Tag: ghosts

Review:   Death Waits at Dead Rock (The Haunted Ranch Mysteries Book 6) by Sara Bourgeois

Rating: 4.5⭐️

Death Waits at Dead Rock was actually so different because the reader became familiar and fond of the victim, as did Claire. Which made what follows so personal and upsetting. A very different experience from every murder and investigation prior. 

When a invitation to a weekend at a vineyard for influencers and potential clients turns into a murder investigation the story ventures into a new realm of acceptance of Claire’s abilities from those closest to her and an investigation into someone she’d grown close to.

Death Waits at Dead Rock ends with a new paranormal mystery rising about the land and Claire, an old mystery solved sort of about the town, and on moment for all that was both moving and bittersweet depending upon what character was the focus. 

A different but equally great story.

Cover by Book Covers by Melody

The Haunted Ranch Mysteries (8 book series)

Death Rides The Desert #1

Bones and Cactus Blooms #2

Spirits of the Saguaro #3

Tombstones with a View #4

Body Beneath the Wither #5

Death Waits at Dead Rock #6

Skulls and Sunlit Secrets #7 June 23,2026

The Bone Charm #8 – Aug 18,2026

Buy link

        Death Waits at Dead Rock (The Haunted Ranch Mysteries Book 6)

    

Blurb 

A wine tasting. A viral treasure hunt. A body at the base of Dead Rock.

Claire Caldwell thought she’d seen every kind of weird the desert could throw at her. Ghosts in her kitchen, omens from a spirit fox, and the occasional town scandal that required a very large cup of coffee. What she did not expect was a swarm of influencers descending on Perdido Springs for a luxury “Desert Vines Weekend,” complete with ring lights and sponsored smiles.

The big gimmick is supposed to be harmless fun. Collect the special labels, piece together the artwork, and you get a treasure map to a legendary stash hidden near Dead Rock. 

Content gold. Tourist bait. Everyone wants in.

Then the weekend’s headliner turns up dead at sunrise.

Claire would love to let law enforcement handle it, but Buster is… Buster. Rosa’s ghost has opinions, Rusty is tracking something no living person can smell, and the closer Claire gets to the truth, the clearer it becomes that the “treasure” isn’t just old wine and a cute story. Someone in town has been protecting what Dead Rock is hiding for a long time, and they’ll do anything to keep it buried.

Now Claire has to sift through secrets, suspects, and a trail of clues disguised as a party favor, before the killer strikes again… and the next toast becomes a death sentence.

March 2, 2026

Language

‎English

Print length

205 pages

Book 6 of 8

The Haunted Ranch Mysteries

Review:   Body Beneath the Wither (The Haunted Ranch Mysteries Book 5) by Sara Bourgeois

Rating: 4.5⭐️

Body Beneath the Wither brings several things to a head in Claire and Sam’s relationship that’s needed to be resolved, the fact that she’s been hiding so much of herself and what actually happens around the ranch from him. 

That definitely becomes a factor when a podcaster comes to town chasing ghosts and ends up being his own story, among other mysteries on an ominous ranch hiding many secrets.

I liked that this eventually moved Claire and Sam’s story forward. Plus the darkness of the Wither is one that seems to be one that’s not fully resolved for a reason. 

The author always has multiple storylines going on and each one is different and weaves fully into the narrative and series arc. 

The animals are great characters and the desert is so beautifully written that it’s feels as though you can step into the town and find each place without hesitation. 

Another winner. 

Cover by Book Covers by Melody

The Haunted Ranch Mysteries (8 book series)

Death Rides The Desert #1

Bones and Cactus Blooms #2

Spirits of the Saguaro #3

Tombstones with a View #4

Body Beneath the Wither #5

Death Waits at Dead Rock #6

Skulls and Sunlit Secrets #7

The Bone Charm #8

Buy link

        Body Beneath the Wither (The Haunted Ranch Mysteries Book 5)

    

Blurb 

A dead tree. A dead podcaster. A desert that remembers everything.

Claire Caldwell was ready for wedding planning, not another corpse.

But when her fiancé’s vet call takes them down a lonely road outside Perdido Springs, Rusty blocks their path and leads them straight to Broken Acres, a long abandoned farmhouse with a twisted tree locals call the Wither.

Beneath its dead branches lies Craig Dooley, better known to his listeners as Stone Coldwell, the loudmouthed host of The Cold Files. He came chasing ghosts, chasing fame, chasing the thrill he’d lost… and now he is the newest spirit the desert refuses to forget.

His unhinged ex turns up screaming and clawing at the body, a will is found in the dirt, and two siblings are suddenly at each other’s throats over a secret fortune that should have died with their father.

