My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Many Thanks to Net Galley, Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op and the author for a chance to read and review this book. All opinions are expressed voluntarily.

#YouAreInvited #NetGalley

I would like to thank Shalini for her irresistible temptation that made me request this book🤣 🤣 🤣.

Transylvania in Romania , the name of the place itself conjures an image of dark nights, Dracula’s and vampires or strigoi as they are called locally, blood dripping from their mouths, the image so macabre that it chills the bones. You are Invited by Sarah A Denzil begins on such a disturbing gloomy night, at the Sfantul Mihail or Saint Michael monastery, a 200-yr old building seeped in history of murder and mayhem.

Cath Fenwick is invited for a retreat of successful social media influencers and as a writer of fantasy fiction, Cath believes herself lucky to be in the presence of the star, cancer survivor, entrepreneur, Instagram influencer, Irene Jobart. The others attending THE EVENT of the century is Dan Mendoza, Jules Chen and Nathan MacDonald, all of them young successful stars in their own respective field. Anything too good to be true, of course, there’s a catch.

THERE’S NO PRIVACY!

The social media, the twitterati’s, the youtubers, the bloggers, the followers, the instagrammers, every other Tom Dick and Harry can log in and subscribe and pay money to view your every thought and action. Reminded of BIG BOSS / BIG BROTHER anyone? Well, that is such a mild show compared to this chill fest!

The madness escalates as the Cath realizes the loss of her meds for schizophrenia that keeps THE VOICE at bay, Jules struggles with antipathy towards Irene, Nathan suffering a breakdown and so much keeps happening as secrets and truths of their face in reality comes thru and the close living quarters that seem to exacerbate their woes.

Sarah A Denzil captures the imagination of the reader with the setting and the atmospheric menace throughout the story. The wolves, the ghosts, the brutal history of the nuns’ death, the absolute desolation of the place adds to this intense drama that raises goosebumps on your skin. After about three-quarters of the book, the story takes on such a rapid pace that as a reader you can feel the intensity of the menace and dread just lurking around the corner. By the time the end credits roll in, I had already run a marathon with a galloping heart.

So obviously, I loved everything about this book and really do not want to classify it as a ghost story, as there is so much more than that and like Cath at the end, it is better to be illogically logical.

This review will be published in my blog: https://rainnbooks.wordpress.com/, Amazon India, Goodreads and Twitter.

“There are those who claim the ghosts walking the corridors of Sfântul Mihail are not ghosts at all.”

During a midnight journey snaking through the Carpathian Mountains, these are the words whispered to Cath Fenwick. It is the warning she will later wish she’d taken more seriously.

When Cath receives her invitation to The Event–a monetised retreat for social media influencers–she can’t believe her luck. Irene Jobert is the most famous influencer in the world, and now Cath will be one of the five participants chosen to stay with Irene in a renovated Transylvanian monastery.

The catch? Their every move will be live-streamed to millions of people around the world. Patrons pay for constant access to their favourite social media stars: Irene, the model, Nathan, the gamer, Jules, the blogger, Daniel, the fitness guru and Cath, the writer. Nestled halfway up a mountain, surrounded by forests teeming with nature, the five are isolated, with nothing but the internet to connect them to the world. That is, until eagle-eyed live-stream followers all around the globe notice a sixth participant. A dark figure lurking in the background. Who–or what–is in the monastery with them?

Wolves roam the nearby forests. Shadows haunt the long corridors of Sfântul Mihail. Slowly, five lonely people begin to lose their minds. You are invited to The Event.