"a good ghost story and a good romance"

1885 Georgia

Eve Abernathy has no choice but to call on Lucian Thorpe to help her with a little problem. The first investigator she would have chosen is out of the country. The second has broken his leg, and the third... Well, let's just say she never wants to see that creep again. He's the man who left Eve at the altar But it's him or no one, and Eve is just desperate enough to call on Lucian (not using her own name of course). Eve has unwanted guests that Lucian specializes in convincing to leave -- a pair of rather amorous (and murderous) ghosts by the names of Alistair and Viola Stamper who have been trapped in Eve's new home for the last thirty years.

Lucian is a lovable type. Imagine the absent-minded professor melded with the kid from Sixth Sense. He never meant to hurt Eve, and he has regretted it for the last two years, but like that professor, the time just got away from him. This is a passionate couple, though the ghosts' hijinks do make them blush and leave rooms fairly often. Eve is stubborn beyond belief, but Lucian is determined to prove that she still loves him somewhere under that pretty strawberry-colored corset she wears.

This book is very much for the paranormal romance crowd. The romance is great, both between the Stampers and the main characters. The handling of the very uneducated Eve and the easy-blushing Lucian getting glimpses of the more experienced lovers is downright amusing.

In the first few pages, I found a few errors, but that seemed to be the lot of them for the book. The fantasy elements about how one interacts with a ghost are well- planned and executed in the book.

I did figure out who the bad guys were fairly early, but there was one unexpected twist that I hadn't counted on. That is always a good thing to hear me say, considering I rarely make it to the end of any book with a mystery without figuring out the hidden villain long before the end and having no surprises left for me but the pure enjoyment of getting there.

This is an excellent read. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes a good ghost story and a good romance.

Reviewed by Brenna Lyons for Sensual Romance.

Reviewed by Sensual Romance
Courtesy Sensual Romance
Posted April 11, 2003

Summary

Summoning the man who left her at the altar two years ago is definitely a last resort for Eve Abernathy. But paranormal expert Lucien Thorpe is the only person who can rid her house of the uneasy ghosts--noisy, lovemaking ghosts, no less--who haunt it, and her.

Eve may be ahead of her time as a woman who documents otherworldly actvity, but she longs for the kind of life other women take for granted--including a kind, sturdy husband and children to raise. Eve knows absentminded genius Lucien is more comfortable with the dead than the living, and better acquainted with his Specter-o-Meter than the longings of a woman's heart. But with his arrival, Eve can't deny that her feelings for him haunt her as restlessly as the shades who have invaded her home-- especially when Lucien is doing his utmost to woo her all over again.