Simple Joy

Surprisingly, I LOVED this book. Loved it more than Anna Dressed in Blood.

It touches on a lot of things that make a story whole whole. Explanation below.

Girl of Nightmares starts off with Cas a little off his game. He's been thinking of Anna ever since she disappeared into the big black hole of....? His friends (Carmel and Thomas) notice it, and quite frankly are a little concerned. Cas starts seeing Anna on missions and in flashes, he's getting a little worried about his sanity, as he should be. Finally he decides to stop pussyfooting takes action, instead of letting things continue to spiral out of his control. All the mentors, the "grown ups", the old wise men and voodists are against this new exploration that Cas is determined to seek. And so starts the adventure and you know what is to be adding up when someone says "NO" and yet you just can't help your curiosity.

SECRETS.

Cas sets out on an adventure and adventure is what he gets. Trying to reach Anna and discover the message and pain he keeps seeing in his visions of her. It unwraps a whole new world of mystery which I have a feeling might be expending on. (reasons to be explained further)

You experience in this book all sorts of emotion.

When friendships are tested, the depth of the emotions these circle of friends build upon and the hurt that we've all experienced one time or another, and the forseeing it even if we don't want to.

Even though this is brief within the book, and it may just be the strong bond that I share with my mother, I feel it. I feel his mother and her pain at sometimes watching her child take on these things and make these decisions. And she respects Cas, even if she knows, believes and advises Cassio against the decisions he makes.

Morfran. Is. Bad. Ass. I really want to see more of this guy. He's pretty hard core and awesome. I had a couple of laugh out loud moments with some of his dialogue and actions (sending Thomas to his aunts).

So why did I love it?

Because the story grew. It didn't jump off a cliff and bring you to a whole new time period, introduce dramatically inappropriate actions/thoughts from our characters. They were still there even if they were developing into more thoughtful little buggers. It was exactly how a series should be. Often times its so disappointing to start with a bang of a first book and then there is a huge disconnect with the second. Not here.
The dialogue. I love it and I don't really know why. I usually hate books that use slang because it catalogues the story to a period of time. But I really enjoy it, I love Cas's dark sense of humor that envelopes the book.

And now why I hold out hope there will be a 3rd book. I understand this series is relatively based on Miss Anna. Actually the titles are dedicated to her. HOWEVER, and please do not mistake what I'm saying as arrogant or know-it-all. It is just a thought. I believe the ending is set up in such a fashion as that now they have TWO ghost busters. Don't you wonder if they'll be tested against each other? It's really quite a small thought but I hope to see a story dedicated to this. You saw the chemistry between Jes and Cas--the conflicting loyalties. Perhaps....Perhaps...maybe never : / But I imagine it would be just as fantastic as these two books.

HIGHLY recommeded