Review: The Wishing Well Curse by Lynn Donovan

The Wishing Well Curse
by Lynn Donovan
Alt Wit Press
May 1, 2013
Length: 363 pages

~ A Gothic - Paranormal Christian Ghost Story ~

Zeke Clay is down on his luck. He’s lost everything—an apartment, an education, a girlfriend, his job…

When a mysterious letter comes from a law firm in Colorado, he decides things just might be looking up. Now he stands to inherit a fortune, but it comes with a price. He must break a family curse and restore true love. What does he know about breaking a curse? And who is this Great Uncle Luther Clayton, who claims Zeke is the one? Can he piece together the clues left by his dearly departed?

Who can he trust? The Apache Indian attorney? Her great nephew? The leather-clad, Harley riding Pastor? Least of all, himself?
What about the Ghosts?

…And why does his three-year-old tattoo bleed every time he gets near the wishing well?



Zeke Clay's adventure starts with crazy events: his girlfriend cheats on him, although there wasn't anything wrong in the relationship or signals to indicate so in his mind. He gets fired/laid off from his job. And...as they say bad things happens in threes: he witnesses an auto accident and the guy he ends up rescuing from drowning in the crash is none other than the guy his girlfriend just cheated with.

Yeah, crappy day to the say the least.

When everything seems like it's falling on Zeke, along comes a mysterious envelope that leads Zeke to the state of Colorado. There, his life takes many exciting turns, which Zeke takes in stride. Zeke is a very easy-going young man, and can be attributed to his mom's influence and his dad's, although Zeke doesn't think much of the man at the time. Of course, later in this story, Zeke comes to appreciate what his dad did for him and with him. In Colorado, at the "family" estate, Zeke learns a lot about his family genealogy, which he had zero knowledge of beforehand. He takes on the challenges on the road to accepting his inheritance that was bestowed upon him by an uncle he never knew he had. Already much more mature than others his age thanks to his parents, Zeke grows into the man he will become.

Not only does Zeke learn about the family's curse that has lasted for over a hundred years, but he learns that he is now responsible for breaking it as a condition of his inheritance.  Sure, he gets help from the people who knew his uncle well, but also from a few he had not counted on. Although as a reader you know all is going to end well, the "how will it end" is still a mystery! And the enjoy-ability (I'm making up a new word, I know :P) of how the tale is laid out to you is what makes a book a good read. Lynn Donovan  masterfully weaves the tale, revealing bit by bit, making the reader (ME! and hopefully you!) eager to read to the end and find out.

This is a fascinating folk-ish tale with its mystery and such, but it's also informative. We learn what the white settlers had done to the native people, the injustices and atrocities forced upon the original people of this land. I like the way that Lynn Donovan informs without preaching, about the wrongs done upon the natives as well as about her beliefs of Christianity. If she had overdone either of these two, it would have been a major turn off to the reader, or at least to this reader as I really do not like proselytizing in my reading. Instead, Donovan artfully weaves it in as part of the story, the morals, so as to appeal to believers and non-believers alike.

Overall, I enjoyed this tale and walked away from it feeling content and happy. I would definitely recommend for those who enjoy YA fiction.