“In spite of…”

I have only read one other book of a Jaime Jo Wright’s (The House on Foster Hill) and I rather enjoyed it. I mean, five star worthy, though I will say my reviewing skills have definatly gotten better. Any way, The Curse of Misty Wayfair only added to my ever growing love for her talants and my list of 2019 favorite reads.

The Curse of Misty Wayfair looks, reads, and feels like an old ghost story (Don’t worry, its isn’t). With marvaoulus “on the edge” mystery and the joys of budding romance. You can’t help but grumble when you have to put the book down and join the rest of humanity. The story covers two lives in different centuries that are effected by a town mystery turned ghost story. The event that brings such hell draws our two main characters, Heidi and Thea, to question where God really is in the midst of their lives and why He put them here in the first place.

The deeper each character stepped into the forest, looked in to their love interest’s eyes, or dug for more answers, the more I wanted the answers and kisses. I know it sounds silly, but readers get it. Jaime Jo Wright penned the story in such a way I felt as if I was the character herself. I wanted answers! Dog gone it, I wanted them now. And even though the strapping young men who helped them seemed odd, I found them rather adorable. Can you say tall, dark, and brooding?

If you want a mystery that keeps you wondering “who done it” all the way through, then you will most definitely want to pick up this book. I love it when the guessing carries throughout the WHOLE story. It only seems to heighten the suspense. The hints of romance just makes it all the more sweet. You can see the interest building through the story, but WOW, look out when they finally have that moment.

There is one quote at the end that just wraps the whole story up in a nice bow. (To set it up a bit, one of the characters carves words or phrases into rocks and places them on the headstones of those who pass on that he knows)

“If I were to carve words into this for this moment … I would etch the words In spite of“

Why?

“In spite of the darkness, in spite of the crushing weight,this is not the last page. We are not finished. This place – this life – will break us. But from above, the Creator reaches into the depths, and He will carve into us something new.”

Can you not get more inspiring than that?

It is without a doubt that this is a book that will remain firmly planted on my bookshelf, only being lent out to those I trust. 😀

**I was given this book from the publisher. These thoughts are honest and entirely my own – GET THE BOOK!!!!

About the book

Left at an orphanage as a child, Thea Reed vowed to find her mother someday. Now grown, her search takes her to Pleasant Valley, Wisconsin, in 1908. When clues lead her to a mental asylum, Thea uses her experience as a post-mortem photographer to gain access and assist groundskeeper Simeon Coyle in photographing the patients and uncovering the secrets within. However, she never expected her personal quest would reawaken the legend of Misty Wayfair, a murdered woman who allegedly haunts the area and whose appearance portends death. 

A century later, Heidi Lane receives a troubling letter from her mother–who is battling dementia–compelling her to travel to Pleasant Valley for answers to her own questions of identity. When she catches sight of a ghostly woman who haunts the asylum ruins in the woods, the long-standing story of Misty Wayfair returns–and with it, Heidi’s fear for her own life.

As two women across time seek answers about their identities and heritage, can they overcome the threat of the mysterious curse that has them inextricably intertwined?

About the Author