Customer Reviews

Awakening

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4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
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This was an excellent ghost story! Usually with any ghost/mystery book, you can guess the ending mid way through the book, but not this one! Mrs. Boyd keeps us guessing until the end! The story is about The Mason's, a family recently moved into their lake home in Mercy, North Carolina, and struggling with family crisis, and Mary, a ghost of a woman who has been dead for seventy years and doesn't realize she is the ghost. Mary seems to be connected to this family in some way, after all, she has waited seventy years to return home, and that connection is the real mystery behind the ghost story! I highly recommend this book!

If you have ever longed to read a good old-fashioned ghost story, a chilling tale of the supernatural, Donna Boyd's "The Awakening" should fit the bill perfectly. If you prefer the metaphysical over the mundane, the author also raises some intriguing questions about the nature of death and freewill.

Paul Mason, a successful writer of children's books, and an English professor at a college in North Carolina, is fired for having an affair with a student. His wife, Penny, a surgeon, is now the only breadwinner in the family. She is devastated by her husband's infidelity. Their thirteen year-old daughter, Elise, is very troubled and recovering from a trauma she experienced a year ago. Withdrawn and depressed, Elise has been pulled out of public school and her father is homeschooling her. The family leaves their home in town and moves to their lake house, hoping to rebuild the marriage and their former close, loving relationship. After a brief time at the lake, Elise becomes more introspective and appears to hear voices and strange noises. Penny begins to have vivid, violent reoccurring nightmares. Paul meets and converses with an unknown woman, who seems very much at home on their property. There are indeed bizarre goings-on at the Mason house. However, Paul, Penny and Elise are estranged from each other and not communicating well. But it is only through pooling their knowledge that they will be able to unravel the mystery - and there's not too much time left!

At almost the same time the Masons move to the lake, a woman awakens from a long coma. She is disoriented and remembers nothing about herself, her life or her family. Someone, a psychiatrist or doctor, works with her but tells her that only she can unlock her memory - if she wants to remember. She slowly determines that her husband and daughter are dead, in an accident. Her only wish is to return home. Finally, when she remembers her name, she is allowed to go home.

Donna Boyd has written an eerie tale about worlds which exist on parallel planes. Those with pressing needs may pass from one to another. This is a simply written, engrossing novel where the telling of the tale is all important. I enjoyed it...and was scared at times - the test of a good ghost story!
JANA

This story slowly spins a tale of a family in crisis alongside a woman in crisis. It gains momentum and draws you in. The characters, the house, and the countryside are beautifully and painstakingly described. The story is very complex, yet the book is remarkably short. I was shocked how quickly I read this.

The author, who has written a number of well-received books, including her elegantly written werewolf saga ("The Passion", "The Promise"), now turns her attention to ghosts in this intriguing tale of the supernatural. Those who have enjoyed the author's previous books will not be disappointed.

The story is told through the eyes of a family in crisis, the Masons, as well as through the eyes of Mary, the ghost in this well told tale. The Masons are a family who have had their world turned upside down through a series of unfortuitous events. Their teenage daughter Elsie is suffering from some traumatic experience that has resulted in her being home schooled. Paul, the patriarch of the family, has done the near unforgivable, by having an affair with a student at the college at which he had been a professor. Having been summarily dismissed from his position for his ill advised behavior, he, a formerly successful writer, also has had the misfortune to watch his career wane, as that of Penny, his wife and a successful surgeon, has been on the rise. Clearly, this is a family in crisis.

To escape the scandal, help their daughter, and try and save their marriage, the Masons have moved to their lakefront home in a rural section of North Carolina. While there, each of the family members has a series of unusual experiences. Elsie sees a woman named Mary wandering about the house, as does her father, while Penny has a series of violent dreams in which the woman named Mary also plays a part.

Meanwhile, Mary is having her own crisis, as the reader will soon discover. Mary has ties to the house in which the Masons now reside, and the Masons themselves seem all too familiar to her, as she wanders around the house and grounds. You see, Mary is desperately trying to remember something that remains elusive, and the Masons may just have the key to her past.

