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A Summer of Fear: A Haunted House Ghost Story : A True Haunting in New England
They lied when they said nobody had ever complained about the ghosts in the attic...
Long before the #metoo movement, emotionally drained and traumatized after being sexually harassed at her former job, Rebecca was looking to get as far away as possible from everything she knew. The live-in summer position at the New Hampshire resort sounded like the perfect change.
She didn’t count on the isolation, loneliness, and horror that awaited her in the two-hundred year old farm house, however.
For at least a month, before the rest of the staff arrived, she’d be alone in the mountains without a soul for miles. With no telephone or form of communication to the outside world at night, she was understandably nervous.
But,as it turned out, Rebecca was NOT alone at night in the creepy, old farm house. Someone or something knew she was there. It watched her, listened to her, and waited. Was it trying to run or off, or was it trying to make her stay?
What happened at that resort? Was she the only one who could hear and see these things? What secrets did the rest of the staff seem to know? What stories were the townspeople hiding? One thing was for This was a job she'd never forget.
Long before the #metoo movement, emotionally drained and traumatized after being sexually harassed at her former job, Rebecca was looking to get as far away as possible from everything she knew. The live-in summer position at the New Hampshire resort sounded like the perfect change.
She didn’t count on the isolation, loneliness, and horror that awaited her in the two-hundred year old farm house, however.
For at least a month, before the rest of the staff arrived, she’d be alone in the mountains without a soul for miles. With no telephone or form of communication to the outside world at night, she was understandably nervous.
But,as it turned out, Rebecca was NOT alone at night in the creepy, old farm house. Someone or something knew she was there. It watched her, listened to her, and waited. Was it trying to run or off, or was it trying to make her stay?
What happened at that resort? Was she the only one who could hear and see these things? What secrets did the rest of the staff seem to know? What stories were the townspeople hiding? One thing was for This was a job she'd never forget.
- GenresParanormalGhosts
167 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 15, 2014
96 people are currently reading
106 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
November 13, 2014
First I have no idea how she stayed that long. Nope, would have ran after week 2. This story just sucks you in. It is like your best friend is sitting across from you telling you about their horrid summer job. You just want to reach across and give her a big hug and say why didn't you call me? I would have come and gotten you. Another wonderful read by the Ghost Story Queen.
February 24, 2017
This is a fast paced spooky paranormal read! Kept me on the edge of my seat of what was going to happen next! Spooky stuff was happening all the time in the house. The owners of the house either knew what was going on or they were just in denial. But to stay in that house all summer with all the paranormal activity was quite an endurance. This is definitely a five star read!
October 7, 2014
Young adults may like this
no real spirit or haunting. tween and teen scare. no sex, no swear words. A Christian haunting I guess.
.... waste of my time. sorry, but this is not worth two cents...amazon, please note books for young readers or for adults.
no real spirit or haunting. tween and teen scare. no sex, no swear words. A Christian haunting I guess.
.... waste of my time. sorry, but this is not worth two cents...amazon, please note books for young readers or for adults.
October 11, 2014
Boring
the best part of the book was the photos. the main
character was whiney and with all of her education very. unimaginative.
the best part of the book was the photos. the main
character was whiney and with all of her education very. unimaginative.
February 24, 2017
This book never took off but felt like it was the opening chapter all the way through. And no ending at all. Very disappointing - not even worth writing any more about it.
November 7, 2022
I love this book, it portrays the scares and spirits that are around the woman perfectly, I feel like more people can relate to this than we realize, and this is because besides the spirits and sounds that she is hearing there is also the everso relatable real-life factors that after shes moved away she feels lonely and disconnected and reconnects with a lost love/friends that she had had so long ago and I truly feel like we all can relate to this at one point, especially the ones who do take that jump and move away from their hometown.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 13, 2018
A place not to be
I was stuck on my seat, no person should go through this! Did not like what workers did to, they shouldn't have lied to you. I am happy to read you are bad to endure so much but sprang back.
I was stuck on my seat, no person should go through this! Did not like what workers did to, they shouldn't have lied to you. I am happy to read you are bad to endure so much but sprang back.
May 11, 2017
Couldn't put it down!! I absolutely loved this series!!! I just wish there were more books in it to read!
September 8, 2017
A quick fun read
A fast fun read written well, I would of liked a little note back story on the ghost, but it kept you're attention and kept you turning the pages.
A fast fun read written well, I would of liked a little note back story on the ghost, but it kept you're attention and kept you turning the pages.
September 24, 2016
I don't really believe in ghosts, but I'm still afraid of them!
