
- When Jade is kidnapped, she cuts her chin open on the asfault. Now, Jackson keeps switching characters every other page or so at this point in the book, so we go to a few other characters before going back to Jade and by now she's locked in the barn with the other girls. Her dad discovers the car and the blood on the ground, but when Jade is in the barn, there's not mention of her chin... so did it just heal up magically, the way Jackson made it sound when it happened, it seemed bad enough to need stitched. Apparently not, cause' Jackson just plain forgot to mention it until the very end when the girls escape and Jade cuts open her chin again. In fact, when she was in the stall devising a plan, LOGICALLY she should have been feeling a lot of damn pain in her sliced chin, as she was shouting to communicate with the other girls. I cut my own chin open when I was a kid and it would make you wince to be speaking, LET ALONE SHOUTING with a cut open chin. Logically, she should also have been covered in blood considering they even noticed a pool of blood at the scene.
- Walter Bigelow (Dee Lin's husband) ??? There's some negative foreshadowing to Walter's character, through out the book, and also- I am just not sure because Jackson was starting to lose me at the end, but he had some possible involvement with the kidnappings... ??? Ya. Jackson just kinda forgot about him so I guess his shitty personality didn't really fit into the plot. YET, there was foreshadowing the Sarah's father being a predator and hell, that WAS the plot twist. So wtf did she forget about Dee Lin's husband for!
- There were 5 girls total that were captured.... In the epilogue, Why tf do we only really get a mention of Jade, Mary-Alice, and Rosalie? I really wanted to know what happened to "wimpy" Candice Fowler who I'd imagine, was extremely traumatized. Ya, Jackson never tells us.
- And finally. Roger Anderson. He was apparently a hiding PROtaganist the entire time..... HE IS NOT EVEN MENTION IN THE GOD DAMN EPILOGUE. WTF!!! Did Sarah make amends with him, did Uncle Roger end up being apart of their life. Also, we have a clear understanding that he was an ex-con, had some trouble with women, but we don't know anything else. I really was curious as to what he had been getting in trouble with all of those years. If Roger was actually a good guy, why the hell wasn't he even mentioned in the epilogue.
.............................................................................................................................................................................
Other things that pissed me off about Lisa Jackson's writing style; her word choice sucks.
"Oh, God"---- should have counted how many fucking times she used this.. -_-
"Oh sweet Jesus"---Used TOO MANY TIMES
"Flopped (into a chair)
"Plopped (into mouth)
"Tossed (into mouth)
"Jammed (into his pocket)
"Sizzled (in the grass)
- Lisa Jackson also is very poor at describing setting, for example, a page will mention its almost dark out. Then SEVERAL pages later, I'm imagining it must be dark by now? Then she mentions, nope, the sun is still going down. Yeah right.
*** I have just so many things wrong with this book, I guess the story line was pretty good, just the way and the order in which it was written in, threw me off and really, just plain pissed me off. The plot holes actually did that. I also feel that Lisa Jackson has a rather rudimentary writing style which was a little hard to swallow at times. Would I recommend this book? I think perhaps just reading the plot online and calling it good, Jackson really has a way of confusing the reader, so you will most likely have to go look up the plot anyway, so you can decipher what the hell you just read. Don't waste your time with this book.
ughh. Best selling author my ass. I have so many things wrong with this book, one of my biggest pet peeves is when authors mention something, foreshadow to something.... AND THEY NEVER ACTUALLY EXPLAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Plot Holes) Like dude, you had a whole f'ckn novel to clear up all this shit you mentioned before.
The Things That Miss Lisa Jackson Mentioned... But Just Left Hanging... AKA "Plot Holes"
- At the beginning of the book, there are numerous mentions of a falling out Sarah had with her mother. Jade thinks of it on more than a few occasions, this nasty fight she witnessed when she was younger between her mother (Sarah) and her grandmother........BUT we never actually really find out what the hell happened that Sarah hadn't contacted her mother in like a freaking decade! So we have no clue why Sarah and her mom hate each other.