This story is beautifully told when done so through the voice of Mary. Vivid in its imagery and language, it is very well done. When told through the collective voices of the Mason family, the book takes a much more pedestrian tone in the telling, which detracts somewhat from the book and takes away some of its polish and luster. Notwithstanding this, it is an intriguing and novel ghost story that is well worth reading.

The author, who has written a number of well-received books, including her elegantly written werewolf saga ("The Passion", "The Promise"), now turns her attention to ghosts in this intriguing tale of the supernatural. Those who have enjoyed the author's previous books will not be disappointed.

The story is told through the eyes of a family in crisis, the Masons, as well as through the eyes of Mary, the ghost in this well told tale. The Masons are a family who have had their world turned upside down through a series of unfortuitous events.

Their teenage daughter Elsie is suffering from some traumatic experience that has resulted in her being home schooled. Paul, the patriarch of the family, has done the near unforgivable, by having an affair with a student at the college at which he had been a professor. Having been summarily dismissed from his position for his ill advised behavior, he, a formerly successful writer, also has had the misfortune to watch his career wane, as that of Penny, his wife and a successful surgeon, has been on the rise. Clearly, this is a family in crisis.

To escape the scandal, help their daughter, and try and save their marriage, the Masons have moved to their lakefront home in a rural section of North Carolina. While there, each of the family members has a series of unusual experiences. Elsie sees a woman named Mary wandering about the house, as does her father, while Penny has a series of violent dreams in which the woman named Mary also plays a part.

Meanwhile, Mary is having her own crisis, as the reader will soon discover. Mary has ties to the house in which the Masons now reside, and the Masons themselves seem all too familiar to her, as she wanders around the house and grounds. You see, Mary is desperately trying to remember something that remains elusive, and the Masons may just have the key to her past.

This story is beautifully told when done so through the voice of Mary. Vivid in its imagery and language, it is very well done. When told through the collective voices of the Mason family, the book takes a much more pedestrian tone in the telling, which detracts somewhat from the book and takes away some of its polish and luster. Notwithstanding this, it is an intriguing and novel ghost story that is well worth reading.

I got a hold of this book accidentally when looking for Kelley Armstrong's book by the same name. It lay on my desk for several weeks until I picked it up when looking for a stand alone short read when going to Raleigh to move my daughter back to college. It turned a 3 hour ride into a delight as I delved into this great mystery. I've got to admit that I thought I had it figured out several times but the author deftly ran circles around me. I can say little that doesn't spoil the book but you will not be disappointed at all upon reading this short though amazingly complex story.

This is a very quick and light book. I thought it was interesting and unpredictable. While the story was other-worldly, I thought the characters were realistic and believable.

The Awakening is not nearly as intriguing as the Passion. The story is unique but the characters are rather non-compelling. As a fan of the Passion and the Promise, this book was a let down.

Paul and Penny Mason spend the summer in their home in Mercy, North Carolina trying to patch up their marriage and help their thirteen-year-old daughter Elsie heal from a trauma she went through a year ago. Paul is a best-selling author of children's books and had been a professor at the Woodlands, but was fired for having an affair with one of his students. Penny is working hard at trying to forgive him but is spending more of her time in Chapel Hill doing surgeries than staying at a lake house that is making her increasingly uneasy.

Penny has vivid dreams of the people that lived in the town in 1932 and the tragedy that occurred in her home. Elsie sees the ghost of Mary who is looking for her own husband and child. Paul is the only one who can speak to Mary but he doesn't understand why she is haunting his home. Elsie and Paul research the history of their home but it is Penny who finds out the answers that Mary needs to move on after her purpose is finished.

Donna Boyd has written a chilling and spooky old fashioned ghost story about two worlds in time and space that temporally connect so that members of one family can interact with the surviving member of the other family who needs to discover the truth about her past. The characters are all victims and survivors who must find a way to move on from the tragedies that have affected their lives. Readers will really enjoy THE AWAKENING and appreciate the wonder that is so much a part of this stirring tale.

Harriet Klausner