Haunting Beauty by Erin Quinn

Publisher: Penguin Group

Published: 9/06/2011

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Rating: Entrée











Danni Jones grew up in the Phoenix, Arizona foster care system and had very little memory of life before her mother abandoned her at the age of five. Now over twenty years later Sean Ballagh shows up on her doorstep saying he’s been sent by her father in Ireland. There’s something not quite right about Sean. Oh, he’s good looking enough and that Irish accent is delicious, but he’s playing his cards to close to his vest and the story he’s telling her is not adding up. Then to top it all off, are the visions Danni is once again starting to experience. They are showing some disturbing things that Danni is not in a hurry to find the meaning for. Deciding to check out Sean’s story, a tale of murder, suicide and black magic starts to unfold, and the choice of whether or not to return to Ireland is taken out of Danni and Sean’s hands. 



Great book! I'll be honest, it took me a bit to work out the different characters and the roles they play. This is a very detailed and complexly layered novel, and the reader MUST pay attention. The story spans generations so the reader has to become acquainted with who and what happens when. It's really hard to go into why it turned out to be such a surprising book without giving any spoilers, which would just take away a lot of the enjoyment from this story. Let's just say that some of the major players of this book have some huge blank spots in their memories and aren't at all what they seem. Since this is a story of time travel, the story is very liquid and can flow in several different directions with the blink of an eye. The romantic thread takes a little while to blossom in the story but when it does.....whoa, mama ....it explodes. Once the couple returns to Ireland, things begin to move at a very rapid pace and the story ARC becomes much, much clearer. The only thing that marred my enjoyment of the book somewhat was Danni's refusal to acknowledge what was happening even as it happened. I can see a momentary denial, but she wore blinders a great deal and it was frustrating at times. I'm glad this series was introduced to me and I have added the rest of the books to my TBR. It was quite unique from anything else I have read this year and I do believe it was a very worthy use of my time. Here's to a job well done Ms. Quinn.