I love a good dual timeline that connects everything together. The characters were likable and well developed overall. I was caught in the story quickly. Great mystery.

Christy award winning author, Jaime Jo Wright, has delivered another winner with the release of her third book. A dual time-slip story that includes a creepy old asylum, an old photo, and a legend of a scary ghost. These are things that will grab ahold of you as you enter The Curse of Misty Wayfair. You may just need to keep a light on if you choose to read it at night.

Superb storytelling set a hundred years apart in Pleasant Valley Wisconsin, Ms. Wright intertwines Thea and Heidi’s journey beautifully. Both these ladies are in search of who they are and finding the answers to their identities is how Ms. Wright makes this story come alive.

In 1908, Dorothea Reed who was orphaned at a young age has come to Pleasant Valley to find her birth mother. Being a postmortem photographer, she discovers clues that lead her to a mental asylum. Simon Coyle, the groundskeeper, assists her in her search including the curse of Misty Wayfair. Will she find the answers she looking for?

A century later in 2008, Heidi Lane receives a letter from her mother,who suffers from dementia, telling her to come to Pleasant Valley. When Heidi arrives, she goes to an antique store and a vintage album grabs her eye. The girl in a picture resembles her. She needs to find out why and buys the album. Afterward, mysterious things begin to happen. Why are all these things happening?

I loved this story. I was especially drawn to present day, Rhett Crawford. He comes across as being standoffish. But once you get to know him, he’s got a big heart. He really cares for Heidi and wants to help her in any way possible. Ms Wright did a good job describing the affects of mental illness, anxiety, and dementia. She shows us that when there’s little hope God will always be there for us. His grace can help us to pull through our daily struggles.

Lastly, is the ghost of Misty Wayfair real? You’ll just have to read it to find out. I definitely recommend this book if you’re into somewhat gothic creepy stories. I received a complimentary copy of this book in order to give my honest opinion. I was not required to like this book. All opinions stated are my own.

I think it’s official now.

I’m just a little more than slightly obsessed with Jaime Jo Wright’s hugely creepy, wildly imaginative, vivid, insightful, and completely engaging stories.

I usually don’t do ANYTHING creepy, but Jaime’s storytelling makes in The Curse of Misty Wayfair made it impossible to quit reading without knowing the HOW. Without following every extraordinary twist and shocking revelation to the final, spell-binding, wholly satisfying ending.

The heroes made me positively SWOON, and the heroines drew me into their sometimes tragic, always fascinating journeys of discovery.

I may or may not have questioned my own sanity a time or two through this fantastic book, but in the end, with age-old mysteries coming to light and long-dark answers being revealed, I was once again certifiably head-over-heals for my latest Jaime Jo Wright read.

DEFINITELY recommend. All the stars!

Note: I received a copy of this book for FREE, and a positive review was not required.

If you are looking for a good mystery with suspense that is a bit scary. Don’t look any further. This book has it all. It will keep you reading and turning pages all night long. It may even keep you up all night. He he! It keep me up reading and because I was scared a bit. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

The Curse of Misty Wayfair
By Jaime Jo Wright

If you love a book that has two different threads of time that are woven together by a common factor you will love The Curse of Misty Wayfair. The early 1900s and present-day Pleasant Valley, Wisconsin, have one thing in common Misty Wayfair. Who or what is Misty Wayfair you ask? It is from her murder in 1851 that the legends that have haunted Pleasant Valley ever since have come from.

When Thea (Dorothea) Reed photographer of memento mori, also known as a mourning portrait, comes to Pleasant Valley, Wisconsin, in 1908 she is looking for clues to her past. A past that she has been lead to believe has roots there. Her only clues - scant memories of her mother and a letter detailing what little was known of her past. But Pleasant Valley seems anything but pleasant with secrets and rumors of a haunting by a woman whose appearance seems to foretell death. And the deaths all seem to be focused upon the Coyle family whom suspicion and rumor swirl in connection to the tale of Misty Wayfair. Thea wants to find the truth of who she is but most seem determined to discourage her attempts and she is warned away from the remaining Coyles, Rose and Simeon. But Thea is drawn to them in their grief and her curiosity keeps her from heeding the well-intentioned advice of the local residents or that of her late employer.

In present-day Pleasant Valley, Heidi Lane is making a visit to the family she has avoided for the last several years. Feeling that she never quite fit in and that she was never good enough for them she went away to college and has been running from her demons ever since. But a letter from her mentally failing mother has her returning to a home she never knew. A happy reunion is not about to happen anytime soon and when Heidi starts experiencing events that have her questioning just what is going on. And worse it seems as if someone is determined to push her mentally over the edge. And the old photograph that she discovered marked Misty Wayfair is seemingly linked to whatever is occurring and Heidi wants answers. But getting answers from her family may be a tad difficult and she's managed to annoy some of the local residents almost immediately, whoops.

