Another fun, engaging paranormal mystery tale about that mysterious new resident to Fairhaven, Pennsylvania, a small town who seems to be supernatural center in Pike County.
Annabel Chase’s enigmatic magical newcomer, Lorelei Clay can’t seem to keep up her plans off renovations and isolation in her rundown Bluebeard’s Castle of a ruin but once again is reluctantly caught up in a local ghostly mystery.
A local legend of a real estate agent comes knocking with a deal that’s hard to ignore, get rid of a ghost so she can sell a house and she’s will get Lorelei’s moat redone for free.
But in this town, it’s never simply a quick fix.
Chase has written another great little story, full of new quirky characters, new questions about Lorelei’s identity, and further expands and explores the history of Fairhaven and the otherworldly beings that inhabit it.
Slowest burn romance evah. I’m here for it.
And I love these so much it’s tough to stop to remember to review each one.
Reluctant ghost whisperer Lorelei Clay wants a working moat, which is the only reason she agrees to help with yet another supernatural situation. The simple ghostbusting job quickly escalates when Lorelei discovers the involvement of a powerful and ancient collective not known for their social skills.
Lorelei wants nothing more than to get back to her renovations and her life of solitude, but it becomes painfully clear that if she can’t fix this small-town problem, Fairhaven is going to suffer big-time consequences.
Dead of Night is the second book in the Crossroads Queen urban fantasy series.
A Dash of Halloween by Andy Gallo is a short cute instant love romance for the spooky holidays. A sort of paranormal cozy mystery with a romantic theme, it’s got a small town that’s devoted to the holiday of Halloween in every aspect. A newly arrived resident, fleeing a bad situation, and huge haunted mansion and its gorgeous owner. Who is in need of help.
The characters of new resident, Dash Reeves and ghostly manor owner, Slate Blackwood, are charming. There’s a woman bestie and ghosts behind the scenes.
The romance between the two men happens too fast for me without the necessary emotional development I want but Gallo supplies an argument for the relationship and connection that happens so quickly. At 28k things move pretty rapidly along to a dramatic ending and epilogue.
When software engineer Dash Reeves accepts a too-good-to-refuse job offer in Oriskany Falls, he expects small-town quirks. What he doesn’t expect is a town obsessed with Halloween, or the mysterious and charming Slate Blackwood, whose family’s haunted house attraction draws visitors from miles around.
Slate has spent years hiding his family’s dangerous secret behind staged scares and special effects at Blackwood Manor. But when Dash appears at his gate one autumn evening, Slate recognizes something special in the handsome newcomer – if only he can convince the relationship-shy engineer to take a chance on love.
As Dash and Slate grow closer, the veil between worlds begins to tear. Spirits long trapped in darkness seek escape, threatening to overwhelm the living. Dash discovers he shares Slate’s gift for communicating with the dead, but will their combined powers be enough to prevent catastrophe? With Halloween’s Blue Moon approaching and malevolent forces gathering strength, they must find a way to seal the breach between worlds – or one of them might have to make the ultimate sacrifice.
A Dash of Halloween is a charming 28K word paranormal MM romance novella featuring:
– A Halloween-obsessed small town with real magic
– A cynical engineer who doesn’t believe in love (or ghosts)
– The charming medium who changes his mind about both
– Family secrets
– A guaranteed happy ending
– Sweet romance that leaves the bedroom door closed
Perfect for fans of cozy paranormal romance who love their ghost stories with a side of slow-burn love and small-town charm.
Author V.L. Locey is off to a terrific start on her new paranormal romance series with Kestrel & Kee (Paranormal Investigators) The Siren of Lake Killikee.
It begins with Archimedes Kee ‘Archie’ Kee , Asian American, who helps run his grandfather’s failing family business, Kee’s Book Store in Liverswell, MA. Archie can interact with ghosts, a family gift passes down through generations that’s now especially relevant as Archie’s current location has several resident ghosts to converse with.
There’s Reggie, who died in 1778, he haunts the bookstore, reads the latest books, and considers himself part of the establishment and family. Also the ghosts in the streets,along with a spectral cat that comes and goes, as cats do.
But it’s the living that have issues to contend with, bills to pay, and Archie’s fluency in Mandarin brings him a handsome college football player, Phil Kestrel ,seeking help and a tutor for his Asian studies class.
