Book Review: The Haunting of Hurst House (Mercy Willow Book 1)

Title: The Haunting of Hurst House (Mercy Willow Book 1)
Author: Amy Cross
Genre: Horror, Paranormal
Rating: 3 stars
Purchase: Amazon

When she moves to a small coastal Cornish village, Mercy Willow hopes to start a new life. She has a brand new job as an estate agent, and she’s determined to put the past where it belongs and get on with building a new future. But will that be easy in a village that has more than its fair share of ghosts?

Determined to sell the un-sellable Hurst House, Mercy gets straight to work. Hurst House was once the scene of a terrible tragedy, and many of the locals believe that the place is best left untouched and undisturbed. Mercy, however, thinks it just needs a lick of paint and a few other improvements, and that then she’ll be able to find a buyer in no time.

Soon, Mercy discovers that parts of Hurst House’s past are still lingering. Strange noises hint at an unseen presence, and an old family secret is about to come bursting back to life with terrifying consequences. Meanwhile, Mercy herself has a dark past that she’d rather keep hidden. After all, her name isn’t really Mercy Willow at all, and she’s running from something that has already almost killed her once.

The Haunting of Hurst House is the first book in the Mercy Willow series, about an estate agent in deepest Cornwall who develops the unusual ability to communicate with ghosts.

The Haunting of Hurst House is the first book in the Mercy Willow series, a series about real estate agent Mercy Willow. Running away from her past, Mercy is desperate to build a new life for herself working as a real estate agent in a small village. Unfortunately, her new career isn’t off to a great start, so Mercy vows to herself that she will do the unthinkable.

She will sell the house no one can sell. Hurst House. Scene of a terrible tragedy, a house that has lain abandoned for years. If she can sell this house, then she can sell any house.

But Hurst House isn’t an ordinary house. Strange noises haunt its corridors, during the renovation, items move from one room to another over night… Then again, Mercy Willow is no ordinary real estate agent, either, so if anyone can pull this off, it’s her.

I liked parts of this book, but other parts were just too far-fetched. The twist about the family who had lived in Hurst House just seemed too impossible for me, not believable at all. Apart from that, I liked the story overall and Mercy is an intriguing protagonist because there’s obvbiously parts about her that the reader doesn’t know yet. I will definitely pick up the next book in the series.