My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
It would be unquestionably fair to say that Simone St James is one of my favorite authors, especially coz her books have all those segments that I am absolutely fond of; historical fiction, sometimes dual time line stories, ghosts, romance, mystery, most of them always having a spectacular ending.
See, it is quite easy to love her books as there’s something for everyone and each of her works have been 5* reads for me.
The Sun Down Motel has all these wonderful things going for it but I would rate it 4.5 stars simply coz I had guessed each and every reveal in the story and it kind of spoiled the surprise element. The book succeeds in creating an eerie atmosphere for the motel, and the author has captured the element of brooding haunting perfectly as I can’t help but feel the ghostly presence in our minds. The smoking smell, the boy running, Betty Graham each and every character was interesting adding the spookiness to an already lonely motel.
It is easy to imagine a place like Fell, a motel like Sun Down where nothing major happens which is warped in a time bubble with not a single change in all the years it has been built. Viv Delaney in 1986 and Carly in 2017 are wonderful characters both of them incredibly strong and ready to face the terrors inside the motel. I loved the calm and subtle romance between Carly and Nick, who has his own personal demons to fight too. In fact, the Sun Down Motel has a set of incredible and warmth inducing characters, whole loads of them, Marnie, Alma, Heather, to name a few that each of them remain in the minds of the reader even when the final chapter is done.
What I really love to mention is the spectacular strength displayed by the females in the story, the quiet resourcefulness they display in dealing with a troublesome situation. This is a brilliant work by the author just for the frightening scenarios created even though actual ghost hauntings are kept to a minimum.
Another outstanding work by Simone St. James.
Something hasn’t been right at the roadside Sun Down Motel for a very long time, and Carly Kirk is about to find out why in this chilling new novel from the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls.
Upstate New York, 1982. Viv Delaney wants to move to New York City, and to help pay for it she takes a job as the night clerk at the Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York. But something isnʼt right at the motel, something haunting and scary.
Upstate New York, 2017. Carly Kirk has never been able to let go of the story of her aunt Viv, who mysteriously disappeared from the Sun Down before she was born. She decides to move to Fell and visit the motel, where she quickly learns that nothing has changed since 1982. And she soon finds herself ensnared in the same mysteries that claimed her aunt.
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