Then the whispers start.

A grieving woman in old fashioned clothes begs Claire to help the man she has waited a hundred years to see, and the Wither’s shadow seems to sink into everyone nearby, feeding paranoia, greed, and old resentments until even the living feel haunted.

Claire has solved murders before, but this one is different… because Sam is watching, and he is finally noticing the things Claire has been hiding.

To catch a killer, Claire will have to face what waits under the Wither.

And she might have to tell her fiancé the truth… before the desert takes someone else.

February 10, 2026

Language

‎English

Print length

273 pages

Book 5 of 8

The Haunted Ranch Mysteries

Review:   Tombstones with a View (The Haunted Ranch Mysteries Book 4) by Sara Bourgeois

Rating: 4.5⭐️

Tombstones with a View is great and really expands on the series with several new characters and insights into established ones.  I absolutely loved it.

We’ve met Mavis, owner of the Desert Rest Motel before.  Primarily because that place is full of Mavis’s antique doll collection, hundreds of dolls everywhere throughout the motel, in every room. Staring at you. In prior stories.

Here Mavis is the center of the story. Her dolls too. Which makes for a unique investigation when Mavis goes missing. We and Claire learn about her in her absence.

Claire’s long time friend, Sara, a journalist from Chicago ,arrives to spend time together. There’s someone who is cutting fences and leaving threatening notes at the Sanctuary. And Sam’s still trying to propose. 

Tombstones with a View accomplishes several things along with a terrific mystery. It brings in a new, actually 2 new connected characters and develops an established minor character into one who looks to become one of the found family that Claire is forming around herself.

This also gives Buster, a deputy Sheriff who’s normally shown as useless, a chance to demonstrate extra depth, something I appreciate. 

The ending not only ties up all the various plot threads giving us a couple of interesting elements and terrific surprises, but a lovely note for Claire and Sam. 

Sara Bourgeois continues to give us a realistic sense of the beauty and atmosphere of the Arizona desert while layering it with the most interesting of mysteries and engaging characters. This series is a real treat!

Cover by Book Covers by Melody

The Haunted Ranch Mysteries (8 book series)

Death Rides The Desert #1

Bones and Cactus Blooms #2

Spirits of the Saguaro #3

Tombstones with a View #4

Body Beneath the Wither #5

Death Waits at Dead Rock #6

Skulls and Sunlit Secrets #7

The Bone Charm #8

Buy link

        Tombstones with a View (The Haunted Ranch Mysteries Book 4)

    

Blurb 

The dolls are always watching.

Claire Caldwell learned that the hard way in Room 7 of the Desert Rest Motel. But now their owner has vanished, and those glass eyes might be the only witnesses to what happened…

Sheriff Dobson isn’t concerned. “Woman finally got tired of those creepy dolls and skipped town. Can’t blame her.”

But Claire knows Mavis would never abandon her collection. Those hundreds of Victorian dolls aren’t just decorations… they’re her life. Her family. Her obsession.

With the sheriff refusing to investigate, Claire finds herself drawn into the dusty rooms of the Desert Rest, surrounded by glass eyes that follow her every move. The dolls saw what happened to Mavis. If only they could talk.

Meanwhile, someone is stalking Whispering Saguaro Ranch. Cut fences. Threatening notes. A shadow in the barn at midnight. Claire’s made some enemies, and one of them wants what she has… no matter the cost.

As Claire searches for answers, she discovers that Mavis has secrets of her own. The Pioneer Cemetery behind the motel holds more than old bones. The dolls hold more than sawdust and porcelain. And the eccentric woman everyone dismissed as harmless may have been hiding something worth killing for.

Now Claire must untangle two mysteries at once, with help from an unlikely source: her veterinarian fiancé Sam, whose rounds through the desert bring whispers of things people don’t want known. Together, they’ll learn that in Perdido Springs, the strangest people often have the darkest secrets.

And some collections are worth more than anyone imagined.

January 11, 2026

Language

‎English

Print length

283 pages

Book 4 of 8

The Haunted Ranch Mysteries

Review:  Spirits of the Saguaro (The Haunted Ranch Mysteries Book 3) by Sara Bourgeois

Rating: 4.5⭐️

Spirits of the Saguaro, the terrific third book in The Haunted Ranch Mysteries by Sara Bourgeois, sees the small Arizona desert town of Perdito Springs still trying to recover from the death of bank manager, Robert Harrison. Harrison was a man who was hated by the town’s residents for his crimes and cruel treatment.

Now a well known artist is coming to town and several people are hoping that her popularity will help them recover their losses and rebuild.

