REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: THE UNWANTED by JeanNicole Rivers

Posted May 16, 2016 by Vik Booklover in Blog Tours, Book Love, Giveaways, Home, Our Reviews, ❤ Reviews by Vik ♡ / 4 Comments

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Black Water Tales: The Unwanted by JeanNicole Rivers

Publication date: March 31st 2016
Genres: Adult, Horror

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Blurb v2

In the remote, eastern European town of Borslav there is St. Sebastian orphanage, a place where people discard their unwanted children. For the American, Blaire Baker, it’s the perfect place to volunteer her services. Paired with a cheerful volunteer nurse, Blaire is enthusiastic about the possibilities, but is quickly discouraged when she encounters the nefarious nature of the staff and the deplorable conditions of the facility and the children.

Upon arrival, one of the children informs Blaire, “There’s something in the basement.” It isn’t long before strange things begin happening, including Blaire’s flashbacks of the accident that killed her parents. The children soon suffer injuries that Blaire, first, fears may be the deeds of the callous workers but she soon thinks the abuse may originate from a source that is less than human, something unwanted.

The unwanted is coming but in order for Blaire to fight it, she must dig into St. Sebastian and herself in search of truth. Blaire wants nothing more than to help the children, but when discovers the tragedy that happened in the basement and learns that the same evil forces are still at work, it will be Blaire who needs help… There’s something in the basement.

Review Vik v2

3.5coffebeans

“All of the unwanted are thrown away there, and they slowly deteriorate with every passing second until…madness, and the unwanted that is on the inside escapes and sucks everything into its darkness.”

Hello Darkness… hello friend… I’ve come to read some more again.

Well! This book certainly delivered on a much-needed adrenaline rushed reading. To say I was creeped out for most of the book would be putting it mildly. The book starts off right away with the creepy and it doesn’t let up until the end. As much as I loved the book plot and general story line were superb there were quite a few things that I found irksome and unfortunately prevents me from rating this book higher.

There is nothing creepier (at least for me) than an abandoned Easter European town… ahh motherland *shudders*…  especially the equivalent of an abandoned town where the average age of the population is well into adulthood aka very few to no kids. Throw in an abandoned and dilapidated orphanage on a cliff with even stranger children who spout off ominous things at the most fun times to make your skin crawl even if you are reading in the daylight. That’s pretty much the experience of reading this book. JeanNicole portrays a beautiful and haunting scenery that sets the mood perfectly for all the creepy things that occur and slither and whisper through the night at St. Sebastian orphanage. An orphanage to which two Americans, Blair (teacher) and Travis (nurse), have donated a year of their life on a volunteer mission to help provide some medical care and education to the unwanted children at the orphanage.

“They were all rocking slowly in the comforting arms of their own madness.”

However even terrified 70% of the time and enthralled with the mystery of the orphanage, the kids, the caretakers, the village people, and eventual role of Blair in the whole scheme of things could not lobotomize me to certain plot holes. I wanted to overlook it and enjoy the story fully, really I tried but it bothered me… A LOT. There were a couple of plot holes and goofs that were to be expected when it comes to supernatural genre books but there was one that bothered me the most, the language. The story takes place in a small Slavic town and as the 2 volunteers coming from Ameria they integrate so well into creepy and middle of nowhere town. Now I’m not sure whether everyone, even a town in a middle of nowhere Eastern Europe, knows English as a second language even the children of the orphanage who  we are told lack any formal education and that would mean learning second language(?) and yet everyone understand each other perfectly. If both Blair and Travis spoke native language fluently it is not clarified either.

“At the moment they passed the girl Blaire pushed back in her seat. Her hand shot up, covering her mouth and concealing her alarm as she caught a close glimpse of the little girl who had no eyes, no nose, no mouth, just a distorted, featureless mask, covering what should have been an innocent face.”

Even with all that I enjoyed the book immensely and will be going back to read the first book in the series – The Secret Keepers. So if you are a horror loving junking who spends their weekend catching up on all sorts of horror flicks and seeks the same level of adrenaline rush from her horror books look no further and give St. Sebastian orphanage a visit.

 Reading Order v2

 

Giveaway v2

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About Author v2

JeanNicole

I was born in the tiny, but lovable town of Centralia, IL which has a two screen movie theatre, one high school and still celebrates May Fete, so I had no choice, but to develop a fantastic imagination. Since childhood I have been writing everything from short stories to songs, but I have always aspired to compose a novel. Black Water Tales: The Secret Keepers is my first novel and the first book in what will be a series of thriller novels.

Philosophy was my study in college and I received a Bachelor of Arts in the subject from Florida International University. Writing is one of my most favored artistic pursuits, but my love for the arts does not stop there, I am also a vocalist and actress and participate in local theater in Houston Texas.

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4 responses to “REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: THE UNWANTED by JeanNicole Rivers

    • Kris and Vik

      Oooh yes it’s perfect time to read this book.. in pitch dark… alone at home… perfect ambience. I wish you luck lol – Vik

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