Hey guys! Welcome to my stop on the Haunting Joy Blog Tour hosted by Amber Stokes of Editing Through the Seasons and the author Lena Goldfinch. Click here to follow along with the full tour schedule. :D
Title: Haunting Joy: A Ghostly Little Story
Author: Lena Goldfinch
Publication date: October 21st 2013
Publisher: Indigo Road Teen
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
Source: Review Copy
Blog Tour organized by: Amber Stokes of Editing Through the Seasons
and Lena Goldfinch
~ Synopsis ~
"I never believed in ghosts.
Until it happened to me."
Joy's new dress has a secret - one with a little supernatural history, one that's a little more than she expected.
It all starts one ordinary afternoon, as seventeen-year-old Joy tries on some thrift-store clothes her grandmother gave her. The little white dress fits perfectly. Trouble is, now it won't leave her alone. Soon Joy is swept up in an extraordinary journey to help a ghost complete some unfinished business.
If only that didn't involve Joy driving through dangerous intersections...
Or calling up her high school crush, Nick...
Or getting stuck at a cemetery after dark.
Will Joy accept this ghostly challenge to be "more"? And just how far will she go to uncover the truth?
Light Paranormal Novella
~ My Thoughts ~
My Rating: 4 / 5
I really enjoyed Haunting Joy. Joy is a character who seems like she'd be fun to hang out and get you involved in some shenanigans. :) Once she tries on the white dress she finds in the box of clothes her grandma gave her from various thrift stores, the dress starts to haunt her, causing her to want to find out what happened to the girl it once belonged to. So Joy starts out on what seems to be a wild goose chase.
I couldn't help but cringe at some of the decisions she made because I knew she wasn't thinking clearly and that she was going to get into trouble with her mom. And get herself stuck in a cemetery at night. In the rain. Eep!
I really admired Joy's determination to find out what happened to the girl. She believes that the girl's ghost has "unfinished business" and wants to help her move on. Joy has a good heart with good intentions. Plus she's just so darn funny! Some of the thoughts she has made me laugh out loud.
Overall, Haunting Joy is a novella perfect to read any time of year but especially this time around Halloween. I love Joy and the story, and I recommend this to anyone looking for a light and fun paranormal read with a very likable main character.
~ Purchase Links ~
~ My Fave Halloween Memory ~
Here's my super awesome Halloween moment!
So two years ago when Paranormal Activity 3 released in theaters, my husband and I went to see it opening weekend with our friends Lauren and Erik. One scene scared me so much, I jumped out of my seat and was about to run to the nearest exit. My husband whispered, "Where are you going??" They started laughing, all three of them, and when my heart started up again, I laughed until tears started smudging my makeup. We still laugh every time we think about that night.
Do you have any Halloween moments you'd like to share? I'd love to hear them! :D
~ Twitter Chat ~
Join the Twitter chat on
Halloween, October 31st
at noon EST / 9 a.m. PST
~ About the Author: Lena Goldfinch ~
Lena lives in a scenic small town in Massachusetts with her husband, two kids, and a very spoiled Black Lab. She writes fiction for young adults, mostly light fantasy with a healthy dose of "sigh-worthy" romance. You can visit her online at http://www.lenagoldfinch.blogspot.com/.
~ Social Links ~
~ Giveaway ~
Thanks for joining in on the blog tour, Jennifer! And thanks for your review. :)
ReplyDeleteI'd be too scared to see Paranormal Activity, so you're way braver than I! I remember as a kid there was a house down the street from me that was supposedly haunted. We all sort of psyched ourselves into believing it was anyway. So one night a bunch of us neighborhood kids were roaming the streets of our NJ suburb (why did our parents let us do this?? lol) -- anyway, we ended up in front of this house. All the lights were out, as per usual, but we saw something white in the window, like a hand encased in a long white glove...maybe...? I have no idea. I didn't stand around long enough to give it a better look. We all just took of squealing and laughing once we got far enough away.
You're very welcome, Lena! I was happy to be asked to take part. Haunting Joy is such a fun and beautiful story.
