Review: Interesting story line
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 28, 2014
Haunt Me by Heather LongPenny Hollow was a fading Virginia town; it had very little income, few jobs, and no appeal for tourists. Justin Kent was from one of the original families. As a caveat to receiving his inheritance, his father required Justin and his siblings to find a way to save the town.The latest idea was to market the town as one of the most haunted places in Virginia. There were many ghost stories about the area, with one house in particular having a reputation as haunted: the house belonging to Katherine Summerfield. Justin had moved in across the street from Katherine and they had become friends. Katherine had promised to allow him to buy the house after her death. Before the agreement could be legally finalized, Katherine died and Justin discovered that, instead of leaving a purchase agreement for him, she’d instead left the house to a great-niece, MacKenzie Dillon.MacKenzie Dillon was a writer who had just ended a horrendous marriage from an abusive, controlling husband. The home she’d inherited from her aunt came at a time in her life when she’d lost everything. Her husband had spent all her money, leaving her broke. In spite of the fact she’d written many successful books, she had nothing. This house saved her life. She knew of its haunted history; she’d heard the stories from her aunt, but also remembered her aunt telling her the ghost was more sad than scary or violent.Justin was at first determined to purchase the house from MacKenzie, then slowly they became friends. Strange things began to happen, very strange things. The ghost became more and more malevolent. What was going on in this haunted house? Was the ghost angry at Justin and MacKenzie? Or was there something deeper at work?Heather Long created an interesting story. The weaving of the ghost’s past via MacKenzie’s writing was an interesting twist. Long kept the suspense going by feeding it out it measured doses throughout the novel. The dual villains were interesting, though the villain of the past needed more detail.I would have liked there to have been more trust displayed between the two main characters. That was a major point of annoyance for me. I didn’t understand why, after Justin figured out what was happening, he kept telling MacKenzie to write, rather than finding another way to communicate with her. He knew her issues with control, so he knew better than to do this. This, to me, was a major plot flaw, and was out of character for Justin, given his actions to that point. Also, Justin was the one who didn’t believe in ghosts originally, so it makes no sense that he didn’t simply talk with her about what he thought was happening. This whole issue threw me out of the story for a bit.Otherwise, I enjoyed the story quite a bit. I look forward to reading more of Heather Long’s work. I give this book a happy 3  stars rounded up to 4 shining stars!!I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.Goodreads:  [...]Amazon Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/Haunt-Entangled-Covet-Heather-Long-ebook/dp/B00HP1JYPY