horror – Stephanie Caffrey, Author

Legend Has it by DJ Slater

Available: September 16, 2025

Thank you Rowan Prose Publishing for the ARC. The following is my honest review.

For those of you who know me, you’ll know that horror is definitely not my genre of choice. I typically read one horror book a year, around Halloween, with my book club. However, the more I heard about DJ Slater’s Legend Has It, the more I wanted to read it. And I’m so glad I did.

Legend Has It follows a group of college kids who are looking for a legendary haunted house. Rumor has it, the house is the ultimate haunt, ten stories of scares, and Seth and his friends feel it would be the perfect way to close out the haunted house chapter of their lives. What follows is an edge of your seat adventure.

When I was in my twenties, my husband and I would go haunted house hopping, chaperoning the youth group. Reading this book was a nostalgic dip into my past. Of course, none of the haunted houses we visited were as, let’s just say, intense, as the one Seth and his friends encounter. If you’re weak of stomach, I would tread lightly, but if you’re looking for a book that will raise your heart rate, you should definitely pick this one up.

While several horror books I’ve read in the past have gone off the rails and caused me to roll my eyes and reluctantly finish the books (you can scroll through my past reviews to see which books I’m specifically referring to) around the last three quarters of the book, this book didn’t. In fact, make sure you have time set aside to sit and read, because once you’re in the last twenty-five percent of the book, you’re not going to want to put it down. When I finished the book, I longed for more.

With Spooky Season just around the corner, do yourself a favor and add Legend Has It to you TBR. You seriously won’t regret it.

This debut romance novel was really cute. I loved the original premise of the book. They knew of each other in high school, but were never part of the same social circle, but forever connected through a tragic accident involving her sister. Now, they’re forced to work together. I loved how Kuang talked about their shared trauma and how they each dealt with it. And I loved the gradual way they fell in love. It felt very natural and realistic. I’m very excited to see how Kuang adapts Emily Henry’s books for the screen.

I saw this book at the library and thought it would be a more updated version of the story, or a new take on it, or something. Nope. It’s just the text of Frankenstein as a graphic novel. And I have to say, re-reading Frankenstein, even as a graphic novel, was not on my list of books I ever wanted to read again. Turns out, my dislike for the story had nothing to do with being a teenager, and everything to do with the story. Not my favorite classic by any means.

I love Megan Goldin. She has a way of telling thrilling stories. Plus, I’m a huge sucker for True Crime based novels. This book kept me hooked from the beginning and I had to keep reading to find out what happened next. I honestly didn’t see some of the twists coming, which was refreshing since the last True Crime based book was such a let down. I can’t wait for Goldin to release another book.

If I’m going to be reading my four-year-old chapter books at bedtime, I’m going to count them toward my reading goal for the year. Especially Dav Pilkey books. If you know me, you know I love puns, and Dav Pilkey books are FULL of puns. I read all of Captain Underpants to my son when he was this age, and now I’m reading the Cat Kid Comic Club and Dog Man to my daughter. These books are fun, and hilarious, and not just for kids.

Last year, I read the book Pride and Prometheus thinking it would be a love story mashup between Frankenstein and Pride and Prejudice. It was not, and I was so let down. Since I got sort of tricked into re-reading Frankenstein this month, I went in search of books where Frankenstein’s Monster finds love. I know, it sounds weird, but I found it! This is about Frankenstein’s monster in modern times, falling in love. And I was here for the story for about ninety percent of the book, and then it lost me. However, I still really enjoyed it, and it was exactly what I wanted after slogging through Frankenstein a second time.

What can I say about this book? It was billed as a romance/sci-fi hybrid, which is what appealed to me. However, I would not call this book a romance by any means. Definitely Sci-Fi, but not romance. I spent most of the book trying to figure out what bothered me, and I think I didn’t really enjoy the way it was written. It felt very passive. If I didn’t want to count it toward a reading challenge, I probably would have DNF’d the book. However, about 75% through, things took a turn and suddenly the book became more interesting. And now, if Bradley were to write a sequel to this book, I would probably read it.

I spent Memorial Day weekend bingeing the two Christina Lauren books I haven’t read yet. This one was so cute. I loved the premise, and I LOVED the characters. I’m such a sucker for a good dad. I read this very quickly and loved every second of it.

The newest release from Christina Lauren, I loved this one too. I read this one in a day. I loved the characters, the premise and the ending. The book made me laugh and cry, and I’m sad that I’m going to have to wait for them to write another book for me to read.

My book club book for the month,it took me the entire month to finish this book. Written in the height of the YA Dystopian craze, this book read like it was trying to be the next Hunger Games or Divergent. All the tropes were there, and it was incredibly predictable. I hated Lena, and even though the book ended on a cliffhanger, I have no desire to read the rest of the trilogy.

Tag: horror

Book Review: Legend Has It by DJ Slater

May 2024 Reads