Valerie Puri

I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

The Crimson Tree is a fantastic paranormal mystery to kick off the Halloween season. Carly's life was going great, she was extremely happy and about to marry the man of her dreams. That is until that fateful day under the crimson tree. Will anyone believe the things she claims to see? Will she ever have a peaceful life again?

This was a great story! I loved how Carly's best friend believed her right from the start. This was a fast paced novel that had me on the edge of my seat. The ending threw me for a loop and had me wanting more. I am definitely a new fan of this amazing author and I'm sure you will be too!… (más)

Everything in Carly’s life is going pretty well; she is engaged to a wonderful guy, James, and they are celebrating their three year anniversary. For their anniversary, they decide on a picnic in the country. Carly chooses a hill with a very unique tree; a tree with white bark and deep red leaves. Carly and James picnic under the tree and Carly takes some photographs. When she gets home, the trouble begins. In half of the photos, Carly has no eyes. The problem persists, cell phone photos- no eyes, engagement photos- no eyes. Then Carly begins to see spirits, have vivid dreams and waking hallucinations. Her symptoms only seem to get better when she begins to look into the events from her dreams. Carly has to work fast though, the spirits are getting upset and James isn’t so sure of their relationship anymore.

This was a haunting and quick read, perfect for getting into the Halloween spirit. This was a slow build, part physiological, part ghostly horror as Carly’s life disintegrates little by little. Carly’s character was an amazingly normal person, who wanted to continue being a normal person, she even continued to do her normal activities as best she could while the spirit was trying to communicate with her. None of Carly’s common life bothered me; however, the writing sometimes tried too hard to convey this with mentioning such things as Carly having to press ‘ok’ to get the pictures off her drive from the computer or paying $4.38 for snacks. Anyway, I was really interested in the spirits that were haunting Carly, it seemed obvious what the spirit wanted her to do, but I wanted to know more about the spirit’s life and his past. We find out a little through Carly’s research and some dreams, but I wanted to be taken back to the 1920’s for a little bit longer. I thought I had the ending all figured out, but there is a twist and a cliffhanger at the end!

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.… (más)