2014 InD’Tale Magazine RONE Award. Honorable Mention in Paranormal Romance.
Ready to get her life back on track after ending a painful marriage, Danica Giles returns to the Creole cottage where she grew up in the New Orleans French Quarter. Danica is anxious to rekindle her friendship with a former resident from her old neighborhood, the seductive Gaston Deslonde. But Gaston isn’t exactly a … exactly a normal guy. The charming man has been dead for over a hundred and fifty years, and the childish crush Danica once had on her ghostly playmate quickly turns into something much deeper. When a handsome new man enters Danica’s life, Gaston vows to do whatever he can to hold on to her. Danica soon discovers that the most forbidden of all desires cannot be satisfied without paying a grave price. Love can blur the lines between life and death when you are living among the ghosts of Rue Dumaine.
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I really liked this book. My husband and I love New Orleans so some of this was like taking a walk down memory lane. I am glad that Paul was such a great man and she was able to find her happily while alive ever after. But a large part of me was really rooting for Gaston. I was so sad when he was no longer at her side. My heart broke along with hers many times.
So, all in all, great story, great writing, great characters, great location and a tad bit of history to lead to this point. What a nice read so close to Halloween.
Couldn’t get into it. Too juvenile or too predictable for me. Might be great for someone else.
The author captured the mystery and romance of New Orleans for an exciting tale of a woman’s love affair with a ghost. Definitely a page turner I could not put down!
**CONTAINS SPOILERS**
Danica lived in a haunted house in New Orleans as a kid. The ghost Gaston talked to her, watched over her and protected her. Sound sorta nice, right? But what about when she was in her early teens and dating? He ran off the boys because he was jealous. Sounds like a a pedophile to me, ick. And now she moves back and they have the hots for each other and he talks about remembering her as a beautiful child, again ick. Yep, pedo-ghost for sure.
And Danica was in an abusive relationship with her ex husband but finally left. Yay for her but no mention of getting counseling or therapy, but she mentions a few times about taking his expensive antique books to get back at him. So adult of her. How about pressing charges? How about letting people know he’s a monster so it doesn’t happen to someone else? Nope! She takes his books and money and leaves the predator loose to hurt other women. Well done Danica! You are part of the problem.
Then there is Paul who she immediately has the hots for even though she wants Gaston the ghost too. So Gaston has a jealous hissy-fit and this makes the super immature Danica pleased became she knows the dead guy wants her bad. Gah!
Gaston shows up on Halloween in human form because why not? They do it all night then he disappears saying he can come back next Halloween. But she goes out with Paul. They end up getting nekid after the second date in which they have sex that seems disturbing for someone who was in an abusive relationship. Again, therapy would help you Danica but you’re an idiot. Oh and of course she thinks she’s in love with Paul almost immediately. Insta-Love… how stupid.
Crap happens, people die. The term black magic is bandied about. There’s a voodoo woman, of course. There’s 3 pages of back and forth between Danica and Paul about “I told you I would come and get you, I didn’t want you riding the street car.” Controlling much Paul? To Danica being a twit “oh I didn’t want to be a bother.” while blushing and fluttering her eyes. Yes, 3 pages of nothing. There’s a lot of that in this book. It’s 214 pages and should have been edited to 150.
This was a trope-y book. Ghosts in New Orleans, check. Pedo-ghost coming to life to finally “have” the then girl/now woman for a night of passion, check. PS. Pedo-ghost used an old dudes body (who also was a wife abuser!) to have sex with Danica but she didn’t know it until later. Gross! Crazy lady next door obsessed with said pedo-ghost using voodoo and black magic for nefarious reasons never expounded upon other than “power”, check. Insta-Love, check. A voodoo lady with mysterious half-answers, check. Murder and suicide, check. A different creepy neighbor that just happens to know anything and everything about ghosts in general, pedo-ghost in particular and ends up being a much smarter, deeper character in the last 8 pages of the book than originally written, check. Wtf? Ghosts “going into the light.” Check.
Please do yourself a favor and don’t read this. I was in the mood for a good ghost and was highly disappointed by this nonsense masquerading as a book. I won’t read anything else from this author either.
Alot of very profound statements made in the dialogue. Makes you think! Enjoyed this ghost story
Greatly enjoyed this book. For me, it was not the story that I expected but it was so much more. I don’t like to give away story details in any of my reviews, so read the book and enjoy the story.
Could not put this book down. Great read!