I don't know what drew me to this book, I read Shirley Jackson's classic THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE years ago and it scared me so badly I've avoided paranormal stories since then. This wasn't as scary as HILL HOUSE, but I'll be sleeping with the lights on and peering fearfully into corners for a while.
Spooks aside, I found the author's story interesting. She was raised by her mother in Kentucky and grew up to be the classic over-achiever - working full time in college, taking a double major, and impressing everyone with her great potential. Sadly, some superb students have difficulty making the transition to the working world and she was one of them. She finally found her niche with a non-profit where she felt that she was making a contribution. Although underemployed, she was content to stay there among people that she considered her friends. It came to an abrupt halt under circumstances that left her feeling betrayed and shell-shocked. She applied for graduate school in Wales and started looking for a live-in summer job to sock away some money before school started in September.
In a phone interview with a friendly woman, she was hired as office manager at a 500-acre resort in New Hampshire and asked to report one month before the start of summer season. Arriving at the resort, the manager who hired her was strangely unwelcoming and she learned that she would be the only person living in the old farmhouse that served as the resort's business office. AND she was housed in a dingy attic room with the nearest bathroom on the floor below. AND there was no cell phone service. AND the office phones were shut off at night. AND the front door didn't lock. Nervous yet?
I could pick a few holes in this story. I wonder why this resort needed her there so long before the opening of the season and why they weren't worried about the legal liability of her staying there alone, and why the front door didn't lock. She reconnects with an old friend and it becomes a romance and it would be nice if she had told us what happened there. It ends rather abruptly, but I can't fault her on that score. Life is like that. We have experiences that make a deep impression on us, but we may not fully understand the implications at the time.
The author is a likable woman - intelligent, honest, and quirky. Whatever happened to her that summer seems to have ignited an on-going fascination with paranormal activities and she has written other books on the subject. I wish she would write about her childhood. I think there's a story there and she writes too well to keep it to herself.
I don't know what drew me to this book, I read Shirley Jackson's classic THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE years ago and it scared me so badly I've avoided paranormal stories since then. This wasn't as scary as HILL HOUSE, but I'll be sleeping with the lights on and peering fearfully into corners for a while.
Spooks aside, I found the author's story interesting. She was raised by her mother in Kentucky and grew up to be the classic over-achiever - working full time in college, taking a double major, and impressing everyone with her great potential. Sadly, some superb students have difficulty making the transition to the working world and she was one of them. She finally found her niche with a non-profit where she felt that she was making a contribution. Although underemployed, she was content to stay there among people that she considered her friends. It came to an abrupt halt under circumstances that left her feeling betrayed and shell-shocked. She applied for graduate school in Wales and started looking for a live-in summer job to sock away some money before school started in September.
In a phone interview with a friendly woman, she was hired as office manager at a 500-acre resort in New Hampshire and asked to report one month before the start of summer season. Arriving at the resort, the manager who hired her was strangely unwelcoming and she learned that she would be the only person living in the old farmhouse that served as the resort's business office. AND she was housed in a dingy attic room with the nearest bathroom on the floor below. AND there was no cell phone service. AND the office phones were shut off at night. AND the front door didn't lock. Nervous yet?
I could pick a few holes in this story. I wonder why this resort needed her there so long before the opening of the season and why they weren't worried about the legal liability of her staying there alone, and why the front door didn't lock. She reconnects with an old friend and it becomes a romance and it would be nice if she had told us what happened there. It ends rather abruptly, but I can't fault her on that score. Life is like that. We have experiences that make a deep impression on us, but we may not fully understand the implications at the time.
The author is a likable woman - intelligent, honest, and quirky. Whatever happened to her that summer seems to have ignited an on-going fascination with paranormal activities and she has written other books on the subject. I wish she would write about her childhood. I think there's a story there and she writes too well to keep it to herself.
March 15, 2015
This was my second Rebecca Patrick-Howard book, and quite honestly, I enjoyed this ghostly volume even more than the author's first effort. To begin with, Patrick-Howard is a wonderful narrator, and she really does an excellent job of not only wetting the reader's appetite, but in doing what every great teller of supernatural tales should do - which is to gradually build towards just the right amount of good old fashioned, spine tingling suspense.
That said, I would be remiss if I did not add that some readers may find this deliciously creepy book to end up being somewhat anticlimactic by the time the last bite goes down the hatch. Be that as it may, for yours truly, however, it was an extremely satisfying read, and in more ways than one. But mostly because Patrick-Howard relates her true encounters with the paranormal with such seemingly effortless candor and personable zeal that one may be left with the feeling that they've spent a whole lot of quality time over a good home cooked meal with a good friend who's been kind enough to let them in on a heaping helping of spooky goodness that she doesn't dish out to just anyone.
