Review: A Frightful Delight That Leaves the Reader Hungry for More!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 22, 2014
What a wonderful collection of ghost stories!  Thankfully, in her delightful collection "Haunted," Willow Cross gets right to the point, and doesn't spare any of the goose bump inducing details.  To be sure, most of the firsthand accounts the author relates in the first two volumes of this four volume box set are nothing short of delightfully chilling.The second half of the set is, perhaps surprisingly, just as good or better than the first.  The only real reason to think of the two halves as in any way separate and distinct, is the fact that the majority of the ghost stories contained in the third and fourth volumes were not experienced by the author herself.  So naturally, when I'd reached the third volume and realized that she was apparently running out of personal accounts, I was somewhat dismayed.Rest assured however, most of the stories in the latter half of this collection (some recounted by the author and some written by friends and acquaintances) are quite noteworthy, highly memorable, and of course, SCARY.  At least a couple of these tales really are truly "haunting," and should give even the most jaded paranormal enthusiast the heebie-jeebies.  Especially the very last account in the fourth volume, "The House That Evil Built."  That story gives me the shivers just thinking about it!So I really cannot recommend this book highly enough.  Author Willow Cross tells her ghostly tales in an honest, straightforward and matter of fact way, that not only really grabs a reader's attention, but keeps you totally engrossed and eagerly turning those pages.  Case in point:  I very seldom write, "I just couldn't put this book down" when writing a review, but... I really did have trouble putting this book down!  As soon as I'd plowed through one story, I simply couldn't wait to dive right into the next one.Perhaps the only real drawback with this spooky little collection of ghostly tales is that it really is much too short.  All four volumes are fairly brief, and even combined in a nice set like this, I found myself imbibing the whole thing in less than 24 hours.  Naturally, I was left wishing that there was a whole lot more.  Willow Cross seems to know how to leavr her audience wanting more though, and that's not necessary a bad thing.