Archie and Phil’s developing relationship is wonderful, especially when Phil is let in on the truth about Archie’s gift and the bookstore’s resident ghosts. As the plot switches over into a investigation into the mysterious presence in the lake, and what it means for the town’s inhabitants (living and non-corporeal), it picks up speed but starts to lose some depth in the background and plot.
I liked how Locey created and then wove in the various ethnic languages and historical references from the town to make the paranormal stories and investigations the deepest, and saddest part of the story. It could have been even more detailed, but perhaps that is going to be part of the next book. It’s certainly got my attention. And it introduces certain families of the town who might have a part to play in future stories as well.
Most of my quibbles have to do with the relationship between Archie and Phil, and Archie’s gift. Archie and Phil are just getting to know each other, they admit that they really like each other, which seems reasonable and , actually quite adorable.
But, as in too many stories I’ve read, they jump immediately into the “I love you “ conversation and confessions stage which hadn’t, imo, had a the same amount of narrative time or believable aspect to their relationship that other elements had. Really like on the way to something else? Yes, absolutely. Instant love? No. That case wasn’t made. Especially when there’s so much else going on around them.
And we really know very little about Phil here. What’s the background on him?
So in Kestrel & Kee (Paranormal Investigators) The Siren of Lake Killikee I feel that V.L. Locey is setting up a terrific location, characters and themes for a new adventure and series. There’s so much she wants to lay down that not all got fully developed or explained, just put in place for future adventures and books to make use of. I absolutely adore Archie , his grandfather, Reggie, and look forward to learning more about Phil and the rest of the town.
This is a definite recommend for lovers of paranormal romance.
One speaks to the dead, the other talks to everyone else. Both have hearts that are whispering to each other’s.
Archimedes Kee has always had the gift. From his youngest days, he has been able to communicate with the dearly departed. Most of the time, they seek him as a way to correct wrongs or for help moving over to the next plane. Some just want to complain about badly written books. Generally, he does his best to aid the stranded spirits as he juggles working part-time at his grandfather’s bookstore, a job he adores, with attending a local college. Stuck in the grind of the day-to-day, he is totally unprepared for the arrival of Phil Kestrel, who blows into the shop like a hurricane with his blond hair, blue eyes, and unparalleled exuberance.
For the first time in forever, Archie can’t pull back into the protective shell he has learned to keep up. Phil is not only a charmingly sweet and sexy man, but he’s also slowly winning Archie’s heart one 80’s song at a time. After witnessing an unearthly book club meeting late one night the football star slash film major discovers Archie’s secret and proposes a plan. They make a ghost hunter show for extra credit and to bring much-needed foot traffic to the old bookstore. The plan has merit, so they seek out a local legend and face off against an anguished soul who puts their new bond to the test.
Kestrel and Kee – The Siren of Lake Killikee is an opposites attract queer paranormal romance starring a shy medium, a gregarious footballer, a resident bookstore specter with a decidedly wicked mind, one otherworldly feline, a small town filled with ghostly goings on, an elderly family member eager to play matchmaker, a haunted lake, and a spirited happy ending.
The Ghostly series by EM Leya is going strong as demonstrated by Ghostly Dilemma, the eighth book in this excellent paranormal law enforcement series. With the romantic relationship between ME Lance and Det. Angus is happy and they’ve moved in together, along with their dog Haunt. Frank, Angus’ partner has recently bought a home, and Lance’s older brother is leaving the military and coming back home. They’ve even gotten back Carrie (recovering from the hostage situation) and acquired a new receptionist. Things are going well.
So it’s time to get back to work, small caseloads, different jobs, various storylines. And by switching it up from a singular dramatic plot line to an almost typical workload for both the police department and medical examiner staff, Leya gives the readers a diverse range of cases and people’s stories and experiences that the characters and departments deal with.
And the author is able to demonstrate once again how well it’s not the high drama that can make a heartbreaking impact but sometimes it’s life’s smallest and most quiet stories that hit the hardest. Here not all the ghosts are victims, some are those who left life behind in natural causes or silent, peaceful moments. But, of course, not all. Leya makes each ghost a vibrant personality, no matter how they left their lives behind. We also see what happens to the people and lives they have lost. That’s reality too.
