The witching hour by Syd Moore

Format: 368 pages, Paperback

Published: September 1, 2024 by Avon

Paranormal/borrowed

This one was a light...horror? mystery. Sarah is a widow with a young son. Then she starts seeing things, and there is the whole thing that she has the same name and last name as the famous town witch.

Something spooky is a afoot, and it seems that the only way she can be free again is to find out what actually happened to Sarah Grey, and how she died. Just, it was quite some time ago.

No actual spooky horror, just some good old digging into the past. Trying to solve a 150 year old murder. She does get some help too, but I will not say anything.

It will also get dangerous...

I enjoyed it, light and easy

Relocated to a coastal town with her young son Alfie, widowed teacher Sarah Grey is slowly rebuilding her life. But following a séance one drunken night, she begins to be plagued by horrific visions. Her attempts to explain them away are dashed when Alfie starts to see them too, and soon it seems that they are targets of a terrifying haunting.

Convinced that the ghost is that of a 19th century local witch and her own namesake, Sarah delves into local folklore and learns that the witch was thought to have been evil incarnate. When a series of old letters surface, Sarah discovers that nothing and no one is as it seems, not even the ghost of Sarah Grey…

The Watchers by A.M.Shine

Series: The Watchers (#1)

Format: 310 pages, Hardcover

Published : October 14, 2021 by Head of Zeus

Horror/borrowed

Ohh I liked this one, this one had the horror that I like. No blood or guts. Just eerie, creepy and like how the f will she survive?!

Mina´s car breaks down and she tries to find help. And so the nightmare begins. She does reach a "house", and if she stays there during the night she will survive. All while beings move outside screaming. And you can not leave the woods, others have tried. But they get you as night falls.

What are those things? How on earth can she survive?

Creepy. I am glad I read it during summer. And the end, omg, the end!!!! EEEEEK. There is a book 2, now that is evil and I need that book.

This forest isn't charted on any map. Every car breaks down at its treeline. Mina's is no different. Left stranded, she is forced into the dark woodland only to find a woman shouting, urging Mina to run to a concrete bunker. As the door slams behind her, the building is besieged by screams.

Mina finds herself in a room with a wall of glass, and an electric light that activates at nightfall, when the Watchers come above ground. These creatures emerge to observe their captive humans—and terrible things happen to anyone who doesn't reach the bunker in time.

Afraid and trapped among strangers, Mina is desperate for answers. Who are the Watchers? Why are these creatures keeping them imprisoned? And, most importantly, how can she escape?

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig

Format: 384 pages, Paperback

Published: September 2, 2025 by Penguin Books

Magical realism/library

I have never read Haig before so I did not know what to expect and magical realism was not that.

Grace is a 72 year old widow, and she inherits a house on Ibiza. So she goes there and tries to figure out why her friend from long ago died.

But there is something strange going on in the waters outside of Ibiza. Maybe there is something magical with those lights in the water.

I honestly can not say more so not to spoil it, but it sure took me on a journey I did not expect and I enjoyed it

“What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don’t understand yet…”

When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan.

Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.

Filled with wonder and wild adventure, thisis a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.

If I have to be haunted by Miranda Sun

Format: 368 pages, Paperback

Published: October 4, 2023 by Magpie Books GB

Ya paranormal/borrowed

I was unsure at first, but it picked up.

Cara can see ghosts but she pretends not too. Her gran was a ghost talker, her mother says she has to be normal. But then she finds her "enemy" dead in the woods, and damn, fine, she will talk to his ghost and try to see what she can do. There is this whole other thing about a snake and maybe that she can save his life. I do wonder though, shouldn´t he be rotting?

Most of the book takes place on this other plane as they are racing against time to find an antidote. Dangers, and perhaps a budding romance ;)

I did enjoy it in the end because it was light and easy

Cara’s just trying to stay on top of all her classes, excel at her extracurriculars, and prepare for college – which means not speaking to the dead, an ability she inherited from her grandmother. Ghosts are trouble, and Cara doesn’t need to add their problems to her own.

But then she stumbles upon the body of Zach – the super popular but very newly dead high school golden boy – in the woods, and guess what? He wants her to resurrect him.

Cue trouble.