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Just Us, Here
Wren built her life to be watched.
She saw the next shift coming and got there first, buying a farmhouse deep in the countryside. She wanted peace. She wanted content: fresh bread, quiet mornings, and a quaint house that sells the image. Online, it looks perfect. Offline, it’s starting to come undone.
There are gaps in her memory, thoughts that don’t feel like her own, and the growing sense that she’s being watched by something more than her followers.
The woman tied to this house never really let go. And she’s not planning on leaving
She saw the next shift coming and got there first, buying a farmhouse deep in the countryside. She wanted peace. She wanted content: fresh bread, quiet mornings, and a quaint house that sells the image. Online, it looks perfect. Offline, it’s starting to come undone.
There are gaps in her memory, thoughts that don’t feel like her own, and the growing sense that she’s being watched by something more than her followers.
The woman tied to this house never really let go. And she’s not planning on leaving
Unknown Binding
First published July 1, 2026
About the author
V.S. Lawrence
10 books124 followersV.S. Lawrence grew up in Utah being scared of everything. Now, she puts her fears on paper, writing spooky books that feel like Scooby Doo chase music. When not writing, she can be found buried in a horror novel, wandering aimlessly, or cuddling her dog, Rigby. She is still scared of everything.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 24, 2026
VS steps out of her usual style for this one into the realm of the gothic…and absolutely NAILS IT!
Darker than her other work, bleak and extremely relevant, this is my favorite read of hers so far.
Do yourself a favor and read it!
Darker than her other work, bleak and extremely relevant, this is my favorite read of hers so far.
Do yourself a favor and read it!
July 31, 2026
Who are you?
4 ½ stars. Um… wow. "Just Us, Here" by V.S.Lawrence (@vslawrence.author) is easily the best book in what was already a very respectable catalogue from this talented young author. And I know this may sound, well, condenscending, but the sheer maturity of this tale - which scared the absolute crap out of me to be honest! - was truly impressive and very apparent. Seriously, just the mad skills alone put on paper made this an absolute treat to read and digest and try my best not to give back! I don't know if we're going to ultimately call this a ghost story or possession tale or what exactly, but man, did she shape this to fit into ANY timeframe all while delivering a full dose of the creepies and the crawlies!
This is it. The next chapter of our lives.
Wren Grant is our … oh gods, I want to say heroine but she's also our trad-wife, overworked mother, and, well, victim, too! So, yeah, no matter how you define it, she's juggling a lot, probably waaaay too much! When we first meet her and her husband, James, with infant son, Ryder, they've just moved waaaaaaay (an even longer 'way' than before!) out into the countryside from the big city, taking over a property that's mostly in good shape … if you don't count the spooky barn sitting out back that they don't even get to look into before they buy the whole place. Oh and they know the property has had some "history", but no one that apparently knows anything about it gives them any of the exact details ("That house has seen a lot of life… And a lot of loss."). Oh well, it'll sure look swell though once Wren starts uploading renovation content onto her very popular web-streaming site which will take her content in a totally and awesome new direction! Because if there's one thing Wren knows, it's how to spot the latest "hot trends"!
…once she realized homesteading and tradwife content was about to boom, she’d made her move.
Now of course things couldn't work out all that smoothly, especially with her fickle internet audience ("The perfect wife, the perfect family, the perfect home. That’s what her viewers wanted."). And before you know it, well, we're sensing and hearing spooky things all around us, with weird temperatures swings, strange noises, and more. Plus, poor Wren is burning the candle at both ends trying to bring things up to standard at home AND on her vlog (I had a blog with b once and that was more than enough torture for me!). Naturally, having a newborn at home and a husband that was more absent than present (even if he was at home, if you catch my drift) doesn't help ("Men don’t change ‘less you make ’em."). And yes, like we hinted at before, Wren starts noticing big losses in time ("… nowhere was safe. Not anymore. She’d been losing pieces of herself everywhere."), spooky sounds galore, and mood swings that can't be explained by HER own exhaustion ("She had faced worse. She had been worse."). What the absolute darn heck is goin' on y'all?
I do everything around here and this is the thanks I get?
