Book Review — The House by Christina Lauren

“Do you, House? Do you watch me all the time?”

• Buy THE HOUSE (Kindle)
• Buy THE HOUSE (Paperback)
• Buy THE HOUSE (Hardcover)
• Buy THE HOUSE (Audiobook)

It’s the perfect time of year for spooky reads, but since my heart lies with romance, I was looking for a a love story that had a bit of an edge to it, and this was it: A thrilling blend of spooky and swoony!!

The House was haunting, romantic, and suspenseful. Honestly, it would make a really fantastic movie! It’s one of those stories that I found very easy to visualize complete as I read. The story just came to life in my mind. If they happened to be showing this story as a movie in theaters, I’d be lining up today!

So it starts out with the heroine coming back to school in a town she’d left several years ago and reconnecting with a guy she knew from before. He’d changed a lot — grow up, filled out — and once again she found herself drawn to the boy few people spoke to, who lived in the house no one talked about…

He was the same, but not. His shirt was black, jeans were black, and shaggy black hair fell into his eyes… When he looked up at Delilah as he passed, the same eyes she remembered from all those years ago — dark and stormy and shadowed with black circles — seemed to flicker to life for a moment.

Just long enough for her to lose her breath.

He looked like he knew every one of her secrets. Who would have guessed that after six years Gavin Timothy would still seem so perfectly dangerous?

Apparently, Delilah was still smitten.

But they’re not the only ones with secrets… I really don’t want to spoil exactly what it “is” so I’ll just quote the blurb for this next part…

He lives in that house, the one at the edge of town. Spooky and maybe haunted. Something worse than haunted. And Gavin is trapped by its secrets.

Delilah and Gavin can’t resist each other. But staying together will exact a price beyond their imagining.

So yes, it IS creepy and scary at times, but in an almost ‘good’ way if that makes sense? This is the way I like to be scared. It’s not senselessly scary and there is a point to everything (like, you get explanations for how and why things came to be the way they were). It really worked for me!

To my delight, I found that this book kind of captured a similar feeling to Twilight in some ways. The story is definitely different but I guess something about the new girl falling for this guy in high school with so many secrets… and her being unafraid by the ‘peculiarities’ in his life just brought back a lot of the same feelings. I really loved that about it. (Ok, but seriously, please take the Twilight comparison with a grain of salt. I don’t want you to go into this literally expecting the same thing. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m just simply saying that, to a certain degree, the ‘feeling’ of this story reminded me of it — in a good way.)

I also thought that the way the paranormal element of the story unfolded and was revealed was very cleverly done. You started out not knowing how much or how little there’d be in the story and I was full of anticipation as I turned the pages because I knew that something about Gavin and his House was more in some way but I didn’t exactly know how and I couldn’t wait to find out their secrets…

“Don’t follow me home,” he said as gently as he could. “Please, Delilah, don’t ever follow me home again.”

The characters felt very real, and I think it was because they were just so down-to-earth that it lent this sense of believability to the story even though it was supernatural. I loved the way Delilah would ask Gavin all kinds of questions about the ‘things’ in his life and he’d answer them as best he could. He wasn’t trying to hide from her and I was captivated by that trust between them. It made me really fall in love with THEM because yes, this definitely a romance. A very sweet, swoony, falling-in-love-for-the-first-time romance… mixed in with the scary, spooky, thrilling (and sometimes even creepy) element that House brought to the story. The blend and contrast between these two sides of the story was very well done!

“What do you want from me, Delilah?”
“I want to be the only girl you look at.”
“You already are.”

And I just have to really point out that I thought the writing was brilliant!!! Such vivid imagery that balanced the sweetness and the more scary sides of the story. I have so many quotes in my book highlighted. I read this book in one afternoon and didn’t want to put it down.

The only thing is that I do wish it had a bit more of a developed ending. While the storyline is completely resolved in a satisfactory manner by the end (this is a standalone), I still felt it was a little rushed and might have preferred a little more time spent with the characters at the end. But that’s my only complaint. Other than that, I’d consider this a fabulous Autumn read… especially as we draw closer to Halloween.

“How…?” she started and then stopped. “How is that even possible?”

With a smile, he explained. “It’s all I’ve really known, you know, so it doesn’t seem that impossible to me.”

And yes, I know many of you are wondering — this has a romance-genre-worthy ending so even though it crosses into the horror/thriller territory, it still leaves you feeling very good about things. It is scary at times, but you get a resolution, and you definitely come through to the other side with your heart in tact.

The genre is YA paranormal romance (but there’s only one supernatural element in the story, so it’s not a completely magical world — I found it to be a small enough suspension of belief that even a non-PNR reader would probably be just fine reading this) and its mostly YA but there’s a little action in there… with them in their last year of high school, there are definitely a few scenes that border on NA.

If you’re a romance reader looking for a really well-written Halloween read that’s scary (but not toooooo scary) and with a really swoony ‘first love’ romance too, then definitely try this!!

Rating: 4 stars! Standalone YA romance/thriller.

• Buy THE HOUSE (Kindle)
• Buy THE HOUSE (Paperback)
• Buy THE HOUSE (Hardcover)
• Buy THE HOUSE (Audiobook)