- Evan Tolliver is killed and his body is thrown into the graveyard. After a few days, Sarah and Grace are exploring the cemetery and Gracie discovers Evan's body. Moments later she is captured by Uncle Roger, a few minutes later, police show up and take Roger into custody, (not before the truth completely is unleashed about Sarah's past.) Roger is taken, into custody-not to sound redundant- and as of the rest of the book, there is not a single mention of the investigation on Evan's murder. In fact, we do not even get an actual murderer, we are not even fully aware who the hell murdered him or what the actual fuck happened with his body. Dude, wtf, though it seems VERY highly unlikely, we as readers do not even know if the police even discovered his body, which again, is very highly unlikely, as they were all shrouded there in the graveyard to begin with and Grace had discovered the body like 10 minutes before they showed up. I personally, would have liked to know what Sarah's reaction would have been, because her pushy ex boss/not-really-boyfriend was murdered on her own land, in fact she HEARD the gunshots, so does she just not find out???
- When Jade is kidnapped, she cuts her chin open on the asfault. Now, Jackson keeps switching characters every other page or so at this point in the book, so we go to a few other characters before going back to Jade and by now she's locked in the barn with the other girls. Her dad discovers the car and the blood on the ground, but when Jade is in the barn, there's not mention of her chin... so did it just heal up magically, the way Jackson made it sound when it happened, it seemed bad enough to need stitched. Apparently not, cause' Jackson just plain forgot to mention it until the very end when the girls escape and Jade cuts open her chin again. In fact, when she was in the stall devising a plan, LOGICALLY she should have been feeling a lot of damn pain in her sliced chin, as she was shouting to communicate with the other girls. I cut my own chin open when I was a kid and it would make you wince to be speaking, LET ALONE SHOUTING with a cut open chin. Logically, she should also have been covered in blood considering they even noticed a pool of blood at the scene.
- Walter Bigelow (Dee Lin's husband) ??? There's some negative foreshadowing to Walter's character, through out the book, and also- I am just not sure because Jackson was starting to lose me at the end, but he had some possible involvement with the kidnappings... ??? Ya. Jackson just kinda forgot about him so I guess his shitty personality didn't really fit into the plot. YET, there was foreshadowing the Sarah's father being a predator and hell, that WAS the plot twist. So wtf did she forget about Dee Lin's husband for!
- There were 5 girls total that were captured.... In the epilogue, Why tf do we only really get a mention of Jade, Mary-Alice, and Rosalie? I really wanted to know what happened to "wimpy" Candice Fowler who I'd imagine, was extremely traumatized. Ya, Jackson never tells us.
- And finally. Roger Anderson. He was apparently a hiding PROtaganist the entire time..... HE IS NOT EVEN MENTION IN THE GOD DAMN EPILOGUE. WTF!!! Did Sarah make amends with him, did Uncle Roger end up being apart of their life. Also, we have a clear understanding that he was an ex-con, had some trouble with women, but we don't know anything else. I really was curious as to what he had been getting in trouble with all of those years. If Roger was actually a good guy, why the hell wasn't he even mentioned in the epilogue.
.............................................................................................................................................................................
Other things that pissed me off about Lisa Jackson's writing style; her word choice sucks.
"Oh, God"---- should have counted how many fucking times she used this.. -_-
"Oh sweet Jesus"---Used TOO MANY TIMES
"Flopped (into a chair)
"Plopped (into mouth)
"Tossed (into mouth)
"Jammed (into his pocket)
"Sizzled (in the grass)
- Lisa Jackson also is very poor at describing setting, for example, a page will mention its almost dark out. Then SEVERAL pages later, I'm imagining it must be dark by now? Then she mentions, nope, the sun is still going down. Yeah right.
*** I have just so many things wrong with this book, I guess the story line was pretty good, just the way and the order in which it was written in, threw me off and really, just plain pissed me off. The plot holes actually did that. I also feel that Lisa Jackson has a rather rudimentary writing style which was a little hard to swallow at times. Would I recommend this book? I think perhaps just reading the plot online and calling it good, Jackson really has a way of confusing the reader, so you will most likely have to go look up the plot anyway, so you can decipher what the hell you just read. Don't waste your time with this book.
June 13, 2020
I’m not on Goodreads to rain witty hate banter on books I didn’t like. But I also only finished this book because I was so angry at how much time I’d already spent on it. So I’m going to just lay out a few quick thoughts here.
1) The basic plot is deeply compelling. Woman returns to childhood home (with her two daughters) and ends up looking into the mysterious disappearance of her sister 30 years before. Said home is also allegedly haunted by an ancestor who fell to her death a century before (though the story around why she died is unclear). And in the present, local girls are disappearing....
Sounds great! Sounds like just the kind of mystery I love!
