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When is a dream just a dream and when does it cross the line into a life altering premonition or even more than that? This isn't something that Joy Mitchell even thinks about. All she knows is that she is haunted by the same dream night after night, but when she awakes she can't pinpoint what it is about the dream that has her so scared. It isn't until she is on her way to work and accidentally hits a puppy with her car that her dreams become a reality. When she misses the turn into a veterinarian's office, she comes face to face with her nightmare, an abandoned lighthouse on a foggy beach, one only known to her in her dreams. Shaken, she turns around and retraces her steps back up the road and to the office of veterinarian Eric Ross.
Unbeknownst to Joy, she'd had a previous and frustrating run in with the rugged vet, who doesn't recognize her in her business attire. Today, she is Joyce Mitchell, District Sales Manager for Fountain of Youth cosmetics, not the grouchy young woman who had her parking space and paper snatched away by a man that appeared to be a loner cowboy. It is Eric who is able to start filling in the background of her dream lighthouse. The solitary monolith is all that was left of a beach estate that had belonged to Mona Sterling. Mona, former movie starlet, had died mysteriously eight years before in a house fire on the very property that Joy had been dreaming of. With the help of the handsome vet and a supporting cast of local townsfolk, Joy finds herself drawn into a possible eight-year-old murder mystery, one that has the potential to destroy her, the job she loves, and the man she has grown to care for deeply. HOLD BACK TIME by Allene Frances was a joy to read, and I'm not someone who normally enjoys mysteries or paranormal stories. The author was able to bring her characters to life in front of my eyes, giving each a history that in some way or another plays a part in solving the mystery that still surrounds a washed up star and an old deserted light house. Even the smaller characters who lived in town, and who may have been lost in the shuffle, had a story to tell, and were often without knowing it, the key to moving closer to the truth. I will continue to keep an eye on Ms. Frances and any further books she brings to this unique genre. She has me convinced that perhaps I was too hasty in brushing off paranormal stories in the past. Angela
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