Review: Wanted to dislike the whole 'ghost' element, but ended up loving it
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 31, 2013
Story in a nutshell:Elle is a very wealthy American who while visiting Scotland, falls in love with a 'working class' Prentice. Elle is very young (just in college) and Prentice is just a few years older. They are madly in love, but are cruelly broken apart.Fast forward 20 years later and both Elle and Pren come together in Scotland. Elle is divorced and Pren is a widower with two wonderful children. The story proceeds from there. There is a lot of Angst on both sides. Elle is in a very lost, dark and lonely place in her life. She is not the carefree happy girl that Pren had fallen in love with. Pren is still hurting from his breakup with Elle and is missing his departed wife.With a cast of other characters, loving and funny - and hurtful and mean, this book weaves your heart around these characters. You come to care for them and are so happy for their HEA. The ghost aspect of the book serves a few purposes. one, as a narrator. The ghost add suspense and excitement when she makes comments to lead your feelings in a certain direction. The ghost also provides great closure to a big important piece to Pren's and Elle's life. I thought it was well done and the epilogue brought tears to my eyes.What I liked about this book:- Great character development: Because of the length of her books, KA is able to go into great depth with her characters - even with the supporting characters. The townspeople, antagonists etc. We become strongly invested in the people we love. And even the antagonists, although we love to hate the 'bad guy', KA creates several layers in these people as well.- Prentice - oh, sexy man, and dad. Who doesn't love a guy who adores his kids so much. He was a wonderful husband,friend, provider and father. (heavy sigh)- Pren's kids - you really fall hard for these two. Their roles are not just 'cute kids that says funny things'.- ooh - yes- steamy scenes. wow- heartwrenching at times. I typically do not like heavy angst books. this was is not as bad as some of them. KA throws in funny scenes, and ice breakers to keep from it going over the top. It was enough to keep me thoroughly engaged and rapidly turning my virtual pages.- The town - the town is a small, supportive town. We love that. When they band together to protect one of their own - it's so nice, want to move there- Typically KA writes about the super alpha-male. Although I do love them! Pren was not as bad as in the other books and it was a nice change.- No cliff hangers.- HEA- Nice epilogue.What I didn't like about this book:- Sometimes the ghost role was a bit much. Could cut it back a little more. I didn't really care as much about the ghost's own adventure on its own. Was glad to see how it weaved along the H/h storyline - but sometimes I just didn't care. Thought it was a tiny bit silly/cheesy at the ending when her powers hit super paranormal off the charts.- Elle's journey - I thought that given the horrible history that Elle had -that caused her to give up the love of her life - that her journey 'back' would be more difficult. I think she would need more time with either a therapist or her friends. It seems that a few hot nights with Pren and being surrounded by his family was enough. Her need to run away made sense, but how quickly she recovered from it didn't. But then again, would have hated to have chapters and chapters of her internal angst and turmoils.Overall, I really enjoyed this book.I look forward to re-reading it again in the near future!