Tag Archives: ghosts

A Reason To Believe

Book Review of A Reason To Believe, by Diana Copland

Leave a reply

A Reason to BelieveI bought a copy of A Reason to Believe, by Diana Copland.

Description from Goodreads:
Detective Matthew Bennett doesn’t believe in ghosts. So when the spirit of a murdered child leads him to her body, he’s shaken to the core—and taken off the case. Unable to explain his vision, or to let go of the investigation, Matthew turns to renowned medium Kiernan Fitzpatrick. Though he has doubts about Kiernan’s claims to communicate with the dead, Matt is nevertheless drawn to the handsome psychic, who awakens feelings he thought were long-buried.

Haunted by the lingering spirit of the little girl, Kiernan is compelled to aid in the search for her killer. The chance to get closer to the enigmatic Matt is an unexpected bonus. Although Kiernan’s been betrayed by people who turned out to be more interested in his fame than in himself, with Matt he’s willing to risk his heart. As the two men grow closer, Kiernan helps Matt rediscover that life offers no guarantees—but love offers a reason to believe…

Review:
This was an upper-middle of the road read, meaning I didn’t love it but I was perfectly satisfied by it. I like Matt’s character quite a bit. I tolerated Kiernan. He was basically just too over the top and grated on my nerves. I can’t even count how many perky, puppy-like bottoms I’ve encountered in m/m romances, but he just felt like one more of the same.

I’ll say the same for the token female BFF. They only seem to come in one of two designs, total biyatch or mouthy and nosy, but well intentioned. Sheila fell into the latter category. Meh.

As for the mystery, it was ok. I figured the basics of it out pretty early but was more than happy ride it out and learn the details. Unfortunately, three things annoyed me about it. One, there seemed to be quite a few convenient coincidences. For example, in a town of half a million the token BFF happens to be friends with the single person who can provide them the single piece of the puzzle they don’t even know they’re missing and just happens to think to speak to her. Ummm?

Two, Matt and Kiernan go about doing a lot of stupid stuff to figure out who the murderer is and exonerate the wrongly accused man. But nothing they do is anything they can take to the police, so it’s all basically pointless in the grand scheme of things. Three, the six-year-old ghost is way too smart for her age and Kiernan pretty much said they go into the afterlife with the understanding of their living selves.

The romance was also ok. I liked it well enough, but nothing about it wowed me. It was nice seeing Matt reemerge from his grief. (The scene with the flag at Brad’s funeral almost brought me to tears.) But the way Kiernan threw sexual innuendo in all the time just got annoying.

All-in-all, it was a fine read. I even liked it. But by next week I probably won’t even remember reading it.

Hainted

Book Review of Hainted, by Jordan L. Hawk

Leave a reply

HaintedI borrowed a copy of Hainted, by Jordan L. Hawk. (Thanks, S.)

Description from Goodreads:
The Good Guy: Haint-working runs in Dan Miller’s blood. Not everyone can help the restless dead cross over, especially when the haunting threatens the Living. But the death of his parents six years ago forced Dan to give it up in exchange for raising his brother and sister, all the while struggling to keep their rural NC farm afloat.

So when the flamboyantly goth Leif Helsvin shows up on Dan’s doorstep looking for help with an evil necromancer named Runar, Dan’s first instinct is to turn him down. With two teenagers to look after, he’s already got all the trouble he can handle. Besides, the sexy Leif is too much of a temptation, and Dan is firmly in the closet.

The Bad Boy: Pierced, tattooed Leif never has sex with the same guy twice. It keeps things simple, especially since his oath to stop Runar has him constantly drifting from one town to the next.

But this time, it looks like Leif is going to need help, in the form of the very down-to-earth Dan. Since Nice Guys are off the menu, Leif just has to keep his hands to himself for as long as it will take to stop Runar’s latest scheme. But as Leif finds himself drawn deeper into Dan’s life, he quickly realizes he’s not just in danger of breaking the rules, but breaking his heart as well

Review:
I don’t usually use star ratings on the blog. But I think it will help me explain my indecision on this one. If I were to star this book, I would be stuck between a 3 and a 4. It’s not quite a 4, but it’s better than a lot of books I’ve given 3s to. I think my seesaw-opinion comes from it being a fine book, but grating on my personal nerves.

It is well written and well edited; no complaints on that front. I’ll definitely be looking for more of Hawk’s writing, but Dan and Lief just annoyed the living daylights out of me almost every-time one of them opened their mouth.