Each one a case of different lengths but each fascinating and of importance to the lives of those around Lance and Angus, a found family that continues to grow in numbers, both living and ghostly.
I adore this series because it’s so different in its approach to the ghostly world, and the way the author tells the stories associated with the people around the main characters as well as the characters themselves.
I’m highly excited to see what the next book will bring. And definitely recommending this series and story. Read these in the order they are written.
Not every minute of being a detective is spent solving huge murder cases. Sometimes it’s the little ones that take up Detective Young’s life, like the seventy-year-old cold case that suddenly fell into his lap or figuring out if a death was suicide or murder.
Lance spends most of his time working cases that no one hears about. The unattended deaths of those not under a doctor’s care take up most of his time. Now that he can speak to ghosts, some of those cases are the most interesting. Work isn’t all that is keeping him busy—his brother’s girlfriend has shown up in need of his help, and he can’t refuse when she’d helped him so much in the past.
Life is never boring for Lance and Angus, and though work pulls them both in different directions, they always seem to meet up somewhere in the middle of things. Sometimes it feels like if murder and death didn’t bring them together, they’d never get time together at all.
What a delicious treat Kim Fielding’s new book turns out to be. Starting with that fabulously evocative cover by Reese Dante to the historically vibrant setting of New Orleans, Kim Fielding has a winner. The Big Easy of the series title, New Orleans, with its ghosts, the unsettling atmosphere and mixture of peoples, culture, and the history that comes with that is the perfect setting for a unusual love story.
Kim Fielding’s character, writer Flip Devin is a lost man. He’s ended a relationship, can’t finish his novel, left a place, a state, he’s drifting. Now he’s landed in New Orleans for a few months, hoping for inspiration and quiet moments to unblock his creative process. Fielding delivers a most believable Flip in all his stress, his indecision, and his real anxiety at this point in his life. We feel him floundering and we get him.
The beauty of the narrative is the author’s ability to make us feel what Flip is feeling, connecting us to his journey through the streets and history of New Orleans, as he engages with the diverse community the Big Easy has to offer, living and the ghostly.
So many amazing , beautifully crafted elements and characters to be found here , from Scratch himself (I would love to hear more about him and his music), to the nightlife scenes that few others can see. Man of His Dreams just flew by as I was so caught up in the world, relationships, and story. Just love it.
I definitely recommend reading this and can’t wait to see what further joys this series brings.
Author Flip Devin has arrived in New Orleans with no suitcase, no inspiration to continue his newest novel, and no hope. Then he begins getting dreamtime visits from Scratch, a handsome musician who was murdered a hundred years ago. According to the fortuneteller across the street, Flip has the gift of Seeing.
Soon after, Flip meets Tony Bergeron, a charming local historian… who looks remarkably like Scratch. Both Tony and Scratch have stories to tell, and New Orleans has magic to share. But with the suitcase still in airline limbo, Flip realizes he’ll need to get rid of his baggage to make room for something new.
Riddles & Rivals, an enemies to lovers story, was everything I anticipated it to be and more. Involving two of the most compelling and layered individuals in this series, Sterling delves deeply into the men’s heavily woven lives that includes their families connected thru their often dark histories. As the last of the original mine owning founding families of Bisbee, Mercer and Baxter’s animosity started in their adolescence. Fueled by the difference in their backgrounds, the deep religious beliefs, and the disparity climate of the household in which each man was raised.
Riddles & Rivals sees Mayor Mercer Hathaway asking his longtime enemy Baxter Dawson for help. Mercer is tearing down the ominous Hathaway House and wants an answer to the famous old unsolved crime of what really happened to Julia Lowell. A crime that has long been thought to have been committed by a Hathaway. The answers might be in Hathaway House and they have a weekend to find out before it’s torn down.
That’s the bare minimum of this complex, character driven, beautifully crafted mystery. It’s got ghosts determined by their own agendas, ancient passions and two men who find themselves in a strange place where they unravel long held secrets and their own destiny.
Sterling’s forward asks reviewers not to divulge the spoilers of the story and I won’t. They are far too fantastic.
I thought the men, their strengths and struggles with their pasts, especially Mercer’s inner voice as he wrestles with the events and his emotions, are so vivid and powerful.
Riddles & Rivals (The Bisbee Bachelors’ Club Book 5) by K. Sterling is a highlight of the series and a fabulous read. A must in itself and in the series.
