Top Ten Tuesday; Books Featuring Travel

It's Tuesday and perhaps it's time for another Top Ten Tuesday post courtesy of That Artsy Reader Girl. The theme of the week was books featuring travel, and as I mainly focus on horror/paranormal, some of the books may be a bit more loosely based on the prompt, even though they all involve some kind of travelling.


Anyway, here's my ten picks.


Below by Laurel Hightower

Description from Goodreads
HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO TO HELP A STRANGER? While driving through the mountains of West Virginia during a late-night snowstorm, a recently divorced woman experiences bizarre electrical problems, leaving her with little choice but to place her trust with a charismatic truck driver. But when an unexplainable creature with haunting red eyes gets between them, she is forced to make one of the toughest decisions of her life. Will she abandon the stranger who kept her safe-or will she climb down below, where reality has shapeshifted into a living nightmare?


The Skintaker by Frazer Lee

Description from Goodreads
YOU HAVE WHAT HE WANTS! Reclusive nineteen-year-old Rosie Shields hopes for a new lease of life that will free her from the stigma of her debilitating skin condition. Making a pilgrimage to the Amazon rainforest, Rosie experiences a new world beyond her wildest dreams among the mysterious Myahueneca tribe. But Rosie's dreams soon turn to nightmares when she embarks on a ritual vision quest that takes her to the very heart of darkness. Trapped between murderous hunters and raging forest fires, Rosie will be thrust into a fight for survival, a struggle that awakens an ancient evil stirring in the shadows...the demonic deity known as The Skintaker.


Dust by Chris Miller

Description from Goodreads
1879: An unknown and timeless evil descends on East Texas. John Dee, bestowed with knowledge from beyond, moves through time and space, pursuing age-old horrors and ending their reign. As he seeks the hidden town of Dust to continue his lifework, another is hot on his heels, and will stop at nothing to rip the divine knowledge from Dee.

As these opposing forces collide, Dee becomes both hero and villain in his quest against the Elders. He doesn't have time to be sorry - THERE ARE GODS TO KILL.


The Haunting of Las Lágrimas by W. M. Cleese

Description from Goodreads
Argentina, winter 1913.

Ursula Kelp, a young English gardener, travels to Buenos Aires to take up the role of head gardener at a long-abandoned estate in the Pampas. The current owner wishes to return to the estate with his family and restore the once-famous gardens to their former glory.

Travelling deep into the Pampas, the vast grasslands of South America, Ursula arrives to warnings from the locals that the estate is haunted, cursed to bring tragedy to the founding family of Las Lágrimas. And soon Ursula believes that her loneliness is making her imagine things – the sound of footsteps outside her bedroom door, the touch of hands on her shoulders when there’s no one there. Most strangely of all, she keeps hearing the frenzied sound of a man chopping down trees in the nearby forest with an axe, when all her staff are in sight.

As the strange occurrences intensify – with tragic consequences – Ursula questions if there’s truth in the rumours about the cursed estate. The family’s return is imminent – are they in danger? And the longer Ursula stays at the estate, the more she realises that she too is in mortal danger.


Hunger On The Chrisholm Trail by M. Ennenbach

Description from Goodreads
The first cattle drive of the season leaves Texas for Abilene, Kansas along the Chisholm Trail, but unforeseen terrors lay hidden in the natural beauty of the land. In the heart of Indian Territory lies the sleepy town of Duncan, a friendly respite from the dusty land. But something lurks in the untamed West - a powerful creature that hunts to satiate its horrifying hunger. The land will run red with blood, and only Karl Beck has a chance against this ancient evil.


Loch Ness Revenge by Hunter Shea

Description from Goodreads
Deep in the murky waters of Loch Ness, the creature known as Nessie has returned. Twins Natalie and Austin McQueen watched in horror as their parents were devoured by the world’s most infamous lake monster. Two decades later, it’s their turn to hunt the legend. But what lurks in the Loch is not what they expected. Nessie is devouring everything in and around the Loch, and it’s not alone. Hell has come to the Scottish Highlands. In a fierce battle between man and monster, the world may never be the same.


You Are Invited by Sarah A. Denzil

Description from Goodreads
"There are those who claim the ghosts walking the corridors of Sfântul Mihail are not ghosts at all."

During a midnight journey snaking through the Carpathian Mountains, these are the words whispered to Cath Fenwick. It is the warning she will later wish she'd taken more seriously.

When Cath receives her invitation to The Event--a monetised retreat for social media influencers--she can't believe her luck. Irene Jobert is the most famous influencer in the world, and now Cath will be one of the five participants chosen to stay with Irene in a renovated Transylvanian monastery.

The catch? Their every move will be live-streamed to millions of people around the world. Patrons pay for constant access to their favourite social media stars: Irene, the model, Nathan, the gamer, Jules, the blogger, Daniel, the fitness guru and Cath, the writer. Nestled halfway up a mountain, surrounded by forests teeming with nature, the five are isolated, with nothing but the internet to connect them to the world. That is, until eagle-eyed live-stream followers all around the globe notice a sixth participant. A dark figure lurking in the background. Who--or what--is in the monastery with them?

Wolves roam the nearby forests. Shadows haunt the long corridors of Sfântul Mihail. Slowly, five lonely people begin to lose their minds. You are invited to The Event.


Blood Cruise by Mats Strandberg

Description from Goodreads
On the Baltic Sea, no one can hear you scream.

Tonight, twelve hundred expectant passengers have joined the booze-cruise between Sweden and Finland. The creaking old ship travels this same route, back and forth, every day of the year.

But this trip is going to be different.

In the middle of the night the ferry is suddenly cut off from the outside world. There is nowhere to escape. There is no way to contact the mainland. And no one knows who they can trust.

Welcome aboard the Baltic Charisma.


Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Description from Goodreads
After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.

Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemí’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.


The Lost Village by Camilla Sten

Description from Goodreads
The Blair Witch Project meets Midsommar in this brilliantly disturbing thriller from Camilla Sten, an electrifying new voice in suspense.

Documentary filmmaker Alice Lindstedt has been obsessed with the vanishing residents of the old mining town, dubbed “The Lost Village,” since she was a little girl. In 1959, her grandmother’s entire family disappeared in this mysterious tragedy, and ever since, the unanswered questions surrounding the only two people who were left—a woman stoned to death in the town center and an abandoned newborn—have plagued her. She’s gathered a small crew of friends in the remote village to make a film about what really happened.

But there will be no turning back.

Not long after they’ve set up camp, mysterious things begin to happen. Equipment is destroyed. People go missing. As doubt breeds fear and their very minds begin to crack, one thing becomes startlingly clear to Alice:

They are not alone.

They’re looking for the truth…
But what if it finds them first?

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