Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Review: Ruby Hill by Sarah Ballance

Title: Ruby Hill
Author: Sarah Ballance
Source: Entangled Publishing
Genre: Suspense
Release Date: September 30, 2013
Reviewed by: Jasmyn

From her earliest memories, Ashley Pearce has been drawn to Ruby Hill Lunatic Asylum, and she's not the only one. Decades after the abandoned hospital ended its institutional reign of torture and neglect, something lurks in the shadows. Since she’s a paranormal investigator, it's Ashley's job to find out what.

Crime scene expert Corbin Malone doesn't believe in ghosts. A born skeptic, he has no interest in entertaining the hype surrounding the mysterious deaths at Ruby Hill, but he won't turn his back while more women die. He agrees to an overnight investigation, never expecting his first encounter would be with the woman he pushed away a year ago. But when he discovers Ashley is a target, he learns his greatest fear isn't living with his own demons, but losing her for good.



Ruby Hill got off to a fantastic start.  Mysterious deaths at an old derelict lunatic asylum - the perfect start for a ghost story.  It gets better from there as Ashley, a paranormal expert, and Corbin, a crime scene expert, show up to try and find answers - each in their own way.  With lots of mysterious bumps and very disturbing spirits lurking around, I was just settling into the story when ... it suddenly ended.

Yes, it ended far too soon and without a clear resolution to the ghost story.  Now the secondary story line, the romance between Ashley and Corbin, really never takes center stage.  It lingers in the background waiting for its turn, which never seems to quite get here.  I really hate saying that I wish a novella was longer (I know they are short) but this one really did need more to flesh out the story and give it a little more closure.




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1 comment:

  1. Bummer- this one sounded like it was really promising. (I love a good ghost story!) Thanks for the review. :)

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