One haunted mansion. Two lifelong enemies. Three days to solve one of Bisbee’s most notorious mysteries.It’s nearly Valentine’s Day but it might as well be Christmas for Baxter Dawson when Bisbee’s mayor, Mercer Hathaway, knocks on his door with an irresistible proposition for the town’s favorite crime solver. Mercer’s planning to tear down The Hathaway House and burn everything inside it to free himself of his family’s dark legacy. But first, Mercer wants to find the answer to a riddle that’s plagued him for decades: who killed Julia Lowell and why does she haunt him every time he’s a guest at The Copper Queen Hotel? The answer is somewhere inside The Hathaway House but the real mystery is: can these two bitter rivals survive a weekend together in a mansion full of ghosts and Hathaway Family skeletons without killing each other?
I’m a big fan of author K Sterling and that includes this fascinating paranormal series, The Bisbee Bachelors’ Club. It takes place in a real, absolutely intriguing historical mining town of Bisbee, Arizona.
Definitely take the time to check into Bisbee, look at the history and pictures, as it’s a great place to go for a trip for its art, ghosts, and history. Don’t miss out on reading the author’s notes as well.
The Bisbee Bachelors’ Club, that group of well known, single men in Bisbee that meet at The Bisbee Bean Company for coffee have slowly each been getting their own stories and romances. Their lives are interwoven with each other’s as well as their stories.
It’s common for ghosts, witches, mediums, and the paranormal to play big roles in the storylines as the town is steeped with haunted houses and historical events that resonate.
This book turned out to be a favorite. The characters, Noah Kennedy, younger brother to Hal, and Kieran, a firefighter, are two souls who are bound together and meeting each other again. This is a great element but a tough one to get right and the author does. We see it happen, the spontaneous, spiritual sparking connection and how that affects both men. If you are thinking instant acceptance, you’re wrong.
So it’s an intense, revelatory dance around this soul connection that’s pulling them together, while a murder case that involves Noah is being investigated. Both threads are beautifully written and executed to pull the reader into the story and make them fully invested in every aspect of this book and these characters journey.
Old familiar characters are here to help them and support the investigation. There are new characters that are also involved that will be established further as towns citizens.
I can’t wait to get further into this series and explore more of the ghostly history and paranormal romance to come.
The cards don’t lie… He drew the Two of Cups and the Hierophant. Noah Kennedy might be an unwilling empath but he knows better than to doubt the deck or turn his will against fate. He’s spent his whole life running from his gift and believed he was cursed. Anyone would, after a childhood overshadowed by the afterlife. Knowing too much about the living and the dead can make life nearly impossible. Seeing his brother happily engaged leaves Noah emotionally adrift and tired of being a burden. Noah wonders if he has a purpose, other than holding his brother back and making his eye twitch. The Two of Cups. Kieran Watts is the one. He’s Noah’s soulmate and his future but the otherwise fearless firefighter runs after a meet cute in a hot dog joint reveals a shockingly intense and sensual psychic bond. Kieran has deep emotional scars and does his best to avoid Noah but can’t deny the pull he feels whenever they cross paths. And he certainly can’t resist the heat and the sparks when they touch. The Hierophant. A not-so-chance encounter with a local witch sets Noah on a path our young medium hadn’t foreseen. Or refused to see until a murderer attempts to frame Noah’s new guardian angel and teacher. Noah begrudgingly accepts that he could be a powerful witch and turns to The Bisbee Bachelors’ Club for help finding a killer and learns he’s not as much of a lost cause as he thought he was.
Ghostly Hostage is an excellent example of a series can continue to grow and expand its universe and make narrative choices that are both exciting and challenging.
In Ghostly Hostage, our main couple has just finished their much needed vacation abroad a cruise. They’ve also decided to move into Lance’s house together. All big plans and steps forward in their relationship.
But immediately they and this story is plunged into a hostage situation.
Usually it’s Homicide Detective Angus whose life is placed in jeopardy. But here, instead, it’s the morgue with all its employees we’ve gotten to know and become fond of who are in eminent danger.
Laya makes the situation even more complicated by placing at its center a case and the people holding them at gunpoint, people we will understand and empathize with. It’s a horrible situation but at its heart is something far worse. A dead child who may have been murdered.
