I have honestly never read anything before that was said to be from the section Classic Romantic Suspense. I am so glad that I took a chance with Long Time Coming by Edie Claire. The focus of this story is Joy Hudson, a veterinarian intent on starting a home visit business in her old hometown. This return is not a welcome one as the death of her best friend Jenny back in their final year of high school is still painful. But the failing health of her father has called her home.

More so than anything I want to share some of the amazing passages in this book!

“Accepting the loss of a loved one is difficult. But reconciling with the living is just as important” page 63

There’s a difference between not being willing to commit and not being able to find the right person to commit to. page 411

This story is full of hurt and healing, love and sadness, confusion and moments of clarity. With Joy having forgotten the time around the accident she is on a mission to figure out why it still hurts so much. Along for the ride is Bear the dog and his owner, Jenny’s boyfriend and the driver of the car from the accident – Jeff.

There are many layers to Joy’s journey of healing, everything from a paranormal element to a second more suspenseful mystery. Either way, this is a romance, mystery and a book of healing on a fundamental level. With a little faith, love and work the heart and soul CAN be mended.

Long Time Coming

From romance and mystery with a dash of magic to an all out paranormal investigator who hunts for dead people… Such is my Halloween themed reading! I have read stories like this before, way back when I worked at a small independent bookstore. I would sometimes take my break with a book about haunted locations in Alberta or some such thing. This book reminds me a bit of those. 

A little more personal than most as this is written from the author’s point of view as a paranormal researcher and the people around him and related to him’s experiences. Dr. Hans Holzer has done his research. Each of his tales includes lovely background information and history. In researching the man himself I found it interesting that his name is one of those attached to the surplus of information about the Amityville horrors. In fact, his book was was the basis for a 1982 horror film. You can find the article HERE.

In Haunted Places he travels all over the globe checking out potential hauntings and telling their stories. There is a definite lack of step by step dealings with the ghosts… some locals seem a little silly and I found that from time to time the writing seemed jarring with sentence structure and the like, but since this is an advance copy I am hoping those issues will be ironed out. You can find an excellent review by another Netgalley user HERE.Probably not my favourite of all my ghost stories but definitely worth a read. 

Haunted Places

Otherwise known as how I started a new series AND found a new author… Rose Pressey is the author of this fun and quirky novel with a paranormal aspect. We join Larue Donavan, bookstore owner and Ghost buster extraordinaire at her bookstore Book Nook. She is joined there by (seriously) the ghost of Abraham Lincoln. I honestly think he was about my favourite side character of the whole story! 

Now as you can probably figure out Larue can see dead people, in fact on the weekends she is traveling around helping them make it to the light. Thought she often ends up with spirits following her home (another way our cast of characters expands hilariously). I don’t want to give too much away but I can tell you there IS a love interest… a little mystery… some dead people (but no murders!) and so many entertaining moments and quirky dialogue. 

I absolutely love that Larue is an independent and (generally) self assured woman. She is doing what she loves (working at a bookstore she owns AS WELL AS ghost hunt) with her bestfriend in the know and her dead friends along for the ride. If you want a good giggle, a GREAT heroine and a taste of the paranormal this is the book for you!!! 

Me and My Ghoulfriends