Friday, October 25, 2013

Friday Feature: Haunting Joy by Lena Goldfinch


15848518

Joy's grandmother gives her a thrift store dress...a dress with a little supernatural history. A dress that's a little more than she expected.

"I never believed in ghosts.
Until it happened to me."


Excerpt:

I know I heard a sound, an almost human-sounding sigh, and it came from the corner of my room. Inside my room. I’m sure of it. As I slide my gaze back that way, a chill slithers over me. All the tiny hairs on my arms stand at attention. You know, like that moment in the dark when you suddenly think someone—or something—might be in the room with you.

Only, my room’s not dark at all. It’s clear and bright outside. Sunlight is pouring through my skylight. Even so, my room feels creepy and strange now. I peer into the corner, searching for any sign of movement, for anything different, like a mouse or squirrel or something. But the dog would have been all over that, I think, wouldn’t he? The only thing I see is my chair. Except...the white dress is no longer heaped in a haphazard pile on the seat. It’s laid out all nice and neat, with the straps up over the back cushion and the skirt spread out over the seat. The two matching flip flops are sitting side by side in front of the chair, toes pointed toward me. Like there’s an empty girl sitting there, in an empty dress, with her empty flip flops, looking right at me.

I sit up quick and swing my legs over the side of the bed. The room tilts around me, and the floor’s flying up to meet my face, so I grab the edge of my mattress and take a deep, calming breath. Or try to.

“Mom,” I yell toward the door.

No answer.

“Mom!”

I hear her muffled reply.

“Did you lay out my new dress?” I call to her.

“What dress, sweetie?”

As if she knows nothing about it.

My heart squeezes into a knot.



Add it on Goodreads.


My thoughts:

I love this cover! So pretty! But moving on to the story... This is such a quick, fun read. It's not your typical "girl gets haunted" story either. Joy is given a dress of a dead girl—who she finds out was named Beth—and she soon realizes that Beth's spirit is tied to this dress. But instead of fearing the ghost, Joy wants to help her. She gets visions of Beth's last moments and unravels how Beth really died. And all along, she can hear Beth's thoughts in her mind, though only in bits and pieces so Beth can't just tell Joy what happened to her, and the coolest thing is that when she looks in the mirror while wearing the dress, she can see Beth in the reflection. (I loved that part!) 

The way the two work together is great. Joy is taken over by Beth, but not in a scary, possessed sort of way. Joy knows she needs to wear the dress to sense Beth, so she does wear it a lot. But she's doing it to help her spirit move on, which I thought was touching.


If you're up for a quick ghost story, give this one a try.


What do you think? Would you help a ghost?


And be sure to enter this awesome giveaway.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

39 comments:

  1. Great review, Kelly! Joy and Beth did make a good team, didn't they? :) I found it to be a quick, fun, and touching story, as well.

    Thanks so much for being part of the blog tour!

    ~Amber

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the excerpt. Also, I like people named Beth.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love the cover too, but creepy! That would freak me out, a dress of a dead person. ick....

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree, Kelly. There's something hauntingly beautiful about the cover. Like you can imagine the girl who would be wearing the dress, even though she's not there. Kinda brilliant, actually :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aww, thanks! (I designed the cover, so I really appreciate that. :))

      Delete
    2. Really, Lena? That's awesome. I love it. :)

      Delete
  5. I love a good ghost story - and not the 'scare me out of my wits' kind. I am fascinated with the past what can i say :-) Sounds like a great read!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is probably a good story for you then, Michelle. You should check it out.

      Delete
  6. I love ghost stories! The premise sounds like a lot of fun and reminds me of one of my favorite TV shows: "The Ghost Whisperer." What's not to like about that? Good luck to Lena with her new book! :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ooh, good show! You're right. There are definite similarities.

      Delete
  7. Interesting cover. A mystery for sure. Ghost stories are some of my favorites. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a fun-looking book! I LOVE the cover on this. Thanks for the review and excerpt :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm loving the concept. I'll have to check it out.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh, that's creepy, w/the dress and the shoes like someone's sitting there. And I like the switch up of it being day and not night.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good point. This is definitely a different ghost story from most, which I found really refreshing.

      Delete
  11. Terrific review, Kelly, and that is a good cover.

    I do like the excerpt!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, William. I love this cover. It's gorgeous.

      Delete
  12. Ooh, that excerpt gave me a little tingle! Looks like a really fun read, and thanks for the great review!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I think I'm in love. What an adorable cover! Really. This entire post is awesome. Thank you so much for sharing it with us!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Love the cover and the premise sounds intriguing!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thanks, everyone! And, Kelly, you're awesome. :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. This sounds like such a good story! You had me at Joy seeing Beth's reflection every time she puts on the dress. I've entered to win and will continue to tweet about the giveaway=)

    ReplyDelete
  17. im looking forward to reading this book because i havent read a good ghost story in a long time.

    ReplyDelete

All anonymous comments will be marked as spam and not published.