The author switches the perspective back and forth between the increasingly tense hostage situation and those outside the morgue hoping for answers, amplifying the suspense and the anxiety scene by scene. Even as the emotional component is realistically raised by those inside and out, with people crumbling under the stress, Laya remembers this is a police procedural that includes stalling by the hospital, warrants, and long hours of believable research. Even when there’s ghosts involved.
And there’s plenty of ghosts involved here. Including new ones. They flow seamlessly into the investigation in increasingly familiar but complex ways. And it adds to the paranormal aspect of this series by involving new characters in this world.
The crime, criminal, and ending was one I really appreciated. Although it’s a ghostly tale, the author treats it in a factual, grounded in reality manner that elevates the story.
I can’t wait to see what happens next.
I’m highly recommending this book and the entire series.
Back from vacation, Lance is ready to dive back into work—that is, until the morgue employees are taken hostage on his first day back. Held at gunpoint was not how he thought he’d spend his day. With their lives on the line, Lance and the others have no choice but to follow orders and perform the autopsy that’s been demanded.
Angus never dreamed he’d be the one worrying about Lance being killed. He was the one with the dangerous job, not Lance. With the only information he can get coming from the ghosts, Angus and his mother try to sort through the evidence and do everything they can to keep Lance and the others alive.
As the case unfolds, Angus faces twists and turns he never saw coming, and as the truth is exposed, he prays the vacation he just enjoyed with Lance won’t be the last one they ever share.
Vawn Cassidy’s Crawshanks Guide to the Recently Departed is one of my favorite series. Dark humor, beautifully realized characters, and extremely well executed plots that convey the heartbreak and the joy of love and romance, the horror and hope of experiencing life and losing it, as well as the light and darkness that exists beyond. It’s all there in every story.
Each book revolves around a case of a dead person. Sometimes it’s horrifying, sometimes hilariously funny or tragic and traumatic. Sometimes it’s both sad and frightening. And all these things.
In Dead Serious Case #3 Mr Bruce Reyes #3, the small group, Inspector Danny Hayes, forensic pathologist Tristan Everett, ghost Dusty Le Frey, and her boyfriend, ghost Bruce Abernathy, among others, helped save the world. A scary, horrific tale, even if being immensely satisfying.
Now, Cassidy has written a fabulous story, one that’s naturally got a crime, a murder, a manor house full of the most wildly entertaining and exasperating people and ghosts. A natural bookend to the one prior.
The story opens up, realistically and wryly in the morgue, with an extremely exhausted Tristan trying to complete an examination, with ghostly onlookers inference. The outcome of this wonderful scenario will see two very tired men on a much needed holiday. One of which keeps trying to find the perfect place to propose.
What ensues is absolute narrative perfection. Amidst high comedy, murder most theatrical, and ghostly antics at The Ashton-Drake Manor House Hotel, Cassidy’s also includes the raw issues these men face and the daily pain of their experiences. There’s an emotional reunion between Danny and his long estranged family, as well the wrenching emotional scenes of Tris trying to come to terms with the reality of his father’s approaching death from dementia.
The hijinks , murder included, to be found at the Manor, is a romp over the reality that Danny and Tris have left behind. When I say that Cassidy has created new characters and moments so quietly hilarious that I’d say they were “spew worthy” is to be understated.
Ah, Dilys! This the ancient, tiny bartender will forever be held responsible for the wine stains on the carpet as I giggled away at her approach!
I fell so deeply in love with everyone at The Ashton-Drake Manor House Hotel, alive and ghostly, that I want the author to revisit this location and entertaining little group of inhabitants, whether it’s by a individual book or story in this series in the future. They are simply so perfect to consign to one book.
Throughout the events that occur and the characters that make up the zaniness’s of this investigation, this is one fabulous piece of murder that ranks among my favorite books of the year.
Of course, it’s a gift from the author, because the ending proves that this has always been a part of the larger universe and the scary enlarging arc the author’s been creating.
So amazing. Breathtaking really. For now we are halfway prepared for the darkness to come.
The is a series that’s an absolute must read, but do it in the order that the books are written. Highly recommended, at the top of my rec list.
Fabulous cover as usual.
