Blog Tour: Top 5 Reasons to Cursed Cruise by Fulton & McClaren ⚓ Ships, Curses & Ghosts

Hello fellow bookworms ⚓ I was fortunate enough to receive a digital copy of Cursed Cruise through participating in the TBR and Beyond Tour! I loved Horror Hotel and was so excited to find out that there’s now a sequel 💗 For now, let’s get into what this book is about! Check out the blog tour schedule, so you can read all the other amazing posts! ❤

Cursed Cruise (Horror Hotel #2)
by Victoria Fulton, Faith McClaren
Published by: Underlined
Publication date: March 19th, 2024
Genres: Young Adult Horror

CW’s: Murder, Death, Slight Gore, PTSD, Mentions of Suicide & Homophobia

From the authors of Horror Hotel , called “fast-paced and freaky” by #1 NYT bestselling author Kendare Blake, comes another addictive YA horror about a group of teen ghost hunters who are invited to travel onboard a haunted historic cruise ship.

All aboard… After their fateful stay at the Hearst Hotel, the Ghost Gang is back with more spooks and more subscribers. They’ve been invited to record onboard the RMS Queen Anne, a transatlantic luxury ocean liner with a colorful past of violent deaths of hundreds of passengers—souls that bought a one-way ticket to the afterlife (and never disembarked).

When Chrissy, Chase, Kiki, and Emma board the ship, they have a funny feeling they’ve been sucked into a ghostly time warp—a theory that takes a frightening turn when Chrissy goes missing on the first night. Unbeknownst to the rest of the group, Chrissy has been sucked into another time by a passenger who wants the Ghost Gang to know her untimely death was not an accident and the perpetrator is still alive—and on board this ship.

Representation 🌷 Sapphic MC’s

Get the Book Here!

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About the Author

VICTORIA FULTON and FAITH McCLAREN are besties and co-authors of the international Wattpad phenomenon and Watty award-winning rom-com ELLIE IS COOL NOW, as well as young adult psychological thriller HORROR HOTEL. Originally from Ohio and Texas, Victoria and Faith now live and write in too-sunny Los Angeles, California. Victoria lives with her fiancé and their two cat children. She has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Dayton, so naturally, she co-runs a PR agency with her other bestie when she’s not writing about smooching and serial killers. Faith lives with her guitar-making husband, Pokemon-loving son, and two scruffy dogs. When she isn’t listening to BTS or painting on her deck, Faith writes contemporary romance novels and volunteers with wolves in a sanctuary outside Los Angeles.

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Victoria’s Goodreads | Faith’s Goodreads

Top 5 Reasons to Read Cursed Cruise

Thank you to Underlined, TBR and Beyond Tour, and Netgalley for providing me with a digital Arc in exchange for an honest review! All quotes are taken from the Arc and therefore subject to changes.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

1) There’s a cursed ship! The Queen Anne was the sister ship of the Titanic and has now been refurbished to serve as a cruise ship. More than a hundred people have died on board which makes it a prime haunting location. The Ghost Gang was invited for the first voyage to get the ship some press and is determined to give their dedicated viewers another suspenseful case! I loved the cruise ship setting and the sinister atmosphere! In between the chapters there’s sometimes an intermission written from the POV of the ship and you can’t help but feel like the Queen Anne is alive … and hungry for blood. This case is bigger than anything Chrissy and co. investigated before and I loved the rumors of a curse that has befallen the ship!

2) The Ghost Gang is back together for another case. I loved Chrissy, Chase, Kiki and Emma in the first book and was so happy we got another book with them! Their channel has blown up even more since the Hearst Hotel case and Chase is hoping that they might finally get recognized by Hollywood. Their new (sleazy) manager isn’t a big help though and Chase isn’t willing to compromise his ideals just to get a pilot episode. I loved how everyone was dedicated to keeping the Ghost Gang’s core values like they were instead of changing themselves for a TV channel! This time there’s also a special guest on the trip: Kiki’s mom Billie has to accompany them, but she doesn’t really understand all this ‘ghost stuff’ no matter how much Kiki wishes she’d accept her hobby!

“We’re better when we work together, when we don’t have secrets. What happened at Hearst Hotel taught us that.”

3) We see how the last haunting affected all of them. I loved the insight into the characters and their relationships. Chrissy’s the most affected by the ship as she’s a natural psychic and her boyfriend Chase is terrified when she gets contacted by another spirit that won’t let her go! He’s struggling with being professional for their channel but also being worried about the most important person in his life. Kiki’s still not sure what to think about her mother being on board as they’ve drifted apart lately. She wishes her mom would accept their ghost hunting and her new girlfriend Emma. I loved the complicated mother-daughter dynamic, as Billie loves her daughter but isn’t as accepting as she could be. Kiki also feels helpless because Emma’s been struggling and not talking to any of her friends. Emma was hit the hardest by the Hearst case and has some lingering trauma from being attacked and almost dying. She has no idea how to open up to her friends! I loved that the personal issues of the characters were woven together with the dangerous case to create an ominous atmosphere!

4) There’s a rival YouTube crew on board 👀 They aren’t a huge part of the story, but it was interesting to see the Paranormal Patrol, one of the biggest rivals! They have a huge YouTube following as well and are the antithesis of the Ghost Gang. Led by Tina – a fake psychic who claims to communicate with her dead sister – they are all about the special effects and drama, instead of helping the dead move on. Chrissy’s especially annoyed as respecting the dead and helping them move on is important to her. It’s especially interesting to see both groups interact as Hollywood seems to want people like Tina and her crew who are edgy and dramatic!

5) The story is engaging from start to finish! I flew through this book as it was so engaging! I was fully immersed in the mystery of Queen Anne, the rivalry with the other ghost gang and the scary things that started happening. This case is much bigger than the last one and with the ship being sentient to some degree, the crew is in a lot of danger. Chrissy feels like there’s something wrong from the beginning and things just get more intense afterward! I really hope we get another adventure with the Ghost Gang in the future, I love reading about their cases 🥰

“Entertainment for entertainment’s sake. The Paranormal Patrol – they’re not ghost hunters. They’re fame hunters.”

Are you going to read Cursed Cruise? What is your favorite YA horror? ⚓