Review: Haunted is deliciously insane...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 30, 2012
Originally Reviewed At: Mother/Gamer/WriterRating: 5 out of 5 ControllersReview Source: Author for Honest ReviewReviewer: MeHaunted is deliciously insane...My stomach still churns with thoughts of Alastor. Is it possible to be mesmerized by someone you can neither truly see nor touch? Is it possible for a novel to convince you of your insanity and encourage you to harbor the unwanted yet desired feelings? Yes, oh yes, it is very real and so very possible, and Haunted will leave you both terrified and deeply in love.Indie author Dana M. Burnett, murdered my expectations of Haunted. Last year when I reviewed Spiritus, I was captivated by the authors creative story premise, and won over by the sensual enigma that is Alastor Sinclair. Yummy, yummy, delicious ghostly Alastor. However, the second novel in her Spiritus Series, Haunted, did what any sequel to a novel should do...hit me over the head with a bag of AWESOME and made me DEMAND more. Yeah folks, it's that good. Good and so unexpected!In book two, Dana decides to take a drastic turn with the story. She offers us an older main character and delivers a psychotic tale from two different perspectives; Becca and her psychiatrist. Becca is now twenty-three and committed for being essentially crazy after the sudden death of her husband. Without giving away too much of the plot, Becca recounts her story to her therapist in flashbacks, of a life with her ghostly lover Alastor and the man who soon became her husband, Jonah. If you can recall from Spiritus (or if you haven't picked it up, I HIGHLY recommend you do so now), during a séance Becca unintentionally calls forth a past love, and not just any love, a husband from a previous life. Throughout the novel, she is both enamored and terrorized by his presence. And due to certain circumstances, decides she needs to let him go and lead a normal life. One would assume after the swift turn of events at the end of Spiritus, our lovely Becca would be free of intangible love and heartache...but of course, she's not.Character development is rampant throughout the novel. Even though technically Becca seems delusional, we are still able to see her maturity, feistiness, and faults when it comes to her true love. As the story progresses and we dive deeper into her psyche, one will often times question if she actually is insane or just a girl with a twisted dark secret. Either way it makes for a juicy read and captivating heroine.Alastor, oh Alastor, boy do I LOVE thee. He is now one of my favorite fictional characters. Not only do my eyes linger over his every word, but my heart flutters intensely, and my ears listen with purpose. He had a way with words that will drown you into oblivion making you surrender your deepest secrets. Alastor can be ruthless, temperamental and jealous, and yet he could make you forget his misdeeds by simply saying I love you. It seems when he says it the words are so powerful they punch through the pages and leave big cavernous holes. He is the type of character who drives a person mad beyond reason with his arrogance. Nevertheless, it's the depth of his love for Becca -some may call it devotion, other may say ghostly stalking- that will endear him to you on every level. It is madness. Beautiful, sweet madness.Overall, Haunted is a definite must read for fans of dark twisted romances. Everything Dana did in Spiritus she perfected in Haunted. She surpassed my expectations, upped the fear factor, and delivered a more flowing story. The pacing and grammatical errors greatly improved, which in turn left me in awe of a phenomenal story. If you are a lover of creepy tales with swoon worthy characters, you must read the Spiritus Series because frankly, you will be thanking me later.