Review: A Quick Paranormal Fix for the Holiday Season!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 12, 2013
Sometimes life really packs a solid one-two punch and the recovery and healing of the heart can take time and a little help from the fates and even a deadly avalanche. Part mystery, part paranormal fantasy and part romance, Aileen Harkwood’s Sapphire Ridge may be short on pages, but I was hooked from the 3 am avalanche that came roaring down the slopes at a Lake Tahoe resort. A young woman, still looking for closure in the deaths of her fiancé and her best friend becomes part of a rescue mission to save someone trapped beneath mounds of snow far from the resort when an injured man approaches her desperate for help. What is it about this man who only she seems to be able to see? Why is no one else helping him? Has she become part of a Christmas miracle that defies rational explanation? Will she find the closure she needs and hope for a future filled with love?Aileen Harkwood managed to create a mysterious air to this tale, slowly feeding character information while creating each scene with enough detail to feel real. I “saw” the blinding whiteness of the snow, felt the cold and could smell the wintery air. To me this isn’t a fast,action-packed story as much as it is character-driven, a mysterious man, a depressed woman who helps him, all while reliving the pain of her past in her head. When it all comes together, it felt like watching that first crocus push through the snow! One of those things that you need to "see" to appreciate.There was enough here to build on for a longer tale, but I definitely enjoyed this quick read, from its dark beginnings to its great ending!