Title: Haunted
Series: Spiritus Series, Book Two
Author: Dana Michelle Burnett
Format: Ebook provided by author for review
Alastor came at me then, forcing me back against the wall. He was so solid that I could feel his weight against me. I could feel his frozen breath on my face....He ran his hand up my arm, over my shoulder, and rested at the base of my throat. His blue eyes glittered dangerously.
Becca has accepted the horrors of her past life, and emerged with her ghostly love Alastor at her side. But her happiness is short lived when she realizes that balancing her past and present won't be easy...
Becca has already decided that it's Alastor that she loves, but now, as their uncommon relationship limits Becca's future, Alastor must decide if he's willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for Becca's happiness....And will Becca's sanity survive?
I am so enthralled with this
series. In book one we met Becca, who
just moved with her father to a new town to start over after the death of her
mother. Right away Becca makes a couple
friends, and they have a séance. This brings
Alastor into the scene, and he is able to communicate with Becca. And even more so, Becca is the reincarnation
of his wife. Book one, Spiritus, was very emotional and
definitely a story not to miss out on. I’m
not going to spend my time re-reviewing that, you can check out that review at
the link below.
This is definitely one of the
hardest reviews I will probably ever write!
It’s not because I didn’t like the book – I absolutely loved it. But the blurb is kind of vague, and I don’t
want to give away spoilers! Ahhh! What to do??
Haunted
starts several years after Spiritus. Becca is in some deep therapy sessions after
a series of events leads her to a psychiatric hospital. This story is told in flashbacks in her point
of view, and current observations in her doctor’s point of view. I think this was a fantastic way to handle
this story. It totally gave Becca the
ability to fill in the blanks of what happened over the next few years, and
also gave a really good view from an outsider.
Dana did a superb job of not retelling the story of book one, if you
know what I mean? I really think the
beauty of this story really shows Dana’s talent and skill as an author, because
one of her main characters, Alastor, is a ghost. He is unable to interact with anything or
anyone but Becca. That is really
limiting! So I think that this set up of
flash backs and observations kept the story flow very fresh and interesting.
Ok, let’s go character by
character. In with the new, we have Dr.
Langdon. In the beginning I get the
impression that he is a very good doctor, but a bit…. Sigh, I don’t know, a bit
bland with his work. He’s not
necessarily bored, but he hasn’t really had anything to challenge him in a
bit. He’s got the fire in him, the fire
that got him into this field in the first place – he wants to help people. But he is limited to short sessions with
patients, and he sees a lot of the same things over and over. But I like him. I can see he has a heart, it just needs to be
resparked.
And then Dr. Langdon meets
Becca. Becca is such a wonderful
character, I can only imagine how much fun she has been to write. She is now in her early twenties, and from
the outside it appears as if she has had a bit of a mental snap. But we know better, and we know she is not
crazy at all. She is just dealing with
some very unusual circumstances and her true soul mate. Becca definitely does not disappoint in Haunted.
She is fiery and intelligent, yet she is very dependent on Alastor. She tries to do what is thought to be the
best decision. But her love for Alastor
can not be changed, and it can not be hidden.
Well, at least not for long, right? Becca is just one of those characters
I love to read about. The girl has some
major secrets going on.
And then that brings us to
Alastor. I love him, I really really
do. If he was the ghost of my previous
husband, I’d like to think I’d be making all of the same decisions as Becca. But just like in Spiritus, Alastor is much the same as he was. He has these grand overtures of love for
Becca. He says things that will buckle
your knees and melt your heart, and he means
them. But there are these little
glimpses of him where he is a bit temperamental. I mean, sure, who wouldn’t be, stuck being
invisible and intangible. But sometimes
he throws a bit of a fit! And the man
has a temper! In both books I have found
myself actually mad at Alastor, only to be back in love with him pages
later. Like I said in my previous
review, Alastor definitely has the power to bring me to “Team Ghost”.
“ … I knew it was Alastor that I would always love. There was no denying it. He was a part of me and always would be.”
Haunted
is every bit as emotional as Spiritus. It revolves around love. Real love, forced love, soul mate love, puppy
love… every bit of love you could hope to find, its in there. This story has once again brought out the
tears. There is one scene,
something that has happened at Alastor’s
insistence…but it brought me to tears that he had to be on the sidelines and
see this happen. And oh, I wish I could
tell you all about it. I wish I could
tell you how horrible I felt for everyone, whether they were aware of the
situation or not, but that my heart shattered for Alastor. And that is completely true, I just can’t
tell you the “why” of it all.
Available for purchase at
Previously Reviewed
