Review: Darkhouse by Karina Halle

The Particulars: Paranormal Suspense, Smashwords, available as e-book

The Source: Smashwords

The Grade: B+

The Blurb:

There’s always been something a bit off about Perry Palomino. Though she’s been dealing with a quarter-life crisis and post-college syndrome like any other twenty-something, she’s still not what you would call “ordinary.” For one thing, there’s her past which she likes to pretend never happened, and then there’s the fact that she sees ghosts.

Luckily for her, that all comes in handy when she stumbles across Dex Foray, an eccentric producer for an upcoming webcast on ghost hunters. Even though the show’s budget is non-existent and Dex himself is a maddening enigma, Perry is instantly drawn into a world that both threatens her life and seduces her with a sense of importance. Her uncle’s haunted lighthouse provides the perfect catalyst and backdrop for a mystery that unravels the threads of Perry’s fragile sanity and causes her to fall for a man, who, like the most dangerous of ghosts, may not be all that he seems

The Review:

Mandi at Smexybooks raved about Sins and Needles, which made me curious about Karina Halle. When I went to Smashwords, I discovered that this one was free so I downloaded it. I am glad I did.

I liked Perry a lot. She felt very normal with her complains about her boring job, her uncertainty what to do in the future and her family's pressure. I also liked that she was scared to death while investigating the lighthouse.

This isn't a romance, but I could sense something between Dex and Perry. I liked how she was torn between frustration that he didn't call and hope that she might get a kick in her career.

The Oregon setting fit this story to the T, and I loved how the author used the history of the place to increase the suspense.

The plot hooked me from the start. The tension rose slowly, until I couldn't keep on reading, since it was late and I feared I would get nightmares if I kept reading. Yes, it was that scary. Also, I'll never look at flashbacks in the same way again. Normally, flashbacks makes me DNF a book, but not here. Here, the flashbacks were a vital part of story, and increased the sense of danger in the story.

That said, I felt that there was too many unanswered questions at the end of the story. But maybe I'll find out more in the next book.