The Curse of Misty Wayfair is Contemporary Gothic Fiction at its best. I really liked how the rumors about Misty Wayfair are engaged with by the various characters. Do you believe the souls of the deceased are trapped here forced to wander or did you believe that there is something beyond this that we know and see an afterlife that is not a wandering torment just beyond our physical life? Thea's upbringing was one that believed in spiritual hauntings. Heidi's upbringing was one as the youngest surprise child of a pastor and she chafed at the rules and don't that she felt stifled her. These two women with more than a century dividing them are linked by a place that is about to define what their futures will be but only if they can determine the truth of who they are.

Get ready for some suspense that will keep you reading, as you promise yourself just one more chapter until you reach the conclusion which for both story-threads has some unexpected results. Jaime Jo Wright has again worked wonders with her wordcraft and the winner in this is the reader who picks up this newest work.

I was provided a complimentary copy of this book by the publisher with no expectation but that I offer my honest opinion - all thoughts expressed are my own.

I found this dual-timeline suspense novel a bit tougher to follow than Wright's latest, which I really enjoyed. But it was still a mostly intriguing read, with occasional head scratching.

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

I had a hard time getting into this book even though the premise was so very interesting to me of a child being left at an orphanage and vowing to finding her mother later in life. I kept reading and hoping that I would start to enjoy the main character for Heidi, but I just found myself not caring for her and not being able to connect with her very well. I found myself enjoying Thea's story a bit more and was hoping that it would be delved into a bit further, but overall I felt like I just couldn't embrace this story like I would have liked to.

Wow. This was an interesting book. Dark, haunting and yet it drew you in. The story was well written and easily drew you in. There are two stories within, with it tapping back and forth between the two as they slowly divert into the one. Both are troubling and yet both are full of redemption.

I received this book from the publisher. My opinion on this book is my own.

The Curse of Misty Wayfair looks, reads, and feels like an old ghost story (Don't worry, its isn't). With marvaoulus "on the edge" mystery and the joys of budding romance. You can't help but grumble when you have to put the book down and join the rest of humanity. The story covers two lives in different centuries that are effected by a town mystery turned ghost story. The event that brings such hell draws our two main characters, Heidi and Thea, to question where God really is in the midst of their lives and why He put them here in the first place.

I was given a copy of this book from the publisher. these views are my own.

Jaime Jo always delivers such beautifully atmospheric and absorbing mysteries that never fail to keep me enthralled and just the slightest bit creeped-out (in the best way possible). She's mastered the blending of the historical mystery with the contemporary one to keep the reader guessing all the way through.

This book was a good mystery with many working pieces and parts. I really enjoyed how they tied in history!

The twists and turns is this book will surprise even the most skeptical and prolific readers. Superb character development and perpetual events propel you through the pages. Mysterious and macabre yet spiritually fulfilling in a unique way that doesn’t stifle. With just a touch of gruff romance to round out the loneliness felt by the main character.

I was pleasantly surprised by this tale.

Heidi Lane finds a photograph in an old scrapbook of a woman who looks just like her. This leads her on a quest to find out who the lady was. In searching for answers, Heidi finds her very life in danger too. This story takes place in two different time lines that weave the characters together. Jamie Jo Wright writes excellent dual timeline stories. Full of mystery and suspense and God's mercy and grace.

Jaime Jo Wright has a way of writing stories with mysterious settings that are oh so creepy. She has also mastered writing plots that weave two different time periods together. I was drawn in right from the start and couldn't read fast enough. The pages come to life with vivid detail and the characters are well thought out. A spiritual thread is woven throughout the pages and provide layers of emotions. I am not a fan of spooky, ghost or creepy books, so I was hesitant to read her first book. Much to my surprise Jaime Jo Wright has penned the words in a way that I can read and be intrigued enough to keep going. I think it is due to the way she goes between time periods and every dark emotion or scene has a reason behind it - never just tossed in for the scare factor. 

If you are looking for a unique spooky mystery that is in the genre Christian fiction, you absolutely do not want to miss this book. I highly recommend this book and her other books, as she hits it out of the park!

With little more than a name and place to direct her, Thea Reed arrives in Pleasant Valley to look for the mother who left her on the steps of an orphanage years earlier. When her search leads her to a mental asylum, Thea utilizes her skill as a post-mortem photographer to access the place. But her hunt unearths more than she bargained for. It reawakens the ghost of Misty Wayfair, a woman murdered decades earlier who townsfolk claim haunts the area and especially one family in particular.

A century later, Heidi Lane travels to Pleasant Valley, beckoned by a disconcerting letter penned by her dementia-ailing mother. Her search for answers leads Heidi to the ruins of an old asylum and the mysterious tale of the ghost believed to inhabit it.