DeleteI'm surprised to hear that, lol. I do know there are people who won't watch scary movies but will read scary books any day, any time. I know a few authors who have told me they can't watch horror movies, but the books they've written scare me so much. I'm like really? Don't you scare yourself sometimes? I know I do, lol.
Seeing something white in that window - I would have ran as fast as my legs could carry me! I know I would've screamed bloody murder as well. I love swapping scary stories!
I have quite a few from my friend's house. She lived in a farmhouse that was over 100 years old. Our group of friends would stay the night there and have seances and watch scary movies. I'd feel sick by the morning from lack of sleep and the adrenalin because I swear, no, I KNOW her house was haunted. They held funerals in her house, and the living room window was built specifically to place a coffin there. So many creepy things happened there, and even our friends who weren't scared of anything were scared of that house. Plus her dad had all this Civil War stuff, including mannequins with uniforms on.
Creepily enough, a few years ago it burned down the same weekend of the anniversary of the death of the man who built it. My husband scoffs at me and says it's a huge coincidence, but I don't know. I really felt an evil presence in that house. And I definitely wasn't the only one... O.O
This is awesome! I haven't seen this around but it sounds something I would definitely enjoy! I really hope to win, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI hope you get a chance to read it very soon, Ellie! I would love to know your thoughts after you read it, too. Thanks for stopping by! :D
DeleteThis is such a fun post, Jennifer! Great review of Haunting Joy - I agree that Joy is such a sweet/fun heroine. :) And LOL about your Halloween memory! You probably wouldn't even find me in the same room as a scary movie like that, so you've got me beat. ;) I couldn't even handle Jaws!
ReplyDelete~Amber
P.S. Me being me, I totally got mixed-up on the time differences between the East Coast and the West Coast... So the Twitter chat tomorrow is still at noon EST, but it's actually at 9 a.m. PST instead of 3 p.m. (Oops!) I've changed it on the blog tour page, but I just wanted to leave a comment in case any of your readers were wondering about that, haha. ;)
Thanks so much, Amber, that's really cool of you to say! I really love Joy. She has a good heart, and it's funny some of the situations she got herself into like getting stuck in the mud. So something I would do. :) Out of the four Paranormal Activity movies that have come out, the third one I almost ran out of is by far the scariest to me. The second one comes close. Ah Jaws! Now that's a scary movie - being eaten by a shark is pretty realistic, a little too much for me!
DeleteI did not even notice the time difference thing because it was three hours. I just didn't realize it was three hours ahead, lol. I'll change it - thanks for letting me know. :)
Ghost stories freak me out, but I do like it when the one haunted sets out to help the ghost. Oh, oh, I have a ghost story. I think I'll write about it for the think out loud this week. I love your movie theater memory. It's so awesome that you got so scared you tried to make a run for it. 5 STARS for that one. Even if I didn't know you, I'd be laughing until I cried just watching the whole spectacle. Happy Halloween, Jennifer.
ReplyDeleteGhost stories REALLY freak me out. That's why movies like Paranormal Activity scare me so much because it just seems like that stuff could really happen. Read my reply to Lena above. I really should write a series of posts about all of the crazy happenings in that old farmhouse. Of course my husband thinks I'm crazy, and he doesn't believe any of it even though he hung out there a lot with us in high school, too.
DeleteI can't wait to read your Think Out Loud! 5 stars - LOL LOL If it had happened to someone else, I'd laugh until I cried, too! I can't TELL that story to someone without having to stop laughing first. The kind of laughing that makes you feel like you did a zillion sit-ups. That kind.
There was the time when we went to see The Conjuring back in July, and I got so scared I accidentally spilled my pop all over me and Brady (my husband), lol. Omigod, and then there was the time when me and my friends and my sister went to a haunted house several years ago. We were all out of high school by then but hadn't outgrown our love for going haunted housing. Anyway, we were screaming and freaking out, having fun, and one of us accidentally punched a dude behind us. It was either Morgan or Lauren. Instead of being freaked out, my sister kept asking the monsters out on dates. That's my sister for ya, lmao.
Happy Halloween!
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