Title- Haunting
Series- The Dusty Chronicles # 1
By- BJ Sheldon
Genre- YA Paranormal
Blurb-
After a family tragedy, 15-year-old Dusty Vermeer has to
start her sophomore year in a new town and a new school. Rural Iowa introduces
her to Mark, a charming football player. Dusty can hardly believe her heart.
Then, to her surprise Dusty meets another guy.
The chemistry between Dusty and Jack could spark a prairie
fire on a rainy day. The only problem? Jack’s dead. The handsome soldier comes
to Dusty in her dreams and introduces her to the horrors of a foreign
battlefield and the enchantments of first love.
While Dusty tries to balance her feelings for the two new
guys in her life, Jack steps out of Dusty’s dreams and into her reality. And he
wants something. Jack has no memory of how he died more than half a century
ago. Dusty vows to uncover the mystery, but her quest for justice puts her in
the path of evil, a force that won’t stop until she’s silenced.
Links-
Kindle- http://amzn.com/B00CLIATCS
EXCERPT
He continued to stare out the window.
“I’ve been gone a long time. Funny thing is, it only feels like a few days. It’s like I fell asleep and woke up from a bad dream.” He finally turned to face me, releasing a long sigh. “Are you doing any better? Not so scary, am I?”
“I wasn’t scared. Well, maybe just a little. It’s not every day a ghost shows up in your bedroom and starts a conversation with you when you’re half asleep.” I sat on the edge of my bed. “Jack? Why are you here? And I don’t just mean like this. Why are you here - with me - in my house?”
“Not sure. Something about this place seems familiar, I think. You seem familiar to me, too. But that’s not possible, right?”
“Well, Alice used to live here when you were still alive. That’s probably why the farm’s familiar.”
I studied Jack’s handsome face. He must have been a popular guy back in the day. I couldn’t get past the despondency in his eyes. I was so busy trying to wrap my own head around everything I’d been going through that I hadn’t stopped to think about how difficult the whole situation must be for him. One moment he’s young, alive, and fighting for his country. The next, he’s waking up to a strange and morbid reality.
“What do you remember?” I asked.
“Korea. That’s it. I don’t remember shipping out. Actually, I can’t even remember my life before that.” He closed his eyes. “Don’t remember dying either. Out of everything, you’d think I’d remember my own death, wouldn’t you?”
REVIEW:
I liked this book more than I thought I would, simply because I very rarely read stories where the main character is a teenager. But the blurb sounded interesting enough that I took a chance and I'm glad I did. There are quite a few plot twists along the way in this book, but not so many that it's hard to keep them all straight. From the blurb you know there is something of a love triangle going on, but it's one that you've probably not read about before, and that alone makes this story that much more interesting to read. I found it easy to get caught up in this story and would only put it down when I realized how late it was and that I still had to go to work.
RATING
Book provided in exchange for honest review.
Title- Imprint
Series- The Dusty Chronicles # 2
By- BJ Sheldon
Genre- YA Paranormal
Blurb-
Imprint is Book Two of “The Dusty Chronicles,” the sequel to
BJ Sheldon’s award-winning debut novel, Haunting. Imprint follows Dusty and
Jack through the next stage of their doomed romance.
Sixteen-year-old Dusty Vermeer starts off another school
year as Mark Schutt’s girlfriend. At the same time, she continues to hide her
feelings for Jack Olson, the ghost who haunts her heart. Other entities make an
appearance, and Dusty begins to wonder if seeing ghosts has become a permanent
part of her future. Tragic past events resurface and imprint themselves in
Dusty's world. When Jack is ripped from her arms and imprisoned in a dark void,
his absence is more than she can bear.
An invisible enemy grows increasingly violent, and Dusty’s
health begins to deteriorate. When she tries to discover what it is that hides
in the shadows, Dusty must turn to her family for help and convince her loved
ones that she is not insane. Ultimately, she must battle evil, accept her fate
and grieve for a love she was never allowed to keep.
Links-
Kindle- http://amzn.com/B00KQTD6CO
EXCERPT
The fact of the matter was I didn’t want to live without Jack. Just the thought of going the rest of my lifetime without seeing his face gave me a sick feeling somewhere just below my heart. If life was fair, Jack would be a living, breathing guy made of flesh and blood who would wrap me in his arms forever…until death do us part. But as luck would have it, death had already kept us apart. I’d fallen in love with a ghost. He had my heart, and it had become far too painful to allow him to keep it.
Sobs of complete sorrow shook me, but I continued to press on, never missing a note. My face was soaked with the salty dampness from my eyes. Tears fell indiscriminately on to the keys below.
I came to the end of the song, stood up and strode out of the room with a new resolve. It was time to figure things out once and for all. The evil that had taken over my home had to go.
Jack consumed my thoughts. He was the reason my heart beat a little bit faster each morning, the reason I opened my eyes every day, and why my brain couldn’t focus on any one thing longer than a few minutes at a time. He was my world, and as far as worlds went, he was the sole reason why my sun rose each morning. In no way could I exist without Jack at the center of my universe, but in the end, I knew I would have to figure out a way to do just that.
I was only 17 and had an entire lifetime ahead of me. Time would pass, and I would age. Jack would remain the same. I forced myself to come to grips with the fact that Jack would forever be a young soldier—a beautiful boy—while I grew older by the day. It had become apparent that I needed to stop living in a fantasy world and deal with facts.
Jack was dead.It was time to rid my home of the darkness that had taken over and then release Jack from his perpetual prison. Then we would have to face the inevitable.
REVIEW:
Well, this book is just as good as the first in the series. But there are more things that Dusty is having to deal with besides the whole weird love triangle going on; she's trying to solve the mystery of Jack's death, as well as the whole crop of evil entities that just don't seem to know how to play together nicely. I can't wait to read the last book in this trilogy!
RATING
Book provided in exchange for honest review.
BJ Sheldon lives near Rapid City, South Dakota with her
husband, a veteran of the US military. She is the mother to 3 beautiful
daughters, 2 of whom are still living at home and making her crazy.
Most days, she can be found in front of her laptop or
reading a good book when she isn't trying to keep her dog and 3 cats from
taking over the world. Her hobbies include cuticle care, fighting off zombies,
and traveling through space and time with a mad man in a blue box.
In 2011, BJ was awarded a silver medal in the Reader's
Favorite Award Contest in the Young Adult/Fantasy category for
"Haunting". Her first series, The Dusty Chronicles, is a paranormal
trilogy that takes a different spin on "paranormal". Future projects
include Sci-fi, fantasy, and contemporary romance.
Her favorite authors include Nicholas Sparks, Isaac Marion,
Hugh Howey, Suzanne Collins, JK Rowling, and Guy De'Maupassant.
Social Media Links-
