Review: Cranberry Cove by Hailey Piper

Title: Cranberry Cove

Author: Hailey Piper

Length: 119 Pages

Category: Horror

Rating: 5 Stars

At a Glance: The evil done in this short novel is becoming of its genre, which Hailey Piper serves up in her usual way. The monsters are gruesome and gluttonous. They feed on fear and thirst for reparations for a promise left unfilled. Excellent stuff if Horror is your thing.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: What’s been happening at Cranberry Cove? It’s unspeakable. It’s unspoken.

Emberly Hale is about to take a dark journey inside the derelict hotel—and inside her own past—to find out the horrible truth.

Review: Hailey Piper does dread so awfully, beautifully well. The darkest corners become the hiding place for what her characters fear. The shadows are full of unspoken terrors. The silence holds secret horrors. And an abandoned hotel, Cranberry Cove, keeps those secrets close and its victims closer.

The evil that dwells there is about to strike again.

Emberly Hale works for the mob; although, that bit of information is more inferred that specifically stated. She’s trying to nip a gang war in the bud, so it’s not a huge leap of logic to say she and her colleague and best friend and staunchest ally, Conner, have certain allegiances, and now they are single-mindedly searching for clues to an attack that left the boss’s son traumatized. As Piper warns readers in her Forward, “This is a bleak book. It might not be for you.” Consider that accordingly.

Emberly is the heroine of the story. She counts herself fortunate that her transition was not only accepted but fully supported by her boss and mates within Ricard’s organization. She is smart, savvy, but also vulnerable to the chauvinism in her male-dominated line of work. Ricard wants her kept far from Cranberry Cove simply because she’s a woman. And Conner, who seems to feel more than simple friendship towards Emberly, likes to play hero when, in fact, Emberly doesn’t need a savior, she needs a partner who has her back no matter what.

The evil done in this short novel is becoming of its genre, which Hailey Piper serves up in her usual way. The monsters are gruesome and gluttonous. They feed on fear and thirst for reparations for a promise left unfilled. Excellent stuff if Horror is your thing.