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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
This was recommended to me multiple times and I kept putting it off.
I finally read this and I quite enjoyed.
The paranormal, ghostly aspect was just on the right side of creepy without being too scary and went together quite well with the mystery of who killed the little girl.
The romance between Matthew and Kiernan was understated but struck the right note especially since Matthew was still grieving.
I didn't quite buy the reveal of the villain and the reasons behind her death. But this was a minor niggle for me.
I finally read this and I quite enjoyed.
The paranormal, ghostly aspect was just on the right side of creepy without being too scary and went together quite well with the mystery of who killed the little girl.
The romance between Matthew and Kiernan was understated but struck the right note especially since Matthew was still grieving.
I didn't quite buy the reveal of the villain and the reasons behind her death. But this was a minor niggle for me.
It's true that I haven't read very many books this year, but it's also true that in the past several years I have voraciously devoured hundreds of them, perhaps even thousands. So, you can take me at my word when I tell you I was captivated and enthralled from the first moment by Diana Copland's writing, character development, and plot detail. She literally had me at the first sentence, and the feeling lasted throughout my journey.
Matt isn't living, not in the normal sense of the word, anyway. He lost his partner and lover eighteen months before, and he's just slogging through his days. It doesn't help that the police department has him riding a desk, since they were in the dark about his homosexuality until it was revealed at Brad's funeral, and Matt's captain isn't the most open-minded of men. It's only because it's Christmas and all the other detectives have families that Matt gets called out to the kidnapping of six-year-old Abby Reynolds. Matt is beyond shocked, however, when he sees Abby's ghost and she leads him to her murdered body. Matt, at the urging of his sister-in-law aka best friend, goes to see Kiernan, a very powerful medium. Of course Matt thinks it's all crap, until he meets Kiernan and sees firsthand how powerful he is. And how gorgeous.
“I had perfect. I don’t think you get more than one in a lifetime.”
How wrong Matt was. He and Kiernan are perfect for one another, and it shows in everything they do together, whether it is trying to track down the real killer behind the police's back, or comforting a dead little girl. I loved the mystery portion of the book as it kept me very entertained, and the author never glossed over it in favor of the love story. Finding the killer of a little girl was always Matt and Kiernan's main objective. Don't get me wrong, though, the love story was beautifully done, and just hot enough to keep me glued to the pages.
Diana, I tip my hat to you for an excellent book. I've added it to my favorites and I'll be looking for more from you.
Matt isn't living, not in the normal sense of the word, anyway. He lost his partner and lover eighteen months before, and he's just slogging through his days. It doesn't help that the police department has him riding a desk, since they were in the dark about his homosexuality until it was revealed at Brad's funeral, and Matt's captain isn't the most open-minded of men. It's only because it's Christmas and all the other detectives have families that Matt gets called out to the kidnapping of six-year-old Abby Reynolds. Matt is beyond shocked, however, when he sees Abby's ghost and she leads him to her murdered body. Matt, at the urging of his sister-in-law aka best friend, goes to see Kiernan, a very powerful medium. Of course Matt thinks it's all crap, until he meets Kiernan and sees firsthand how powerful he is. And how gorgeous.
“I had perfect. I don’t think you get more than one in a lifetime.”
How wrong Matt was. He and Kiernan are perfect for one another, and it shows in everything they do together, whether it is trying to track down the real killer behind the police's back, or comforting a dead little girl. I loved the mystery portion of the book as it kept me very entertained, and the author never glossed over it in favor of the love story. Finding the killer of a little girl was always Matt and Kiernan's main objective. Don't get me wrong, though, the love story was beautifully done, and just hot enough to keep me glued to the pages.
Diana, I tip my hat to you for an excellent book. I've added it to my favorites and I'll be looking for more from you.
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Fairly interesting plot, not too fond of the MCs
Tried it as an audio, no change.
Tried it as an audio, no change.
I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did a good job. I enjoyed the story and H/H.
It has been a while since I have read a paranormal romance so I am glad that a challenged required it. This one really pulled at my tear ducts. My eyes were swimming by 3% and periodically thereafter. What a tough subject material and yet it was handled so well.
