This month the theme week is Paranormal
Meaning you will find a review from that theme here on Love Bytes everyday !
We hope you enjoy 🙂
Reviewed by Carissa
TITLE: A Ghost of a Chance
AUTHOR: Josh Lanyon
PUBLISHER: Just Joshin
LENGTH: 112 pages
BLURB:
Over a century ago Illusionist David Berkeley committed suicide in his mansion by the sea, thus dooming his restless spirit to wander forever. Or so the local legend goes…
Professor Rhys Davies, a part-time parapsychologist, is writing a book on California hauntings and he believes the crumbling ruins of Berkeley House will make a terrific chapter — if he can gain access to the house and grounds. The only obstacle is brooding cop and self-appointed caretaker, Sam Devlin. As obstacles go, Devlin is a big one.
But you know what they say. The bigger they are, the harder they fall…
REVIEW:
There are a lot of interesting ways to meet new men–not that Rhys Davies is looking for any new men after what the last one did–but being wrestled to the floor by a strong naked man, is definitely in the top ten. Which would be all fine and dandy except said naked man, Sam Devlin, is a cop and pretty much convinced that Rhys is either an inept burglar, or his uncle’s latest twink. That Rhys is neither is somthing Sam just can’t buy. But hey, it is his uncle’s house and if he wants to board a crazy, ghost hunting twink for the weekend, so be it.
Except Rhys seems to be an expert at getting himself in trouble, and Sam can’t seem to just let the man die in some stupid ‘condemned house fell on your head and now aren’t you regretting not listening to me about staying out of the house you fucking idiot’ accident. He’s a cop, after all. Too bad Rhys is convinced that the Berkeley house is really haunted–and that he is the best man to prove it.
Oh, reading ghost stories at one o’clock at night…what could possibly go wrong?
Yeah…that wasn’t one of my most brilliant ideas, I must admit. Especially since I am a great big wimp when it comes to all thing spooky. Blame it on my overactive imagination–or that my house has way too many suspicious noises going on–but I think next time I pick up a ghost story it shall be read at noon, outside, in the bright, non-threatening, ghost/shadow/darkness/creepy-ass creaking noise free sunshine. Just, you know, to be on the safe side.
Despite the fact that I had to talk myself out of going to sleep with the bedside lamp on, I quite enjoyed this novella by Josh Lanyon. It has been one of those stories that I always planned to get around to, but there is quite a lot of Lanyon to go around, and it has been missed in my scattered attempts to read everything by this author. Until now.
The ghost part was truly creepy, and even better for the fact that I never quite knew if the ghost was real or not. There was a lot of evidence going both ways for most of the story, and I liked that I was unsure if Rhys was a bit batty or if there really was something going bump in that old house.
And while I was unsure about what exactly was going bump in the Berkeley house, there was some very obvious bumping going on over with Sam and Rhys. Like most mysteries by Lanyon, the romance plays second fiddle, but it is usually such a good accompaniment that you don’t mind. At least I don’t. This story only takes place over a weekend so there isn’t exactly a lot of room to grow as people or a couple, but it was a very nice beginning for them.
My only niggle, really, is that the end felt a bit rushed. And the culprit a bit…well, it oddly felt a bit obvious and a bit out of left field as well. Which may just be me with my cold mucking up my head. I think this is just a factor, though, of the story being not quite long enough to build up the necessary clues to bring it up to usual Lanyon standards.
Still enjoyed the story, though, and I’ll add it to the giant pile of Josh Lanyon books that I recommend you read. Just, if you are anything like me, don’t try and read it late at night when there are things like accident-prone cats around to scare you out of your wits.
RATING: 
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