But artist Aurora Brightwater brings more than popularity, she brings antagonism, old hatred’s and divisions with her. And that leads to murder. 

Spirits of the Saguaro is a fabulous book. The story went in different directions than I had anticipated, the characters were very well drawn and the side plots are great. 

There’s a side story about a filmmaker as well as the plot that’s following the slow burn romance between Claire and Sam. 

The entire community, the shops and their owners are very involved, and we’re getting to know each one better as the mysteries play out. 

The mystical world of Perdita Springs, which includes the Fox guardian, the ghosts of the ranch, and the mysterious past of the area and mines  is a developing element.

This excellent story and series is one I’m very excited about. And one that’s hard to stop reading once you’ve started. 

Highly recommended! A real winner. 

Cover by Book Covers by Melody

The Haunted Ranch Mysteries (8 book series)

Death Rides The Desert #1

Bones and Cactus Blooms #2

Spirits of the Saguaro #3

Tombstones with a View #4

Body Beneath the Wither #5

Death Waits at Dead Rock #6

Skulls and Sunlit Secrets #7

The Bone Charm #8

Buy link

 

        Spirits of the Saguaro (The Haunted Ranch Mysteries Book 3)

    

Blurb 

Claire Caldwell has finally settled into her strange new normal. Two months after the Robert Harrison incident, she’s learned to trust her spirit fox’s warnings and Rosa’s ghostly advice as she runs her animal sanctuary in the desert.

But some visitors bring their own darkness to Perdido Springs.

When famous artist Aurora Brightwater arrives to paint the “desert spirits,” she brings more than just her canvases and her sparkling laugh. She brings grudges, theft, and a cruelty that hides behind flowing scarves and talk of universal energy. 

Then Aurora turns up dead in her studio, a palette knife through her heart, and everyone she’s wronged becomes a suspect. The artist who steals others’ work… dead. The documentary filmmaker who seems cursed… filming everything. The exhausted ex-husband she abandoned… watching from the shadows.

As Claire investigates with her veterinarian boyfriend Sam, she discovers Aurora left a trail of destroyed careers and stolen dreams across the Southwest. But in a town where the dead talk, the dolls in the motel have their own agenda, and something that used to be human roams the desert at night, finding the truth means distinguishing between those who wanted Aurora gone and whoever actually made it happen.

In Perdido Springs, the veil is thin, the spirits are watching…

Welcome back to the desert, where inspiration can be deadly.

December 15, 2025

Language

‎English

Print length

315 pages

Book 3 of 8

The Haunted Ranch Mysteries

Review:  Bones and Cactus Blooms (The Haunted Ranch Mysteries Book 2) by Sara Bourgeois

Rating: 4.5⭐️

Bones and Cactus Blooms , the second book in The Haunted Ranch Mysteries by Sara Bourgeois, is exactly what I hoped for in the series. It’s the potential I saw in the first book fulfilled and more.

The author has a fantastic mystery and story here. Shes developing Claire , the ranch which is now a thriving animal sanctuary and those who are a part of it, as the mystical heart of Perdita Springs. Or maybe the land upon which all of it stands. 

The beleaguered citizens of the town, under siege by developers and the bank, have our sympathy and emotional connection. Each one feels believable and raw. And Claire, as she continues to make her way into this town and its pain, is an interesting empathic woman who wants to make things happen. In their lives and her’s.

So of course, there’s a murder.

It’s a complex story with lots of interesting elements around the person who is killed. 

And the side stories, especially the one about Claire and Sam Redhorse, the vet, is very well written . Slow developing with stumbling blocks that, again,  are ones that any person can easily understand and relate to. 

It is wrapped up emotionally with layers that are so powerful. Sad but necessary. And the author adds an extra twist that shows another layer of the story and series going forward. 

Fantastic work and highly recommended. 

I’m onto the next.

Cover by Book Covers by Melody

The Haunted Ranch Mysteries (8 book series)

Death Rides The Desert #1

Bones and Cactus Blooms #2

Spirits of the Saguaro #3

Tombstones with a View #4

Body Beneath the Wither #5

Death Waits at Dead Rock #6

Skulls and Sunlit Secrets #7

The Bone Charm #8

Buy link

        Bones and Cactus Blooms (The Haunted Ranch Mysteries Book 2)

    

Blurb 

Claire Caldwell has finally found her footing. Six months after solving her first murder, she’s turned Whispering Saguaro Ranch into a thriving animal sanctuary and embraced her ability to see the dead.

But the desert has more secrets to reveal.

