The Haunted by Jessica Verday

An impossible truth. An impossible love. 

After a summer spent reclaiming her sanity and trying to forget the boy she fell in love with—the boy who must not exist, cannot exist, because she knows that he is dead—Abbey returns to Sleepy Hollow, ready to leave the ghosts of her past behind. She throws herself into her schoolwork, her perfume-making, and her friendship with Ben, her cute and funny lab partner, who just might be her ticket to getting over Caspian once and for all.

But Abbey can never get over Caspian, and Caspian has no choice but to return to her side, for Caspian is a Shade, and Abbey is his destiny. They are tied not only to each other, but also to the town of Sleepy Hollow, and to the famous legend that binds their fates—a legend whose dark truths they are only beginning to guess.... (picture and summary from goodreads.com)

MY REVIEW

Aaagggghhhhhh!!!!!!   What is it with these authors and their horrible, right in the middle of the action, cliffhanger endings??  I have read so many of those in the last month.  It is seriously starting to mess with my mind!  And yet, it is the best sort of torture, right?

Well, as soon as I finished The Hollow, I downloaded The Haunted onto my Nook because I’m impatient like that.  This book was better than the first book.  Everyone, including Abbey, knew what was going on.  And then, of course, more mysterious situations start popping up.  This book had a lot more action, and the sexual tension between Caspian and Abbey was pretty steamy!  In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen that sort of tension in a book since Edward and Bella.

Unfortunately, Abbey didn’t get much smarter in this book, but she wasn’t quite the dimwit that she was in The Hollow.  Still, I’m wondering why her mom is pushing college so much since Abbey seems like more of a local community college sort of girl to me. One thing I love about Abbey though is her perfume making hobby!  The way it is described and used as an integral part of the book adds a unique touch to the storyline.  And makes me want to take up the hobby of perfume making.  I wonder if I can make perfumes and read books at the same time?  Hmmmmmmm.............

I am having a hard time reviewing this book without giving spoilers and lots of them!  I guess that I have to say that: 1) I’m glad that the mystery of Kristen’s death was somewhat solved 2) I’m glad that the mysterious “D.” was identified and 3) this was a very, very satisfactory continuation of the story.  Oh!  And the cover!  I sincerely hope that they are paying the artist of these covers really well.

I’m still worried about how this series will end.  I mean, I don’t want some sort of “everybody lives happily ever after and we get to have a beautiful baby even if it is a half-vampire mutant” sort of ending.  But it would be nice to have things work out just a little bit.  I’m having a hard time envisioning how Ms. Verday is going to solve all of this without making me want to throw myself off a bridge at the end.  But, I have faith that she will do well by the reader and I am anxiously counting the days until the release of “The Hidden”!  (Which will be 2 days after my birthday, so happy birthday to me!!)

This book was a bit of an improvement over the last book.  It’s a solid A for me!