But in 425 pages, the author barely addressed the first two mysteries and spent an exorbitant amount of time on what I assume she thought was good character development (it wasn’t- more on that next). Sarah, the main character, doesn’t appear to have ever considered what happened to her sister before now- and she hardly gives her sister’s fate a passing thought over the course of the book, until the truth is unwrapped in a few pages at the end. The mystery of the missing girls is the most developed storyline in the book, but the perpetrator’s motivation is never really addressed. (Also, you’ll never guess who the culprit is. Not because it’s a clever plot twist, but because it’s a character so minor they only appear in one other scene early in the book.)
2) The dialogue (involving both individuals’ inner dialogues and conversations between characters) is clumsy and overwrought. The author worked hard to develop characters by varying the point of view from one character to another with every chapter. But she didn’t answer some of the fundamental questions about each characters’ backstory or motivations, and these questions will nag the reader. (For instance, why are men falling all over themselves to get with the main character? She is the definition of insipid and forgettable, and I say that having just read an entire book that centered her as the protagonist. Somehow, in 400+ pages, I still never got a sense of who she was.)
3) The supernatural element of the story is never explained, just accepted. Two characters see ghosts? And they know that sounds crazy but they can’t explain it any other way? Okay- ghosts it is then. Especially if the author can’t figure out how to move the story forward- a ghost will conveniently appear and move an object so that the characters “just know” what to do next. That’s also called weak storytelling.
4) The resolution is wildly implausible. Sure, the basic storyline begins that way anyhow- but it becomes so absurd that as the police detective’s inner dialogue is saying, “This family’s explanation of events is ridiculous,” rather than begging her to believe them you get the sense that she’s the only normal or real person in the whole book. Moreover, the ending is tidied up in about 10 pages. It’s dissatisfying, to say the absolute least.
Tl;dr save your time reading a book that isn’t so abysmally lazy in its storytelling and character development. If all her books are like this one, it’s no wonder this author has churned out so many of them- because at least in this one, she didn’t put in the work.
1) The basic plot is deeply compelling. Woman returns to childhood home (with her two daughters) and ends up looking into the mysterious disappearance of her sister 30 years before. Said home is also allegedly haunted by an ancestor who fell to her death a century before (though the story around why she died is unclear). And in the present, local girls are disappearing....
Sounds great! Sounds like just the kind of mystery I love!
But in 425 pages, the author barely addressed the first two mysteries and spent an exorbitant amount of time on what I assume she thought was good character development (it wasn’t- more on that next). Sarah, the main character, doesn’t appear to have ever considered what happened to her sister before now- and she hardly gives her sister’s fate a passing thought over the course of the book, until the truth is unwrapped in a few pages at the end. The mystery of the missing girls is the most developed storyline in the book, but the perpetrator’s motivation is never really addressed. (Also, you’ll never guess who the culprit is. Not because it’s a clever plot twist, but because it’s a character so minor they only appear in one other scene early in the book.)
2) The dialogue (involving both individuals’ inner dialogues and conversations between characters) is clumsy and overwrought. The author worked hard to develop characters by varying the point of view from one character to another with every chapter. But she didn’t answer some of the fundamental questions about each characters’ backstory or motivations, and these questions will nag the reader. (For instance, why are men falling all over themselves to get with the main character? She is the definition of insipid and forgettable, and I say that having just read an entire book that centered her as the protagonist. Somehow, in 400+ pages, I still never got a sense of who she was.)
3) The supernatural element of the story is never explained, just accepted. Two characters see ghosts? And they know that sounds crazy but they can’t explain it any other way? Okay- ghosts it is then. Especially if the author can’t figure out how to move the story forward- a ghost will conveniently appear and move an object so that the characters “just know” what to do next. That’s also called weak storytelling.
4) The resolution is wildly implausible. Sure, the basic storyline begins that way anyhow- but it becomes so absurd that as the police detective’s inner dialogue is saying, “This family’s explanation of events is ridiculous,” rather than begging her to believe them you get the sense that she’s the only normal or real person in the whole book. Moreover, the ending is tidied up in about 10 pages. It’s dissatisfying, to say the absolute least.
Tl;dr save your time reading a book that isn’t so abysmally lazy in its storytelling and character development. If all her books are like this one, it’s no wonder this author has churned out so many of them- because at least in this one, she didn’t put in the work.
