Silver Bells:

A Christmas Horror Story

by

Sandy Lender 

Riveting Christmas-set tale of nature fighting back. 

Silver Bells is a riveting new Christmas-set horror tale by author Sandy Lender in which the spirits of a natural area cross into the physical world to halt the encroachment on their sacred land by developers. With its well-drawn, engaging main characters, compelling plot, and witty dialogue, I couldn’t put this book down and completed it in one highly satisfying evening’s reading. 

The main character is Ivy Light, who has come to Reindeer Creek, Kansas, to visit her lifelong friends, Candy and Arthur Harris, for the holidays. She is a welcome support for Candy, who had suffered a late-life pregnancy that ended in a miscarriage the previous year. Arthur is distracted by threats against his company, hiring a security firm to safeguard his home and family, but has been an unsympathetic partner during her difficult recovery. The marriage is quickly eroding, and Arthur is keeping secrets. 

With the onset of the holidays and Arthur’s planned work-from-home schedule, security is reduced to a single man, the capable and sexy John Knightley. But when a neighboring family’s home burns to the ground days before Christmas, Candy welcomes the shocked and displaced Stovalls to move into their basement apartment to regroup, recover, and allow the two teenage daughters to complete the semester at their high school, doubling the number of people John needs to keep up with. When strange things start happening around the family, and Arthur abruptly changes his work plans to keep going into the office, John realizes he’s spread too thin. And as the attraction between him and Ivy heats up, he calls in an old friend as a backup. 

The author does a great job with character development, imbuing each with individual personalities that quickly gained my support or suspicions. The plot is revealed through multiple points of view and has several compelling secondary storylines vying for the cause of the danger unfolding in Reindeer Creek. I was delightfully distracted from discerning the true nature of the menace at work until the big reveal. Time passed without notice, and I was highly entertained and satisfied by this fun, horror-filled novella. 

I recommend SILVER BELLS to horror readers who enjoy a holiday setting. 

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from the author through Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tours.