Storytelling at its best, The Curse of Misty Wayfair delivers a spellbinding tale. An atmospheric and eerie read that haunts the reader long after its conclusion, Jaime Jo Wright seamlessly blends the past and present in a powerful story of identity and discovering it in our Creator.

Creepy without crossing into horror, Wright expertly uses vivid settings and descriptions to pin her audience to the edge of its seat and kick the heart rate up a notch, proving that one does not need to rely on blood and gore to deliver a deliciously suspenseful read.

The protagonists aren’t your typical (whatever that means) heroes. One won’t find a strapping FBI agent, modelesque detective, or brilliant lawyer but rather a gruff, grease-encrusted mechanic and a groundskeeper with tics and twitches. That is what makes them all the more loveable and heroic. They resemble people I know or can imagine encountering.

Wright masterfully created 3D settings that leapt off the page and had me feeling as though I experienced and interacted with the story world. Returning to reality proved jarring to say the least.

Despite only discovering Wright in December, I have already read all her novels. She has firmly planted herself at the top of my favorites list and become an author to emulate. Out of her three books, picking my number one choice would be impossible.

I strongly recommend The Curse of Misty Wayfair to readers who enjoy tales infused with a strong suspenseful element, a speck of romance, and a thread of faith. Now I’m off to re-read her stories because how else am I to make it until her next release in December?

A deep and compelling literary novel, weaving both contemporary and historical settings, rich in emotion, faith, psychology, and history, THE CURSE OF MISTY WAYFAIR is a novel both stunning and compelling. I so identified with both protagonists: Thea in 1908, Heidi in our time. Their search for metaphysical understanding, for faith, for ancestry and roots, to understand "where they came from" and from whom: my heart resonated with them throughout. I seldom discover a novel as personally compelling as this one, and I'm off to devour author Jaime Jo Wright's other novels.

Prepare to be held captive by a novel...

To be honest, I just don't know where to begin. My mind is so full after reading this book that I just don't know how to get my thoughts written down. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED this book. The Curse Of Misty Wayfair was not only author Jaime Jo Wright's best, but, it is probably one of my favorite reads. EVER.

After reading Jaime Jo Wright's previous two books I've come to expect a lot from her. But even I couldn't have anticipated how amazing The Curse Of Misty Wayfair would be. It is one of the most emotionally moving, powerful, and flat out eeriest books that I've read. To say that this book was a page-turner would be a gross understatement. I couldn't help it, I just couldn't put the book down. Everything else went to the wayside as I was held captive by the pages of a book.

What did I love about the book? Well, pretty much everything. It was dark, it was creepy, it was enough to keep you awake at night looking out the window into the shadows for a figure in white, but it was also so much more than that.

As with Jaime Jo Wright's previous books, The Curse Of Misty Wayfair is a dual timeline story with both a contemporary and a historical thread that are closely intertwined. With this book I connected with the heroines of both timelines right off the bat. There was just something about both women, and their love interests, that grabs the reader. All of them have been deeply hurt by circumstances, by the people around them, by choices. And all of them must fight their way through the darkness to a faith, no matter how fragile at first, beyond.

A truly wonderful book, The Curse Of Misty Wayfair is a must read for any Christian fiction fan, though, you may want to leave the light on when you go to bed tonight....

(I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are entirely my own.)

Jaime Jo Wright wrote a page turning suspense and I can't wait to read another of her books! I was addicted on the first page to the very last page. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a suspense and mystery

4.5 stars
Wow, such an enthralling story! Lots of crazy shadows in this one, and freaky, inexplicable happenings. Can a place really be haunted? Do ghosts really walk in the mists of midnight?

Both eras flow together well in this story as two different heroines, past and present, try to find out what secret holds the town in bondage and as they face different questions about their heritage and parents. Both Thea and Heidi discover strange things about the local mental asylum and have terrifying encounters with the legendary Misty Wayfair, leading them to search for answers: surely ghosts and curses aren’t in the realm of reality, right? The evidence definitely seems to suggest so. What’s the truth? And who is desperate to cover it up?

This is not a book to read if you’re wanting to sleep at night. It’s not the book to read if you’re afraid of the dark or if you are home alone. It’s the perfect book to snuggle up with under a warm blanket on a rainy day. I dare you to set it down when you’ve once picked it up!

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for a free reading copy. A favorable review was not required.

Um...WOW. Seriously, that's all you need to know. Jaime outdid herself on this story. It's gut-wrenching and hard and beautiful and creepy, all at once. Her writing is fast-paced, tense, with beautiful description that gives just enough to keep you wanting but not so much that you get bored.

I truly can't think of words to make this review better. Just...go read it. Really. Go. NOW. :)