Shadows
of the Heart: Jewels of the Quinn Halloween Anthology
Jewels
of the Quinn are an award winning group of female authors who have more
than
200 books published in various genres.
This Halloween anthology has stories from seven of the Jewels of
the
Quinn authors and will get any reader in the mood for the spookiest day
of the
year.
First
in this collection is a story by Margaret L. Carter.
This Urban legend like story is about a
mother who gets visits ever year on Halloween by people who claim to
have seen
her dead daughter. This year she has a
friend come and stay the night to see if things can be finally resolved. A haunting story and a good start to the
collection, this is an amazing short story that you can recite to
people
to get
them spooked.
In the second story written by Christine
DeSmet we meet Alyssa. She is seeing
ghosts and one of them is repairing and renovating her house but she is
the
only she can see him. Apparently more ghosts are coming to visit as
well which
makes for a full house. One of the longer
stories in the collection, this is a paranormal romance with a bit of
fun. Not
the best in the collection but a nice cute tale of love.
Third up is a young adult contribution by
Carrie S. Masek. Derrick Olsen wants to
go to the Halloween dance with his friends but when his mum is called
into work
he gets stuck with babysitting his little sister. Out
trick or treating, things get a little
strange when they come across a something that makes this story into a
tale
that could put you off trick or treating for a while.
Next we have a story by Karen Woods. As
with all the stories in this collection it
is Halloween based. Jake Reynolds' wife would have been 52 today if she
hadn't
been murdered. Mary lost her husband a
few years ago and has a lot in common with Jake. They
share their woes over some dinner and
the watchful eye of a cat in this romantic tale. Not
really scary, this was a little too
predictable.
Following Karen Woods is C.J Walters. Noel
and Merry are twins trying to soldier on
after the death of both parents.
Carrying on their father's business, they are on a job when they
come
across a surprising discovery. Deciding
to hide what they found sounds easy but things don't go as planned when
a young
boy decides he can help them. Not very
spooky, this was a nice fun story that will make you wonder what you
would do if
you were in the same situation.
Karen
Wiesner adds a story from the Woodcutter's Grim series. Randall leaves
his wife
and children to be with Amy and then they are all killed in a car crash. Ever since the accident Amy keeps having
terrible nightmares about Randall's children coming back to take
revenge on
her. Nothing is helping Amy so Randall
convinces her to go to an isolated cabin in the woods for a relaxing
break. However her guilt filled
nightmares are nothing compared to what awaits them in the town of Woodcutters Grim in this chilling story. The longest in the book
is by
far the scariest and best in this collection.
Last but not least is a story by Jane
Tombs. The Beast tells us what really
happened at the Halloween costume party and will leave most readers
with goose
bumps. A short quick story that ends the
collection nicely.
All in all this is a great collection that anyone
can enjoy. While being mostly paranormal in genre this is, of course, a
Halloween
collection and it wouldn't put a trick in anyone's treat if it wasn't
full of
things that go bump in the night. An impressive anthology that will
give
readers a taste of seven authors who have a lot to offer.