Sarah Wynde

giftofghostsAkira Malone believes in the scientific method, evolution, and Einstein's theory of relativity. And ghosts.

All the logic and reason in the world can't protect her from the truth-she can see and communicate with spirits. But Akira is sure that her ability is just a genetic quirk and the ghosts she encounters simply leftover electromagnetic energy. Dangerous electromagnetic energy.

Zane Latimer believes in telepathy, precognition, auras, and that playing Halo with your employees is an excellent management technique. He also thinks that maybe, just maybe, Akira can help his family get in touch with their lost loved ones.

But will Akira ever be able to face her fears and accept her gift? Or will Zane's relatives be trapped between life and death forever?

Received in ebook format from Netgalley

Akira starts the story at a cross roads - a small entry in an obscure journal has made her a laughing stock as a physicist so she is looking for alternatives. An interview with a bland seeming company (General Directions) on the other side of the country, is worth a look, even when she gets offered the job for a two year contract - even though she doesnt know what the job is or what the company does. Having no ties, she takes it and moves to Tassamara, Florida where it seems everyone has some kind of quirk.

Akira has grown up learning to hide that she can see and talk to ghosts but that is the very reason why she has been hired. Her new employers have lost both the grandson (Dillon) and the grandmother in the same week and need help connecting to the two for various reason. Akira has other ghosts in her life - including a mixed race couple from the 1950s who live in her house - with which she tries to continue her investigations into ghost energy.

However, Zane, Dillon's uncle, soon becomes a distraction and Akira and he become lovers (the main sex scene has a new take on physics as sex, which I dont think many people have considered before!).

Soon things come to a head however, when Akira, Zane, Dillon etc have to confront the immense energy residing in the Latimer house, and Zane learns to his cost why Akira has so many broken bones.

The setting is a nice change, where Akira doesnt have to spend her time defending the belief she can see ghosts - everyone accepts that she can and so there is the freedom in the book for her to have one sided conversations without the author having to defend her (or fill in the other side of the story).

This is the first of the series, and it seems most family members have some gift or other, and work for the company. This gives the author enough space (and enough characters) to have plenty of other books to follow, and I hope she does!… (meer)

Fen is a 21 year old who has had a very, very rough life and has finally found a little corner of the world where she is content, so, of course, somebody had to go and try to kill her! From this point forward, her life is changed in ways she couldn't even imagine, and she's not quite sure how to feel about that.

The first thing I have to mention is the world building, which was just phenomenal! The characters were likeable and easy to connect with, and the story itself was fresh and unique.

I enjoyed this book very much and look forward to reading the next book in the series.

5/5 stars.… (meer)