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Pages: 126
Goes Well With: A cup of Hatteras clam chowder and Ghost Whisperer reruns
A Ghostly Charm is a cute little book—perhaps a bit long for a Lunch Break E-book read, but if you’re a quick reader, you could probably bang it out quickly enough. It’s definitely an engrossing and enjoyable read, and the time will fly by like a ghost in the night.
In A Ghostly Charm we meet Maddy Saunders, a reporter for an adventure-themed vacation magazine, who goes to McDavid Island, a small island off the coast of South Carolina, for an assignment. She’s writing an article on a ghost tour, but she’s most definitely a skeptic.
Maddy is one hundred percent positive that there are no such things as ghosts. At the tour’s onset, she meets Mal Sheridan, who runs the tour with his friend, Justin. Maddy is put off by Mal’s swagger—she says he reminds her of Elvis—but she can’t deny that he’s a handsome man. The two don’t necessarily hit it off—it’s hard to get along when one comes out and states that she thinks the other’s entire company is based on a fraudulent idea—but they’re thrown together during some hair-raising and scary encounters. Maddy soon finds that perhaps Mal’s business isn’t so fraudulent after all, but will she be able to make it off McDavid Island alive—and with her heart intact?
I have to admit that I wasn’t so sure that I liked this book at first. Fredrick has a habit of inserting far too many details into a paragraph, and I soon found myself bogged down with information. But once the exposition is out of the way and the action begins, what follows is an intriguing story—and a highly creative one at that.
I was impressed by how intricate the plot was, given that the book is only 126 pages long. You don’t usually see such well fleshed-out plotlines in such a short book. I especially liked how the author found a way to weave the ghost story aspect in with the love scenes, without making it too clichéd.
The characters all seem a little shallow, and the conflict between Maddy and Mal at the end of the story seems forced, as if Fredrick suddenly realized that she didn’t have enough tension—but that definitely isn’t actually the case. There’s plenty of action and tension during the book’s climax, and I could have been perfectly content without the characters’ half-baked arguments. The story doesn’t need any relationship drama between the protagonists, since there’s ghostly drama galore.
I’d be remiss, of course, if I didn’t mention the love scenes. While I’ve certainly read steamier or more explicit love scenes, the two love scenes in this book are great.
All in all, I’d say that A Ghostly Charm is a great little book. Perhaps it’s a bit long, but it’s well worth the read, especially if you’re into the supernatural or ghosts and ghost hunting (I had to laugh out loud during one reference to a certain ghost hunting show on SyFy channel featuring a couple of plumbers). I’d definitely go back and read this book again. I found it rather haunting.
Ed. Note: For more on A Ghostly Charm, visit The Wild Rose Press.
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