But it's more than that, of course. In true down home Southern style, the author tells it all like it is in an honest, straightforward and highly digestible fashion, without skipping a beat or a single spine chilling, delectable morsel. In other words, one may very well be left with more questions than answers as the last page is turned, but that's a paltry price to pay compared to how much scrumptious scary fun this book really is.
Finally, anyone looking for more answers or lasting meaning than is eventually served up with such thoughtful care by the author, may simply not have a clue as to how to savor and fully appreciate a good scary true ghostly dish like this one. Because all the best creepy tales of the unknown really are just that way, you know. 'Cause let's put it this way: if you're left hungry for even just a bite more at the end, then there must have been plenty that was worth sitting down to sink your teeth into from the very beginning, you see. Yes, A Summer of Fear is yet another well prepared paranormal tale by Rebecca Patrick-Howard. Good scary stuff, indeed.
That said, I would be remiss if I did not add that some readers may find this deliciously creepy book to end up being somewhat anticlimactic by the time the last bite goes down the hatch. Be that as it may, for yours truly, however, it was an extremely satisfying read, and in more ways than one. But mostly because Patrick-Howard relates her true encounters with the paranormal with such seemingly effortless candor and personable zeal that one may be left with the feeling that they've spent a whole lot of quality time over a good home cooked meal with a good friend who's been kind enough to let them in on a heaping helping of spooky goodness that she doesn't dish out to just anyone.
But it's more than that, of course. In true down home Southern style, the author tells it all like it is in an honest, straightforward and highly digestible fashion, without skipping a beat or a single spine chilling, delectable morsel. In other words, one may very well be left with more questions than answers as the last page is turned, but that's a paltry price to pay compared to how much scrumptious scary fun this book really is.
Finally, anyone looking for more answers or lasting meaning than is eventually served up with such thoughtful care by the author, may simply not have a clue as to how to savor and fully appreciate a good scary true ghostly dish like this one. Because all the best creepy tales of the unknown really are just that way, you know. 'Cause let's put it this way: if you're left hungry for even just a bite more at the end, then there must have been plenty that was worth sitting down to sink your teeth into from the very beginning, you see. Yes, A Summer of Fear is yet another well prepared paranormal tale by Rebecca Patrick-Howard. Good scary stuff, indeed.
March 14, 2016
Another Truly Frightening True Story
I've never seen a ghost. One night I'm pretty sure my new cat and I heard the ghost of my recently deceased cat, but that was a one off. In 43 years nothing else spooky. Yet I'm addicted to reading and watching other folks true ghost stories. And Rebecca had had one he'll of a spooky life!
I'm not sure if I would be able to cope as well as she has done with everything. The mere thought of a cat ghost scared the bejesus out of both my cat, Bob, and I. I doubt I'd have lasted four hours, let alone four weeks in that farmhouse, especially with such horrible co-workers. The isolation alone would have finished me.
I'm off to find the next scary book, I think it's another on this series!
I've never seen a ghost. One night I'm pretty sure my new cat and I heard the ghost of my recently deceased cat, but that was a one off. In 43 years nothing else spooky. Yet I'm addicted to reading and watching other folks true ghost stories. And Rebecca had had one he'll of a spooky life!
I'm not sure if I would be able to cope as well as she has done with everything. The mere thought of a cat ghost scared the bejesus out of both my cat, Bob, and I. I doubt I'd have lasted four hours, let alone four weeks in that farmhouse, especially with such horrible co-workers. The isolation alone would have finished me.
I'm off to find the next scary book, I think it's another on this series!
March 24, 2015
A Summer of Fear
As paranormal mysteries go, it helps me to know as much as possible about the historical background of a haunting to make it come together. There was some interesting information towards the end that helped, and then the paranormal part of the story seemed to end. As it was, the book was ok for an afternoon's relaxing read for the casual young paranormal reader.
As paranormal mysteries go, it helps me to know as much as possible about the historical background of a haunting to make it come together. There was some interesting information towards the end that helped, and then the paranormal part of the story seemed to end. As it was, the book was ok for an afternoon's relaxing read for the casual young paranormal reader.
November 26, 2016
Good job
The author has once again told a true story--more obviously so because of the lack of Hollywood style embellishments and satisfactory resolutions complete with explanations and exorcisms. Frankly, to me at least, that is a lot more creepy. Why? Because real life is like that. And it means that this stuff really happened.
