"Two thumbs up, and I highly recommend this book!"
Marcus Van Buren and Daisy Malone have gotten married
(from SCANDALOUS SPIRITS) and are off on their honeymoon.
Still wanting to help his deceased relatives cross over and
thus vacate his mansion, Marcus has hired Thaddeus Bookman,
a professional when it comes to helping ghosts cross over,
to get rid of them. However when Izzy scares one of the
construction workers with her ghostly shenanigans, its
Rufus Sinclair that has to come out to Atlantic City and
cool down the spooked workers and to keep the events out of
the press. Rufus hates dealing with the ghostly Van Buren family,
and had hoped to never have to return to the mansion.
However, when he arrives at the crumbling house, Bookman
informs him that he will need to deal with Izzy seeing as
she has a crush on Rufus. That and several trunks were
found (thanks to the construction workers accidentally
destroying a wall) that she won't let him see all the
contents of. In the trunk was a picture of a man that
looked a lot like Rufus, standing with pilot and friend of
Izzy, Grace LaRue. Certain that the picture might be a key
to helping Izzy cross over, Bookman convinces Rufus to try
and talk to her, and gets Rufus blown out the tower window
because of Izzy's ghostly pain. Waking up in the bushes Rufus comes face to car grill of
a living, very not-a-ghost Izzy of 1923 and Grace LaRue.
For Rufus, stuck in the roaring twenties with speakeasies
and the sexual liberation should have been fabulous.
However, he suddenly finds himself physically attracted to
good girl Grace, with a love sick Izzy always on his
heals. Refusing to believe he is the drifter in Bookmans'
photo, Rufus tries to stay "low" and not change history.
But how can he figure out what is preventing Izzy from
crossing over when he desperately wants to stay in 1923 and
be a part of Graces life? CB Scott has written another fantastic novel! I loved
Rufus as a character in the first novel so am overjoyed he
has his own story. Through Rufus, we get to experience a
police raid on the speakeasy the siblings James and Izzy
took too as well as the adrenaline rush of wing walking.
Rufus is a man that lives to help others and therefore
doesn't have his own goals. He is afraid of relationships
that have any stability and while enjoys flying it's more a
means to an end rather than done for pleasure. When he meets no nonsense Grace who doesn't need a man
in her life, except as a business partner...she makes him
think about things he would rather not. Raised by her
grandfather, Grace has followed her dreams. She's a
daredevil stunt pilot that has been wronged by her previous
partner. While she knows she doesn't want to marry her
childhood friend Mick, she can't figure out the attraction
she feels for Rufus ignited by a kiss. Izzy is a lonely self-centered woman who hides behind
her parting happy façade. While she is desperately trying
to get Grace to marry Mick, it now serves a dual purpose.
She wants her friend to have the happiness of marriage, and
now more so she can have Rufus all to herself. At the same
time, she is trying to avoid old fuddy-duddy Roy, whom her
family would like to see her marry. While I generally shy away from love triangles, this one
isn't what I expected. Izzy is ga-ga over Rufus, Rufus is
confused about his instant attraction of Grace and Grace is
in denial of her attraction to Rufus, so the situations
were funny and no one was clueless about what was going on
(except through denial). KINDRED SPIRITS is an incredible
story involving reincarnation, time travel and falling in
love. CB Scott writes so well that I couldn't put the book
down. One minute I was laughing, then biting my nails, and
then holding my breath as tears streamed down my face. The
ending of this book was perfect, although, I really
wouldn't have minded if the story was longer... Two thumbs up, and I highly recommend this book. I can
hardly wait to see what they write next!
Reviewed by Cynthia Eckert
Posted April 19, 2004
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