Title: Hacienda Moon by KaSonndra Leigh
The Path Seekers Book One
Publisher: The TriGate Group
Genre: Paranormal/Ghosts, Romance, Suspense, Contemporary, Historical
Length: 290 pages
Book Rating: C+
Review Copy Obtained from Author
Summary:
Sometimes the Darkest Soul Can Have the Brightest Heart of All…
Love, obsession, and betrayal, the most powerful human emotions, are spun together in this gothic novel.
Tandie Harrison is a path seeker, a medicine woman that can travel through time by channeling other spirits. After losing her psychic visions in a car accident, she moves into the alluring plantation house, Chelby Rose, and falls for its charismatic caretaker, Eric Fontalvo.
Their burgeoning affair ignites a centuries old curse, ensnaring them in a web of danger, deceit, and intrigue. Soon Tandie learns that in placid Bolivia, the mystical worlds of the living and the dead are dangerously connected.
The Review:
KaSonndra Leigh’s Hacienda Moon is an interesting novel about a centuries old curse, a haunted house and mysterious deaths.
Following her daughter’s death and the loss of her job when she loses her physic visions, Tandie Harrison moves into Chelby Rose, an old plantation house in North Carolina. When strange happenings begin to occur, she first accepts them as natural yet freaky occurrences. But soon she is experiencing visits from ghosts and when her physic vision returns, it reveals terrifying events from the past.
Tandie is immediately attracted to Eric Fontalvo, the contractor who is restoring Chelby Rose. Eric’s family is directly involved in the curse and despite the fact they left town trying to escape it, horrible luck continues to plague his family. He is quite cautious when it comes to getting involved with Tandie and their romance remains an understated part of the storyline.
While I found the premise of Hacienda Moon intriguing, the plot is rather confusing at times. There are a lot of characters and I had a difficult time keeping track of who was who. The shifts between past and present were not always clear. Some of the storylines with secondary characters did not really go anywhere and I never quite understood exactly what they contributed to the overall plot.
While the beginning of the novel was rather disjointed and slow moving, the pace really picks up in the last quarter of Hacienda Moon. The connection between Tandie, Saul Chelby (the owner of Chelby Rose) and Eric finally becomes clear. I liked how the curse element finally played out and all of the various storylines finally did come together.
Hacienda Moon is an entertaining read and KaSonndra Leigh does an excellent job throwing in some unexpected twists and turns. If you are fan of ghost stories, then you will enjoy this novel.
Excerpt:
Crowds, noise, loudspeakers, coffee smells: words to describe Raleigh-Durham’s airport. There wasn’t much difference between New York’s JFK and North Carolina’s RDU. Well, not where noise and crowds were concerned. An airport was still just another way of transporting someone from one life-changing situation to the next. And Tandie’s journey was about to begin all over again in a small town located about twenty minutes away from where she grew up.
At the conveyor belt, she picked up her two bags and headed toward the rental-car section. With her head pounding from jet lag, Tandie took the keys from the woman behind the counter and mentally practiced her driving route. Turning, she collided with someone. Her handbag fell to the floor, scattering the contents.
Ready to offer a chunk of her tired mind, she opened her mouth to complain, but stopped right away. Her victim was a man. This wasn’t just any man, though. He stood at least six-feet-tall, and had gorgeous dark hair flopping over a ridiculously handsome face. Dressed in a dark-blue shirt and gray cargo pants, the man knelt right away.
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” he said, collecting Tandie’s items which included tampons and sanitary napkins of all things to drop.
Their eyes met. His hazel-green ones took in her features with one glance. Her stomach flipped as if she were a young girl flirting with a cute guy. And something hitched in her chest, teasing her with a vague memory.
His muscular frame made him seem as if he could crush Tandie’s dainty little bag with one good squeeze. His strong facial features, full lips, and dark olive skin made him look Hispanic.
Damn he’s sexy!
Tandie concentrated on returning her things to the bag. If she were quick, then maybe he wouldn’t see her embarrassing stuff. Too late. He’d already picked up her little green Always bag and placed it back in the satchel without even flinching.
Cringe and die, won’t you?
“I’m such an ox,” he said.
“You’re not the clumsy one. I should watch where I’m going,” Tandie said, still too embarrassed to look at his face. She was aware of him staring at her, even though she couldn’t figure out why he was doing it.
Tandie’s face flushed. Even her golden-brown skin must’ve turned crimson. Standing up quickly, she stepped on the edge of her pants and stumbled backward. Her unintentional hero caught her with ease, steadying her body. What else would she add to her clutz list? She’d probably do something stupid like slip up and grab his crotch by accident next.
“Thanks. Again, I’m really sorry,” Tandie said and moved around him.
“Wait. Can I carry your bags for you? It’s the least I can do,” he said in a voice to match his looks.
“No. I’ll be fine, thanks.” Tandie scurried off toward the rental car garage. Behind her, she felt him watching as she walked away.
About the Author:
KaSonndra Leigh was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. She now lives in the City of Alchemy and Medicine, North Carolina. Her two sons, aka the X-Men, have made her promise to write a boy book next.
She holds the MFA in creative writing, and loves to play CLUE, Monopoly (the Indiana Jones version), and Pandora’s Box (good writer’s block therapy). She lives in an L-shaped house with a garden dedicated to her grandmother. It has a secret library complete with fairies, Venetian plastered walls, and a desk made out of clear blue glass.