Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Conduit Crisis

SERIES:  Ghostly Guardians

AUTHOR:  Louisa Masters

NARRATOR:  Nick J. Russo

LENGTH:  6 hours 57 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  February 2, 2022

BLURB:

Being in love with my straight friend isn’t easy….

I thought pining for Daniel was an epic tragedy, but then I found out I’m a conduit—someone who can communicate with beings from the otherworld—and my unrequited love for one of my best friends seems less of a problem.

So when a spirit is destroyed while trying to warn me of an approaching disaster, it makes sense for Daniel to step up and help me search for more information. Or it does until my mom turns up 20 years after abandoning me and Daniel turns into Mr. Protective. One thing leads to another, and somehow the whole town now thinks we’re dating.

As if all that isn’t enough to deal with, Daniel’s having a bisexual awakening, and he’s looking to me, his gay friend, to guide him through it. I’d do anything for him, but the thought of being with him and then watching him move on to another guy…I don’t know if my heart can take it.

But I have to toughen up and get on with it, because whatever’s happening in the otherworld is spilling over to here, and it’s going to take everyone we’ve got to keep humanity safe… if we can.

REVIEW:

Note:  This is the third story in this series and builds on the previous episode.  IMHO, this does not work well as a standalone – at least I would have been lost 😉

After the events of the previous book, Connor, the demon hunter from The Collective and Kieran, the manager at Mannix Estate, are now settled into their relationship.  Gage, the Gatekeeper from The Collective, is ensconced to keep watch over the gateway on the property.  But they are still looking for the other “hidden” gateway.  Meanwhile, Skye is still dealing with his newly found “conduit” abilities.  He’s able to shield himself from being taken over by demons, but things are still not as they should be.  When he’s visited by a demon who delivers an ominous message and then is “vaporized” after Skye has avoided the entity all day, everyone is worried about what this all might mean.  It’s definitely connected to this “hidden gateway” but with no new details, the team is still struggling with locating it.

On top of everything else, Skye’s mother unexpectedly returns to town.  Skye hasn’t seen her in almost 20 years – she left him and his dad when Skye was 7 and he’s had no contact with her whatsoever in all that time.  She claims that she talked to her parents, Skye’s grandparents, and wanted to visit Skye after all these years of radio silence.  Needless to say, Skye is skeptical and then when she pretty much disses his whole life, well, let’s just say he’s not anxious to spend time with her.  The town, Skye’s stepdad and his friends step in, particularly his good friend Daniel who steps in and claims to be Skye’s boyfriend, and get Skye away from the situation.  What with the demons and the gateway, Skye needs to stay out at the estate anyway, so avoidance unlocked!  But the thing is that Skye has been crushing on his supposedly straight friend for years.  So how are they going to play this.

At first Daniel really was just looking out for Skye.  But the more he thinks about it, the more he really does have more than friendship feeling for Skye. He cares about him, wants to protect him and the more he gets used to the idea, the more attractive he finds Skye and the possibility of more.  It’s not like he can’t appreciate an attractive guy, but does he want to kiss one?  Well yes, yes he does – when that one is Skye.  He’s not really freaked out by this revelation, but he’s also not sure what to do about it.  Skye puts him at ease and vows to help him determine if he really is bisexual without any strings.  But it turns out that Daniel wants the strings – but only with Skye 🙂  Of course everyone is “invested” in this “relationship” from the ghosts, the Skye and Daniel’s friends, to Skye’s family and the rest of the town who have watched Skye grow up and are pretty much like family to him as well.  The ghosts in particular seems to want to get in on the action – as they usually do.  If they didn’t have to work on the estate and weren’t worried about the demons and the threats from the otherworld, by suspicion is that they would like to open a matchmaking business 😉

In addition to this relationship drama, the team is working on finding the gateway.  Demons are appearing with some alarming frequency.  It’s clear that something is up and The Collective sends reinforcements.  Everyone is ready for a potential showdown.  There are multiple surprises around who is pulling the strings and how many people are being used to facilitate this impending class.  But we will all have to wait for the next book to see what happens next!

Well I have to say, I did NOT see that total cliffhanger coming. There is an ongoing story arc here, so I didn’t necessarily expect everything to be wrapped up with a nice neat bow, but if you are a person who is highly angered by cliffies, then I’m going to suggest that you might want to wait for the next book, Gateway Catastrophe due out in June, before tackling this one.  I loved the romance arc in this one with Skye and Daniel.   Daniel gives himself a lot of grace in figuring out what it is he wants and why.  He’s so thoughtful of Skye and he does his best to just be really honest with what he’s feeling.  Skye is his usual adorable sunshiny self.  The ghost were buttinskis as usual and it was hilarious how much they wanted to “catch” Daniel and Skye 😉

Nick J. Russo does an outstanding job with this book.  His performance was top notch and his nuanced performance of the main characters of Skye and Daniel really sold this bisexual awakening story.  These characters goes through a myriad of emotions as the go from friends to fake boyfriends to lovers.  The consistency between the voices of the many characters – human, ghost, demon, etc. were spot on and I just love the commitment to this series.  I can’t wait for the next book – where I hope we get more answers 🙂  Highly recommended.  A fun romp through this ghostly world with the tension ratcheting up for a final battle!

RATING:

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