My title for the post suggests a paranormal twister. I’m not referring to a tornado. I mean how this story is so twisted.
Can’t wait to tell you about so enjoy the peek inside and my review!
Darkness Within
The Darkness Series
Book One
Candis Vargo
Genre: Paranormal Thriller
Publisher: Limitless Publishing
Date of Publication: March 10
My Review
After the death of her young son. Mia continues to act like he’s still alive. Her husband, Mike, is at the end of his rope. Nothing will convince her otherwise and he feels like he’s going crazy.
To save his marriage and his sanity, Mike goes to a psychiatrist and she has something she wants him to try with his wife. Not long afterwards strange things start happening. Something is haunting them, something dark and dangerous.
You may think you know what’s happening since we’ve all read books or seen movies with this plot. I thought I knew what was happening. Then I didn’t. Then I did. And so on.
The author kept me guessing and the story got creepier as the darkness got more violent.
I knew Mia was crazy. Then I thought Mike was crazy. It about drove ‘me’ crazy trying to figure things out.
While I was reading the end I knew what was coming. Then I didn’t. Then I did.
The entire book had be jumping back and forth between knowing and not knowing what was going on. It was as if the author put me in Mike’s shoes, and I was as confused and scared as he was.
This is a creepy story and I recommend it to anyone looking for a paranormal thriller with a great mystery thrown in. Just be prepared to think you do… Then you don’t… Then you do…
4 Stars
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Book Description:
Tragedy strikes the Roseburg family and leaves Mike struggling to help his wife, Mia. After losing their only child in an accident, Mia is far from emotionally distraught…instead, she continues on like their son is still alive.
Four months passed since the accident…
Mike begins to work with a psychiatrist to help his wife with her delusions when a darkness begins to haunt them. As this dark presence becomes violent, making itself known, Mike wonders if the illusion of their child that his wife is seeing is something far more demonic.
With the dark force looming over them, Mike is left questioning his own sanity as he tries to unravel what is real and what is not.
Soon he realizes…
Something is dreadfully wrong.
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A Glimpse inside Darkness Within
Chapter One
The force of the impact with the truck thrust the Jeep forward, throwing Mia deep into her seat as they went nose first into a ditch. What was left of the back of the jeep rolled up over the front. It continued to flip over several times before seeming to levitate in the air after rolling off the embankment. It felt like an eternity, the world moving in slow motion, before it smashed against the icy cold river sending shards of glass and ice throughout the vehicle. As it slowly began to sink Mia automatically reached down to unbuckle herself. After struggling to free herself from the seat belt she reached back for her son.
Her long, dark hair floated through the thickness of the icy water and streams of blood swam around her face. As she turned around everything became hazy and the darkness fought to take away her control. A panic began to set in as her heart raced. She needed to get back to Eli, to unbuckle him…she needed to save her son.
Being a mother she couldn’t care less if she was hurt, she just needed to save her son. Like a tiger protecting her young, it was a mother’s first priority.
As she tried to move into the back seat she reached out to Eli again.
He gently placed his outstretched hand into hers. His eyes, so soft and gentle, stared into his mother’s, whose were full of pain and fear for him. He smiled his sweet innocent smile as if telling her that things were going to be okay.
It was the end of February, a time the weather was supposed to be warming up as it was readying for spring. Supposed to…but of course it wasn’t.
Mia had been trying to avoid what happened. Just moments ago she was talking to her husband on the phone through the Bluetooth she managed to con him into installing, stating that she was going to wait for the storm to pass.
“Hello,” Mikes groggy voice had echoed through the car.
“Hi, Daddy.” Eli’s enthusiasm rang throughout the vehicle. “Dad…Dad, I’m out of school, Dad. And it’s snowing!”
“Oh yeah, buddy,” Mike replied. “Well, I guess I will see you soon then.”
Mia had angled her rear view mirror down to look back at Eli. She placed her index finger in front of her mouth to shush him but smiled underneath it.
Eli puckered his lips out and grabbed them with one hand to keep himself from talking as he gave her a thumbs up.
“Yeah, it’s snowing like crazy.” Mia took her time as she drove. She was never a fan of the winter weather and only liked snow on Christmas Eve and
Christmas Day, any time before or after that she’d prefer it be seventy degrees and sunny. “We’re going to be late for dinner. I think I’m going to pull over when I can manage to even see anything so I don’t slide into a damn ditch.”
When Mia left to pick Eli up from preschool there were just a few flurries floating in the icy wind. Now it had come to near white out conditions, causing her to curse winter even more.
“All right, just take your time and watch out for the crazy people out there. And I came up with an awesome idea for big man’s birthday party. Turning the big five soon, eh, buddy.”
Mia looked in the mirror and saw Eli’s deep brown eyes light up. He hopped up and down in his booster seat with excitement. “Do I get a guitar,
Dad? Daddy, I want a guitar!”
“You’ll have to wait and see, buddy, but I better let you guys go so you can get home. Maybe this snow will be good enough to take you snowmobiling later.”
Mia rolled her eyes and shook her head in frustration. “See you when we get home.”
She was still upset with him over what had happened the night before. She could swear that sometimes it seemed like he’d rather be anywhere but where the man of the house should be at night…home. Gender roles were never really her thing, but to her it always seemed like the man did a better job of protecting the family from intruders.
“Stay safe,” Mike said before he hung up.
After Mike hung up Mia had slowed down even more, trying to find a place to pull over before she got anywhere near the upcoming bridge that crossed the river. She wanted to be out of the way of any oncoming traffic but with the snow falling as hard as it was, it was nearly impossible to see anything.
After a few more minutes of driving the snow let up ever so slightly, enough for her to spot a place where she could pull over. Slowing down to a near stop, she started to turn the wheel.
The distinctive sound of a big rig’s horn snapped her attention to the rear view mirror, still angled for her to see Eli. She snapped her head to the right side mirror and saw a tractor trailer turned sideways, sliding towards her. Her heart raced as she pushed the gas pedal, trying to get out of the way as fast as she could. The wheels seemed to turn in pace and the air horn blared again, but was drowned out by the screeching of metal as it collided.
Everything went black.
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About the Author:
Growing up on an old dirty road in the middle of nowhere, as a child Candis used her love for books as a way to escape reality (and her brother constantly trying to kill her—literally). She blames her love of all things Horror on being born on Friday the 13th and will always find joy in scaring her friends.
You will find a little piece of her in every book she writes. She loves a good happy ending, but most of the time she prefers one she never saw coming.
When she’s not writing or reading, she can usually be found chasing her children around. She currently lives in Rome, Pennsylvania with her husband and three children. And her fat cat.
Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Goodreads
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