Horror / Suspense / Thriller
Date Published: July 14, 2022
Leigh Ramos is a woman on the run from her own life. After barely escaping from a toxic relationship with a drug dealer, emotionally codependent Leigh decides to start her life over somewhere far from the hills of Kentucky. She feels inexplicably drawn to Hawaii, where she manages to land a job in an exclusive resort. At first, it almost seems too good to be true, and of course, it is.
Supernatural horrors start manifesting all around Leigh and her new co-workers, and soon she starts having disturbing nightmares of impossible creatures calling out to her. To make matters worse, Leigh’s violent ex-boyfriend is close on her tail, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. Now trapped in the midst of all these dangers, Leigh can’t help but fall back on old habits. She finds comfort in the arms of her new boss, an upbeat hospitality manager who seems almost too perfect.
In order to survive paradise, Leigh will need to learn from her past mistakes or she will be doomed to repeat them.
A Day in the Life of Jon Cohn
I wake up to the sound of growling, and feel hot breath snorting in my ear. It’s my dog, Gizmo. He’s a corgi-mix rescue who shows his love by sounding like he wants to murder me. The first
ten minutes of my day mostly consists of refusing to throw a toy for him until he finally drops it on my face, making him impossible to ignore.
It’s the end of August, and the first thing I do when I shuffle into the kitchen is adjust the countdown timer. Today it says there’s 71 days until Halloween. I’m a firm believer that the spooky season starts the day after the fourth of July, so while I prepare breakfast I’m generally coming up with decorating ideas, or wondering when Michaels will start stocking their Halloween decorations.
Because of my dueling careers in writing and boardgame design, I start off a lot of mornings as a blank slate, checking my emails and calendar to see which job takes precedence. I’m
absolutely terrible at switching between the two mid-day, so I generally have to commit to one or the other. If I have a deadline coming up or a meeting with a games publisher, my day will be full of designing and refining game mechanics, printing and cutting prototypes, then pretending to be 2-4 people all playing the game at once, talking to myself like a crazy person.
If I’m able to write I’ll shut my office door, set the phone to do-not-disturb, and get to writing, which coincidentally often also involves me talking to myself like a crazy person. It’s a real no-win situation for anyone in earshot. If I’m at a part in a book where I’ve already got a firm outline then I’m off to the races. Those are the great days where I know exactly how to get from point A to point B. These are few and far between. Most days I’m clicking frequently through a series of forever-open tabs to all the worldbuilding documents I have for the novel I’m working on. I’m a big fan of getting as much prep work done on the history of the world and characters before actually starting writing, so that when I’m in the thick of it I don’t need to worry about researching or thinking up some new element to the world. If the playground is already built, all I have to do is figure out what happens there.
I treat my writing or game design day as a normal 9-5 job, working up until it’s time to take Gizmo for a walk before cooking dinner. I don’t set word goals, though I do track them and judge myself if I don’t hit at least 2000 per day. At the end of the day, my wife Delaney and I will settle down to watch a movie or show, play a boardgame, or read a book until bedtime.
Quotes from the book:
1) “There’s some catharsis in just going through the motions—loading up everything I own into one bag and pretending like that’s all it takes to leave. Most times, it’s enough to soothe the itch for a while, like a cortisone cream for the soul.”
2) “First of all, this is not a hotel. This is an exclusive resort for members and their guests only. Anyone you see on this property not wearing an orange shirt is not just rich—they’re obscenely rich.”
3) “I move a little closer to get a better look at the dead whale. The entire flank of the behemoth has been eaten away. Its guts splay out across the beach, presented like a buffet for maggots.”
4) “I reach back into my bag, fumbling around for anything I can use as a weapon. My fingers find purchase on the paper-wrapped base of a snow globe, and a white-hot surge of energy pours into me. I hold my family memory tightly as I smash it into Ricky’s temple.”
5) “I squint at its features and vaguely recognize its face, even though it’s distorted and deformed beyond human proportions. Its jaw opens, revealing an overstuffed mouth lined with long, thin teeth, curving like the ribs of the dead whale. Without moving its lips, it whispers a message. ‘It’s you.’”
6) “I can’t help it, but the more anxious I get about my choices, the more desperately I want to lie back and curl into Kai’s warm body. Jesus, I can’t even panic about my codependency issues without being codependent.”
7) “Ohana means family. Family means fishing a dead rat out of a pool to keep things running smoothly for everyone else.”
Main Characters:
Leigh Ramos is a young woman with an extreme codependency addiction and has been on a streak of bad luck that has lasted her whole life, thanks to her mother’s pattern of running when things go haywire, that she seems doomed to repeat.
Every man she meets seems wonderful, at first, until they all end up being dirtbags who sometimes put her in actual danger.
Despite her best efforts to live her own life, she seems to be forever stuck in a cycle of starting over, and this new life she’s entered into is no different. She only hopes she can break the cycle before it kills her.
Ever since he was young, Kai has been searching for a purpose.
As a high school dropout working in a call center, he realized greatness wouldn’t happen to him unless he went out and sought it himself.
Six years later, Kai is one of the heads of the hospitality staff at The Mahalo Club, the most exclusive beach resort in Hawaii. He has everything he could ever want… a job that gives him purpose, a group of loyal co-workers who are also his best friends, and a home in the most beautiful place on earth.
The only thing he’s missing is someone to share it all with.
As far as Jesse is concerned there is nothing more important in this world than family. That’s why he is so fiercely loyal to his uncle, despite him being a meth cook.
Due to Jesse’s natural size, he’s been an enforcer for his uncle’s business for years, and though he doesn’t like to hurt or kill, he will do it if it means protecting his family.
That is until he met Leigh.
About the Author
Jon Cohn has been giving himself nightmares reading horror books ever since he was a small child, and he revels in the opportunity to do the same to others. When he is not busy writing spooky stories, Jon is a professional board game designer and publisher. He specializes in games that– you guessed it– focus on horror, and hopefully a few laughs. He lives in San Diego, CA with his wife and two little monsters, Luna and Gizmo.
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