Author: Melissa Payne
Book Name: The Secrets of Lost Stones
Release Date: September 1, 2019
Series: *
Order: *
Genre: Women’s Fiction/Suspense/Paranormal
Overall SPA: 4 Stars
Blurb: Thirty-two-year-old Jess Abbot has lost everything: her job, her apartment, and—most heart-wrenching—her eight-year-old son, Chance, to a tragic accident. Haunted by memories and grief, Jess packs what’s left and heads for the small mountain town of Pine Lake, where she takes a position as caregiver to an eccentric old woman.
A rumored clairvoyant, Lucy is strange but welcoming and immediately intuits Jess as a “loose end” in need of closure. But Jess isn’t the only guest in Lucy’s large Victorian home. There’s also Star, a teenage runaway with a secret too painful to share. And the little boy with heart-shaped stones, who comes with a hope for reconciliation—and a warning.
Soon Jess learns that she’s not the only lost soul running from the ghosts of the past. She and Star have been brought together for a reason: to be saved by the very thing that destroyed them.
Main SPA Evaluation Areas:
Characters: 4/5 Stars
Believability: 3.5/5 Stars
Personal Opinion: 4/5 Stars
This is a book with a lot of real life issues and emotions, but it is also threaded through with this sense of paranormal. I really enjoyed that balance between the two. At one point, I was a little worried that this was going to have a much darker ending than I prefer, but I was pleasantly surprised it didn’t go that direction.
I was surprised that I liked the majority of the characters in this book, because that is kind of rare for me. They were all really well written and well balanced with the layers they were supposed to have. I loved Lucy’s character and I would have loved to have gotten more of her history because she is so interesting.
This is just a really good, solid story all the way through. Because of the ghostly paranormal vibe, this would be a great book for a fall/Halloween read without being over the top scary.
*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. Opinions stated are honest and my own.
TJ Fox: Sharing the Experience 
Sounds interesting!
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It really was. I had a hard time trying to write this one because I did really enjoy it, but struggled to really articulate why.
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I just began a new book, but I’ll consider this one next.
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Let me know if you do and what you think of it!
I kind of want you to read Beautiful Sky Beautiful Sky just to see what you thought about all the musical references and the time throwback, but I’m not certain you’ll love the overall genre and story.
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I’ll check it out. So many books, and I’m not getting any younger!
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There are SO many good books!
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That’s too true. I remember the day it occurred to me I’d never be able to read every book I wanted to read. I was devastated.
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