Title: Waltz Through Eternity
Author: Margaret Teegarden
Publisher: Great Writers Media
ISBN: 978-1-960605-86-3
Pages: 150
Genre: Fiction / Suspense
Reviewed by: Jason Lulus
Pacific Book Review
The past is never passed. This is an odd but fitting way to encapsulate author Margaret Teegarden’s enchanting tale, Waltz Through Eternity. Historical precedents continue to influence present and future events. Likewise, and more personally, each family is influenced by the lives, hopes, and dreams of their ancestors. As time goes on, our more ancient ancestors’ influence tends to fade. But in Waltz Through Eternity, this is not the case. Somewhat forgotten tragedies breed spiritual unrest. And these echoes will continue unless descendants have the fortitude to make things right. In this story, blood is thicker than water and injustice is more lasting than mortality. In other words, the past has not quite passed.
The story begins with a quaint premise. Charlotte and John are traveling back home to Richmond to start a new life with their two children. While staying with John’s parents amid looking for a new home, Charlotte is unnaturally and profoundly drawn to an idyllic, abandoned house nearby. The more she learns about the house, the more terrifying and more alluring it becomes. When she learns of a familial connection to the house and its previous owners, she begins to feel a moral or familial obligation to make this her new home.
When Charlotte and John move their family into the house, the ghostly rumors and superstitious gossip historically tied to the house become all too real. The home once belonged to Sarah and Joe, a captain in the Civil War. The young couple were engaged to be married. But the awful tragedies that befell both Joe and Sarah prevent the marriage, and this leads to the heartbreak of two souls in a kind of purgatory, longing for an everlasting unity that seems always just beyond their grasp. Charlotte concludes that the spiritual unrest permeating the house and its former inhabitants is something that only she, a descendant of these suffering spirits, can make right. Charlotte becomes supernaturally entangled and is determined to discover every truth about her ancestors’ past so that she might help them find peace.
Waltz Through Eternity has all the flavor of a Southern gothic romance. Heartbreaking and haunting, it deals with love, tragedy, romantic landscape, and spiritual connection. The author’s writing paints a picture of a quaint, charming backdrop haunted by an aura of mystery, giving the tale a nice balance of romanticism and suspense. I would recommend this book for readers interested in a nice bit of escapism, but it is also a good old fashioned ghost story that delves into deeper themes of family, ancestry, and spiritual justice.
