The Paranaturalist by Ki Brightly

o-the-paranaturalistTitle: The Paranaturalist

Series: N/A

Author: Ki Brightly

Genre: Other Paranormal/Spirits

Length: 340 pages

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (27 June 2016)

Heat Level: Low

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥4 Hearts

Blurb: As a kid, Joseph Appleyard saw things hidden from others. Now he is The Paranaturalist, an investigator and cohost of a television show that seeks to prove the existence of the paranormal. Some think Joe is crazy, but they don’t realize he knows firsthand there’s more to the world than what most perceive.

The trouble is, somewhere along the way, Joe lost his vision and it left his world flat and dull. One night an investigation goes horribly wrong, and a powerful ghostly manifestation sends Joe tumbling into a river. Spirit worker Owen Watson saves Joe’s life, and once they are back on dry land, whatever has been blocking Joe’s vision has been washed away.

When a haunting goes from annoying to dangerous, people turn to Owen Watson. He hates those infuriating hacks from TV, but when he pulls Joe from the river, his mind begins to change. Joe is scared and confused, and Owen realizes he might just be the real thing.

Together, they work to understand the part of Joe that has been shut away for so long. But just as Joe is reacclimating to his abilities, his career as a paranormal investigator is in danger of being ripped away.

Owen would gladly battle a bloodthirsty spirit for Joe, but he’s out of his element in the world of reality television.

ISBN: 978-1-63477-282-2

Product Link: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/the-paranaturalist-by-ki-brightly-7197-b

Reviewer: Prime

Review: If like me you enjoy watching or recently enjoyed a Most Haunted (or something similar) marathon, then this is the book for you, this is the first book I’ve read by Ki Brightly and I think that it was an excellent introduction to a new author for me – although I thought that things dragged on a bit a places, I would definitely and seriously consider reading more by the same author.

This is not your usual romance. There is a bit of ghost busting and some pretty constant communication both helpful and malevolent spirits. The MCs, Joseph Appleyard and Owen Watson are very different and yet they are poles apart, which I think lends greatly to their forming relationship. They have both seen ghosts as children, yet they or rather their parents, dealt with their gifts very differently, making Joseph something of a Fox Mulder of the ghost world (minus the FBI thing) and Owen is a lot like the Men in Black (minus the shady government group).

Ok, so maybe the sci-fi pop culture references aren’t working so well… the point is one is certain of ghosts but still searching for something to help him believe, while the other knows exactly what he is dealing with and is confident in his work as a paranormal investigator.

I think it is these guys differences that work so well. It certainly helps their attraction. They meet by chance, although Owen already knows about Joseph, but it is ghosts that bring them together and it is ghosts makes these guys need to spend time together. That just happens to give them the chance to explore the explosive attraction.

As I said, sometimes, between the action – encountering some malevolent spirits and some, perhaps, as equally malevolent people – the pace of the story tended to drop off a bit. It wasn’t an entirely bad thing to happen but I have to admit that I got a tad bored for a few pages here and there.

Some of the dead minor characters added a bit f fun and a bit of mystery to the entire thing. Part of me just wished that the story point associated with Joseph’s childhood ghostly friend was picked up a lot earlier in the book; apologies for rehashing things that I thought were slow.

All in all, this is a whole lot of fun and I recommend greatly to those who like a good ghost story to spook them a bit.

* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com *