Review: Fantastic Book!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 13, 2014
This book grabbed my attention from the beginning and held onto it until the end.  It is a mysterious story of love, betrayal, and family secrets.  The book is written from the different character’s perspectives, I love a book that is written this way, it enables the reader to have a better understanding of the characters, their feelings, and what makes them tick.Ariel Fountain thinks that everything in her life is stable, comfortable, and good.  She has graduated from university, she has a job, and she is going to be moving in with her high school sweetheart…life is perfect.  Wrong.  Unfortunately for Ariel, the rug has been ripped out from under her in the harshest of ways and life as she knows it is about to change.Ariel finds out that her great aunt has passed away and that she is the sole heir of her estate.  Her great aunt, Blythe Fountain, was an eccentric woman, the cause of most of the gossip running rampant in Steele Grove, Missouri.  Blythe Fountain liked to keep to herself and do the things that she enjoyed doing – writing.  There were many stories that had been floating around throughout the years of Blythe and her family’s part in the death of Grayson Tucker and the two missing girls.  Like any small town, people like to speculate and spread rumours.  The question is, did Blythe Fountain or her family have anything to do with these “crimes”?Ariel decides to make Steele Grove her new home.  She has no reason to go back to California.  She needs a fresh start, a way to erase the painful memories of her betrayal.  I liked the fact that Ariel wasn’t your typical whiny female character.  She is strong and stubborn and doesn’t allow the people who have hurt her to infiltrate back into her life.  They hurt her, she’s done with them…I can respect that!Her great aunt’s property is a daunting project, but Ariel is more than willing to tackle it.  The property consists of a huge mansion, a plethora of land, and a dead tree.  This tree has been on the property since Blythe’s father planted it for her.  It has a lot of history and superstitions surrounding it.  It has been a gathering place for many of the citizens of the small town for generations.  Ariel wants it gone, it is dead after all.  She enlists the help of Grady Tucker and his landscaping company to do a lot of the heavy labor in her massive yard.  Well, lo and behold, Grady is quite easy on the eyes.  Despite the fact that Ariel is not ready for any kind of relationship yet, she can’t help the fact that she is attracted to this man.Ariel and Grady have great chemistry together.  They don’t want to want each other, but they are having a hard time fighting it.  Ariel goes about trying to discover as much about her great aunt as she can.  The more she finds out, the more she wants to know.  There are family secrets that have been hidden for decades.  What happened all those years ago?  Was Blythe responsible for murder?I won’t go into the specifics of the book, you will have to read it for yourself and find out.  It will definitely keep you turning the pages.  The Dead Tree is a perfect example that family secrets and skeletons usually do have a way of coming out of the closet.