June 15, 2014
I received an ARC copy of this one to read for the All You Book Club. I am a fan of suspense/mystery, and the premise sounded interesting, but I don't think it was pulled off successfully. There are two stories going on here - one a ghost story, the other a crime/whodunit story. The two stories did manage to come together in the reveal, but I had pretty much lost interest by the time the inevitable happened.
I don't want to reveal too much since this book is still to be officially released, but I'll go ahead and say that it did have a happy ending. Considering that there were absolutely no healthy man/woman relationships in the story prior to the epilogue, I guess that was an attempt to show that all was not lost in Stewart's Crossing.
p.s.
A line that amused me: "Smiling, he licked the ketchup from his lip with his tongue..." Well, der.
I don't want to reveal too much since this book is still to be officially released, but I'll go ahead and say that it did have a happy ending. Considering that there were absolutely no healthy man/woman relationships in the story prior to the epilogue, I guess that was an attempt to show that all was not lost in Stewart's Crossing.
p.s.
A line that amused me: "Smiling, he licked the ketchup from his lip with his tongue..." Well, der.
January 31, 2017
I finished this book so I could rate it and warn my sweet friends to save their precious reading time. Pretend I am the author..."Let's see, I think I will write a novel about sex trafficking. Yes, and I will throw in some incest, adultery, and a murder mystery. Wait, definitely need a ghost or two...and kidnapping, and a crazy old woman who is a murderer. Oh, wait, I forgot voyeurism, and let's renovate a house while we're at it." Seriously? It also read like a middle schooler wrote it, which was the cherry on top. Such a good use of my time. Sigh.
September 26, 2014
I never put spoilers in my reviews. I am so glad my friends recommended this book to me. Definitely going to read more from this author!!!
March 4, 2015
Just under sixteen hours of listening, read by Joyce Bean. Joyce Bean does a good job, voices unique, good tempo and timing, a nice audio production.
I suppose one would have to say this story evoked emotion, which in a way, is a good thing. However, the emotion for me was one of aggravation. The character of Jade was one of an angst ridden, obnoxious, insulting, rotten brat. She is obsessed with no one but herself, which is typical rebellious teenaged behavior, but for me it was over-the-top and annoying, If I had spoken to my mother the way Jade speaks to Sarah, I’d have been picking up my teeth. I was hoping the author would kill her off ….
The story is a bit formulaic. Sarah moves her two girls to a the back-water town of her youth, to restore the homestead. Sarah’s childhood was abusive and secrets from her past filter through to the book climax and will ultimately involve her children. An old high-school flame is rekindled, a requisite part of this type of story. It’s the tale of a dysfunctional family with a few ghosts thrown in for good measure. I think this author might be a fan of Nora Roberts, as the entire story arc has that type of vibe.
If you can take teenaged angst, go for it … I had no trouble finishing the story. The ending is a twist
I suppose one would have to say this story evoked emotion, which in a way, is a good thing. However, the emotion for me was one of aggravation. The character of Jade was one of an angst ridden, obnoxious, insulting, rotten brat. She is obsessed with no one but herself, which is typical rebellious teenaged behavior, but for me it was over-the-top and annoying, If I had spoken to my mother the way Jade speaks to Sarah, I’d have been picking up my teeth. I was hoping the author would kill her off ….
The story is a bit formulaic. Sarah moves her two girls to a the back-water town of her youth, to restore the homestead. Sarah’s childhood was abusive and secrets from her past filter through to the book climax and will ultimately involve her children. An old high-school flame is rekindled, a requisite part of this type of story. It’s the tale of a dysfunctional family with a few ghosts thrown in for good measure. I think this author might be a fan of Nora Roberts, as the entire story arc has that type of vibe.
If you can take teenaged angst, go for it … I had no trouble finishing the story. The ending is a twist
September 21, 2014
This book has a little bit of everything that I like. Its a mystery that crosses several generations, a ghost story, a crime novel and a romance. When a divorced woman returns to decaying family mansion with her two girls and a determination to renovate the house despite secrets that frighten her, she awakens long repressed questions and memories. Add to this the fact that her youngest daughter "senses things" and sees ghosts. She carefully researches the house and is determined to help a family ghost cross over. The eldest daughter hates the thought of being moved to a deserted, creepy house, away from her friends and her current boyfriend. She thinks her sister is weird and her mother is torturing her with this insane plan. To top it off, teenage girls have started to disappear making her mother even more vigilant. Add to the mix an odd family with secrets, a grandmother who does not seem to like any of them, a shocking revelation for the oldest daughter, a new man in her mother's life while an old one appears to be stalking her....and you have a very well written, suspenseful, mildly scary book that I thoroughly enjoyed.
