Sarah Wynde

giftofghostsAkira Malone believes in the scientific method, evolution, and Einstein's theory of relativity. And ghosts.

All the logic and reason in the world can't protect her from the truth-she can see and communicate with spirits. But Akira is sure that her ability is just a genetic quirk and the ghosts she encounters simply leftover electromagnetic energy. Dangerous electromagnetic energy.

Zane Latimer believes in telepathy, precognition, auras, and that playing Halo with your employees is show more an excellent management technique. He also thinks that maybe, just maybe, Akira can help his family get in touch with their lost loved ones.

But will Akira ever be able to face her fears and accept her gift? Or will Zane's relatives be trapped between life and death forever?

Received in ebook format from Netgalley

Akira starts the story at a cross roads - a small entry in an obscure journal has made her a laughing stock as a physicist so she is looking for alternatives. An interview with a bland seeming company (General Directions) on the other side of the country, is worth a look, even when she gets offered the job for a two year contract - even though she doesnt know what the job is or what the company does. Having no ties, she takes it and moves to Tassamara, Florida where it seems everyone has some kind of quirk.

Akira has grown up learning to hide that she can see and talk to ghosts but that is the very reason why she has been hired. Her new employers have lost both the grandson (Dillon) and the grandmother in the same week and need help connecting to the two for various reason. Akira has other ghosts in her life - including a mixed race couple from the 1950s who live in her house - with which she tries to continue her investigations into ghost energy.

However, Zane, Dillon's uncle, soon becomes a distraction and Akira and he become lovers (the main sex scene has a new take on physics as sex, which I dont think many people have considered before!).

Soon things come to a head however, when Akira, Zane, Dillon etc have to confront the immense energy residing in the Latimer house, and Zane learns to his cost why Akira has so many broken bones.

The setting is a nice change, where Akira doesnt have to spend her time defending the belief she can see ghosts - everyone accepts that she can and so there is the freedom in the book for her to have one sided conversations without the author having to defend her (or fill in the other side of the story).

This is the first of the series, and it seems most family members have some gift or other, and work for the company. This gives the author enough space (and enough characters) to have plenty of other books to follow, and I hope she does! show less

Slow to start but then once the book started moving it was quite interesting. Fen was a great main character I really liked her and she made me laugh. I also quite like Luke but I'm not so sure about Kaio. I am excited to see what new adventures are to come next for these characters because the plot did draw me in once the story finally got underway.

A Lonely Magic is written by Sarah Wynde (author of the Tassamara series).

The story focuses on Fen, a young adult. She lives with Theresa, a lady who ‘adopted/fostered’ her after Fen’s life took a turn for the worse following her mother’s death. Theresa has a shop where Fen works part time inbetween studying.

Fen’s life is finally looking up, everything is going as planned. She is finally getting an education and has a job. One day after her shift, Fen is attacked after work. She is show more saved by a handsome stranger, but this stranger gets injured.

Fen meets Kaio. A very good looking man, a few years older than Fen. He tells her it was his brother Luke that saved her during her attack. Fen gets dragged into a world of mystery she never knew existed.

A Lonely Magic takes us deep under the sea to an atlantisian style world. We meet various characters from different cities. The people are known as Sia Mara. While there, Fen finds out a lot about herself, her mother and a few other facts that she would never have dreamed were true.

This is an excellent read. The story flows really well and Sarah has demonstrated a talent (between this and her Tassamara series) for writing really easy to read stories. I found myself drawn deeper and deeper into Fen’s world (not to mention Kaio sounds so dreamy).

An excellent story, hope its the first of many adventures that we see of Fen and Sia Mara.

4/5 Stars show less

Akira Malone is a scientist, a researcher, she fully believes in the tenets of her field, physics. That is why she fully quantifies her ability to see and talk to ghosts as part of her biology, the ability to see energy that others can not. However, when she publishes a mention of this residual energy in a paper, she is thrown out of the academic community. Luckily, a job opportunity at General Directions in Tassamara, Florida presents itself. When Akira interviews with Zane Latimer, she show more doesn't get a good sense of the job, but Zane is good looking at will let her continue her research. Akira soon learns that all of Tassamara has some kind of gift, but her ability to see and talk to ghosts is one of a kind, and that is what General Directions was looking for. What General Directions doesn't know is that Akira just doesn't see nice ghosts, but has tangled with dangerous ghosts as well and the most dangerous might be the one in Zane's house.

This was a fun and sexy read with a great addition of the paranormal. I loved Akira's character, a scientist who can see and talk to ghosts; however, this is a part of her life that she would rather not have, at least until she can explain it. General Directions and the town of Tassamara is a mystery, I still can't wait to find out more about the rest of the inhabitants of Tassamara. As soon as Akira meets Zane, I knew there would be chemistry. Zane is intriguing and has a gift of his own. The ghosts in this story were entertaining and full of character. I think there is still a lot to learn from them and about them. Overall, an entertaining and amusing paranormal romance, with ghosts! I'll definitely be checking out the rest of the series.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review. show less