Author: Sarah Gilman
US Publisher: Entangled: Ever After
Why is it here in Lost and Found? Seems to be an ebook only, without any other related stories.
Main Characters:
Jade – a ghost hunter – or exorcist really. She wasn’t very good at it apparently, as she had recently refused to exorcise a ghost, but then that ghost killed a woman. She is part of a family who exorcises ghosts, and the family’s policy it to exorcise them no matter what. She has spent a lot of time looking to find a way to not destroy the spirit, but to help them move on with out hurting it.
Dutch – The ghost; he worked for a logging company and fell over the falls in 1890. He hired Jade to exorcise him. But he doesn’t tell Jade at first that he is the ghost. He was lonely and tired of haunting, that’s why he wants to be exorcised.
Aaron – Jade’s older brother. He is determined to exorcise the spirit.
Jeremy – Jade’s youngest sibling. He is more of a natural leader, but he also wis willing to try to help Jade when Jade doesn’t want to exorcise Dutch.
Locations: Woods of Maine
Main Premise: Jeremy gives Jade on more chance at an exorcism after the debacle with the ghost in the barn that Jade wouldn’t exorcise who then murdered a woman. Jade heads to an isolate state park in Maine, thinking this should be an easy job.
Dutch is an old ghost, who is lonely and doesn’t want to hang around any more. But he is extremely powerful as he has the ability to be seen and to even be corporeal. He apparently went over the falls to his death. Dutch calls Jade in.
When Jade and Dutch meet, Jade doesn’t know Dutch is the ghost. She is expecting to possibly have to put up a fight with the ghost. They end of (quickly) falling for one another. When Jade and Dutch decide not to go through with the exorcism, Aaron shows up to do it anyway. And Jeremy then shows up to help. But Aaron, after learning how powerful the spirit is, decides he wants to enslave the spirit.
How it ended: Aaron is hell bent on enslaving Dutch; Jeremy wants to help Jade; and Jade wants to be with Dutch. Jade figures out a way to bind her spirit to Dutch’s. She split her spirit from her body, but her body is in a stasis of some sort. So she is spirit but not dead either. Her brothers realized how series she was about saving Dutch and Aaron abandoned his attempt to enslave Dutch. Dutch and Jade “live” happily ever after as spirits together.
Review:
What an awesome quick little read. My sole criticism: it wasn’t long enough, it should be a full length story! Actually, with brothers, there’s the potential for at least a 3 book series…!
What a great little world was built. The author managed to give me characters and some rules of a world in such a short time frame. I felt after 45 minutes of reading that I knew the characters, and I love them. I felt like I knew the rules of the game and the contracts of this world of ghosts and exorcising, and they were well thought out. I felt like I had a wonderful setting, the back drop of the park and the falls, and I could almost smell the pine.
The story is that we have a female exorcist. But the exorcising isn’t exorcising of demons but of ghosts. And there is a ghost, Dutch, who wants to be exorcised.
This short little story had so many things, some action, some steam, and a great little story. It wasn’t spooky, so don’t come here looking for that. But Ms. Gilman seems to be able to build worlds and write chemistry and make it flow and feel natural. It’s easy to suspend reality and dive right into the worlds she builds, and feel like you are right there with the characters. Even for a short little story like this, it feels effortless to read. It’s easy to be so captivated by the end of the first chapter that time gets lost and next thing, it’s the end of the book.
The only problem – It was too short!!!! It was too short!!! And I normally hate the little ebook novellas on principle alone, so the fact that this one won me over says something. I look forward to reading more of Ms. Gilman’s stuff, even if it’s in the form of a “.5” book (as far as goodreads lists them anyway).
I would also love to see this turned into something more….
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