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

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

I was browsing through the free section to pass time and frankly didn't expect to find anything that interested me much less something that I would like and was very pleasantly surprised to come across this. I started and finished it in the same day. It was quick, light, entertaining and exactly what I needed at the time. I interactions between the characters was cute. I do wish I'd made note of my opinions as I went along.. I always mean to and I never do. Pthtbbttt..


However, almost lost show more me when things started to look as though they might turn religious with the mention of heaven/hell but I appreciated that it sort of veered on from that and left things hazy. Nothing lets me down like mixing religion into my fantasy/sci-fi. show less

I glanced at some of the GR reviews of this free ebook, and see that many are cookie-cutter positive. That's not terrible, but it isn't informative to other readers, either.

I've been working on writing a book. I have a fair idea how hard it is, now. It's taught me to see more easily where other writers succeeded and failed. This book is pretty good - I finished reading it. The ending was surprisingly original and very sweet. I'd be tempted to read the next book despite the flaws. That's the show more key a first book in a series must have, that pull. I enjoyed all the characters, and that was part of how the writer drew me in. I'm sure they're there to people the series, but the main ones are very good. I liked the insta-love, and I really liked the timeframe to the end of the novel. I liked it, despite one of my least favorite tropes (secrets) and that ending is why I gave it four stars. show less