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Priest of Lies

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Description When Tomas Piety and his Pious Men returned from the war, he just wanted to rebuild his crime empire and look after his people. But the sinister Queen's Men had different ideas and whether he likes it or not, he's now a spy as well. Now, half the city of Ellinburg lies in… Continue reading Priest of Lies

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What Moves the Dead

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Description When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania. What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks… Continue reading What Moves the Dead

Recent Reads, research, Writing

2025 Favourite Reads…so far

This year has been a whirlwind of amazing books by established voices and incredible works from new authors. Enter Shepard to save the day! readers 👉🏻 I’ve read 63 books so far this year but wantrd to share my favourite ones so far which have had the greatest impact on me. Writers 👉🏻 Shepherd are… Continue reading 2025 Favourite Reads…so far

Writing

Carmilla: Week 6

VI. A Very Strange Agony When we got into the drawing room, and had sat down to our coffee and chocolate, although Carmilla did not take any, she seemed quite herself again, and Madame, and Mademoiselle De Lafontaine, joined us, and made a little card party, in the course of which papa came in for… Continue reading Carmilla: Week 6

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Spirit Level

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Description A haunting collaboration between renowned editor & photographer Ellen Datlow, award-winning horror writer Kaaron Warren, and book artist Monica Carroll, Spirit Level transforms ordinary antique tools into vessels of dread.  This book, based on a limited edition artist's book, presents ten mysterious objects, from a 1930s German camera timer to corroded iron pliers, photographed… Continue reading Spirit Level

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Drowning in the Dark

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ **I received an ARC for an honest review** Description A beach that wipes people from memory. Aliens that just want to help humanity along a little bit. Monsters who love their fight club. A woman who trades a piece of her future to help a child. Guilt that serves as a door to dark… Continue reading Drowning in the Dark

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American Rapture

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ** I received an ARC for an honest review ** Description A virus is spreading across America, transforming the infected and making them feral with lust.  Sophie, a good Catholic girl, must traverse the hellscape of the midwest to try to find her family while the world around her burns. Along the way she… Continue reading American Rapture

reads, Writing

Carmilla: Week 1

To celebrate the approaching Spooky Season and coinciding with my deep dive research into vampires, I’ll share a chapter each week from the classic book Carmilla By Sheridan Le Fanu Prologue Upon a paper attached to the Narrative which follows, Doctor Hesselius has written a rather elaborate note, which he accompanies with a reference to… Continue reading Carmilla: Week 1

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The Haunting of Alejandra

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Description Alejandra no longer knows who she is. To her husband, she is a wife, and to her children, a mother. To her own adoptive mother, she is a daughter. But they cannot see who Alejandra has become: a woman struggling with a darkness that threatens to consume her. Nor can they see what… Continue reading The Haunting of Alejandra

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When the Wolf Comes Home

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ **I received an ARC for an honest review** Description One night, Jess, a struggling actress, finds a five-year-old runaway hiding in the bushes outside her apartment. After a violent, bloody encounter with the boy's father, she and the boy find themselves running for their lives. As they attempt to evade the boy's increasingly desperate… Continue reading When the Wolf Comes Home