Review: Asylum Hotel by Juliet Blackwell

 

Asylum Hotel by Juliet Blackwell

Publication Date: July 29th 2025 by Berkley

Pages: 384

Source: Publisher 

Rating: ★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Audible | Libro.fm | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Aubrey Spencer is vacationing near the old Hotel Seabrink, indulging her hobby of photographing abandoned buildings of architectural interest. The hotel has a mixed history with a few deaths and is rumored to be haunted. She finds out more about its history when she runs into Dimitri Petroff scouting the location to feature on his popular podcast. Dimitri and Aubrey have an immediate connection and end up spending the night together. However, when Aubrey wakes up, she’s startled to discover Dimitri left sometime in the night and fell to his death from the cliffs outside her hotel room.

 

The responding deputy is convinced that Dimitri took his own life, but Aubrey can’t fathom it. He was excited about his new show, and they had an amazing night together. There’s also rumors that Dimitri died because of the curse on Hotel Seabrink. Aubrey is determined to get to the bottom of things. Her friend Nikki joins her to help. I liked their supportive friendship and the fun back and forth they had even in some scary circumstances!

 

Asylum Hotel was a fun mix of paranormal and mystery! I loved the misty Northern California coastal setting which gave it an atmospheric and spooky vibe! It sounded haunting and beautiful! The past and present collide in a page-turning, thrilling conclusion!

4 Stars

Book Description:

When a mysterious figure shows up in the photograph an architect takes of the derelict Seabrink Hotel, ghostly encounters and murder are unleashed.

Aubrey Spencer loves photographing classic old buildings and abandoned places that hold old secrets. The Hotel Seabrink, perched overlooking the sea, is one such place. Currently abandoned but scheduled for a major renovation, it has a torrid history. Back in the 1920s it hosted A-list celebrity clientele, and now the locals insist it is haunted by the ghosts of two young women who died there. When Aubrey goes to photograph the site before the renovation begins, she bumps into a man named Dimitri Petroff, a minor online celebrity who shares her fascination with old buildings, the Hotel Seabrink in particular.

When he is found dead the next day at the base of a cliff, the police are quick to close the investigation. But Aubrey feels unsettled by locals who claim he was murdered and that it’s not the first time someone interested in the hotel was killed. As she digs deeper into the property’s dark history (and its origins as an asylum) as well as Dimitri’s professional rivalries, she becomes mired in an unsolved murder case from several decades earlier, one with eerie parallels to the contemporary case.  But someone is determined to keep her from discovering the truth—at any cost.

Audiobook Review: First Contact by Kim Harrision

 

First Contact (Eclipsed Evolution #1) by Kim Harrison

Publication Date: April 2nd 2024 by Penguin Audio

Pages: 168

Audio Book Length: 5hrs 27 mins

Narrator: Xe Sands

Source: Publisher

Rating: ★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Libro.fm | Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Dr. Renee Caisson is drafting into a military project without knowing aliens are at the center of her study. However, once she discovers them her insights help them to connect and communicate with them in a way they hadn’t before. The aliens came to Earth for help, but the higher-ups are concerned about their intentions, as would be expected.

 

First Contact was a quick listen and captured my attention from the beginning! There are good and bad players here and Renee is one of the good ones! I really liked and connected with her! She applied her smarts and instincts and I applauded her courage fighting for what’s right.  There is a potential for romance (I think) and I’m interested in seeing where that goes.

 

I’m eager to pick up with the next installment as this one ended in a “to-be-continued” situation.

 

I listened to an audio version and enjoyed Xe Sands’ performance of all voices.

4 Stars

Book Description:

In the wake of the solar eclipse, a portal between our world and a paranormal realm opens—and a scientist’s life will never be the same, in this thrilling serialized adventure from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hollows.

Dr. Renee Caisson knows there are worse things than an attractive man in uniform drafting her into a secret government project—especially when Major Jackson makes it clear that he isn’t bothered by her questionable past. But when her labs come back with decidedly odd results, the Major is forced to come clean over who the government is actually studying. Renee is shocked to learn her subjects are demonic-looking beings who call themselves “Neighbors”—refugees from a dying world, who arrived during the nation-wide solar eclipse.

The Neighbors’ technology is unlike anything Renee’s ever encountered. At first, she dismisses an injury that inexplicably heals as “just one of those things”. And surely August, the most gregarious Neighbor, begins to speak English overnight because of the team linguist’s skills?

Not until August begins evolving in real time to withstand Earth’s brighter, dryer atmosphere does she admit that the Neighbors’ “tech” feels less like science and more like magic—the same magic that brought them here in the first place, and the same they’re trying to rekindle with a mysterious labyrinth in order to return home and save their world.

At least, that’s what August claims they came for…

Review: Out of the Clear Blue Sky by Kristan Higgins

 

Out of the Clear Blue Sky by Kristan Higgins

Publication Date: June 7th 2022 by Berkley & Recorded Books

Pages: 480

Source: Publisher & Purchased Audiobook

Rating: ★★★★½

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible | Kobo | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Lillie Silva is both happy and sad her son will be heading off for college shortly.  She’s coming to terms with this new chapter in her life only to have her whole world turned upside down when her husband of twenty years announces that he’s leaving her for a younger woman to “find joy.”  

I wanted to kick Bradley in the teeth every time he said “no offense, but I need to find my joy”! What a self-centered jerk! I laughed with glee over the ways Lillie stealthily (and not so stealthily) got her revenge against Brad and Melissa, some of the ways were quite clever! I was outraged for her (yes, I realize she’s a fictional character, lol), I guess I get a little vindictive over a woman scorned so the little retributions were satisfying!

Having Melissa’s POV, being that she was the other woman was kind of different, and I didn’t like her at all at first. She plotted to get Bradley, (which wasn’t as hard as it should’ve been had he been a better man), and she had no prick of conscience stealing another woman’s man. However, I do have to say I understood Melissa better by the end, I could see with her upbringing why she was so mercenary.  Life did serve up some well-deserved education and a bit of payback, as is often the case, and I liked Melissa a smidge more by the end.

I loved Lillie, getting to know her and her family, friends, experiencing her journey to finding happiness again was emotional and touching! Romance wasn’t at the center of the story, but thankfully Lillie did get one, too. Out of the Clear Blue Sky was lovely journey!

4.5 Stars

Book Description:

From New York Times bestselling author Kristan Higgins comes a funny and surprising new novel about losing it all--and getting back more than you ever expected.

Lillie Silva knew life as an empty nester would be hard after her only child left for college, but when her husband abruptly dumps her for another woman just as her son leaves, her world comes crashing down. Besides the fact that this announcement is a complete surprise (to say the least), what shocks Lillie most is that she isn't heartbroken. She's furious.

Lillie has loved her life on Cape Cod, but as a mother, wife, and nurse-midwife, she's used to caring for other people . . . not taking care of herself. Now, alone for the first time in her life, she finds herself going a little rogue. Is it over the top to crash her ex-husband's wedding dressed like the angel of death? Sure! Should she release a skunk into his perfect new home? Probably not! But it beats staying home and moping.

She finds an unexpected ally in her glamorous sister, with whom she's had a tense relationship all these years. And an unexpected babysitter in, of all people, Ben Hallowell, the driver in a car accident that nearly killed Lillie twenty years ago. And then there's Ophelia, her ex-husband's oddly lost niece, who could really use a friend.

It's the end of Lillie's life as she knew it. But sometimes the perfect next chapter surprises you . . . out of the clear blue sky.