Calling Close to Home a romance is a very long stretch. Yet this romance novel junkie just didn't care. You see, it had other elements that made this a sure bet: a haunted house, a century-old murder mystery, and a really creepy family.
I was riveted from the first page as Jackson set the tone by immediately throwing me into a woman's chilling, harrowing, and desperate race for survival in the very house where this modern story takes place. I held my breath, wildly wondering who the mystery attacker could be, leaving me with more questions as the story switched to the present day.
Usually, I have little patience with stories peppered with rotating perspectives as I find them distracting and frustrating, tempting me to skip over passages. Happily, that didn't happen here. I remained fully engaged during each character introduction and their viewpoints, all equally important and necessary as the parts merged into a whole. Most important, every subsequent character view was a step toward solving the haunting, the murder, the unnatural family, and the abductions. Often, I didn't see twists coming, which left me gasping or muttering a few choice four-letter words. I zipped through the pages, reading long into the early hours, and sleeping (little) through what was left of the night with the lights on. My overactive imagination was in high gear as I saw shadows move in every corner. Now that's the mark of a good ghostly book!
Despite a slightly weak ending, a few loose ends, and lack of true romance, Close to Home still satisfied my penchant for everything macabre topped off with a dark, frightening twist on reality. It's a memorable choice for lovers of the supernatural, family secrets, and twisted minds.
I was riveted from the first page as Jackson set the tone by immediately throwing me into a woman's chilling, harrowing, and desperate race for survival in the very house where this modern story takes place. I held my breath, wildly wondering who the mystery attacker could be, leaving me with more questions as the story switched to the present day.
Usually, I have little patience with stories peppered with rotating perspectives as I find them distracting and frustrating, tempting me to skip over passages. Happily, that didn't happen here. I remained fully engaged during each character introduction and their viewpoints, all equally important and necessary as the parts merged into a whole. Most important, every subsequent character view was a step toward solving the haunting, the murder, the unnatural family, and the abductions. Often, I didn't see twists coming, which left me gasping or muttering a few choice four-letter words. I zipped through the pages, reading long into the early hours, and sleeping (little) through what was left of the night with the lights on. My overactive imagination was in high gear as I saw shadows move in every corner. Now that's the mark of a good ghostly book!
Despite a slightly weak ending, a few loose ends, and lack of true romance, Close to Home still satisfied my penchant for everything macabre topped off with a dark, frightening twist on reality. It's a memorable choice for lovers of the supernatural, family secrets, and twisted minds.
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