Joy’s usual attire leans more towards jeans and t-shirts or
tank tops. Joy’s grandmother is a great thrift store shopper and Joy is used to
sharing some of her grandmother’s finds with her best friend. When Joy finds a
dress from her grandmother in a Target bag her first thought is to give it to
Emily. For some reason Joy feels compelled to try the dress on though. It fits
her perfectly and she decides to keep it. A pair of flip flops came with the
dress and all of the items have the name “Beth” written on them. Joy begins to
wonder about Beth’s story, how did her clothing end up in a thrift store? When
Joy wakes the next morning and hears a mysterious sigh coming from the same
area that the dress is in she once again tries on the dress and feels an
immediate connection to its former owner. So starts Joy’s quest to discover why
Beth is haunting her.
As I said during the COVER REVEAL for Haunting Joy, it is the perfect month of
the year to read a ghost story. I also mentioned that with the flowers as the
dots over the i and J in the title that it gives the impression that the story
is maybe more light-hearted than scary. While yes, there were elements of the
story that were creepy (seriously who wants to be haunted by a ghost?), the
story itself was sweet. All Joy wants to do is help Beth. In the process she
gets to meet a cute guy who may or may not become her boyfriend. Beth is not a
malevolent ghost, she doesn’t wish Joy any harm, she just has a purpose to
fulfill and Joy is her conduit to help her. Haunting
Joy is book 1 in the Haunting Joy series. I highly recommend this book for
YA readers and those that like a good ghost story. The next book Haunting Melody comes out in 2014. We
get a sneak peak of the first chapter at the end of Haunting Joy and I can tell you I am hooked and cannot wait for it
to come out! Oh and just wait until you see the cover! Just as amazing as the
cover of Haunting Joy!
BLOG TOUR INFORMATION:
Amber at Seasons of Humility is hosting the blog tour. For information and updates check out her blog
Tuesday,
October 22nd
Wednesday,
October 23rd
Thursday,
October 24th
Friday,
October 25th
Saturday,
October 26th
Sunday,
October 27th
Monday,
October 28th
Tuesday,
October 29th
Wednesday,
October 30th
Thursday,
October 31st
·
Twitter
chat or contest, with e-book giveaways! Details TBA (via @SeasonsHumility and @lena_goldfinch, #HauntingJoy)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
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 www.lenagoldfinch.blogspot.com.
Author’s
Links
Newsletter sign-up: http://lenagoldfinch.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d20c77e0f3ef8dff993ecfcf7&id=6b1c2994d1
GIVEAWAY:
In honor of the release of Haunting Joy, Lena Goldfinch is giving
away a few spooktacular prizes! The giveaway is open internationally, and there
will be three winners (randomly drawn) – one winner for each of the prizes
listed below:
·
A
glass heart necklace (like Joy’s!)
·
A
signed copy of Haunting Joy (paperback)
·
An
e-book copy of Haunting Joy
EXTRA THOUGHTS:
Since this is the month for all things scary do you plan on doing anything for Halloween? Do you go to any parties? Do you dress up? Or are you like me and have never really been "into" the whole Halloween celebration? Do you totally ignore the day or do you get the kids all dressed up for trick-or-treating? I always let my daughters dress up for school parties but since we have pretty much always lived in the country their experience with trick-or-treating was pretty minimal. Here is a picture of my oldest daughter when she was in kindergarten. I talked her into letting me dress her up as a sad clown(which I collected at the time), I think she looked pretty stinkin cute! The other picture is probably the last time the girls ever dressed up. I also think it may have been the first time they ever went trick-or-treating in a neighborhood. We were getting ready to move across country and we were staying with my parents(that's my dad in the picture with them). Someone loaned us the costumes and I painted their faces. They had a great time:
And what about GHOSTS? Are you a believer or a nay-sayer? Me? I'm a nay-sayer, but I do love a good ghost story and if you read HAUNTING JOY you are going to be in for a real treat!
Available for e-book purchase at these stores:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
iTunes
Great review, Julie! Love the way you introduce the set-up of the story, as well as your careful break-down of the story elements. :) And doesn't Haunting Melody sound/look awesome??
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing a little bit about your Halloween experiences, too! So fun. :) Those pictures are adorable! And I seriously have no idea where the time goes... *sigh*
As for ghosts, my dad has some interesting stories about the times he visited ghost towns in Nevada (and California, I think?) with a friend! ;)
~Amber
Thanks for stopping by Amber! I bet there are a lot of ghost towns in Nevada and CA that would be interesting to check out. My parents have been to a few also :) Although they never said anything about ghosties, they did find them very interesting :) A local restaurant near us was recently featured on an OETA episode for being haunted. I missed it, but would have found it interesting I'm sure. You should check out the Skeleton Creek books by Patrick Carman, they are great YA ghost stories. Anyway, even though I am a nay-sayer like I said, I love a good ghost story! And yes yes yes Haunting Melody looks and sounds awesome! Can't wait!
DeleteJulie, thanks so much for your lovely review and for being a part of the blog tour! I'm soooo glad you enjoyed Haunting Joy! And that you like the cover for Haunting Melody. That's nice to hear.
ReplyDeleteLove the costume photos! I grew up trick-or-treating and dressing up in homemade costumes -- often cobbled together from thrift-store finds! ;) My favorite thing today is when the trick-or-treaters come up to my door. I love handing out candy, and I especially love seeing the little toddlers in the zipped-up, head-to-toe, footie-PJ costumes. So cute!
Thanks to Amber too for introducing us and setting things up for the blog tour!
PS I tried to comment earlier this morning but my iPad app crashed and ate my comment. Oh noooooo! ;)
Thanks for stopping by Lena! It is always fun to hear from authors! And I agree, homemade costumes really are the best. I too enjoyed through the years handing out candy(when visiting my parents because we never had trick-or-treaters), it was always fun to see the little ones. I drew the line at handing out candy to the high schoolers that would come around after everyone else had gone home to bed! Booo to electronics that don't work when we want them to! Hope all is well with your iPad now. Have a wonderful day and a wonderful rest of the blog tour! So happy I got to participate!!!
DeleteHigh schoolers in lame/no costumes holding out King-size pillowcases for candy? I hear you. ;)
ReplyDeleteIf they make a decent effort with their costume thing I'll give them candy. Actually, I'm a real softie. Even if you come to my house in jeans and a t-shirt and say "trick-or-treat," I might roll my eyes, but you'll still get something. LOL
haha! You are a softie! I told two teenagers one time that it was way too late to be out trick-or-treating. No soft heart here! bwahaha!
DeleteLOL :)
Delete