When volunteers preparing for the Cactus Bloom Festival unearth human bones that have been hidden for thirty-five years, the whole town starts whispering about old scandals and vanished souls. Then one of the most powerful man in Perdido Springs turns up dead in his office, and everyone Claire knows had a reason to want him gone. The man who foreclosed on half the town… dead. The festival meant to save local businesses… in chaos. The ghosts in Claire’s kitchen… warning her that death isn’t finished yet.

As Claire digs into both the old bones and the fresh corpse, she discovers the two deaths are connected by threads of family, loss, and long-buried grievances that someone would kill to keep hidden. With her fox, Rusty, bringing ominous warnings, the ghost of a long-dead librarian helping her research, and her relationship with Sam strained by family obligations, Claire must navigate a town full of desperate people harboring deadly secrets.

In Perdido Springs, old wounds never heal… and some debts can only be paid in blood.

Welcome back to the desert, where the past never stays buried.

November 10, 2025

Language

‎English

Print length

282 pages

Book 2 of 8

The Haunted Ranch Mysteries

Review:  Death Rides The Desert (The Haunted Ranch Mysteries Book 1) by Sara Bourgeois

Rating: 4.25⭐️

“When a city girl inherits a remote Arizona ranch, she discovers two things: dead bodies keep showing up, and she can see the ghosts who might have witnessed the murders. With a mysterious fox who won’t leave her porch and a handsome veterinarian who keeps stopping by, Claire must solve crimes the living can’t… and the dead won’t rest until she does”

That’s the hook for the book and series and it’s a terrific one. 

Death Rides The Desert is the first book in The Haunted Ranch Mysteries by Sara Bourgeois, a completed paranormal murder mystery series that I just started reading.   

This story starts off strong, as Claire Caldwell, arrives in Perdita Springs, Arizona from Chicago, Illinois. She’s been fired from her longtime marketing job, dumped by a cheating fiancé, and trying to figure out what she is doing with her life. Her deceased aunt has left her a mystical ranch, and lands with some old mines. A legacy she’s has avoided dealing with until now. 

But the story begins as she arrives weeks after the funeral. The ranch should be closed. But that’s not what she finds. 

It’s the beginning of huge development in her character as she learns about her aunt, the supernatural beings , ghosts, and strange happenings , that make the ranch and land home. It includes a spiritual fox with one white paw that glows.

I love the cultural elements the author weaves throughout the story and series . It’s in the families and their food and history. It’s in the town and its traditions and tragedies. All conceptually important and beautifully rendered.

The mysteries that stem from the mines, the past territorial disputes, and the town’s shady developments that impact the region and its inhabitants are inherently dangerous and real. The reader understands these issues and their significance to the people and their families.

By the end, Claire has become a strong advocate for herself and the people of the town. She’s got a vision for the ranch. And this series is really ready to launch into remarkable status.

I loved the ghosts, the animals at the ranch, Luis the young ranch hand and TikTok enthusiast, and,, Claire, who absolutely grew on me. 

I can’t wait for the next book to see what the ranch has become!

If you enjoy murder mysteries with a supernatural or paranormal aspect, this is absolutely charming. 

And it’s completed! What a win!

Cover by Book Covers by Melody

The Haunted Ranch Mysteries (8 book series)

Death Rides The Desert #1

Bones and Cactus Blooms #2

Spirits of the Saguaro #3

Tombstones with a View #4

Body Beneath the Wither #5

Death Waits at Dead Rock #6

Skulls and Sunlit Secrets #7

The Bone Charm #8

Buy link

 Book 1 of 8: The Haunted Ranch Mysteries 

Blurb 

A haunted ranch. A clever fox. Ghosts who won’t shut up.

Claire Caldwell came to Arizona to sell her great aunt’s ranch, lick her wounds, and escape back to Chicago.

Then the ranch decided it wanted a new owner.

A copper furred fox starts leaving gifts on her doorstep. Translucent cowboys appear in the barn. A woman who died in 1985 cooks tamales in Claire’s kitchen like she never left. And somehow, the dead all seem to know one thing Claire does not.

She can see them.

When the most hated man in Perdido Springs turns up dead on Claire’s property and the sheriff waves it off as an accident, the ghosts make it clear. Someone in town is lying. Someone is dangerous. And everyone had a reason to want the victim gone.

With a mystical fox at her side, a house full of chatty spirits, and a too handsome veterinarian who keeps showing up just when she needs him, Claire has to solve a murder nobody wants solved.

Before she becomes the next ghost haunting Whispering Saguaro Ranch.

Welcome to the desert, where the dead do not rest and the living keep secrets.

