*I received a free copy of Hanover House from Selfpublished via Netgalley. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review, which is honest and unbiased *
Hanover House by Brenda Novak Published by Selfpublished on 1 September 2015
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Psychological Thriller, Romance, Suspense
Pages: 198
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
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Welcome to Hanover House….
Psychiatrist Evelyn Talbot has dedicated her life to solving the mysteries of the psychopathic mind. Why do psychopaths act as they do? How do they come to be? Why don’t they feel any remorse for the suffering they cause? And are there better ways of spotting and stopping them?
After having been kidnapped, tortured and left for dead when she was just a teenager—by her high school boyfriend—she’s determined to understand how someone she trusted so much could turn on her. So she’s established a revolutionary new medical health center in the remote town of Hilltop, Alaska, where she studies the worst of the worst.
But not everyone in Hilltop is excited to have Hanover House and its many serial killers in the area. Alaskan State Trooper, Sergeant Amarok, is one of them. And yet he can’t help feeling bad about what Evelyn has been through. He’s even attracted to her. Which is partly why he worries.
He knows what could happen if only one little thing goes wrong…
Hanover House is really, really creepy! And well written with an amazing main character who has been through hell, and now wants to help figure out what it is that makes a psychopath. Filled with suspense and a little romance, this prequel definitely made me want more!
My Hanover House review:
From the very start of Hanover House, I was in awe of Evelyn! Instead of hiding and not confronting her fears after she was brutally attacked by her boyfriend when she was only sixteen, she went on to become a psychiatrist to try to find out what exactly it is that makes some people psychopaths. And she wanted to further her research to see if there was any possibility at all to try to find psychopaths before they did too much harm to those around them. The way she went about it was to get funding for a high security prison, where she would transfer serial killers who showed no remorse for their crimes, so that she could study them. When she was finally able to build her prison outside Anchorage, the local population wasn’t exactly happy with her. But she was determined to find out why Jasper had become the way he was, why he had killed her three best friends before he attacked her and made her stay in a living hell until he slit her throat and left her for death.
Evelyn definitely has some baggage, but she won’t let that stop her from making sure Hanover House will open, even if the one law enforcement officer in Hilltop, Amorak, was not happy about the new prison being built in his village, either. And plenty was gong out both in Hilltop and in Boston, where Evelyn was tying up loose ends, selling her condo and getting ready to move. Jasper being on the lose, but without anyone knowing his whereabouts made Evelyn on edge, and with very good reason! The psychological thriller aspect of Hanover House was so well done! Especially because some of it was narrated showing Jasper, and his inner thoughts as well. This prequel definitely whetted my appetite, and I’m sad I’ll have to wait almost a full year before the full novel in this series will be released.
Written in third person point of view, past tense, the narrator mostly followed Evelyn and her thoughts and feelings, with some extremely chilling insights to Jasper as well. Well written, with characters I want to get to know much better, Hanover House has a lot of promise!
Some of my favorite Hanover House quotes:
To hide the fear that slithered, snake-like, just below her skin, making the hair on her arms stand up, Evelyn paced across one end of the small, concrete cell, pretending to be absorbed in her notes.
Although she told herself that the same thing wouldn’t happen twice, no amount of self-talk could overcome the emotional response that welled up whenever the slightest sound, smell or other trigger reminded her of what Jasper Moore had done twenty years ago.
Jasper Moore had changed his identity several times over the years.
COYER scavenger hunt item #13: Read Any Kind of Horror novel (1 point)
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms
Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.
I agree I really liked this and can’t wait for the follow up next year! I loved the Jasper perspective and also liked how there was a little bit of romance. Great review!
Yeah, seeing the way things worked inside of Jasper’s head was what made it so creepy to me! And I loved Evelyn’s determination and how strong she had always had to be.
You know I love a psycho-thriller, Lexxie. 😉 I think I will adore Hanover House, even if it is creepy, as I really do like the element of crawling into someone’s head – a criminal’s – to see what makes them tick. Hmm, I think I’ll see if it’s still available on netgalley. If not, I might have to break my streak of no one-clicking. 😉
Happy Thursday, my friend! THURSDAY! Where has the week gone?!? We have a holiday weekend (Labor Day) and James will be home for 4 days. 🙂 I know my kids will enjoy a day of sleep! I hope to chat soon. **BIG HUGS** (p.s. my boot camp class was ROUGH yesterday! 😉 )
I’m pretty sure you’ll adore Hanover House, too, Brandee! And the creepiness is actually needed, I think.
What do you mean you’re on a streak of no one-clicking? That’s so weird 😉
Have a great Labor Day weekend, Brandee. I might be around tomorrow afternoon my time if you’ll have time to chat at all. I have kind of fallen off the exercise wagon 🙁 Hopefully, I’ll be able to climb back on again soon! *BIG HUGS*
Twitter: bmreviewsohmy
I enjoyed Hanover House and I am really curious about the series. I think it was a nice intro to the main character. For a timid, I hate guys kind of gal she sure was warming up to Amorak fast, so I found that a little weird but over all I liked it. 🙂
I thought the way she warmed up to Amorak so quickly made sense in a way, Stormi, because he worked in law enforcement, and he made sure from the very start that she would feel safe around him – with no touching and just letting her feel like she was in control 😀 I can understand why you’d find it weird, though 🙂