Evening readers, six days into my antibiotics and although sometimes feeling a little tired and weak I am so much better. Never suffering from tonsillitis I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but nearly fainting a couple of times, being too sick to go to work and finding myself coughing all night making me incredibly moody and grumpy I am glad that the symptoms are finally fading. I still have four days to go but hopefully this will stay away from now on. This is also a reason for the late reviews and posts that people are waiting for, I’ve been too tired to physically blog or write coherently but I’m back and I’m glad because this book was wonderful.

School teacher Rebecca Moss was looking for the perfect gift for her moody husband, Frank, when she receives in the mail an invitation to Weber’s Auction House. She bids for a hauntingly alluring Queen Anne armchair. But the armchair has a past more frightening than she could possibly imagine. Stretching from the eastern front of 1942 Lithuania to present day Houston, Texas, dogged by a mysterious European, Rebecca will discover just how dark and poisonous the armchair really is. But will she discover the truth in time to save Frank, or herself?

The writing is faultlessly dark and brooding, whilst the descriptions are laced with menacing and ominous language that tempts the reader deeper into the text. Read this if you don’t believe me;

He smelt the putrid and nauseating stink of rot – of some dead thing, bacteria, perhaps, blooming in hideous black and purple-green flowers, evaporating into the air in sulfuric fumes. His eyes watered. He could not breathe. Yet, despite this sudden lurching in his gut, he was compelled toward the decomposing muck, compelled to discover
who it was, what it was, and why it was sitting in the armchair.’

It’s terribly horrible but wonderful at the same time! The writing moves with a relentless amount of pace and the movement makes the story all the more ominous and dark. The genre mixes between horror, historical fiction and family trauma which muddle together to create a wholly ill-omened and worrying mix of events which I loved. I don’t want to talk to much but there are two historical events that are used in the story, the Second World War and events happening in the present day, brought together through Major Erich Schröder and Rebecca and Frank the two events are pulled together through the use of the armchair which is an interesting idea. I don’t know how historically true the events are (my knowledge of this time in history is hazy) but the feel is very real ad it works. The chair is a force to be reckoned with, and whoever is sat on its comfy cushions is hit by a real spike evil which will lead them to do things they never thought they could possibly be capable of.

The characters are well built up and developed, Rebecca is harmless and sweet-natured, I loved how she changes at the end and shows some guts, it helps to put everything in perspective and helps round the story off wonderfully. Frank is moody, infatuated and obsessive. I detested him as a character but as the story winds on you realise the author is playing with you emotions to create this feelings of hate to help to push the story forward. I also liked that the story doesn’t quite end, there are a few trails that are left at the end leaving the readers to think again about what could happen in the future.

I don’t want to give too much away, it’s a little aggravating with some books but if I give more away I know it will ruin it a little so what I’m trying to say it is worth buying and reading today! The writing is flawless, the idea is incredibly exciting as the final twists and turns were incredibly well thought through! Definitely worth a look!