Tangled Webs by Anne Bishop

Jaenelle Angelline found the suspicions and beliefs of the Landen about the Blood amusing so she decided to set up a "Scary House", where those beliefs would be parodied to give children a mild scare.

At the same time, a Landen writer has become a figure of fun among the Blood for writing novels starring a supposed Blood character. But his knowledge is very much lacking, and it is this lack of actual knowledge that makes the Blood laugh at his new offerring. But the writer, Jarvis Jenkell, cannot understand why the Blood are laughing at him, and has gotten quite annoyed with them.

So, he decides to make a scary house of his own and lure Saetan, Lucivar, and the entire SaDiablo family, including sister Surreal, into the house, but his house isn't as innocent as Jaenelle and Marian's. His house is intended as a punishment for the attitude of the Blood towards his new mysteries, and since the SaDiablo family is the most prominent among the Blood, and since Sadi ignored Jenkyl's gift of his latest book, he decided the SaDiablo family would be his targets for Death.

Once the house is completed, he sends out invitations to all the members of the family, purporting to be from Jaenelle and inviting them, in a way that is actually a command, for them to attend the opening of the house to the family only. However, due to the miscarrying of some of the messages, only Surreal and her friend, the Warlord Rainier, holder of Dark Opal Jewels, are trapped inside the house, along with several young landen boys and girls.

But once they are inside the house, they discover that the house is nothing more than a trap. But their attempts to escape are being cut off the more they use their craft, or magic. But the traps and scares aren't the only menaces inside the house. Several of the witches responsible for crafting the illusions in the house were killed, making them demon dead. But when both Surreal and Ranier are injured, and some of the children are killed by the deadly traps, will they survive long enough to be released by the efforts of Surreal's family, working from the outside?

A lot of online reviewers have expressed incredulity that someone as experienced as Surreal being caught out in such a way as the trap of the house was sprung on her and her companion. Yes, that was a weak point, but once I got past that, and the story focussed on what was happening inside the house, I found myself drawn into the story, and Surreal was trying to protect the children they had inadvertantly drawn into the trap with them. Surreal may have been an assassin and whore, but she will protect kids.

Surreal keeps her head, except for one exception: beetles. She's afraid of beetles, so the scares in the house involving beetles make her unnerved and actually make her scream once. Yep, just once. I found that merely human, so I didn't think it weakened her character any.

The villain of the piece quickly loses any sympathy he might have gained when he is revealed as a peeping Tom, and murderer who killed the witches who helped him make the house in the first place. And the fact that he's taking notes on Surreal and Rainier as they fight to keep the kids safe in the house and remain alive? Well yeah, that's a deal-breaker right there. In the end, the family takes a horrible vengeance on Jenkyn, but by that time, you'll believe it's justified.

I enjoyed the book, and while it had problems, I was still glad I'd read it. YMMV when it comes to this book, but I don't view it nearly as uncharitably as some online reviewers.