I did appreciate the twist on the characters, on who’s the strong one and who needs the healing. Well, they both need healing, but the bad-boy character isn’t usually the one written as fey-like and fragile and it gave the book a bit of something different. And I did like both characters. I also thought the side characters were very well done. Taryn was awesome, Bea was stable and dependable, Virgil gave everything a little friction, even Corey and Marlene added a little something to the mix.

However, the book is repetitive. We’re told the same information multiple times, very close together. I think if Dan blamed himself for not saving his mother one more time I might have tossed my kindle over the back of the couch. (This also made his sudden repressed memory and the strength he garnered from it at the end unbelievably convenient.) Similarly, Lief’s constant ‘if he knew the truth’ mantra grew old pretty quickly.

I was also absolutely sickened by the sex=love and instant endearment laden relationship—you know, the way the characters instantly start calling each-other baby and sweetheart and saying things like ‘I’ll love you forever.’ Especially since Dan simultaneously held onto the ‘he’s leaving next week.’ It was pretty clear that had fallen off the table. Plus, if I’m honest, Lief’s ex-prozzie, ‘I’m into toys and plugs and everything else’ attitude didn’t really fit the tone of the rest of the book.

Then there was the fact that I was confused about the haints. They’re supposed to be ghosts, but lets be real, they’re zombies. And I didn’t set out to read a zombie book. This wasn’t help by the fact that I found the action scenes fairly mild and almost always brief.

The whole set up also felt a little wobbly because Runar seemed to discover what he came to Ransom Gap for after he came to Ransom Gap. I can’t really explain this without a spoiler, but once he arrived he discovered something he wanted to find and went about searching it out as Dan and Lief tried to stop him (that’s the non-romance part of the plot). So, what brought him there in the first place?

So, in the end, it was a fine book. It really was. I didn’t even dislike it. I liked a lot of it. But there were just so many small annoyances that they started to reach a bit of a critical mass by the end.

spirit

Book Review of Spirit, by John Inman

Leave a reply

Spirit

I bought a copy of John Inman‘s novel, Spirit.

Description from Goodreads:
Jason Day, brilliant designer of video games, is not only a confirmed bachelor, but he’s as gay as a maypole. One wouldn’t think being saddled with his precocious four-year-old nephew for four weeks would be enough to throw him off-kilter. 

Wrong. Timmy, Jason’s nephew, is a true handful. 

But just when Timmy and Uncle Jason begin to bond, and Jason feels he’s getting a grip on this babysitting business once and for all, he’s thrown for a loop by a couple of visitors—one from Tucson, the other from beyond the grave. 

I’m sorry. Say what? 

Toss a murder, a hot young stud, an unexpected love affair, and a spooky-ass ghost with a weird sense of humor into Jason’s summer plans, and you’ve got the makings for one hell of a ride.

Review:
I thought that this was really quite cute, funny in a clever sort of way and suspenseful. It was also well written and well edited.

Yes, the precocious four-year-old was far too clearly communicative to be realistic. He was very adult sounding, in fact, and that annoyed me a bit. I wouldn’t have wanted baby talk or anything, but no four-year-old has that much reasoning power or clear, concise, grammatically correct speech. It was distracting (but maybe that was exaggerated for me since I have a 4 year old). Similarly, and possibly as a result of the adult toddler, the interactions between the Jason and Sam and Timmy were unrealistic. (Along with Jack, Paul and Sally, are those not the most boring American names the author could have chosen?)

And yes, despite generally loving Jason, I thought he was so camp as to be a cliché. Not so much because he listened to show tunes or used concealer on his acne, but because of his constant need to talk about things being butch or that he might not be manly or macho enough to do whatever—lift a suitcase, swing a sledgehammer, face a spider, etc. It was just a constant attack on his status as a man, as if to say, ‘I’m gay so I obviously can’t also be strong, or brave, or handy with a hammer.’ Certainly, Sam had no such compunctions. Some of this wouldn’t have bothered me (it’s his personality, after all), but he never missed an opportunity to remind the reader. 

The relationship between Sam and Jason also felt a little convenient, but the plot couldn’t have happened without it, so no real complaints. I’m not sure how I felt about all the aiming for the face and licking the leftovers in bed, though. I’m really just not sure. I didn’t necessarily dislike it, but I couldn’t decide if this was supposed to be a little kink thrown in or if this was supposed to be (or maybe is, what do I know) a normal, everyday practice.

All in all, I had a few niggles but for the most part I laughed a lot, nibbled my lips in anticipation, sighed at the romance and generally enjoyed myself with this one.