This book was awesome. Had me from the first page. I love a good haunted house story and this takes haunted house to a new level.
I don’t want to say too much and give anything away but it’s a great story and I enjoyed the surprises and especially the slow development of the evil in the book.
Despite there being an evil presence I actually found that the slow decline of the characters lives could very realistically happen without the evil being there. I found that interesting,
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC for an honest review.

I won this in a giveaway here on Net Gallery, and I was excited to read this. This book did not disappoint, I must say. This book has perfect and almost flawless story building and character development, it kept me wondering and guessing till the very last page. It was fun and scary, and once I got started I was not able to put it down. And the ending was truly shocking. I found this to be an excellent book and look forward to future titles from this author.

I loved the sound of this book, it's a great premise, but unfortunately it wasn't for me. The beginning was fast paced, maybe too fast paced, with a lot thrown at the reader with no time to digest before something else was thrown into the mix.

I also felt that there were maybe a few characters too many, with a lot of those that were introduced coming across as flat and somewhat cliched. It was an interesting twist to have the scenes with the POV of a ghost but ultimately that aspect didn't add much to the book as a whole. I'm also not sure the character of Shepherd needed to be what he was, but kudos for injecting a fresh idea into the increasingly tired professor trope.

While the beginning was fast paced and a definite page turner it turned into a slog from around the halfway mark - tighter editing would have done much to improve it. I'm sorry this is such a downer of a review, I really did want to love this book. I think with a little less going on, therefore allowing time for each plot point to develop before something else is added, I would have enjoyed the book a lot more. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to review.

Lots of characters. Disjointed plot point. Too many details about physical features of the too many characters.

A fast and somewhat scary read - but I was getting confused about who was doing what. Lloyd has a future in horror writing but still need to hone in on what is important and what drives a plot.

Thanks to netGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I received this via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved it guys. This book was just what I wanted It to be. The world building was fun and enticing. The characters were very well flushed out. I loved the plot of this. I can not wait to read more by this author. I highly recommend this book

I thought the book was horrible. I spent 18% of the story wondering how Laura was related to everyone after the weird introduction of characters and closed it up.

Entertaining read, and fun concept - a family inherits a home and decides to renovate the home for an HGTV-type reality show. This part of the book got lost somewhere along the way, but the story was nevertheless interesting and fun to read. Nice ending, although a bit predictable. Nice nod to The Shining.

Amazon
This was one of the best haunted house/ghost story that I have read in a long time. I was spellbound from the beginning. I always am looking for Wisconsin Mysteries. While this was a haunted house story it did not disappoint and moved right along. I thank Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review this book and I look forward to reading more books by this author. Fans of Steven King will love.

This was an interesting read. A house is haunted, people are going missing or killed near the house. The main character must do everything she can to save her family from the house. I had a little difficulty keeping track of characters, I tend to read books with about three major characters and this had more than six. Leah, Laura, and Lucas being three of the characters caused a little confusion. I also had a little trouble remembering who was kin to who and how they were related. This is not the fault of the author, I am not accustomed to a large cast. There is a slight feel of Amityville and The Shining. If you like those books you will probably enjoy this. It took me a while to figure out the title of the book. Shepherd is a character in the book. I think a prequel book or series about the adventures of Shepherd would be really interesting.

If you like a tale of horror with some paranormal appearances and possession of the main character, this book is for you. Not only do characters become possessed, but the physical house itself becomes possesed as well. This house is a huge, one-of -a -kind home that the locals either don’t seem to know about its history or its location, or don’t want to know about it.. Lucas and his wife Laura have inherited this house that has been in the family, but unknown to all. The opportunity of a lifetime presents itself when HGTV agrees to film the restoration of this house and turn it into a series. Lucas will be in charge of the physical restoration while Laura will be in charge of decor. All is going well until a sealed underground room is found containing a cross, Bible, and human bones. Then the visions and ghostly appearances begin.
I was given a free copy of this book and am reviewing it voluntarily.

Unfortunately, this book was just not my cup of tea. The cover got me interested and the description got me hooked, but when I sat down to read it I couldn't connect to it. I found the book to be slow burning and a bit to jumpy from character to character.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this electronic advanced readers copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.

A worthy effort: Shepherd's Warning by Cailyn Lloyd

Thanks as always to NetGalley for allowing me to read an early version of this book.

It is to this writer's credit (and those of her editors) that I did not realise that this novel was self-published until the last page. It is a passable horror story centred around a haunted Elizabethan mansion in Wisconsin USA. I seem to have hit a slew of books lately where the protagonist is particularly unmemorable and, unfortunately, this novel is no exception. For all of her seventh sight, incipient epilepsy and love for her granddaughter, I found it very difficult to get emotionally invested in Laura McKenzie. Her breakup with her husband should also have been emotionally wrenching to lend the tale more excitement but was just sudden and rather dull. Sometimes the prose is also quite tedious, the "room cants sideways" numerous times as our heroine hits the concrete, or should that be the wooden flooring? Also, it was never clear to me why she seemed to be the sole custodian of her granddaughter following her son's death... Where was her daughter-in-law? Oh well.

For all of that it was pretty readable although I would hardly describe it as unputdownable.

A wonderful supernatural horror story

We find ourselves following a family that is moving into their shortly inherited big house they didn't even know existed. The town folks have always stayed away from that house believing it to be haunted and dangerous.

As the family moves in, strange things start to happen while Laura, the wife, starts to unbury some of the secrets attached to the house and their ancestors.