I hope Ms. Howard will consider telling the experiences of others in the same style when she runs out of personal paranormal experiences!
The author has once again told a true story--more obviously so because of the lack of Hollywood style embellishments and satisfactory resolutions complete with explanations and exorcisms. Frankly, to me at least, that is a lot more creepy. Why? Because real life is like that. And it means that this stuff really happened.
I hope Ms. Howard will consider telling the experiences of others in the same style when she runs out of personal paranormal experiences!
October 25, 2014
Very creepy, & keeps you interested. However, I wish they would elaborate on the character's past more, the book brings it up several times, but doesn't say what happened. The book also kind of leaves you hanging at the end. And as much as her book titles are labeled "True", it appears from what I can find, that they are based on some true haunted locations, but the stories are just stories.
November 27, 2014
People should understand that true to life hauntings do not have the hollywood storyline, glitz and effects we see at the movies. It is immature to expect something like that from a real life experience of hauntings. This is an honest account, with very human confusions, reactions and fears. Loved it!
January 8, 2015
Moves at a good clip
A good read, yet not as frightening to me as others have expressed. Maybe because I have a ghost of my own, a harmless ghost, but it can be unnerving. I think her coworkers would have been harder to deal with. It was a good book and only took a couple hours to read.
A good read, yet not as frightening to me as others have expressed. Maybe because I have a ghost of my own, a harmless ghost, but it can be unnerving. I think her coworkers would have been harder to deal with. It was a good book and only took a couple hours to read.
March 12, 2015
Not What I Expected....
As far as this being a Haunting I was a little disappointed. There were scary and terrifying moment's and it was hard to believe a young girl would stay in a place alone for as long as she did. I guess I Expected a lot more hair raising and goosebumps, not this time.
kozetteksmith
As far as this being a Haunting I was a little disappointed. There were scary and terrifying moment's and it was hard to believe a young girl would stay in a place alone for as long as she did. I guess I Expected a lot more hair raising and goosebumps, not this time.
kozetteksmith
March 16, 2015
This is a great short read for anyone who has an interest in the paranormal. I enjoyed reading about the spooky goings on but have been left feeling angry about the way this poor girl was treated by most of the staff at this place. I would have liked to have read that they apologised to her but it wasnt to be. They sound like a bunch of arrogant idiots!
October 17, 2014
Poor ending
interesting beginning,but no
resolution to story. you're left hanging without any clear understanding of what happened prior to the haunting or after it. too many loose ends.
interesting beginning,but no
resolution to story. you're left hanging without any clear understanding of what happened prior to the haunting or after it. too many loose ends.
December 2, 2014
This was one of the worst books I have read in a long time. There was more complaining about not making friends or getting along with people at her job then actually a haunting. There was no closure, except that she got fired and left. I cannot express how horrible I thought this book was.
March 4, 2016
Diary of a Ghost
I actually love this authors work. This was not a good representation of the kind of work she does. This was basically a diary of her summer before grad school with an interaction with a ghost as the main event.
I actually love this authors work. This was not a good representation of the kind of work she does. This was basically a diary of her summer before grad school with an interaction with a ghost as the main event.
November 18, 2014
I didn't get a scare of any kind and I'm more afraid of the dark than anyone I know. I was waiting to be frighten and it just didn't do it for me. Boo!
November 10, 2014
agree with the following few reviews. just a story about a supposedly haunted house. no characterization or background
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December 11, 2014
Good book
Good and interesting book. I wish it were longer. Thank you for sharing your story. I enjoyed reading your story.
Good and interesting book. I wish it were longer. Thank you for sharing your story. I enjoyed reading your story.
December 16, 2014
creepy
This is a true haunted house story! This is not one of those over exaggerated haunted house stories :) it's a good read and I honestly didn't put it down once!
This is a true haunted house story! This is not one of those over exaggerated haunted house stories :) it's a good read and I honestly didn't put it down once!
May 6, 2015
I didn't realize this was author of another book I've read and gave a poor review to. Night and day. This was a pretty good book!
September 18, 2015
The events carry on for the author
This author writes well. The events that continue to happen flow well from the first book. It is an easy comfortable read.
This author writes well. The events that continue to happen flow well from the first book. It is an easy comfortable read.
February 14, 2016
Good Story
I enjoyed the author's writing style and the story. She covered all the details that I wondered about and even provided pictures to help the reader.
I enjoyed the author's writing style and the story. She covered all the details that I wondered about and even provided pictures to help the reader.
April 8, 2016
Very disappointing
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews