Review: Excellent paranormal with a feel of the real!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 22, 2012
Ghost StoryWhile walking her grandmother home, Jessica and her friend Michelle can't help but notice the house. It's supposed to be haunted. Stories are that you can see a shadow of a man in the bedroom window. The discussion turns to who he might be and why he lingers there.On their way back, the two best friends decide to check out the old house and see if the stories are true. Jessica will learn something tonight. She `ll learn that ghosts are real and that maybe she was meant to enter the house on Rambles Lane.I got a surprise with this  story. I didn't have any idea where it was going and I love that! It's not often that I don't see what's coming.The AwakeningShe remembers being ill. She remembers the mysterious dark man coming to see her. She remembers the blood.She sleeps and when she sleeps she dreams. Now she wants to wake up. Why can't she wake up. Wait, did she hear something? Is she waking up?I really liked this one. The ending is one of those, Oh No! ones.End of the LineIt's midnight and Cassie stands on the train tracks waiting for death.  Here it comes. She will not jump out of the way, she won't. Then she jumps.Now she'll have to come back tomorrow night and finish what she started, even if she has to use liquid courage to do so.If she does meet death, will it be the end of the line?I feel sorry for Cassie. She's so sad, so lost. Failing the first time, I wonder if she really wants to die, or if she just needs a reason to go on living? This one stuck with me for some time.Milsa LorisThe kingdom of Milsa Loris has just one night each year to come alive. The once majestic but now long abandoned home will host old friends tonight. They gather to pay their respects to an era that's past.The king's witch, Noraleen, is brewing up something special for them. She just has to do this one thing and then she can finally rest.Witchy good. I wouldn't want to be invited to the party.The KnockingAlison tries to be patient with her grandfather. He's old, losing his memory, and really tests her mettle. Tonight is no different from any other night.Then there's a knocking at the door. She opens it. No one's there. Not long after, there's more knocking. Again, there's no one there.  The knocking is much more violent the third time, but again, no one is there.What's come knocking?That's what I asked myself. What's at the door?The Boy on the BeachWhen Kate was a little girl her grandmother read the tea leaves for her but wouldn't tell her what she saw. As the years passed and Kate grew into her teens, her grandmother still wouldn't tell her. Then she passed away and Kate thought she'd never know what the tea leaves said.When she finally finds out what they said, she's just confused. Her grandmothers warning from the grave gives her the shivers.B-E  C-A-R-E-F-U-L  D-A-R-K  B-O-Y  W-A-N-T-S  Y-O-U"He will have the strangest green eyes you've ever seen... He will use trickery if needs be."This is one of my favorites. Kate tried to heed her grandmother's warning.SnowglobesTwo young lovers arrive at Calvin's Cabins for the Christmas holidays. They're here to try to mend their failing relationship.Will they be able to get back what they once had?Maybe Calvin could help them.This is another favorite for me. It's magical.The Old VampireHailey's dreams aren't about a knight in shining armor riding up on his white steed to rescue her. Her knight is a vampire, or maybe a demon or ghost. Any of these would do.She's longed for the supernatural world her whole life. Is she really destined to a hum-drum existence or is there something more for her.She dreams and she waits. And she waits. And waits. Will she ever meet her knight?This is a good old horror story. Horror just the way I like it.Emma sprinkled some razzle dazzle on these pages and zinged me but good. I love short stories and in her book, you get a smorgasbord of paranormal and horror.  I didn't meet a story I didn't like.Five snowglobes for The Awakening & Other Stories