The Strangers Outside
by Vanessa Morgan
About the book:
Two sisters, Jennifer and Louise, return to their remote holiday cabin after a day at the seaside. But little do they know they're being surrounded. Shortly after their arrival, the girls will come face to face with THE STRANGERS OUTSIDE. When the assailants make their intentions known, things take a shockingly terrible turn and an intense battle for survival will begin.
Book Excerpt:
Driving back to their holiday resort just outside of Westende, they passed miles of
endless coastline before approaching a clustered group of buildings nestled between the
foothills and the sea. Slowing, they drove through scattered outbuildings, passed through a
small town centre and drove along a curvy path before approaching a large complex of what
Louise loosely termed cottages. Each of the independent structures connected to a large
parking lot by meandering pathways that shone white in the waning darkness. ‘Military
bunkers’ their grandmother used to call these brown houses with low flat ceilings. Even the
long, narrow gardens looked exactly alike.
Louise had spent several early summers here, mainly because the cottages were about
half the price as anything else around. She had vacationed here several times with her ex-boyfriend
as well, but for Jennifer, it was her first visit. She seemed pleased with the place
and Louise felt relieved that her little sister seemed to fall in love with the house as much as
she had when she first saw it. Ugly or not, it conveyed a sense of security, warmth and safety.
Louise parked her car in the reserved parking spot allotted for her cottage just outside
of the cluster of structures. The sun had almost disappeared as they had driven here, and the
air grew cold. Because it was only May, still months away from the height of the holiday
season, most of the cottages remained empty, except for an elderly couple who used the place
as their permanent residence.
“No one can see us here. Let’s do our little dance,” Louise suggested.
Jennifer had uploaded ‘Knobbers’ from Crookers – ‘the best song ever’ as she put it -
on her cell phone. Whenever they were alone, she would play ‘their song’ and do a crazy
dance that looked more like a tribal ritual than an actual techno dance. Usually they did it in
an empty parking lot, perfectly realizing that surveillance cameras were pointing in their
direction.
Jennifer pulled out her cell phone from her beige and trendy handbag and selected
their song. Music filled the air, the beat uplifting and fast.
“Oooh, turn up the sound,” Louise said. Jennifer did, and then they both started a
dance that was so ridiculous that it was perfectly understandable why they didn’t want bypassers
to watch it.
It was great to be silly when no one could see you, Louise thought.
No one…except... Louise suddenly stopped dancing, the hair on the back of her neck
rising. Less than two hundred feet further, she saw two men watching them. Dressed in black,
they seemed to meld into the darkness surrounding the nearly deserted community. She
couldn’t see them clearly enough to distinguish their facial features. Still, the faces seemed
larger than they should be, but the dying sun made them appear vague, nothing more than
black shapes in the background.
Jennifer noticed her sister wasn't dancing and stopped. “Something’s wrong?” she
asked, switching off the song.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclosure of Material Connection: This book excerpt is brought to you by Charisma Media. No payment was received by me in exchange for this post nor was there an obligation to write a positive one. All opinions expressed here are entirely mine and may not necessarily agree with those of the author, the book's publisher and publicist or the readers of this review. This disclosure is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part255, Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
I might have to add this to my TBR list.
ReplyDelete