But wait a minute... Since when does Wren say things like, well, 'y'all'? It almost seems like she's being 'excused' sometimes from her daily existence, where someone else seems to be taking the steering wheel and driving. Even her audience begins to notice ("… it’s like she’s a different person now."). Say, someone maybe with brown eyes and darker hair than Wren, if that makes sense. Someone that may remember the farm when it was in better shape - especially the place back when there were cows and chickens and pigs - even though life wasn't all that great then either? Sure might help explain some of them thar' strange things out yonder though, ya reckon? Because things sure as heck weren't "fine as frog’s hair" no matter how ya done wanna be lookin' at it!
How had her perfect country life dream turned into this nightmare?
Needless to say - and much to the dismay of those that do want to help Wren or that maybe follow her 'religiously' online - changes are occurring in her looks, her personality, and the things she really cares about. It doesn't help even a little bit when she finds out her loving husband isn't exactly the angel he'd like to believe he is - heck, he's so gosh-darned lazy, no other fools would dare thing o' him that way! And it ain't too long ther'after that just way too much gets way too unpleasant, with too many witnesses to same unable to really do much at all to set things the way they shoulda been! Even the web views are reacting, with all the gloriously rude and uncaring crap coming in that we've come to expect from social media ("…unkind comments fed the algorithm just as well as kind ones.")! Ah, late stage capitalism, ain't it a hoot?
I can’t do this… I can’t do this anymore.
The book overall is very well-executed even if I'd like to see the editing tightened up another notch (now where DID I put those screwdrivers?). But like I said, if this is Lawrence hitting her stride and becoming just an amazing horror author, well, sign me up for all that and then some! The characters are very well-formed and, again, how the tale unwinds caused me even a few chest pains (no worries, just a bit of indigestion… y'all!) while I was reading. But good Lord above, if y'all'n gonna keep scarin' me like this, I don' know what to think. Maybe I'll have some pie and try to calm down a bit….
P.S. Love and kisses from Maple Cottage!
4 ½ stars. Um… wow. "Just Us, Here" by V.S.Lawrence (@vslawrence.author) is easily the best book in what was already a very respectable catalogue from this talented young author. And I know this may sound, well, condenscending, but the sheer maturity of this tale - which scared the absolute crap out of me to be honest! - was truly impressive and very apparent. Seriously, just the mad skills alone put on paper made this an absolute treat to read and digest and try my best not to give back! I don't know if we're going to ultimately call this a ghost story or possession tale or what exactly, but man, did she shape this to fit into ANY timeframe all while delivering a full dose of the creepies and the crawlies!
This is it. The next chapter of our lives.
Wren Grant is our … oh gods, I want to say heroine but she's also our trad-wife, overworked mother, and, well, victim, too! So, yeah, no matter how you define it, she's juggling a lot, probably waaaay too much! When we first meet her and her husband, James, with infant son, Ryder, they've just moved waaaaaaay (an even longer 'way' than before!) out into the countryside from the big city, taking over a property that's mostly in good shape … if you don't count the spooky barn sitting out back that they don't even get to look into before they buy the whole place. Oh and they know the property has had some "history", but no one that apparently knows anything about it gives them any of the exact details ("That house has seen a lot of life… And a lot of loss."). Oh well, it'll sure look swell though once Wren starts uploading renovation content onto her very popular web-streaming site which will take her content in a totally and awesome new direction! Because if there's one thing Wren knows, it's how to spot the latest "hot trends"!
…once she realized homesteading and tradwife content was about to boom, she’d made her move.
Now of course things couldn't work out all that smoothly, especially with her fickle internet audience ("The perfect wife, the perfect family, the perfect home. That’s what her viewers wanted."). And before you know it, well, we're sensing and hearing spooky things all around us, with weird temperatures swings, strange noises, and more. Plus, poor Wren is burning the candle at both ends trying to bring things up to standard at home AND on her vlog (I had a blog with b once and that was more than enough torture for me!). Naturally, having a newborn at home and a husband that was more absent than present (even if he was at home, if you catch my drift) doesn't help ("Men don’t change ‘less you make ’em."). And yes, like we hinted at before, Wren starts noticing big losses in time ("… nowhere was safe. Not anymore. She’d been losing pieces of herself everywhere."), spooky sounds galore, and mood swings that can't be explained by HER own exhaustion ("She had faced worse. She had been worse."). What the absolute darn heck is goin' on y'all?
I do everything around here and this is the thanks I get?