Detective Matthew Bennett is working the Christmas Eve shift as he has lost his partner (both work partner and life partner) when he catches a missing child case. While the bigger guns question the parents per the norm, Matt is taken to the body by the spirit of the murdered child. Over the course of his career, Matt has seen all manners of atrocity and has given up on any beliefs that anyone was out there listening to his prayers or that anything came after this life until he is suddenly confronted by an actual spirit.
“He’d long ago given up believing anyone was listening.”
Matt’s best friend and sister-in-law, Sheila, ropes him into attending a seminar led by the conveniently visiting medium, Kiernan Fitzpatrick. Matt is skeptical of Kiernan’s abilities until Kiernan approaches him later to tell him that he has information on his case. Though Matt has been removed from the case, he believes that the investigation is heading in the wrong direction and agrees to meet with Kiernan to see what he has to say.
I enjoyed this read immensely. The mystery was not too easily solved. There were plenty of parties to investigate even though, unfortunately most of the clues were from a ghost and Matt had no evidence that he could use for an actual investigation but since he was not “officially” on the case that really didn’t matter to him. This was personal for him at this point. The growth of the relationship with Kiernan went hand in hand with their investigation. The pacing of it was good. Small tidbits of memories of his former partner were nicely interspersed throughout so you could get a feel for his grieving and his past relationship but not too much.
This was a great read to push me back into a genre that I’ve stayed away from for a while. I may have to look into a few more “ghost” stories.
Merged review:
It has been a while since I have read a paranormal romance so I am glad that a challenged required it. This one really pulled at my tear ducts. My eyes were swimming by 3% and periodically thereafter. What a tough subject material and yet it was handled so well.
Detective Matthew Bennett is working the Christmas Eve shift as he has lost his partner (both work partner and life partner) when he catches a missing child case. While the bigger guns question the parents per the norm, Matt is taken to the body by the spirit of the murdered child. Over the course of his career, Matt has seen all manners of atrocity and has given up on any beliefs that anyone was out there listening to his prayers or that anything came after this life until he is suddenly confronted by an actual spirit.
“He’d long ago given up believing anyone was listening.”
Matt’s best friend and sister-in-law, Sheila, ropes him into attending a seminar led by the conveniently visiting medium, Kiernan Fitzpatrick. Matt is skeptical of Kiernan’s abilities until Kiernan approaches him later to tell him that he has information on his case. Though Matt has been removed from the case, he believes that the investigation is heading in the wrong direction and agrees to meet with Kiernan to see what he has to say.
I enjoyed this read immensely. The mystery was not too easily solved. There were plenty of parties to investigate even though, unfortunately most of the clues were from a ghost and Matt had no evidence that he could use for an actual investigation but since he was not “officially” on the case that really didn’t matter to him. This was personal for him at this point. The growth of the relationship with Kiernan went hand in hand with their investigation. The pacing of it was good. Small tidbits of memories of his former partner were nicely interspersed throughout so you could get a feel for his grieving and his past relationship but not too much.
This was a great read to push me back into a genre that I’ve stayed away from for a while. I may have to look into a few more “ghost” stories.
Detective Matthew Bennett is working the Christmas Eve shift as he has lost his partner (both work partner and life partner) when he catches a missing child case. While the bigger guns question the parents per the norm, Matt is taken to the body by the spirit of the murdered child. Over the course of his career, Matt has seen all manners of atrocity and has given up on any beliefs that anyone was out there listening to his prayers or that anything came after this life until he is suddenly confronted by an actual spirit.
“He’d long ago given up believing anyone was listening.”
Matt’s best friend and sister-in-law, Sheila, ropes him into attending a seminar led by the conveniently visiting medium, Kiernan Fitzpatrick. Matt is skeptical of Kiernan’s abilities until Kiernan approaches him later to tell him that he has information on his case. Though Matt has been removed from the case, he believes that the investigation is heading in the wrong direction and agrees to meet with Kiernan to see what he has to say.
I enjoyed this read immensely. The mystery was not too easily solved. There were plenty of parties to investigate even though, unfortunately most of the clues were from a ghost and Matt had no evidence that he could use for an actual investigation but since he was not “officially” on the case that really didn’t matter to him. This was personal for him at this point. The growth of the relationship with Kiernan went hand in hand with their investigation. The pacing of it was good. Small tidbits of memories of his former partner were nicely interspersed throughout so you could get a feel for his grieving and his past relationship but not too much.