Crawshanks Guide to the Recently Departed:
✓ Dead Serious Case #1 Miz Dusty Le Frey #1
✓ Dead Serious Case #2 Mrs Delores Abernathy #2
✓ Dead Serious Case #3 Mr Bruce Reyes #3
✓ Dead Serious Case #4 Professor Prometheus Plume #4
◦ Dead Serious Case #5 Madame Vivienne: Schedule 2024
Inspector Danny Hayes has something very important to ask his boyfriend Tristan Everett. Over the past six months they’ve survived reapers, chaos monsters, and biblical storms, not to mention averting an apocalypse. So, what’s left to do but pop the big question?
Tristan is ready for a break from world-saving, spectral crises, and most definitely from ghosts. He wants some one-on-one time with his boyfriend, preferably horizontally. So when their Boxing Day celebrations result in a drunken booking of a romantic New Year’s getaway at a quiet little hotel near the wilds of the north Yorkshire moors, Tristan can’t wait.
But as usual nothing ever goes according to plan. Snowed in during an unexpected murder mystery weekend at what turns out to be one of the most haunted hotels in Northern England is not what they had in mind, but when one of the actors turns up really dead not just fake dead, they once again find themselves caught up in another investigation.
With only one night to figure out who the killer is while wrangling a multitude of overly helpful ghosts, Tristan begins to wonder if romance really is dead…
K Sterling’s series The Bisbee Bachelors’ Club is a wonderful strange world to tumble into. For starters, it exists. Bisbee, Arizona is a real place. That knowledge alone sent me running to google as much as I could about a place that is as descriptively beautiful, narratively haunting, and just outright fascinating as you might imagine. The photographs made me want to take the next plane out to see it for myself.
With that rich, historic haunted town as both a backdrop and foundation, Sterling populates it with some great characters, of equal degrees of emotional depth and haunted backstories. The Bisbee Batchelor s Club. Stories written about the single men of the queer friendly, hippy artsy former copper mining town.
And it starts with one of the most emotionally haunted man of them all,
Cace Talbot. Surrounded by his son and close friends, it’s still not enough to keep the pain away from losing his soul mate, the man who left him and the town to pursue his art. Cace is still struggling and Sterling make him easy to understand and relate to.
Especially when the man he’s been trying to forget returns to town. That’s Laurence “Lorrie” Nixon, who’s come back after 25 years away.
There’s a realistic look at the years these men have lost. It’s a true bittersweet element that runs through their reunion and reconnecting relationship. Discussions over what might have been, the children they should have had, the moments lost they will never get, it’s so sad in those moments when they are sharing memories , painful, and heartbreaking. It’s twenty-five years of love and loss and longing that they know could have been theirs but wasn’t. This aspect is there even as they decide to go forward because it’s ingrained into who they’ve become.
I love that Sterling is able to build this not only into the storyline but into their characters too. It makes the depth of their bond even more believable.
The murder mystery that runs along side the romance rebuilding is good but strangely just a secondary storyline. It never feels like a main theme. I liked how it plays out, but wanted a little bit more details and depth to the investigation until the reveal. It was all a bit pat for me.
But the relationship between Lorrie and Cace? That was emotional and heartfelt. And adding in all the found family members around them was perfect.
I’m onto the next. I’m absolutely sold on the town and these characters. And I’m a fan of the author, so I’m thrilled to gave a new series to binge.
I’m happily recommending Haunted Hearts (The Bisbee Bachelors’ Club Book 1) by K Sterling. Enjoy!
There are worse things haunting Cace Talbot than the ghosts inhabiting his beloved hometown. Hidden in Arizona’s Mule Mountains, Bisbee was small in a cozy way and just casually haunted with specters from its wild and sometimes dark past. Then, Laurence “Lorrie” Nixon returns after breaking Cace’s heart twenty-five years earlier and the town becomes too small and the memories a lot scarier.
Lorrie’s waited long enough and is determined to win Cace back no matter how hard he has to grovel. He’s already got his work cut out for him when a pair of copycat killings with echoes from Bisbee’s past cast suspicion Lorrie’s way. Lorrie turns to Cace and their band of childhood friends for help solving the brutal murders.
Cace doesn’t want to see his first love accused of a gruesome crime he didn’t commit but that doesn’t mean he’s letting Lorrie Nixon back into his life. At least, that’s what Cace says. His body on the other hand… Can Cace help find a killer without getting caught up in the memories and the pull of Lorrie’s lips?
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 