May 3, 2015
I was disappointed with this novel. Firstly, there was an element of the supernatural, of which I have never been a fan. I found one of the main characters to be very unlikable and I don't feel her annoying teenager attitude was necessary for the story to unfold. There were elements of the plot that did add some intrigue, but the suspense that was promised by the reviews simply was not there. At times, the story read like a Harlequin romance.
Sarah McAdams, with her two daughters, a precocious 11-year-old and a rebellious teenager, returns to her childhood home in Oregon. She plans to renovate the old Victorian mansion, but once she arrives, she is haunted by unsettling memories of an unhappy childhood and ghostly appearances. No sooner have they arrived, when young girls start disappearing. Then add the old high-school sweetheart to the mix. Lisa Jackson attempts to weave these stories together to create a thriller -- it doesn't quite happen.
Sarah McAdams, with her two daughters, a precocious 11-year-old and a rebellious teenager, returns to her childhood home in Oregon. She plans to renovate the old Victorian mansion, but once she arrives, she is haunted by unsettling memories of an unhappy childhood and ghostly appearances. No sooner have they arrived, when young girls start disappearing. Then add the old high-school sweetheart to the mix. Lisa Jackson attempts to weave these stories together to create a thriller -- it doesn't quite happen.
October 27, 2014
This book had such promise but too many convulated plots make this novel a water downed Lifetime Movie. Is it a mystery? Is it a Haunted house story? Is it childhood abuse? Do I even care??????
January 12, 2025
Loved every moment of this book. This book is an example of why I love Lisa Jaxkson's ability to tell stories.
April 7, 2015
Before this novel, I was not familiar with any of Lisa Jackson’s previous work but when I was offered the chance to read, review and be part of a blog tour by the publishers Mulholland Books, on the strength of the synopsis I jumped at the chance. In my late adolescence I devoured books like these, the entire crime/thriller genre actually formed part of my staple “book” diet and I read little else before I expanded my horizons slightly. The book starts with a bang, introducing some of the previous inhabitants of a Victorian mansion known by the locals as Blue Peacock Manor. Our narrator for the time being is Angelique who is being chased through the house by a crazed man with an axe, while she desperately tries to find a way to keep her children safe who are present in the house at this time and hiding. It is certainly one of the creepiest prologues to a novel I have ever read and I gleefully anticipated the ride the author was about to take me on.
Fast forward several hundred years into the present time and we meet our main character Sarah McAdams who is returning to her childhood home (the previously mentioned Blue Peacock Manor) to try and escape a difficult situation she found herself in with her boss Ethan, to give her daughters Jade and Gracie a new start and to lay rest a couple of ghosts of her own. Unfortunately, the house does not bring back happy memories for Sarah and she is aware that something terrible had happened to her as a child there, although her mind seems to have blocked the event out. Now her youngest daughter Gracie is seeing the spirit of a woman, presumed to be her ancestor whose untimely death at the hands of a psychopathic murderer is still shrouded in mystery of what exactly happened on that fateful night. Despite her mother’s reluctance, Gracie is determined to solve the puzzle of Angelique’s death as she believes that this will allow her spirit to move on.
As if this wasn’t enough for Sarah to deal with, teenage girls in the town are disappearing without a trace and Sarah is terrified for both of her children but especially for her teenager Jade who is finding it difficult to fit in at her new school and bitterly resents her mother for putting them through this upheaval. There is definitely a lot going on in this novel with a number of different strands that come together almost seamlessly in a dramatic finale. I’m also glad that I didn’t figure out who the perp was (although I thought I did!) and I love the excitement of being proved wrong in these cases. Sarah was incredibly likeable as a character but more memorable for me were the characters of sweet and strong Gracie, your stereotypical sulky teenager Jade and, probably my favourite – Rosario who was fiesty and independent. This novel has something for everyone in my opinion, a slice of the paranormal mixed with some good old fashioned dark family secrets and criminals I was just itching to analyse. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good white-knuckle thriller and I’m eager to discover some more of Lisa Jackson’s work.