October 3, 2025

Language

‎English

Print length

323 pages

Book 1 of 8

The Haunted Ranch Mysteries

Review: The Little Shop of Curiosities Cursed Object 1 The Music Box – Part 1. (Crawshanks Guide to the Occult) by Vawn Cassidy) 

Rating: 4🌈

With this crossover series in the The Dead Serious Universe, two previously supporting characters are finally getting their own story and relationship series.  

That’s which Harrison Ames, recently relocated to town to look for his mother. And former DI, now PI Sam Stone, with his own connections to Danny and Tris, and magical powers of his own. 

Both characters have figured largely in prior stories, and author Cassidy takes many of these impactful moments and dramatic events from these novels and repurposes them here.  The reader gets to see certain scenes again, only this time from either Harrison’s or Sam’s perspective. 

I have to admit I loved (spoiler alert) seeing Chan meet Death all over again. I can’t get enough of this couple, so this was an enormous surprise and plus for me. 

I think Sam turned out to be my favorite character, more mature and better defined character of the pair. 

Or maybe it’s because Harrison spends the entire story lying to everyone around him. Sam, Tristan, Danny. Even as the mystery and investigation surrounding the magical bookstore, the portal, and other aspects of that storyline, Harrison, knowing full well he had important information and details about the events surrounding the ongoing crisis, kept quiet. 

He’s not a teenager. He’s in his thirties. Not communicating highly needed information to people who consider him a friend in a time of crisis. 

No, I long ago learned that I’d had enough of this type of character. Whether the author needed him to be incommunicative due too plot purposes or considered it a necessary part of his personality, either way it led to a disconnect for me. 

Yes to Sam, no to Harrison. And there are things I do like about him. Like his dynamic with his dads. So funny. But everything else? No. 

I’ll continue to read because all the wonderful crossover characters and scenes.  Maybe Harrison will win me back over. Who knows. 

A definite winner otherwise. 

Cover design by Natasha Snow

Crawshanks Guide to the Occult:

The Little Shop of Curiosities Cursed Object 1 The Music Box

Connected series:

The Dead Serious Universe,

Crawshanks Guide to the Recently Departed (6 book series)

Crawshanks Guide to Mischievous Spectres & Spirits(2 book series)

The Grim Adventures of Death & Chan Vol 1-3 (on the author’s website)

Buy link

 Book 1 of 1: Crawshanks Guide to the Occult 

Blurb 

The Music Box – Part 1.

Despite being raised and well loved by his two adoptive fathers Harrison Ames has always felt alone. As an incredibly powerful witch he’s never come across anyone else who can do the things he can. Moving to London from Devon, he’d hoped that if he finally gathered the courage to confront the biological mother who’d given him up as a baby, he might finally have some answers.

Sam Stone, carries scars of his own, both physical and otherwise, but he’s determined to ignore them and get on with his life. But when fate drops a gorgeous prickly red haired witch in his life, he figures his luck is finally changing.

With mediums, dead drag queens, and supernatural beings as his new friends Harrison finds himself drawn into a world of magic and chaos. But amidst all the insanity that is his life, there’s Sam, his anchor when the secrets of his biological family begin to tear his life apart…

Underside Press

Publication date

December 25, 2025

Language

‎English

Print length

320 pages

Book 1 of 1

Crawshanks Guide to the Occult

 Book 1 of 1: Crawshanks Guide to the Occult 

Review:  Dead of Night (Crossroads Queen Book 2) by Annabel Chase

Rating: 4.5⭐️

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.

Another find and recommendation!

Cover by Trif Designs, love it

Crossroads Queen series:

Dead to the World #1

Dead of Night #2

Dead Last #3

Dead Wrong #4

Dead Weight #5

Play Dead #6

Dead Heat #7

Half Dead #8

Dead End #9 – April 17,2025

Buy link

        Dead of Night (Crossroads Queen Book 2)

    

Blurb 

For Lorelei Clay, no good deed goes unpunished…

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.

Review:  A Dash of Halloween by Andy Gallo

Rating: 3.25🌈

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.

This was short and entertaining. 

Buy link

Andy Gallo

Blurb

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.

  • Publication date: October 28, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 118 pages

Review: Kestrel & Kee (Paranormal Investigators) The Siren of Lake Killikee by V.L. Locey

Rating: 4🌈

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.

Cover by Meredith Russell. Love the cover.

Buy Link

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.com › Kestrel…Kestrel & Kee (Paranormal Investigators) The Siren of Lake Killikee

Blurb:

Kestrel & Kee (Paranormal Investigators) :

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.

  • Publication date: October 17, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 211 pages