Only 2 books this month finished! Definitely not my best month this year, but a lot of really good things got in the way of my reading time. The new place had to moved and settled into. I had a new job to start and get comfortable with, and I started this blog! So all good things. I also fell into a slump, I've just been picking up a lot of books this year that are just okay. However between my library books and my July TBR. I think it's going to an awesome reading month!

A week has passed since I finished this book, and I'm sitting here struggling to find the right way to describe this book without giving too much away.  Maybe I should start with how I found out about Supernatural Enhancements.  I had a day off work and was wondering about the library and the cover, however, was what caught my eye.  The description on the inside of the dust jacket caught my attention: long lost relatives, haunted house, secret society, paranormal going ons.  I was sold.

The story inside Supernatural Enhancements isn't told as much as it's seen, through letters, Niamh's notes, security cameras, A's journal, etc.  Basically the book is set up like any of the ghost hunting shows on television, and I'd never seen a book written in quite this way.  All of this was the reason I added the book to my library haul a month ago, but only a fraction of why I couldn't put it down.

Our main character, who we only know as A, is a likable main character who has come into a small fortune and a haunted house.  His mute friend Niamh was probably my favorite character throughout the whole book.  She proved that just because you can't speak doesn't mean you can't kick some serious butt.  A. couldn't have had a better protector.

Supernatural Enhancements is only partly a ghost story, in the sense that there is a ghost, and that's all I say about that.  Pieces of that part of the plot lead to bigger things later.  The other part felt like something out of the X-Files when you start to undercover what exactly the Well's patriarchs got themselves involved in.

Basically this book was a wild ride from the second that our two main characters stepped foot into Axton House.  The ending was, I'm still not completely over it.  Everything just escalated so quickly, and I was left with so many questions about so many things.  Answers I might get answered if Edgar Cantero does in fact right another book inside this universe, but I was told that I was only meant to get a glimpse of wonderful things.  And boy where the wonderful and horrible and only a glimpse.

After I finally finished the last page I couldn't believe it was over.  It was wonderfully spooky and was a great book to read on the patio at night curled up in my Batman blanket.  It's also I hard book to review because it's so very different.  Without a doubt Supernatural Enhancements is one of my favorites of 2015.  Hands down in fact.  Fully recommend for X-Files fans, paranormal fans, or just someone looking for something a bit different and a bit twisted.  I also need my own copy of this book for my own collection, because I feel the need to re-read this later on.  In case I missed something the first time around.

Courtesy of those lovely folks at Bookbridgr and No Exit Press. Thanks also to the authors and agents :-)

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A. has inherited Axton House from a distant relative. Along with his mute teenage companion, Niamh, they move to Virginia, taking up residence in the house and begin to unravel the secrets surrounding the mysterious demise of his distant cousin and the secret society that he was part of.

I loved the gimmick of this story, it's told through the use of diary entries, letters to Aunt Liz, audio recordings, notes, diagrams and video recordings. I've enjoyed other stories read using the epistolary format so this engaged me from the start. There's quite a lot going on, it's not a book you can skim and you'd be likely to miss important detail. That being said some of the cipher/code material was a bit tiresome and I did find it dragging through these parts but they weren't long so didn't really affect the read too much.

Character wise, I like both A. and Niamh. Even though you never find out A's name he's a likeable character and someone that was easy to root for. Niamh is mute but the author has no difficulty infusing a strong personality into her character, she is a strong female presence in the novel, smart, tough and hell bent on getting her own way, I liked her a lot.

The story itself starts off as a mystery, with A and Niamh trying to figure out what happened to the A's relative and finding out a bit more about the secret society he was involved in, at the beginning a ghost makes an appearance and it looks as though it will be a large part of the coming storyline. This is when the book took another turn and it evolved into a treasure hunt with the main characters looking for clues, deciphering codes and trying to work out more about who the other parties in the society were. Not what I was expecting but engrossing none the less. That being said I was slightly disappointed the ghost didn't make more of an impact in the story.

Unique, fast paced, great characters and a lot of fun to read. Recommended.

"Eerie, puckish, and full of surprises…Cantero pays homage to Bram Stoker and H.P. Lovecraft and The Shining, but he’s no less enamored of The X-Files, fax machines, and punk girls with dreads. The result is a propulsive, beguiling novel that is as easy to get swept up in as it is hard to describe."