A fantastic gothic tale in the modern era that is mysterious, intriguing and will keep you wanting to read more and find out the real truth behind the house.

Scary, atmospheric, creepy and enjoyable. Great book that was a real page turner. Good story and relatable characters

Do houses have souls? Can a house be evil? If so, how could this possibly come to be? The MacKenzie house stands vacant and hidden in the Wisconsin countryside. Legend surrounds the house. Tales that, hundreds of years ago when only native american people lived on the land, the solid, authentic English Tudor suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Then and now the house was thought of as evil, haunted and dangerous and the people stayed away.. All except for the MacKenzie family who had owned the house for generations. Strange deaths seem to plague the family. When her husband dies there, Elizabeth MacKenzie leaves and tells no one of the house.
Unfortunately, Elizabeth's son's Lucas and Nate, their wives, and a little grandchild inherit the home and move in to renovate. As with most renovations....things don't always go well. In this case, things go especially bad. Lucas, Nate and Laura all begin their own digging into the house's secrets and keeping secrets of their own.
I enjoyed this book. The was a unique take on the haunted house theme. The characters were well developed I cared about what happened to them. I highly recommend this read to those who love haunting stories. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. #netgalley #Shepherd'sWarning

Shepherd's Warning is a wonderfully written horror/ghost story. MacKenzie mansion has remained empty for years when brothers, Lucas and Nate, are bequeathed the mansion in their mother's will. Once they start renovations things begin to happen in their lives and their families lives. This was a fast-paced read told from multiple viewpoints. It was incredibly hard for me to put down and walk away. I love the world building, the amazing characters, and the history behind the house and characters. This was a wonderful debut!

I am a sucker for all things haunted house and ghost related. I can never get enough. Unfortunately it is so hard to find a good ghost story that grips my interest but this one absolutely did. It’s a slow burner and we’re introduced to a lot of characters. They’re complex and they’ve been through hell. The family dynamics can be rough to read at times so much so that I cringed reading some of the dialogue but it’s realistic and that’s what I liked about it.

The house is an ancient evil that causes tragedy, injury, and death to anybody involved. So you can only guess what happens with the Mackenzie family moves in. This reminded me a bit of House on Haunted Hill remixed with The Shining. The pacing was a bit disjointed and it could have used a bit less show than tell but I enjoyed this horror tale a lot and I want to see what else this author has in store.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed a Shepherds warning, although i was a bit confused in the beginning, The premise is two brothers inherit a English Tudor house in the middle of no where in America, No one knows how it got there and the boys had no idea of its existence until their mother passed away, They have the idea to renovate it but the house has a creepy past and soon things go out of control for them and their family. The story is well written and isn't graphically gory like some stories can be and as this is Cailyn Lloyds debut I shall definitely be looking out for future novels from her

Excellent haunted house/ghost story, Spooky house, interesting characters, and an ending I didn't expect.

Shepherd's Warning by Cailyn Lloyd
Review of a NetGalley eARC.

This is a haunted house story in the vein of The Shining or The Amityville Horror (which is referenced explicitly in the text). The McKenzie family: Lucas and Laura, with Lucas's brother Nathan and his wife Ashley, along with Lucas and Laura's granddaughter Leah, arrive at the brothers' inherited house in the Wisconsin countryside. A grand old Tudor mansion, they decide to renovate it for HGTV, but things soon take a terrifying turn. As you would expect from a horror novel.

This first book from Lloyd shows its influences on its sleeve, while working in a lot of unusual takes that would make for something refreshingly new, if so much of it wasn't just confusing.

The Old English spells, the nearly immortal wizard, the circularity of the events are all interesting and unique. They add flavor to the book and would help it stand out a lot from the crowd, if the rest of the pacing and structure stood up to them. Unfortunately, I don't feel like they did.

Events unfold in an awkward way, with things that seem really important at the time just fading away. For example, in one scene a young contractor falls off the roof, breaking his arm and impaling himself on a rusty piece of metal. This event IS NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN by the main characters, and only vaguely referenced by a side character (a "ghost" that made it happen). Not only that, but people continue to work on the roof without taking any safety precautions, and indeed someone falls again.

Then there's the idea that they are renovating the house for a TV show. This dominates the situation for the first few chapters, then it's just... Gone. No more cameras, no more interviews, no repercussions. Which could be code for the whole book: lots of things happen with no real impact.

The pacing is overall quite uneven. The book opens with a couple of big events, but then nothing really happens until halfway through. There is a lot of pointless running around, and I'll be honest--all the "L" names warped it into one big, blonde blur.

There is also an odd insistence on specificity, especially regarding brand names, that almost reads like advertising. The main characters don't drink beer, they drink Spotted Cow (which halfway through the book becomes italicized); the 1,000 year-old wizard doesn't drink port, he drinks Old Tawny port; Laura doesn't use a genealogy website, she uses Ancestry.com; Tom Wolff doesn't wear a trucker's cap, he wears a Purina cap. It stands out in an odd way, rather than adding any kind of realism or immediacy.

These all seem like minor points, but they build up until the text becomes a struggle. And it doesn't help that the essential conflict centers, once again, on the corruption of the father figure through his repressed Id. Ugh. Does the father grow distant from his family because of his inability to deal with loss? Yep. Does the father fall into dissolution through alcohol? Yep! Does the father betray his wife, who just wants him to get help, and call her concern nagging and prying? Bingo! At least he wasn't a writer.

Overall, I really struggled to finish this book, and once I did I wasn't satisfied.