First Hand Friday

Greetings from the rain forest. Not really but it feels like it! It has done nothing but rain here forever and I’m so tired of it. It’s suppose to but warm and sunny not damp and cold. Sooo cramping my style! It will be August till all the soccer and baseball games get made up. Oh well, I didn’t need a summer break anyways. I will continue to lie in the tanning bed for the month of May and pretend I’m on a beach all alone and relax. That’s as close to a vacation as I’m going to get this year. With the exception of my trip to Philly. Which I can’t wait for and I need to start planning. It will be here before you know it. If you read my blog last week you know I revamped my to be read list. Just to let you know it worked out beautifully and I’m a happy girl and my fever blister went away FINALLY! Onto my blog for this week….

Seven Souls a Leaping by Heather Long

Since the day she learned to put her ABCs together, Tara Conroy has been sharing a ghostly correspondence with the spirit world. One spirit, in particular, Darian, has been talking to her since she was twelve years old. His letters of encouragement, advice and conversation take a darker turn as she sends her cousin Duncan on the hunt for a killer named Jeffrey Wiles and again when Duncan’s sister Sam finds herself helping track that killer’s spirit. But when Darian’s letters flirt on the line between desire and danger, Tara must learn what his intentions are before she loses her mind and her soul completely…

Darian Barnes ran afoul of a witch in 1929 as the stock market crashed. She blamed him and cursed him to know what it was like to watch everything he possessed disappear and be helpless to stop it. For nearly a century, Darian has existed as a spirit, always seeing, never touching or experiencing until one day he encountered Tara Conroy. For the first time in eighty years, someone could hear him. She was only a little girl at the time, but desperate for the contact, he told her stories that she could write. He watched over her, guiding, protecting and advising – always there when she needed a friend. Over time, Darian discovered that their connection left him longing for more…

Together, Tara and Darian guided her cousins against an evil man, but when that man’s spirit begins to circle Tara, Darian knows he has to do something – anything – to save her.
Now Darian and Tara must find a way to bring their love into the physical world and destroy Jeffrey Wiles once and for all – because if they don’t, Darian is terrified that the witch’s curse will cost Tara her life and her soul…

When I first started reading this (as in the prologue) I thought to myself where we going with this? But as I got further in I started to enjoy it more. It had several different twists that I liked. For example, the New England New Age (NENA) Investigations, a paranormal detective agency. Not your usual vamp slayers….nice. She can only communicate thru writing with the help of her “guided hand”. Different from your usual being able to out right see them. Again, I liked that touch (note this week’s blog title lol). I also liked how they worked the help of the witches into the story as well towards the end. You kind of figure that Tara and Darian have deeper feelings for each other but it’s very subtle throughout the story and then as the story draws to a close they become full circle. When you’re not sure you’re going to survive if you need to tell someone you love them no better time like the present and the story ended beautifully.

I give this story 3 chocolate dipped strawberries and a space heater. That brownstone she lived in sounded cold.

PEACE!