{"id":16736,"date":"2020-10-15T06:04:20","date_gmt":"2020-10-15T11:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/?p=16736"},"modified":"2021-10-30T12:06:39","modified_gmt":"2021-10-30T17:06:39","slug":"review-of-haunted-and-harrowed-by-irene-preston-liv-rancourt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/review-of-haunted-and-harrowed-by-irene-preston-liv-rancourt\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review of Haunted and Harrowed, by Irene Preston &#038; Liv Rancourt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some time ago I picked up a copy of <a href=\"https:\/\/smile.amazon.com\/Haunted-Hours-Night-Irene-Preston-ebook\/dp\/B079T73HKZ\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=35DBSIHAMUROS&amp;dchild=1&amp;keywords=haunted+liv+rancourt&amp;qid=1602612782&amp;sprefix=haunted+liv+%2Caps%2C200&amp;sr=8-1\">Haunted<\/a>, by Irene Preston and Liv Rancourt, from Amazon as a freebie. I honestly meant to read it ages ago, but somehow it ended up buried in the TBR. But when the authors sent me a copy of <a href=\"https:\/\/smile.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B08JKY4JX1?notRedirectToSDP=1&amp;ref_=dbs_mng_calw_1&amp;storeType=ebooks\">Harrowed<\/a> for review, I got the opportunity to read them together.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 50%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-16736 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-medium'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/review-of-haunted-and-harrowed-by-irene-preston-liv-rancourt\/haunted-2\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" src=\"http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Haunted-200x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"Haunted preston rancourt\" srcset=\"http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Haunted-200x300.jpg 200w, http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Haunted.jpg 317w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/review-of-haunted-and-harrowed-by-irene-preston-liv-rancourt\/harrowed\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" src=\"http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Harrowed-200x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"Harrowed preston rancourt\" srcset=\"http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Harrowed-200x300.jpg 200w, http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Harrowed.jpg 317w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><strong>Description of Haunted:<\/strong><br \/>\n<em><span id=\"freeText3462003579694656316\">Noel Chandler had a good reason for leaving the L.A.P.D. for New Orleans, but when he walks into a burned out Garden District mansion, he discovers there are some things he can&#8217;t outrun. The spooks can find him anywhere.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>As the resident historian for the cable show Haunts and Hoaxes, Professor Adam Morales keeps an open mind about the supernatural. Or that&#8217;s what he tells himself, until he meets a man who puts that principle to the test. Noel&#8217;s smart, sexy, and has killer cop instincts. One glance from his bedroom eyes has Adam ready to believe anything.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>But is Noel haunted, crazy, or just another hoax?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Review:<\/strong><br \/>\nI enjoyed this. I liked the characters and the setting. Plus, having read the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/31304181-vespers\">Hours of Night<\/a> series, it was fun to see what was happening around the events of those books. I did think the &#8216;romance&#8217; progressed a little too quickly and I didn&#8217;t feel the ending was particularly satisfying. It felt like a preamble to something else, which I suppose it is. I&#8217;m really glad to have held off and gotten to read this together with the longer book, <em>Harrowed<\/em>. But the writing is excellent and I can&#8217;t wait for more.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Screen-Shot-2020-10-13-at-10.25.59-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16747 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Screen-Shot-2020-10-13-at-10.25.59-PM-300x45.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"45\" srcset=\"http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Screen-Shot-2020-10-13-at-10.25.59-PM-300x45.png 300w, http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Screen-Shot-2020-10-13-at-10.25.59-PM.png 554w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Description Harrowed<\/strong>:<br \/>\n<span id=\"freeText13960747138606656819\"> <i>There&#8217;s nothing scarier than the truth\u2026<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Noel&#8217;s got issues. Like, he doesn&#8217;t know what to call his lover. Are they boyfriends? A fling that got out of control? Something more? Even worse, he may sometimes get waylaid by a random ghost or two.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Or else he&#8217;s losing his mind.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Now Adam? He&#8217;s stable and solid and warm; the kind of guy Noel never knew he wanted. He&#8217;s also the historian on Haunts and Hoaxes, which gives him a professional interest in Noel&#8217;s \u201cspecial talent\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>When the ghosthunting crew turns up something weirder than normal at a Louisiana plantation, Adam convinces Noel to check it out. Instead of finding a haunt, they uncover a mystery. Noel used to be a cop and he grabs the chance to investigate something real. DNA is evidence. No matter what Adam says, the ghosts don&#8217;t prove anything.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>But the past is done hiding and the spirits are going to have their say. Noel better figure out how to listen, because Adam&#8217;s job, their relationship, and even his sanity are at risk.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Review:<\/strong><br \/>\nAs much as I liked <em>Haunted<\/em>, I liked <em>Harrowed<\/em> more. Being a full-length novel gives it the heft I appreciate. It also gave me two complicated, flawed heroes trying to make the most of a difficult situation. I&#8217;ll admit that I got frustrated with Noel&#8217;s unwillingness to face or speak about his experiences, even when he and Adam were explicitly trying to explore them. While I academically understood why he kept his secrets (emotions don&#8217;t always make sense), I felt it went on until it started to grate on my patience.<\/p>\n<p>I also very much appreciated the subject matter the book works with. It&#8217;s not an easy history and it would have been very easy for the writing to fall into didacticism. Or rather, I suppose the book is an example of didacticism (there&#8217;s certainly a lesson in it), but never comes across as too heavily didactic. I actually hate when authors let their sermon overwhelm their story in a fiction book. Preston and Rancourt don&#8217;t let that happen and I appreciated it.<\/p>\n<p>All in all, I&#8217;ll call it a success.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Giveaway<\/h2>\n<p>As an added bonus, the authors happen to be running a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rafflecopter.com\/rafl\/display\/1f1867a746\/?\">giveaway<\/a> for a $25 Amazon or B&amp;N gift card. It&#8217;s running through the end of the month.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a id=\"rcwidget_n5ymn9pn\" class=\"rcptr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rafflecopter.com\/rafl\/display\/1f1867a746\/\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-raflid=\"1f1867a746\" data-theme=\"classic\" data-template=\"\">a Rafflecopter giveaway<\/a><br \/>\n<script src=\"https:\/\/widget-prime.rafflecopter.com\/launch.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some time ago I picked up a copy of Haunted, by Irene Preston and Liv Rancourt, from Amazon as a freebie. I honestly meant to read it ages ago, but somehow it ended up buried in the TBR. But when the authors sent me a copy of Harrowed for review, I got the opportunity to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[231,817,466,818,356,98,2078],"class_list":["post-16736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-booksbook-review","tag-book-review","tag-irene-preston","tag-lgbtq","tag-liv-rancourt","tag-m-m-romance","tag-mystery","tag-prescourt-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16736"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19220,"href":"http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16736\/revisions\/19220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}