But wait a minute... Since when does Wren say things like, well, 'y'all'? It almost seems like she's being 'excused' sometimes from her daily existence, where someone else seems to be taking the steering wheel and driving. Even her audience begins to notice ("… it’s like she’s a different person now."). Say, someone maybe with brown eyes and darker hair than Wren, if that makes sense. Someone that may remember the farm when it was in better shape - especially the place back when there were cows and chickens and pigs - even though life wasn't all that great then either? Sure might help explain some of them thar' strange things out yonder though, ya reckon? Because things sure as heck weren't "fine as frog’s hair" no matter how ya done wanna be lookin' at it!
How had her perfect country life dream turned into this nightmare?
Needless to say - and much to the dismay of those that do want to help Wren or that maybe follow her 'religiously' online - changes are occurring in her looks, her personality, and the things she really cares about. It doesn't help even a little bit when she finds out her loving husband isn't exactly the angel he'd like to believe he is - heck, he's so gosh-darned lazy, no other fools would dare thing o' him that way! And it ain't too long ther'after that just way too much gets way too unpleasant, with too many witnesses to same unable to really do much at all to set things the way they shoulda been! Even the web views are reacting, with all the gloriously rude and uncaring crap coming in that we've come to expect from social media ("…unkind comments fed the algorithm just as well as kind ones.")! Ah, late stage capitalism, ain't it a hoot?
I can’t do this… I can’t do this anymore.
The book overall is very well-executed even if I'd like to see the editing tightened up another notch (now where DID I put those screwdrivers?). But like I said, if this is Lawrence hitting her stride and becoming just an amazing horror author, well, sign me up for all that and then some! The characters are very well-formed and, again, how the tale unwinds caused me even a few chest pains (no worries, just a bit of indigestion… y'all!) while I was reading. But good Lord above, if y'all'n gonna keep scarin' me like this, I don' know what to think. Maybe I'll have some pie and try to calm down a bit….
P.S. Love and kisses from Maple Cottage!
July 26, 2026
I finished this last night, and I have to say, I was not expecting that!! For me, my last read by VS, 80s Ghosts, was sort of a horror comfort read, reminiscent of Goosebumps, only for grown-ups. But in Just Us Here ... My goodness did she go DARK.
Wow. I don't want to give anything away, but this novel is on a whole different level. What I loved most about it was the subtlety. The main character is an influencer who has decided to embrace the trad wife trend, and her evolution over time is done so gradually and flawlessly. As a huge fan of transformative character arcs I was just thrilled to be along for the ride.
This novel has so many amazing classic elements of horror, including an isolated setting, slow burn building dread, and a few others I won't name because I don't want to spoil your fun. I enjoyed the feminist theme, although the way those undercurrents played out here certainly wasn't what I expected, to say the least.
Just Us Here packs a punch but it's done so well, you won't see it coming before it's too late. Grab a copy, and add this novel to the canon of trad wife horror!
Wow. I don't want to give anything away, but this novel is on a whole different level. What I loved most about it was the subtlety. The main character is an influencer who has decided to embrace the trad wife trend, and her evolution over time is done so gradually and flawlessly. As a huge fan of transformative character arcs I was just thrilled to be along for the ride.
This novel has so many amazing classic elements of horror, including an isolated setting, slow burn building dread, and a few others I won't name because I don't want to spoil your fun. I enjoyed the feminist theme, although the way those undercurrents played out here certainly wasn't what I expected, to say the least.
Just Us Here packs a punch but it's done so well, you won't see it coming before it's too late. Grab a copy, and add this novel to the canon of trad wife horror!
July 25, 2026
This was a quick and easy read. Just not my favorite by this author. I read The Farmhouse by Chelsea Conradt a few months ago and this book just had A LOT of similar things happening that along with some We Live Here Now vibes thrown in. The main character was also really unlikeable and the husband felt like a thrown in side character. It all just didnt seem plausible especially with everyone online concerned and Anne and no one came to check on things before the end? I live in a very small town and people around here all nosy as all get out so it just seemed a little odd no one raised any flags. It was a slow build and finish with no real thrill for me. Idk. Didnt love it, didnt hate it. 🤷♀️
July 29, 2026
AAAAAAAAAA
The subtle shifts throughout this novel seriously filled me with absolute DREAD. Tradwives are having a moment in horror and I am here for it! Wren’s story is the best I’ve read of the bunch so far.
The subtle shifts throughout this novel seriously filled me with absolute DREAD. Tradwives are having a moment in horror and I am here for it! Wren’s story is the best I’ve read of the bunch so far.
July 19, 2026
An excellent psychological thriller!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews