Dale J. Young

This was an interesting and mysterious read.

A little backstory:

JoAnna Stedford is still grieving over losing her husband to suicide as it has been a year since he took his life. JoAnna decides to take a trip to her husband's hometown of Solomon to see if she can find out what could have led to why he took his life. She also wants to see if he has any family still living there.

On her way out to the town a ghostly specter appears in the road and she crashes her car. A local man that has a towing service helps her with her car, but things just seem off about the man. Once she gets into the actual town of Solomon she ends up becoming friends with Lydia who works as a waitress in a diner and learns about a woman named Isabell Pearle a/k/a Wicked Izzy that could help her find the solace she seeks........but at a price. JoAnna is hesitant when she finds out that Wicked Izzy is able to bring dead people back to life but there is some bargaining involved.

Thoughts:

This book was a very slow burn as nothing truly started happening till about 50% into the book. The first half of the book is JoAnna getting acquainted with people in the town of Solomon and learning about Wicked Izzy along with the things she is capable of doing. The last 50% of the book just did a complete twisted turn around and sent me into the twilight zone as JoAnna disappears into like an underworld of sorts where she is surrounded by souls that have died which is a place called "Summerland".

There are some spooky parts here and there throughout the story, but nothing "creeped out" scary. I found the story more mysterious than anything, but there was a lot of drawn out dialogue throughout the story that could have made the story shorter. I am not impressed enough to give this book anything past three stars.
… (plus d'informations)

This was a iffy read for me as I enjoyed the atmospheric ghost story, but some of the book was a little disjointed. Some of the story was left in limbo as the author forgot to tie up some loose ends.

Logan Shaw is a down and out used car salesman who inherits a house that sits in the middle of a tobacco field from an aunt he knows nothing about. He receives a letter in the mail from an attorney who handled the estate and the attorney wants him to come to the town of Starlight to receive the inheritance.

When Logan starts checking out the house and decides to move in, he doesn't know that the house and property are haunted. Ghostly apparitions, murdering ghosts, noises in the attic, bumps and thumps in the house all surround him as he still tries to come to grips with what he has inherited.

There was a character introduced in the beginning of the book named "Sexy Sarah" who was a girlfriend of sorts that Logan would see once in awhile. After reading about "Sarah" and what she was doing in the book, she ends up disappearing entirely from the story when Logan moves over to the town of Starlight. The reader is left with wondering what happened to "Sarah". There is the first loose end.

The second loose end is the attorney as something happens in the book concerning him, but it leaves the reader wondering exactly how the attorney was involved with the aunt. He was her attorney, but there are unanswered questions as the reader gets more involved with the story.

Also the dialogue with the characters talking back and forth was overdone as every sentence when the characters were talking to each, the author overused the names.

I was disappointed with the ending as it just seemed to not mesh with the story. The reader is left with questions that need answers at the end of the book.

I really gave this book 3.5 stars, but since we as readers are not able to rate it that way I went ahead and rounded it up to 4.… (plus d'informations)

This book had its ups and downs for me. The plot and the paranormal elements were really good and I enjoyed the actual story immensely. The author's writing however, was pretty shoddy at times and it was hard to overlook some of the poor construction.

For example, there was one character, "Sexy Sarah," that we were introduced to at the beginning but her story was completely forgotten about and never wrapped up.

And speaking of "Sexy Sarah," that wasn't the only cheezy name we were forced to endure. "City Boy" and "Country Boy" wers used more times then I even want to count.

Also, in one chapter, two of the characters, Harmon and Logan, were having a conversation and in every sentence the author restated the characters names i.e. How are you Logan? I'm doing good Harmon. Logan, have you looked at those papers? No, Harmon I've been busy with Sexy Sally...

It just went on and on and on. I'm not a professional writer or anything but to me, if it's crystal clear that two characters are conversing with each other, there is no need to repeat their names over and over again, in every single sentence.

So there were some pretty big bumps and pot-holes plot-holes along Tobacco Road, but if the author would hire a good editor, this could be a 5 star story.

*Buddy Read with Marie : )… (plus d'informations)