Haunted

by Dana Michelle Burnett

[EBookObsessed]

I was truly excited when I saw that Book 2 of the Spiritus series was out. I had enjoyed the characters in Spiritus and I thought it was a well written story and I was frustrated when it ended leaving me hanging until the next book. (See my review of Spiritus.

I will tell you that Haunted was also a well written story, but personally I was disappointed. I know that the storyline of a woman and her ghost-husband-from-a-previous-lifetime is one of those--just not gonna have a happy ending type story, but I liked the characters of Alastor and Becca.

Spiritus left us on the afternoon of Becca’s graduation of high school. Alastor had disappeared for Becca’s own good but we do catch a glimpse of his watching over her from afar. Haunted picks up with Becca at age 23, and she is currently being held for observation in a psychiatric ward. Alastor obviously didn’t stay away for long, and although he is “living with” Becca up in her room again, he has (once again) come to the conclusion that Becca needs to move on with living her life. This time Alastor is pushing Becca toward Jonah, and although Alastor talks about her having a life, he is hanging on as the secret third wheel in the relationship. Since Alastor is the man Becca wants, it comes off as Becca is just going along with whatever Alastor wants like a puppet and although she doesn’t dislike Jonah, she showed more interest in him in Book 1, than in this story where they actually have a relationship.

Further, I didn’t like the aspect of the psychiatric ward and spending half the book viewing Becca through the eyes of the psychiatrist trying to help her over her delusion. I was never left with the question after reading Spiritus of whether or not she was crazy. We even have that moment when Alastor makes himself solid and Becca’s friends see him. If I was left wondering if she was loosing it, then I would have found this intriguing. If Spiritus was intended to be written in a “maybe she’s just crazy” story, then I missed that entirely.

I gave this story 4 stars since the writing was well done, and Book 2 builds on the story where Book 1 left off. I can’t fault the author because it didn’t go where I personally imagined it should. Not her fault, just my fault for jumping ahead.

Dana indicates where she will be leading us for Book 3, which will be the final story in the series, and I am looking forward to see how she concludes the story of Alastor and Becca.