started off good- interested characters, povs, setting and some mystery to get the reader inching closer to the edge of the seat. you will read a lot of the characters' povs (could be annoying or interesting depending what you are use to) starts off about our 2 main characters (paula and rowan) we get to know them who they are and what type of situation they are in that leads them back to paula's hometown of haven woods.....dun dun dun spooky name for a seemingly perfect community. as every seemingly charming community they all have skeleton's in the closet- deep dark bloody sacrificial secrets. goes pretty well but never really leads anywhere until we get to the last 10 pages. 3/4s of the book is just setting up for the last 10 pages which is weak. the book is ameture- characters, writing, setting and plot. could've been but wasn't if you are curious get it, but if you've got something else to read stick to it. you can skip this one and it wouldn't hurt

The Good Stuff Absolutely loved the dogs in this one, they had so much personality Very dark and suspenseful Fabulous character development for Marla, a character that could easily have been a caricature Quite a few on the edge of your seat moments Some nice humour added in just the right spots, made me want to pick up other books by the author for this alone Fabulous cover - that chick really gives you the creeps! Satisfying ending Rowan and Paula were likeable characters, would have rather had the story only told from their point of view - think it would have been a far tighter story that way The description from Goodreads really says it all ""Desperate Housewives" meets "The Witches of Eastwick" The Not So Good Stuff Think that author has a hate on for cats LOL! A little too much animal and child nastiness for me personally - I'm a wee bit sensitive when children or animals are tortured Jumps around a little and I was very confused at times about what was going on -- now this could also be because I am exhausted from lack of sleep and stress - so take this comment with a grain of salt Way too many character point of views Its uneven and I was very frustrated with how stupid some of the characters were in terms of their actions - really you didn't notice that no one else was in the hospital and than did nothing about it when you did find out Favorite Quotes/Passages "She stared at Glory sprawled on the grass, her mouth open in horror, then looked at the doll in her hand. It was covered in blood to the knees. Murder-Weapon Barbie." "It was big news and it got around fast; even in those days before Twitter and Facebook, everyone seemed to know." "There were really so many: shoes, lunch out, slow and quiet lovemaking in the morning, a glass of wine when you were cooking, fresh laundry, a laugh - A person didn't need much. Not really. She wished she'd known that sooner." Who Should/Shouldn't Read Those looking for a fun, spooky story with witches Good beach read 3.5 Dewey's I received this from HarperCollins in exchange for an honest review Posted by mountie9 at 10:49 AM 0 comments

Pros: psychological horror, good set-up for a creepy climax/ Cons: more swearing than I like/ Paula Wittmore's mother falls ill after the death of a friend in the close knit community of Haven Woods. Another friend, Izzy, notifies the young woman and suggests that she and her daughter, Rowan, return to visit. But a special sisterhood there needs both Paula and Rowan in order to regain their number. And be their sacrifice./ This is my kind of horror novel, where you're given hints of what's really going on and your imagination is left to fill in the blanks. Rather than dealing in depth with all of the sisterhood, Moloney focuses on a few - keeping the novel tight and encouraging sympathy in surprising ways. Paula and Rowan are immediately sympathetic (if not immediately likable), but I hadn't expected to like Marla, Paula's childhood friend who's trapped in a life that's becoming ever more distant from the perfect life she was promised when she joined the sisterhood./ And while I'm definitely a cat lover, this book managed to show the darker side of the animals, making me cheer for the dogs in the book (and I don't generally like dogs)./ The only thing I wasn't keen on was the amount of swearing. The characters cuss easily and often./ The climax is suitably long and dark, given the lead up, but not gratuitous or overbearing. In other words, if you like psychological horror, this is a good book.

Ohhhhh. I wanted to like this one. I really did. When I read what this book was about, I immediately went to take it out of the library and giggled with glee as I didn’t have to put it on hold or anything. It did have it’s great moments! I was all ready for a really nice dark gothy read! I loved the idea of a cat filled town (furbabies!!!) where things aren’t what they seem. The town had a nice dark theme to it, almost akin to Witches of Eastwick mixed with Stepford Wives theme. So that in itself was great. Audra’s curse was great! I thought that was really interesting and fun to read. It’s most certainly a well descriptive curse. Each of the ‘witches’ and what they wished for was also interesting, but of course everything comes at a price. When things do get messy, the consequences are severe. This was also fun to read - especially when they all go into a panic. The panic gets contagious and they’re suddenly resembling frantic chickens. Then...the story itself just falls apart. What is it with this dogs vs cats theme? that really bugged me. It really played on that a little too much and the old adage of cats being the ‘witches familiar’ is really really old. That bugged me because I knew in the long run in this book, that there was going to be a mass killing of cats somewhere along the line. Oh for crying out loud. Seriously? we’re still writing about how evil they are and that dogs are every body’s best friend and the champions against the dark witchcraft magic. Have we suddenly gone Middle Ages all over again? the animal cruelty (both for dogs and cats) was not necessary and this dogs vs cats thing was silly. Let’s now talk about Rowan. She was all right. For a while. Until the story starts in her point of view. Then we get writing like this: “No one answered it of course, until (another weirdo) the nurse Tula came down the hall” WHY were her thoughts written this way??!!! WHY??? not only did this interrupt the flow of the story but it was very distracting and haphazard to read. It was so disruptive, it was almost as if these thoughts were interrupting the book itself. It made for very annoying reading. Finally, we go to a chase scene, where it was going at least in a circle three times and it made the reading redundant and the last scene of the book felt so long to play out because of this. Although it was rather exciting to read, as the chase started getting longer, it started getting absurd. This was certainly a book you can pass on. I expected so much more and it ended up falling short. It’s definitely not what I was hoping for.

3.5/5 I first discovered Canadian author Susie Moloney when I read her novel A Dry Spell way back in 1997. She followed that up with The Dwelling in 2003. Both seemed to fall under the horror genre - a la Stephen King - with everyday occurrences and things becoming sinister, such as a lack of rain and a house that just won't sell. But Moloney also does a fine job of exploring reactions and behaviour as a result of those occurrences. Moloney's latest novel - The Thirteen - centres on the perfect little town of Haven Woods. Things are, well, just as they should be, according to the thirteen women who seem to have a grip on the town. Until one of their own breaks rank and upsets everything. What to do? The leader Izzy calls Paula -daughter of one of their group (coven) and convinces her to come home - with her daughter Rowan. After all thirteen is the magic number and a sacrifice is needed... Moloney has crafted another entertaining tale, drawing upon today's fascination with all things paranormal. But it just didn't grab me as much as her past books. Paula is unable to contact the doctor tending to her mother in the Haven Woods Hospital. Or even a nurse (other than one of the thirteen posing as one). No cleaners, no other patients, nothing. Really, after the fourth or fifth visit and she is still acquiescing, it stretched credibility. It reminded me of a slasher film where you want to yell at the lead character to "open your eyes and look around!" Desperate Housewives sprang to mind and indeed this is one comparison that the publisher uses as well - "The Witches of Eastwick meets Desperate Housewives in Susie Moloney's The Thirteen, her new and long-awaited novel." Once I got past being annoyed at the hospital situation, I did enjoy the book. Moloney has a wry sense of humour that is fun to catch. She again explores the human dynamic with lots of back stories of many of the characters and emotion drives some of the plot line. I was never really 'horrified', but did appreciate Moloney's take on urban witches and the desire of many to 'have it all.' The action in the last few chapters had me quickly turning pages and the ending employed a great hook.