We begin by following a group of young adults who’ve recently graduated from university and are introduced to Alex, his girlfriend Kay, Mike and his girlfriend Helen, as they travel to Alex’s parent’s cottage. Hearthstone is known to have a history, which Mike is soon to find out. Throughout the author introduces a level of creepiness that oozed right off of the pages. This was diffidently a positive...but at times was also a negative for me. Every time it felt like things were really heating up, the creepiness would overtake everything and then we'd have a subdued finale. I just kept hoping that things would have been allowed to build and to really come to the big conclusion that the story kept promising. The main character, Mike, was an annoying character. I kept wishing for something to get him. It would have been fine with me if whatever was haunting or possessing the cottage either ate him for lunch or rendered him speechless to just shut him up. Or Lee Frazer could have traded Mike for Meggie's dog. Okay...bad me. We are also eventually to meet Alex’s artsy, vegan sister. I liked her and found that this worked out nicely and helped to increase some tension within the group. The biggest reason I gave this a 4.5 star instead of a 5-star rating, was that the author had Mike’s character stuck in an alcohol/pothead state for way too much of the story and with a shift in the startup that involved his girlfriend, he became a literal wet blanket. The setting of this book was phenomenal. I love Scotland. It's where my grandfather was from. Overall, I really did enjoy this story and it came so close to being an outstanding read. What can I say? Blame it on Mike. ( )

Hearthstone Cottage by Frazer Lee
Review of a NetGalley eArc.

Four friends travel to the Scottish Highlands for a post graduation holiday, and of course things go terribly wrong.

Mike, a party hard kind of guy, and his girlfriend Helen begin to drift apart. Their friends Alex and Kay seem to just be along for the ride, while Alex's sister Meggie, the vegetarian artist, haunts the fringes.

This felt like a very confused book from the beginning. It starts off like a pretty traditional "folk-horror" story, with legends of witches and creepy locals mocking the city kids, but then the growing fixation on Mike's drinking and weed smoking starts to feel like an 80s slasher morality story.

There is plenty of chilling atmosphere and gross-out horror to satisfy the horror feels, but I honestly felt so disgusted by Mike as a character that I just didn't care what happened to him. The tension eventually just became a sense of wanting to know how much of what was happening was actually in his head.

Then comes the end and you realize nothing at all had anything to do with what just happened, and the story falls apart.

So disappointing. ( )

Two couples head off for a celebratory post graduation stay at Hearthstone cottage. Their vacation starts off with a bang when they have a car accident near their destination, totaling their car and leaving them without means of escape should there be any spooky happenings, and there will be! There is something very wrong with this cottage and with the village itself.
After that literally smashing beginning the pace did slow down quite a bit, but rapidly accelerated at about the halfway point when Mike explores the village on his own after his girlfriend is gone for an unusually long time in a borrowed car. It was at this point that the spooky atmosphere really kicked into overdrive.

I received an advance copy for review. ( )

Two couples and one younger sister. An isolated cabin in Scotland near a loch. No cell phones. No internet. Just peace. A celebration of college graduation. Perfect getaway, right?

Wrong.

Mike Carter knows something is very, very wrong almost from the start. Hearthstone Cottage is beautiful, but has a strange vibe. Something doesn't seem right. Visions of a dead stag. Meggie's missing dog. Hallucinations and nightmares. Strange creatures in the woods. An eerie circle of stones. Local legends about a witch's execution. Surprise revelations. As Mike feels his grip on sanity ebbing away, their trip only gets worse.

I love stories like this! As I read, I kept visions of the story playing in my head like a mental movie. This would make an excellent late-night film! Has most of this story been done before in one way or another? Sure....vacay in isolated cabin gone wrong is a popular horror book and movie plot. Why not? Don't we all have a fear of being pursued by evil we can't escape or don't fully understand? A mix of our own secrets and a dark presence.......that's the stuff of nightmares. Makes for a great story!

I read most of this book sitting out on my porch after dark with a coffee and a fuzzy blanket. It just sets the perfect atmosphere for a horror story. Woods across the street rustling in the breeze...a few snapping twigs...sounds of night creatures scurrying....the velvet darkness. About halfway through the story, I had to come inside. It was creeping me out to read this tale in the dark. I love it when a horror story creeps me out enough to go running back inside! :)

Great creepy story! I thoroughly enjoyed it! This is the first book by Frazer Lee that I've read. I will definitely be reading more. I like his writing style. This story builds suspense and creepy vibes from the very start. Well-written, entertaining and definitely creepy!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Flame Tree Press via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.** ( )

Hearthstone Cottage is the kind of classic ghost story that I love full of ancient lands and sacred stones, legends, witches curses, and mysterious happenings that cannot be easily explained. Frazer Lee brings them together beautifully.
Mike and his friends travel to a remote cottage in Scotland for a celebration/vacation after graduation. After hitting a stag in the road on the way to the cottage, Mike begins to sense an evil presence and to lose his sanity.
I found the book to be enjoyable and the kind of haunted story that is perfect to read by a warm fire on a cold Autumn night with a cup of tea by your side (and a blanket). ( )