The Wedding Gift
By Kathleen McKenna
Published July 12th 2010 by Createspace
From GoodReads ~
It is a spine-electrifying supernatural tale where a huge Southern States mansion contains one of the most terrifying, violent and indeed psychopathic ghosts to haunt any town. It is also a murder mystery - why did Robina Willets apparently kill all five of her young children, and her husband, before stabbing herself to death? And, if you are in the camp of believing that 'justice .... just is not', then this will have you frothing at the mouth with righteous social fury. Add to that the vision of two exceptionally beautiful girls lying on a landing stage in the middle of a secluded lake, sleeping naked in the sun .... .... and then see if you can find any consecutive ten minutes in this book when you don't at least snicker at the heroine Leeann's sly, caustic, sometimes-knowing sometimes 'too stupid to live' commentary.
My Thoughts ~
The GoodReads description of this book is way off.
I prefer the quote by Tim Roux,
author of Missio and The Dance of the Pheasodile,
which states "Leann wasn’t good enough for her upper-crust in-laws, so they gave her the mansion none of them wanted. Years ago, something or someone in the house killed Leann’s brother. Will its violent secrets kill her next?“ . . . a spine-electrifying supernatural tale where a huge Southern States mansion contains one of the most terrifying, violent and indeed psychopathic ghosts to haunt any town. It is also a murder mystery—why did Robina Willets apparently kill all five of her young children, and her husband, before stabbing herself to death? And, if you are in the camp of believing that 'Justice . . . just is not,' then this will have you frothing at the mouth with righteous social fury.”
Leann was from 'the wrong side of the tracks', hell,
her mother once worked for the Willets family.
[Cleaned up after the first murders, actually.]
Leann tells the story in The Wedding Gift.
I have a love / hate feeling toward Leann.
She is very smart, as convincing smart, in no way is she book smart.
She tells us that she is 'the prettiest girl that had ever been born in Dalton City, OK.'
[Just repeating what everyone in town says, of course.]
Leann is in love with Donny.
The boy that survived the night her brother died at the Old Willets house in 1986.
She has always been in love with him, but he up and got married.
Leann's best friend, Jessie, is feisty as hell.
[She reminds me of myself.]
I love that she doesn't have a filter between her head and mouth.
If Jessie thinks it, Jessie will say it!
George is from the highest ranks in town.
The murders in 1975 is the families biggest shock.
[The secrets that are hidden should be, though.]
Leann meets George when going to ask his family to write a check for the high school.
She is 17 years old. He is 26.
He insists on taking her to dinner, by plane, no less,
and buys her thousands of dollars worth of clothing.
When she ends up pregnant,
after believing that George was sterile from having the mumps,
[OMG, I thought.... This girl has no brain!]
Georges' first reaction, surprise, is to call her a slut and deny the baby.
When he proposes to her, in front of the high school, with a freaking TEN AND A HALF carat ring,
what else could she do then say yes?
[Uh, say no. Remember Leann, He called you a slut and you call him fat!]
After the wedding, George moves Leann in to the Old Willets house,
and things get real good.
Robina's ghost never left the house, and she want to show Leann why.
Shocking events lead to Leann finally being free.
******************************************************************
I read this book in less then 2 days.
