Week 22 Review: The Haunting of Paynes Hollow

From Goodreads:

From New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong comes a nail-biting supernatural horror about a haunted lakeside property and twisted family secrets.

When Samantha Payne's grandfather dies, she figures she won't even get a mention in the will. After all, she hasn't seen him in fourteen years, not since her father took his own life after being accused of murdering a child at their lakefront cottage. Her grandfather always insisted her father was innocent, despite Sam having caught him burying the child's body, his clothing streaked with blood.

But when she does attend the reading of the will at the behest of her aunt, she discovers that her grandfather left her the very valuable lakefront property where the family cottage sits. There's one catch: Sam needs to stay in the cottage for a month. To finally face the fact she was wrong and her father was innocent, in her grandfather's words.

Traveling to Paynes Hollow, Sam is faced with the realities of her childhood and the secrets kept hidden in the shadows of her memories. When her aunt goes missing a couple days into their stay, Sam begins to question everything again. Plagued by nightmares and paranoia, she begins hearing sounds in the forest and seeing shapes crawling from the water as the rippling waves of the lake promise something unspeakably dark lurking just below their surface.

My Review:
Absolutely loved reading this book, I love all Kelley Armstrong books, and I'm glad that the timing worked out for this to be a birthday book. I can't be alone in wanting a special book on special days, like birthdays, Christmas and New Years? I'm glad it was this book, it was so fantastic! 

The idea of your dad killing a boy-and that you caught him in the act, were turning him in, and he killed himself? That's a complicated, messy past. That her grandfather's will stipulations means that she'll have to go back to place where that happened? Yeah, that was pretty awful.

I really felt badly for Sam, that she was put in this position. And some creepy things start happening, and we learn more about what happened that summer, the tension was perfect, I had to know what was going to happen! 

Learning what was going on, the history, and the truth, was pretty heartbreaking, I mean, that was pretty awful all around. Like every piece of new information came a realization of some misunderstanding, that thinking that was pretty disparaging when it turns out it wasn't true. It was so satisfying to see how things wrapped up! 

Loved this book and I can't wait to read whatever Kelley Armstrong has out next! 

Author: Kelley Armstrong 
Read: May 24th, 2025 
Source: NetGalley 
Reason Why: Love her writing and it sounded really good, and it's a SAC 2025 Book and a WoW Book! 
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Expected Publication: October 14th 2025 

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars