REVIEWS

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Victoria Brinius’s review
Jan 25, 14
4 of 5 stars
This was a good time travel and paranormal book. A mysterious house in the woods is nothing new in literature. However added with a human “big bad wolf”, a lost girl and time travel this book is definitely something worth reading. I loved the tidbits thrown in that reminded me of fairy tales. The time travel was well done and it was believable. The author’s choice of words was what took me so long to read. Accurate language for the time period was used, ad naseum. For someone that is not familiar with that time, I needed to use clues and look up a lot of words. However if you enjoy a historical time travel with a fairy tail twist, then that is what this book is. I am giving this book a 4/5. I was given a copy to review from OrangeBerry Book Tours, however all opinions are my own.

By J. Reason on September 30, 2013
Wonderful descriptions that draw you into the world that The House is in. This is wonderful writing, with some great words, descriptive words and written in old British English, as it takes place from the late 18th century and mid 19th century, with some typical phrases that some may not understand and even some words that I had to look up. Written in a third person almost as if we were looking down on her but from a distance. Mysterious, time travel, romance, (well a little), and I really enjoyed reading about the background of the characters.
I also enjoyed that fact that the author took ages to tell you the name of the main character, at least this is a little different from most books, and enjoyable.
There are loads of characters in the book, but from different time frames an dwell introduced so as not to get them muddled up or confuse them.
Scura handles the whole situation rather well, after all imagine being transported to another time frame without the means to return, she settles well into her new roles.

It is a difficult book to put to describe in terms of genre: paranormal, time travel, fiction, a little romance. I was drawn to the cover, I loved it and the colour and the title is also very apt.
I finished it in only one sitting as it is not all that long, only 150 pages and it kept me engaged and I loved it. It is a little different from the books I would normally read but I am really glad to have read it.

By LAS Reviewer “The Long and the Short Of It Re… (USA) – This review is from: The House (Kindle Edition)
No mystery can be solved without clues. The problem is that Scura can’t remember how she arrived in the forest or even what her life was like before this adventure began. She knows she’s the only one who can piece together what happened, but how can she solve a riddle when she barely has anything to work with?

As soon as I read the first line of this book’s blurb I couldn’t wait to give it a try. Scura is an unnamed protagonist for the first several chapters, and the idea of a woman the reader knows nothing about running through the woods in a torn night gown makes the premise even more intriguing. As the plot slowly unfolded I came up with and discarded several theories about what might have happened to her. While I did figure out her mystery before it was revealed, the process of determining if I was correct kept me invested in Scura’s tale until the very end.

The secondary characters are so well-written that several of them could have carried the plot nearly as well as Scura did. Lady Elizabeth Chatterham is one of the first people the main character meets, and her response to Scura’s account of what happened to her instantly endeared me to Lady Elizabeth’s point of view.

This book is full of archaic words and phrases that were common in the 19th century. While the syntax appears to be an accurate reflection of the time period in which Scura travels, some of the descriptions were so flowery that they slowed down the plot. During the first few chapters I found myself spending almost as much time looking up unfamiliar words as I did reading. I understand why the author chose this writing style, but it would have been helpful if she had included contextual clues about the meanings of the more obscure terms.

Scura’s character development also puzzled me. Early on she is described as an Agnostic who is highly skeptical of metaphysical topics, so I was surprised to see her accept unlikely explanations for what has happened to her so quickly. I briefly wondered if her change in personality was another clue about what had happened to her, but it was never quite clear to me if this was the assumption the author intended for me to make.

It isn’t easy to seamlessly blend so many genres into one book, but Ms. Randone makes it look effortless. The mystery and romance were so tightly woven together that every scene that propelled one of these storylines forward also added depth to the other. I figured out certain plot twists in advance, but I was surprised by how often the characters did or said something that I never would have guessed was coming from them.

The House restores the magic of fairy tales for adults. This is as good of a choice for anyone who adored these type of stories as a child as it is for newcomers to the genre.
Originally posted at Long and Short Reviews

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