Genres: Paranormal Romance
Published by Indie/Self Published
Released on April 10, 2012
Pages: 212
Format: eBook
Having read Supernaturally Kissed and loved it for combining several of my favorite story elements- romance, paranormal, and mystery- I was more than eager to get my paws on the second book. Bless Stacey Kennedy for not making her book releases over a year apart! I am not a patient woman when it comes to my book love.
This second installment picks up shortly after the events of the first book. Tess is now officially on the cold case team that includes Zach as her partner in this case with Eddie still on light duty getting healed from his injuries, and Max in charge of their detail. Kipp is the unofficial member of the team.
Zach, Tess and Kipp set out to interview a material witness in a case as well as try to meet the dead girl, Lizbeth’s ghost. Lizbeth’s sister is the witness and she tells them what she knows about what appeared to be a suicide with her sister just walking out of their house and drowning herself in the lake. There was another person on the scene, but the sister, Anna, watched the whole bizarre thing from a distance and Hector never went near her sister. Kipp and Tess searched around for Anna’s ghost and find nothing. This leaves them high and dry so they head back to the station where to everyone’s surprise Max has brought in a consultant from the FBI named Dane who is there to ‘help’ Tess with her gift. Kipp takes an instant dislike to the man and Tess isn’t far behind him because Dane is arrogant and seems to have ulterior motives.
Dane joins their crew and spends more time criticizing than he does teaching. Tess feels pressured because Kipp’s attitude goes from bad to worse about Dane, but he can’t give a good reason other than the guy is untrustworthy. Tess suspects Kipp is jealous. Dane angers her though when he presumes to tell her that she needs to cut off her contact with the ghosts- ALL the ghosts- because she’s leaving herself open.
Tess is approached by a bunch of ghosts about a strange new ghost who is bad news and terrifying them all. Dane becomes even more insistent which just makes her all the more stubborn to help the ghosts. Things go south in a hurry when they discover the new ghost is actually a demon. Tess is in trouble with a capital ‘T’ up to her eyeballs as usual and is stuck relying on a guy that she can barely tolerate and might not be trustworthy.
So much exciting stuff happens in this story that I’m still reeling from what all happened. I couldn’t stop reading from the moment they discovered the demon all the way through the surprising end/cliffhanger.
This one wrung so many emotions out of me in the fairly short read that it was. I laughed at Tess’ dry wit, ahhh’d over the romance between Tess and Kipp, snarled over the gritty annoying Dane and sat appalled at what happened. I had one of those ‘No say it isn’t so’ moments. I even cried a little. These reactions are a sign of an abso-fab plot with beyond awesome characters (either that or I was having a weak female moment- nah!)
So to wrap it up, this one did not suffer the fate of being the bad sequel. All the things that were s’wonderful about the first book were still working for this one- good strong plot with murder case and demon running amok in Memphis, Tess and Kipp, the camaraderie of the police team, new mysterious characters, and Tess’ best friend.
Stacey did leave me hanging with all that shocking stuff at the end, but I’ll forgive her if she does me a solid by making the third book as thrilling as the first two.
About Stacey Kennedy
Stacey Kennedy is an urban fantasy lover at heart, but she also enjoys losing herself in dark and sensual worlds. She loves in southwestern Ontario with her husband, who gave her a happily-ever-after. Together, they have two small children who can always make her smile, and who will never be allowed to read Mommy’s books. If she’s not plugging away at a new story, you’ll find her camping, curling up with the latest flick, or obsessing over Sons of Anarchy, Supernatural, True Blood and Lost Girl.
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Sounds interesting although I’m not usually a fan of paranormal novels. I think Teresa Medeiros combines the touch of paranormal with enough lighthearted humor to make it work so if you haven’t read “Touch of Enchantment”, you’ll probably love it.
And I like Brenda Joyce novels for a good romantic mystery with enough suspense to keep you on edge for the entire story.
Thanks for the recommends Corinna! I’m not familiar with Teresa Medeiros so I’ll have to check her out.