Book
Description:Amateur ghost-hunter Perry Palomino has battled ghosts, fought off skinwalkers and skirted the fine line between life and death. But can she survive bunking down in Seattle for a week with her partner (and man she secretly loves) Dex and his perfect girlfriend, Jennifer? And can she do so while being tormented by a malicious spirit from Dex's increasingly shady past? With love and life in the balance, Perry must discover the truth among the lies or risk losing everything she's ever cared about.
Release date:
December 12, 2011
Age Group:
Mature NA/Adult
Genre:
Romantic Suspense/Horror
Links:
The Dexism:
My Review:
What did I think?
Three words: O.M.G.<---yes that's three ;-)
For just a second, look at that cover. I mean.....really look at it. How freaking creepy is that?! When I picked this up, I had no idea what I was getting into. The cover seriously freaked me out. I mean....whoa *shivers*...
This book picks up right where Dead Sky Morning leaves off. This time the suspense and tension are a lot higher in this book.
Perry and Dex go inspect a haunted mental institution. How creepy is that?! Not only does Perry have to be in close proximity with her love interest Dex, but she also has to put up with his hot, overtly sweet girlfriend Jenn.
Talk about awkward right? You have no idea....
I think one of the best parts of this book is watching Perry grow up and get some real confidence. I know Dex has a lot to do with that but it's great that it's not just Dex. It's really herself.
One of the other best parts is Dex tells Perry more about his past. Dex is so complicated. Argh! But I love him so! He still holds the title to one of my most favorite characters. You love him, yet you want to punch him right in the face. ;-) Which makes him all the more special to me. So complicated... *swoons*
We get introduced to a couple new characters in this book. One of whom I fell completely in love with. Rebecca. Oh man she is just so awesome. Oh just a breath of fresh air that Perry needs.
Things get real in this. I mean really real. In every way. For the last half hour that I was reading this, my eyes must have been bugging out and my mouth in a constant shock formation. I stayed up until 3 am finishing this.
And oooooohhhhh the ending. Left me with soooooo many unanswered questions. Everything was left in the open and I'm so anxious to get to the next book.
On a side/personal note:
I really did enjoy this series thoroughly. Not only do I think the author is brilliant but she is wicked cool. I've gotten to talk to her on Twitter and she has to be one of the coolest chicks out there.
Whenever I read a book, I always talk about it to my fiancee. I love how he indulges me and acts interested...Even though I know he'd rather be playing video games. What really Robby's (my fiancee) attention is when I mentioned the bands that Perry talks about in the books. Slayer, Mr. Bungle, Peeping Tom... those are ALL bands that Robby and I listen to. It surprised Robby that a chick listens to these bands because they're pretty underground.
I asked Karina about it and she's was a music journalist and got to meet Mike Patton and has met Dave Lombardo a couple of times. It's actually really cool. Robby was also impressed. ;-)
As I was talking about the series, Robby dragged this out:
Notice the name....haha
It was really cool that she talked to me. LOL I know that sounds lame but it always means a lot to me when an author (one of my favs) actually acknowledges me. You know? It's awesome. So I want to say a special thank you to Karina. You are one wicked cool chick!!
I encourage you to read this series. For real. The series is awesome and so is the author.
Favorite Quotes:
"It's not magic Perry. You're the most beautiful woman I've ever known and before you say anything, you've always been that way to me."
