279 reviews for:

The Cottage

Lisa Stone

3.38 AVERAGE

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

An easy breezy thriller with mild horror elements, The Cottage is a palate cleanser book for me: simple to get through if not a little bit far fetched and predictable. I found Stone relied a little too much on plot twists which didn’t land as the story was very easy to figure out only a couple of chapters in. The home invasion premise could’ve been fleshed out more and made for a really eerie book to read when home alone but the story never fully committed to thriller or horror so we as the reader just get a small amount of both. Still an interesting narrative and an easy read in between fleshier books!
dark mysterious tense fast-paced

This is most definitely worth a read, it's gripping, thrilling and you will have issues putting this down. I was gutted when I finished it. The blurb on the cover doesn't do it justice, it's better then that.
Highly recommend this awesome read
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Ha well, ending the year with 2 really bad books, hopefully will start next year with the opposite 🙃

First book is this one; received it in a book box as a second-hand book, loved the cover, and the blurb sounded like a nice, easy thriller.

Found the audiobook on Youtube and started it yesterday morning.
The beginning wasn't bad, although didn't care much about Jan.
But then, the story slowly unfolded and... Ho boi.
I don't even know where to begin.

The core of the book itself isn't bad. It could even have been a great story, if dealt differently.
I will go into spoilers at this point, so beware.

The main problem I guess is how ridiculous all the characters reacted to events and discoveries.
I mean, when Ian discovers his wife is his half-sister (I know, I know..), he's just like "I could never look at her again the same way, let's break up and we can both find different partners to have healthy babies with"
I'm sorry, wat.
THAT's your reaction ?
Fucking bonkers.

The fact that every couple in this village apparently need a sperm donor to conceive, I'm just like... ok, whatever, it's down to [can't remember, some toxic wastes or something] and fertility is impacted.
BUT
The fact that it seems ALMOST every children conceived this way end up together and have babies and they're all deformed or whatever... I mean, PLEASE. THIS IS NOT HOW IT WORKS.
Is this some kind of amish village where no one goes further than a 5km radius their entire life, so they just pick up their neighbour as their partner??
And being half-brother and sister doesn't mean children conceived WILL be deformed. Every. Single. Time.
Especially NOT with this rare form of deformity.. unless it comes from the donor (which was explained IT DID NOT), then all the mothers who conceive  with this donor have different genes, therefore the chance of their children having kids together being deformed every time is so slim, I can't wrap my head around it.

The worst for me will be the ending... the bullshit about Chris and Jan being related, cause her parents used the fertility clinic as well.. Ho COME ON NOW, is there ANYONE able to conceive a child without a sperm donor ? I can't anymore 😭
And she explaining she received the email because they did use the clinic but her mum had a miscarriage, and she arrived after...
But HOW would the clinic have your email address then ?? Did they not keep record of miscarriages and healthy babies being born (I KNOW it's mentionned)...
I'm not making any sense, but it is perfectly clear in my head ok.
The author added this final "twist" just because.. but didn't check if it was consistent with the rest of the story.


Anyway, yeah, it was bad, getting rid of this book now 👋🏻

amythereader's review

3.0
dark mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Amazing book!
This book kept me guessing the whole time, it dragged me in from the start! I loved the concept of it all.

Only 4

Meh. The plot twists were visible a mile away. I struggled to finish it because there were no surprises.

What did I just read?!? The description of the book is misleading. I was so confused for a good portion of this book. It is about Jan in the cottage, but most of the book follows a different story. They do intertwine, but it’s nothing I expected to read. The description should’ve had more information.
challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No