As seen on The Ghastly Grimoire.

Damned: A Magnus Blackwell Novel sits among titles on NetGalley under the horror genre, but after force-feeding myself more than half of the book, I finally give up. I really, really wanted to like this book and I was excited to start reading it. Old houses, malignant spirits, all of that is most definitely my cup of tea. Pointless sex scenes, wish-washy spirits, and overly repeated points on the other hand are not.

I browsed past this title many times on NetGalley, mostly because I wasn’t sure I wanted to read it. The title and the synopsis were interesting enough, but the cover constantly discouraged me. In the end, while repeating to myself that age-old motto of “don’t judge a book by its cover,” I requested it. And, in rare fashion, found that it is exactly what it looks like on the inside.

Slow plots are nothing new to me. I’ve read some books that crawled. In most of them, by time you hit the halfway point something major has happened or there is a clear building of suspense, fear, etc. With Damned, that is not the case at all. Aside from one major change in the plot, which is rather anti-climatic and heart-breaking for someone like myself (I won’t say more than that because I don’t believe in spoilers), the book centers mostly around sex. By chapters ten-twelve, I read three sex scenes that aren’t even remotely arousing. In fact, it was a fourth scene of this nature that turned me away from finishing it.

Perhaps it is a mistake that this book is listed as horror on NetGalley. This genre label is not attached to it via Goodreads, after all. In fact, those tags are mystery, supernatural, ghosts. Generally I don’t review a book if it turns out it’s outside my genre, but here’s the thing: those are also part of what I read, and if that is where I found it, my opinion would remain the same.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book for the purpose of unbiased review. ( )

This book was such a great read. Will and his fiance Lexie purchase an old home in Maine and move there to renovate it. The house has several rumors surrounding it. Before long Lexie is seeing the old owner of the house around the house. Will doesn't act like himself, and there are other unexplainable things happening. But when the original owner starts talking to her is when things get interesting. Lexie decides to help the ghost of the old Manor so that they can move on. She investigates the history of the home, and some of the items she finds in it.

This book is kind of a bonus, almost like two books in one. About halfway through the original plot line is all wrapped up then Lexie and the ghost of Magnus go off on another adventure even more exciting and intriguing than the first.

I can't wait to read the other books in this series. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. ( )