What price will people pay to hold their homes and dreams together?
When Kate and Stuart Kinzler buy a run-down historic house in Ann Arbor, Michigan, they’re hoping their grand renovation project can rescue their troubled marriage. Instead, they discover that years ago their home was the scene of a terrible crime—and the revelation tips the balance of their precarious union.
When a mysterious man begins lurking around her yard, Kate, now alone, is forced to confront her home’s dangerous past. Hers is not the only life that has crumbled under this roof. This man’s family also disintegrated here, as the result of one brief act of rage that may haunt him—and this house—for years to come.
I was hooked to this book by the cover at first sight…. and the title with the eerie letters reflecting in the water. When I read what the book was about I was sold out interested. A mystery! A murder mystery! A ghost story even! Yet who are the ghosts in this ghost story? Lingering pasts of Stuart and Kate…. dashed hops and dreams, ghosts of a marriage they once had – or dreamed they had? Possibly. Not the ghosts I had envisioned, but ghosts all the same.
The prologue was a bit much for me and if the book would have been based off those first few eighteen pages I probably would not have been able to finish the book. The character of Claire I found to be extremely unlikable and desensitized. My stomach actually lurched at what the book described.
and then we move on to 2005… and with the story of Stuart and Kate comes a sigh of relief from me. I like them. I like Kate’s dreams for the house and I can relate to that. As Kate remodels and remodels I start to wonder what is she really trying to fix? As Valerie Laken brings the pieces of this story as well as the characters together for a story that kept me turning the pages.
And really – what home, what person, doesn’t have a few ghosts?
About Valerie
Born and raised in Rockford, Illinois, Valerie Laken has lived and worked in Moscow, Russia; Prague, Czechoslovakia; Krakow, Poland; Madison, Wisconsin; Iowa City, Iowa; and Ann Arbor, Michigan. She received an MA in Slavic Literature and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan.
Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, the Chicago Tribune, Michigan Quarterly Review, the Alaska Quarterly Review, the Antioch Review, and Meridian. Her honors include a Pushcart Prize, the Missouri Review Editors’ Prize, two Hopwood Awards, and an honorable mention in The Best American Short Stories.
Her first novel, Dream House, was inspired by her own experience buying and remodeling a home in which a murder had occurred.
Laken has taught at the University of Michigan and Carthage College, and is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, where she teaches creative writing.
Visit Valerie Laken’s website.
My Amazon Review
I received my review copy from TLC book Tours
Book Journey 
I like the looks and the sound of this book. Thanks for the great review!
Sure Diane!
This sounds so edge of my seat good! Now I want to go learn more about Valerie Laken, what an interesting mini bio.
Gwen I need to read more on this author as well.
I liked what you had to say about this one…I want to read it!! And I love the cover too!!!
Staci – yes total cover love on this one!
I just started this book, It will be a great read for my 5am flight on Saturday morning 🙂
mari it will be a good plane book. I want to read your thoughts on it.
Hmm, sounds intriguing …
wordlily… kind of. I kept thinking it read like a horror movie.
I don’t like horror movies. At. All. Great cover, though.
Wordlily (to below comment… I laughed at your comment. I like how you put the period after at and all. I like more mystery – suspense…. horror is just awful these days – its not like the Friday The 13th movies that I used to love in high school…..
This sounds like a compelling read! I can imagine it as a movie, too, which would be difficult to watch, probably…but great!
Now this one is going on my list!
Laurel I could picture it as a movie too! Only a small part of the book was gruesome (prologue)
Great review, I’m getting ready to start this book in the next few days.
I am anxious to read your review Ryan…. the book isnt what I thought it would be…. but I cant really complain – it was still a good read.
Was confused about your comment on the cover and then realized my cover was different then yours. I like your cover better 🙂
I also totally missed the little blurb on the cover about it being a ghost story. Now I’m scared! Yikes!
I will have to look at your cover Angie- I seen one with broken steps….I liked that one too.
I know what you mean by the cover, I would have picked the book up only by that cover. Besides the books does sound like something I would enjoy.
Violet I always am drawn to books by covers…. I cant help it. 🙂
This sounds like a great book! And it’s set in my home state. I was born in Dearborn, which isn’t too far from Ann Arbor. I grew up in Midland, which is near Flint and Saginaw. Anyway, I like a good thriller that also focuses on human relationships. Great review!
Michelle, I like where Valerie’s story came from – the fact that she actually lived parts of this story is interesting.
The cover of the book really draws you in. They did a great job with it. I’ll have to check out this boo. Sounds fun !
There is a second cover Lori – one with broken steps (like in repair) both I think are pretty good covers but I think Iprefer the one I have – creepy house…..LOL
I added this to my reading list. Great review!
Thanks Stacy!
I’ll have to read this book. We bought an 1898 victorian farm house that was sound, but needed to be gutted and completely redone. We moved in and then started the process. That was in 1992. We are still working on it and hope we’ll be done one of theses days. We have reached the point that it is time to redo some of what we already did. We do have our resident ghosts, but thankfully, no dire history came with the house.
If you have a shaky marriage, renovating a house is NOT the way to repair it. Luckily, our marriage was in good shape and so far has survived.
Pat, I love projects but in this book they are practically gutting the house and it eventually takes over everything.
It’s interesting to think that Kate’s trying to remodel something other than the house with all the remodeling she does. I love that analogy! Thanks for being on this tour!
Thanks Trish! It was a good book!
aah, I was wondering what the author’s connection with A2 (that’s Ann Arbor) was.
Its pretty interesting J T how the author has taken pieces of what has happened in her own life and put it in this book.