For my full review please see my blog at http://www.bibliobeth.com
Fast forward several hundred years into the present time and we meet our main character Sarah McAdams who is returning to her childhood home (the previously mentioned Blue Peacock Manor) to try and escape a difficult situation she found herself in with her boss Ethan, to give her daughters Jade and Gracie a new start and to lay rest a couple of ghosts of her own. Unfortunately, the house does not bring back happy memories for Sarah and she is aware that something terrible had happened to her as a child there, although her mind seems to have blocked the event out. Now her youngest daughter Gracie is seeing the spirit of a woman, presumed to be her ancestor whose untimely death at the hands of a psychopathic murderer is still shrouded in mystery of what exactly happened on that fateful night. Despite her mother’s reluctance, Gracie is determined to solve the puzzle of Angelique’s death as she believes that this will allow her spirit to move on.
As if this wasn’t enough for Sarah to deal with, teenage girls in the town are disappearing without a trace and Sarah is terrified for both of her children but especially for her teenager Jade who is finding it difficult to fit in at her new school and bitterly resents her mother for putting them through this upheaval. There is definitely a lot going on in this novel with a number of different strands that come together almost seamlessly in a dramatic finale. I’m also glad that I didn’t figure out who the perp was (although I thought I did!) and I love the excitement of being proved wrong in these cases. Sarah was incredibly likeable as a character but more memorable for me were the characters of sweet and strong Gracie, your stereotypical sulky teenager Jade and, probably my favourite – Rosario who was fiesty and independent. This novel has something for everyone in my opinion, a slice of the paranormal mixed with some good old fashioned dark family secrets and criminals I was just itching to analyse. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good white-knuckle thriller and I’m eager to discover some more of Lisa Jackson’s work.
For my full review please see my blog at http://www.bibliobeth.com
March 10, 2015
I think the fact that I've given it one star and put it on my "couldn't finish" shelf will tell you what I think of it.
I got to page 63 before I realized that I just didn't care enough about any of the characters to want to pick the book up again. I usually give a book 100 pages before I quit reading but I couldn't go any farther with this one.
The main character, Sarah, decides to go back to the old house she grew up in and renovate it. We get the impression that she's had this plan in the works for a while so, if that's the case, why wait until your two daughters are a month or less into a new school year to drag them out and put them in a new school? She tells them the house has been empty for years so they'll live in the guest house while the house is renovated. Then, they arrive, she takes them into the house where they sleep the first night (and, of course, the younger daughter sees a ghost), and then makes them start CLEANING the old house when the get up!!! Why???
The teenaged daughter is a whining, complaining ball of nastiness. The ex-boyfriend of the mother, Sarah, still lives on the ranch next door so we know where THAT relationship will be by the end of the book.
The story is just full of clichés and I don't feel like plodding through it to find out I'm right about everything.
I got to page 63 before I realized that I just didn't care enough about any of the characters to want to pick the book up again. I usually give a book 100 pages before I quit reading but I couldn't go any farther with this one.
The main character, Sarah, decides to go back to the old house she grew up in and renovate it. We get the impression that she's had this plan in the works for a while so, if that's the case, why wait until your two daughters are a month or less into a new school year to drag them out and put them in a new school? She tells them the house has been empty for years so they'll live in the guest house while the house is renovated. Then, they arrive, she takes them into the house where they sleep the first night (and, of course, the younger daughter sees a ghost), and then makes them start CLEANING the old house when the get up!!! Why???
The teenaged daughter is a whining, complaining ball of nastiness. The ex-boyfriend of the mother, Sarah, still lives on the ranch next door so we know where THAT relationship will be by the end of the book.
The story is just full of clichés and I don't feel like plodding through it to find out I'm right about everything.
May 13, 2015
I could have done without the element of the supernatural in this book - and there is certainly enough plot and drama without it; however, I greatly enjoyed this novel. The plot is extremely multi-faceted and complex. The characters are well developed and believable. The action is fast-paced; and the writing style is smooth, polished and effective.
December 2, 2015
Another Lisa Jackson gem. A little bit of ghostly presence, little bit of evil doing, and a little bit of romance wrapped up into a great read. If you're a LJ fan, I'd highly recommend this read.
March 8, 2016
Two-haiku review:
She moves with daughters
Family house is haunted
Girls disappearing
Lots of depth to plots
Believable characters
Just hint of romance
She moves with daughters
Family house is haunted
Girls disappearing
Lots of depth to plots
Believable characters
Just hint of romance
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