The Restoration by J.H. Moncrieff

It's Thursday! And today I'm a stop on the Random Things tour for J.H. Moncrieff's latest, The Restoration. 

As a single mom who works in historic home restoration, jobs are key to her survival. And so Terri is thrilled to be hired to restore Glenvale House. The owner, a hundred-year-old woman who doesn't look a day over eighty, wants the house fully restored and has given Terri a year to complete the project. What's more, Terri and her daughter, Dallas, can live on site throughout the restoration. 

Unfortunately for Terri, things begin to go wrong almost from the start. She's warned about the house and it's previous employees' proclivities. Basically, the owner tells her from the start that she holds not stock with the rumors of the house's hauntings and she won't put up with any whiff of trouble from Terri. (And by trouble she means mention of ghosts.) But she's not exactly honest about the circumstances by which the previous employees and other restorers left under. 

And Glenvale House is indeed haunted! In fact, the spirit that calls the place home targets Terri's daughter from the beginning. 

At first, Terri believes they could be dealing with a trespasser. Unfortunately for her, she's very wrong. And what first seems to be a lonely ghost looking for friendship turns into something much more dangerous!

It's funny when real life experiences start to align with your reading. And no, I'm not restoring a haunted house! But I have been pretty obsessed lately with Cheap Old Houses (the Instagram feed and the show), so I've been introduced a little more into the world that Terri inhabits more than I would have, say, a year ago!

And Terri's job is a fascinating one! But more than that, the focus in Moncrieff's latest is the struggle of a single mom trying her best to support herself and her daughter. 

Life hasn't been easy since her divorce and her ex offers no help at all. He's off living his own life and even has their daughter with him the majority of the time. The summer at Glenvale House is meant to be Terri's time to reconnect with her daughter. 

What it's not meant to be is putting her young daughter in direct danger! 

But Terri is feisty and stubborn. She's determined to take care of her daughter first, no matter what.

I truly felt for Terri and Dallas. And I feared for them as well! But the ultimate twist is that even the reader  isn't fully aware of just where the true danger of Glenvale House lies. 

The Restoration is an absolutely chilling story about dark secrets within families and the lengths some will go to in an attempt to ensure no one ever discovers the truth! And since ghost stories just happen to be my favorite flavor of horror, it's also super twisted fun!

The Restoration is out now from Flame Tree. Order a copy now from your favorite indie via Bookshop!

I'm off to tackled Moncrieff's backlist while there's still a little spooky season left :)