Excerpt:
I closed the door behind me with nothing more than a gentle click and started walking down the hall back the way I came.A loud POP came from behind me while the hall in front of me became a smidge darker. The loud and unexpected noise caught my breath and made me jump mid-stride. I stopped and stood still.Another quick POP followed by another level of dimness. I turned around expecting to see someone but what I saw was the overhead lights at the very end slowly going off.Pop. Pop. Pop. They were fizzling out and leaving the once-bright hallway in darkness, as if some invisible being was going along and removing the bulbs. I knew enough that the scenario wasn’t all that crazy.The dark was catching up with me. I turned and started to run as quietly as possible, chalking it all up to faulty wiring on a stormy night. But as I neared the stairwell at the end, the stairwell lights went off and so did every other light in the hallway.The darkness engulfed me. I paused, disoriented and scared out of my wits.Thump, thump, thump.The sound of footsteps raced toward me from the far end of the hallway. They didn’t sound quick but they were coming.For me.I ran blindly for the door and felt around for it until my hands connected with the handle. I yanked it. It wouldn’t open. The door had locked behind me. There was blackness outside and in. I whirled around, hearing the footsteps still coming, this strange, slow and sloppy run.They stopped somewhere in front of me, maybe a few inches away. I held my breath. All I could feel was that terrifying notion that something was standing in the dark and watching me. Wanting me.“Please let me die.” The voice from earlier came from down the hall.“Yes, please let me die,” another voice came, this one closer to me and from the left.“He let me die,” said one more. This one sounded familiar. This one wasn’t a human being, a patient in a room with no hope or normal life left. This one had an accent. This one was dead. It was coming from right in front of me.I slowly stuck my arm straight out in front of me. I wanted to see how close it was. I waved it around but hit nothing.Raucous laughter erupted from the rooms. It caught on like a wave, crashing down the hall until it was all I could hear. Insane, unforgiving, unrelenting laughter, the type that you’d hear being howled at the moon. It reverberated through the hallway until it forced me to cover my ears.I thought about calling Dex. He could come down and let me out. I could tell him I went to look for the bathroom on this floor. I took one hand away from my ear and took out my phone, conscious of not crushing the vulnerable, secret meds in my pocket.BANG!The lights above me suddenly came on with the sound of snapping wires and the low hum of a generator kicking in. The area just in front of me was illuminated, hurting my eyes. I could see again.And there was nothing there.The same went for the rest of the hallway. As each light went back on, it showed how empty the place was. And the laughter stopped along with it.Until the end.The last light went on.There was a woman standing beneath the waxy light bulb. In the middle of the hall. Facing me. She was far enough away that I couldn’t make out her face. But I knew from the snakelike angle of her head that I didn’t want to.She stood as still as night, not moving. Just facing me like a gunslinger during a standoff.This…wasn’t good.I slowly lifted up my hand that had the phone and dialed Dex while keeping my eyes on her.She still hadn’t moved. But I knew it was misleading.I put the phone to my ear and after a few rings (I could almost hear it ringing on the floor above) he answered.“Perry? You OK?”“I’m locked on the second floor,” I whispered. “Please come and let me out right now.”“OK, one sec,” he said. I heard him hang up, a few footsteps from above and then the sound of the third-level door opening onto the stairwell. I breathed a sigh of relief, not taking my eyes off the figure at the end.Which was good. Because she twitched. And now, she was moving, walking toward me, twice as fast as a normal person, almost gliding down the hall as if she were on skates.Her arms were outstretched, her head wobbled back and forth with each quick stride, and a thick flow of blood flowed off of her, falling to the floor behind her like a red bridal train.It happened so fast.She was there.And then she was in my face.
About Karina:
The daughter of a Norwegian Viking and a Finnish Moomin, Karina Halle grew up in Vancouver, Canada with trolls and eternal darkness on the brain. This soon turned into a love of all things that go bump in the night and a rather sadistic appreciation for freaking people out. Like many of the flawed characters she writes, Karina never knew where to find herself and has dabbled in acting, make-up artistry, film production, screenwriting, photography, travel writing and music journalism. She eventually found herself in the pages of the very novels she wrote (if only she had looked there to begin with).
Karina holds a screenwriting degree from Vancouver Film School and a Bachelor of Journalism from TRU. Her travel writing, music reviews/interviews and photography have appeared in publications such as Consequence of Sound, Mxdwn and GoNomad Travel Guides. She currently lives on an island on the coast of British Columbia where she's preparing for the zombie apocalypse with her fiance and rescue pup.
Karina is represented by Scott Waxman of the Waxman Leavell Literary Agency
Author social media links:
http://experimentinterror.com
http://khalle.wordpress.com
https://www.facebook.com/ExperimentinTerror
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Karina-Halle/
www.twitter.com/MetalBlonde
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4785031.Karina_Halle
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