Who ya Gonna Call?

For Halloween I thought I’d read a cool ghost story. Who doesn’t like a nice gothic tale of ghosts a mystery and more ghosts? The Spirit has gotten great reviews on Amazon, and it was about a Victorian couple so I thought I’d give it a go, seeing how I love historical fiction and ghosts. Win/win. Right? Wrong.

First I need to stop reading teen historical fiction because it makes me want to bang my head up against a wall. Ok, that was harsh. Let me rephrase that. Historical fiction for teens set in the Victorian Era makes me want to bang my head against the wall. There. I said it.

Tess and Tobias Goodraven are seventeen and they are married. Oh and they are quite rich as well. Yes, of course they are..hmmm. Anyway, the first chapter is something I didn’t quite understand about a lake and a father and a daughter. Maybe I shouldn’t have been watching the nightly news and trying to read this at the same time. But anyway in the second chapter we meet the main characters. Who have had a tragic past, wrote lots of letters throughout the years because they were separated at a young age, and when they see each other after X amount of years they marry. I think the main reason for marriage is because Tess wanted to get away from her governess.

So we have a madly in love couple, who barely know each other. Check.
They are very rich. Check.
They live alone in a very expensive rich house. Check.
They are ghost hunters. Check.
The story was too absurd for me to continue. Check.

I couldn’t get past the checklist above and to be honest from what I read (3 chapters..or maybe it was 4) I wasn’t impressed by the writing. I wanted a neat gothic story, but all I found was this contrived story that couldn’t hold my interest. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe other readers will enjoy it more. If you did, please tell me why. I’d love an explanation.

Dark Gothic Romance

Leslie’s life sucks. Her father drinks a little too much..ok way too much, her brother is a druggy and she is struggling to pay the bills with her job as a waitress. She is also dealing with a dark secert.

As she tires to pull her life together, Leslie decides she needs to get a tattoo. She believes that in doing so she will be reclaiming her body and it will set her free. What she doesn’t know is that this tattoo is going to link her to the fairy world and that her life will forever be changed.

I enjoyed Ink Exchange. Lets face it, I’m a cover snob and the cover caught my attention. So I decided to give it a go. I liked the story, but I did get a little confused with the characters and who belonged to each fairy kingdom. The author also wrote Wicked Lovely, and I’ve gotten conflicting reports on which book to read first. Is this a series? So I never read Wicked Lovely, which could be one reason why I was confused.

Looking beyond that point I enjoyed the characters, and the pacing of the novel. There was also a little romance thrown in, which added to the story. It was really cool to read about a fairly/human love affair. The vampire thing has been done to death so I applaud Ms. Marr for trying something different.

I think the same teens who liked the Twilight Series will enjoy Ink Exchange.