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teresab78's review against another edition
4.0
****Reviewed for Prism Book Alliance®****
Raven’s Rest is the first book I’ve read from Stephen Osborne and I was quite pleased. Raven’s Rest was filled with the spooky atmosphere you would expect from a haunted inn with the ghosts and the mystery far more present than the romance.
The romance was low key and the only briefly described sex scenes (not between our two MC’s) were not erotic at all. That doesn’t mean the emotions didn’t come through though; they did. I liked Trey’s attempt at a badboy persona and thought Michael was adorable in his slightly geeky way. While I liked both characters, I would have liked to know more about them.
I really liked the supporting characters, especially the town witch and Trey’s mother. There was a great small town atmosphere throughout the story.
I will definitely check out more of his work.
Raven’s Rest is the first book I’ve read from Stephen Osborne and I was quite pleased. Raven’s Rest was filled with the spooky atmosphere you would expect from a haunted inn with the ghosts and the mystery far more present than the romance.
The romance was low key and the only briefly described sex scenes (not between our two MC’s) were not erotic at all. That doesn’t mean the emotions didn’t come through though; they did. I liked Trey’s attempt at a badboy persona and thought Michael was adorable in his slightly geeky way. While I liked both characters, I would have liked to know more about them.
I really liked the supporting characters, especially the town witch and Trey’s mother. There was a great small town atmosphere throughout the story.
I will definitely check out more of his work.
suze_1624's review against another edition
4.0
An enjoyable 3.5/4* read for me.
It was mainly about Michael and Trey.
Michael is escaping a verbally abusive relationship- Kevin appears a few times, does seem to change his tune quite easily.
So as well as the hassle from this, Michael and Trey look into what happened to Coleman and Bryan. There’ll be no happy ending as Coleman is the ghost haunting Michael, but finding out what happened is the name of the game.
Michael and Trey come over as younger than they are and they do move fairly quickly. They also heal fast too! And have a few TSTL scenes. But i liked and enjoyed them.
A number of good supporting characters, incuding ghostly takeovers, made it a good read. Not overly spooky, but interesting.
It was mainly about Michael and Trey.
Michael is escaping a verbally abusive relationship- Kevin appears a few times, does seem to change his tune quite easily.
So as well as the hassle from this, Michael and Trey look into what happened to Coleman and Bryan. There’ll be no happy ending as Coleman is the ghost haunting Michael, but finding out what happened is the name of the game.
Michael and Trey come over as younger than they are and they do move fairly quickly. They also heal fast too! And have a few TSTL scenes. But i liked and enjoyed them.
A number of good supporting characters, incuding ghostly takeovers, made it a good read. Not overly spooky, but interesting.
the_novel_approach's review
3.0
3.5 Stars
The mystery portion of this story was quite well done. The slow unraveling of exactly what happened to the two lost lovers was fascinating to read and carefully drawn out for maximum scare factor. The séances, the corporeal ghostly visits, and even the possession Michael endured all bled together to make for a great creepy ghost story which never failed to make this reader jump just a little bit at each new twist and turn. The author had a definite grasp of just how to play out what would have been a classic campfire ghost story delivered on a dark and dreary night had he left it just in that realm. However, the budding love interest between Trey and Michael is where the story suffered in many ways, and it began with the nagging idea that Trey seemed much younger than his age belied.
Immature is definitely a word I would easily couple with Trey’s personality and rather than make him endearing, as Michael found him to be, it instead made me wonder how someone fresh out of an abusive relationship could find any comfort or strength from someone who obviously appeared to be a bit shiftless and prone to foolish behavior.
Read Sammy's full review at The Novel Approach
The mystery portion of this story was quite well done. The slow unraveling of exactly what happened to the two lost lovers was fascinating to read and carefully drawn out for maximum scare factor. The séances, the corporeal ghostly visits, and even the possession Michael endured all bled together to make for a great creepy ghost story which never failed to make this reader jump just a little bit at each new twist and turn. The author had a definite grasp of just how to play out what would have been a classic campfire ghost story delivered on a dark and dreary night had he left it just in that realm. However, the budding love interest between Trey and Michael is where the story suffered in many ways, and it began with the nagging idea that Trey seemed much younger than his age belied.
Immature is definitely a word I would easily couple with Trey’s personality and rather than make him endearing, as Michael found him to be, it instead made me wonder how someone fresh out of an abusive relationship could find any comfort or strength from someone who obviously appeared to be a bit shiftless and prone to foolish behavior.
Read Sammy's full review at The Novel Approach
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