I’m not a history teacher or anything, but the rest of it is pretty much spot on.Īs far as the story goes, I totally guessed who was behind it pretty early on in the book. Like I’m pretty sure her character is based off of me. But Helen and I share a love for history, ghost stories, doing things yourself, living in a rural setting, and supporting your partner. That’s what I like to call my “lottery dream.” Though in this case, Helen and Nate have limited funds and discover that it would actually be cheaper to build their own “historic” house than it would be to buy one for cheap and then sink all of their money in to making it livable. And wow, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had those same exact thoughts. Helen, being the history buff that she is, wants to live in an old house somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and essentially just live peacefully off the land.

Helen and Nate are your typical suburban husband wife team who are just living the daily grind between work, friends, and their own personal hobbies, when Nate asks Helen what would make her happy. Helen finds different pieces to add to their home-build from around the area that somehow relate back to Hattie and her descendants.įirst of all, I have never felt more seen by a main character than I have by Helen.

Helen digs in to the history of the place and tries to find as much as she can about their property and Hattie Breckenridge, the woman who met her unfortunate end there. Upon their arrival, they learn that their land has a violent past, which spurs Helen’s intrigue as she used to be a history teacher in her past life. The Invited is the story of Helen and Nate, a husband wife duo, who abandon the comforts of suburbia (and a steady source of income) to build the house of their dreams on a 44 acre plot of rural land. Wow, what a great modern take with a fresh idea on the old ghost story/haunted house trope.

The invited by jennifer mcmahon