I volunteered to read this and supply an honest review. I’d previously read CONNECTED and A MODERN LOVE STORY by the same author and had high hopes… I was delighted to say my hopes were not only met, but exceeded.
To say that Kassie is having a bad day, would be an understatement. Everything from tripping over the cat to being accosted on the way to work, seems set to ruin her day.
I’m waiting for the day when he flashes open his coat and I see more than hot jewelry. And when that day comes, I’m going to scrub my eyeballs out with Lysol. And then set them on fire.
Work sucks, as it does most days, especially when she has to fend off her boss, a man who makes wandering-hands seem tame. Eventually she’s home and repeating her mantra in bed.
Before I fall asleep, I almost ask out loud ‘What the hell else could happen?’, but I know better than to tempt the fates, and instead mutter, “Heaven help me, or Hell have me.” And then mentally amend it to Fuck Heaven, Hell take me.
I think it just this once, ‘cause I’m mad enough to go there.
Strangely, the day after is almost the complete opposite – especially when she’s told her boss is being investigated for harassment. At last! She goes home happy for once… and then things take a bizarre turn. There’s a ghost in her apartment. A rather hunky and gorgeous ghost.
I shoo at him like a fly. Only instead of my hand passing through his, I smack right into him. I looked right at him with wide eyes. I couldn’t help it! I just smacked a ghost for crying out loud!
Not only can she see – and touch him – they can speak to each other. He seems surprised when she assumes he’s a ghost, and that’s when she begins to wonder just what he really is.
“The other day,” he prompts. “Do you remember what you said?”
I think back – oh, that day – and scowl. “I’m pretty sure I said a lot of choice words on that particular day.”
“Yes, but one thing in particular put you in the spotlight.”
Her mantra – Hell Have Me – suddenly takes on a whole new meaning.
He studies me half a tick and nods. “Hell.”
“Hell?” I whisper. And then I do something I didn’t even think was possible, something I always thought was just a figure of speech. I gulp.
“You’re worried?”
I nod.
“Good,” he says, leaning in. “You should be.”
At this point I dragged my eyes away from the story to look at the % read counter – 66 %. Noooo, I muttered… I know this can’t all be nicely wrapped up and resolved in 34%, which means….. Yes. I have to wait for the next in the series.
Let me get a couple of caveats out there.
– This is written present tense. Normally I hate that, but Kassie’s voice is so vibrant that it makes this come alive.
– It’s short, woefully short. It is only a novelette, and so it serves as a deliciously tangy taster to Jolyn Palliata’s new series. A hell of a lot is packed in (tee hee, excuse the pun), but I still wish it was longer as I’m not very good at waiting.
Having said all that, it’s a fab quick read, and I loved it to bits.
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Dear Ms Palliata, if you read this review, please hurry up and release the next in the series. Yours sincerely, Impatient Reader 🙂
4.5 out of 5 (only because I desperately wanted there to be more!!
janesbooks 