This was a great read to push me back into a genre that I’ve stayed away from for a while. I may have to look into a few more “ghost” stories.
Merged review:
It has been a while since I have read a paranormal romance so I am glad that a challenged required it. This one really pulled at my tear ducts. My eyes were swimming by 3% and periodically thereafter. What a tough subject material and yet it was handled so well.
Detective Matthew Bennett is working the Christmas Eve shift as he has lost his partner (both work partner and life partner) when he catches a missing child case. While the bigger guns question the parents per the norm, Matt is taken to the body by the spirit of the murdered child. Over the course of his career, Matt has seen all manners of atrocity and has given up on any beliefs that anyone was out there listening to his prayers or that anything came after this life until he is suddenly confronted by an actual spirit.
“He’d long ago given up believing anyone was listening.”
Matt’s best friend and sister-in-law, Sheila, ropes him into attending a seminar led by the conveniently visiting medium, Kiernan Fitzpatrick. Matt is skeptical of Kiernan’s abilities until Kiernan approaches him later to tell him that he has information on his case. Though Matt has been removed from the case, he believes that the investigation is heading in the wrong direction and agrees to meet with Kiernan to see what he has to say.
I enjoyed this read immensely. The mystery was not too easily solved. There were plenty of parties to investigate even though, unfortunately most of the clues were from a ghost and Matt had no evidence that he could use for an actual investigation but since he was not “officially” on the case that really didn’t matter to him. This was personal for him at this point. The growth of the relationship with Kiernan went hand in hand with their investigation. The pacing of it was good. Small tidbits of memories of his former partner were nicely interspersed throughout so you could get a feel for his grieving and his past relationship but not too much.
This was a great read to push me back into a genre that I’ve stayed away from for a while. I may have to look into a few more “ghost” stories.
Book safety, content warnings, and tropes down below.
“Kiernan, this is a world- class ass.” He leaned forward and took a nip from the right cheek. “Glad you like it,” Kiernan replied, his voice slightly muffled by the bedding. “But you’ll forgive me if I’d rather you fucked it than waxed poetic about it.”
A psychic/medium character helping law enforcement solve crimes is literally my favorite plot/trope ever and I will never ever get tired of it. This book is exactly that and it’s so good. I read it a while back but got the audiobook recently and it was super well narrated. Definitely one I’d relisten to in the future.
It’s light ish on the romance with most of the focus on the murder mystery, but the romance (and spice) that’s there is great, and I think it fits the story well.
“I haven’t dry-humped since high school,” Kiernan murmured. “I’d forgotten how hot it is.” He paused. “And mildly chafing.”
Highly recommend if you enjoy some ghost-whispering
“Kiernan, this is a world- class ass.” He leaned forward and took a nip from the right cheek. “Glad you like it,” Kiernan replied, his voice slightly muffled by the bedding. “But you’ll forgive me if I’d rather you fucked it than waxed poetic about it.”
A psychic/medium character helping law enforcement solve crimes is literally my favorite plot/trope ever and I will never ever get tired of it. This book is exactly that and it’s so good. I read it a while back but got the audiobook recently and it was super well narrated. Definitely one I’d relisten to in the future.
It’s light ish on the romance with most of the focus on the murder mystery, but the romance (and spice) that’s there is great, and I think it fits the story well.
“I haven’t dry-humped since high school,” Kiernan murmured. “I’d forgotten how hot it is.” He paused. “And mildly chafing.”
Highly recommend if you enjoy some ghost-whispering
“In my experience, that's the deciding factor. If we love, and are loved, then our journey on can be made without regret.”
One day, I will really need to sit down and pinpoint why it is that I like mysteries so much, but crime dramas just don't ever really seem to work for me. I probably doin't need to think about it that hard. The short version probably has something to do with the fact that mysteries often tend to involve regular citizens or amateur detectives (I'm a hoe for amateur detectives), while crime novels involve the police, and tend to be a lot more formulaic in my experience. And I know that's a pretty big brush to paint the whole genre with, but then there's also the fact that I just tend not to like cop characters lol. ✌