3.5 Stars
Talk about atmospheric! Sarah A. Denzil has a fantastic knack for worldbuilding and mood that really tucked me right into the rural Romanian mountainside in late fall. The fog, the colors, the chill; I felt it all! What I didn’t feel? Any connection to the characters.
While Denzil excelled in her settings and descriptions, the characterization fell way short of the mark for me. Nobody felt “real”. At no point did I believe that these characters were anything but fictional people. This took away from the charm of a good suspense novel for me, but the tireless plot redeems the story!
Start to finish I was gripped by You Are Invited. This was 100% a “Just one more chapter!” book. During dinner, when I woke up at 3 am needing to pee, while I was supposed to be working (I’m blaming computer lag and opportunism); any chance I got I was nose deep in this story. Though the suspense wasn’t what I was anticipating from the synopsis, and the big reveal felt a liiiittle Scooby-Doo!, I was still desperate to find out just what was going on in this haunted, isolated monastery and how events would play out.
I was astounded by the climax. Honestly, I was not expecting something so intense, definitely not so gruesome! (For the record, I loved it!) The finale I expected was mild compared to what I got. Bravo! I love it when a book surpasses genre predictability!
So although I feel this story could have been better with stronger characters (who even was Dan?!), I still loved it for what it is. I am definitely going to be looking into Sarah A. Denzil's other books now!
(Big thank you to Goodreads and the author/publisher for my giveaway copy of You Are Invited!)
Find all of my reviews at goodreads.com/warpedshelves
Happy reading!
Audrey, Warped Shelves