Blaine Franks is a member of the paranormal research group the Supernatural Explorers. When the group loses their techie to a cross-country move, newly graduated Flynn Huntington gets the job. Flynn fits in with the guys right off the bat, but when it comes to him and Blaine, it’s more than just getting along.
Things heat up between Blaine and Flynn as they explore their first haunted building, an abandoned hospital, together. Their relationship isn’t all that progresses, though, and soon it seems that an odd bite on Blaine’s neck has become much more.
Hitchhiking ghosts, a tragic love story forgotten by time, and the mystery of room 204 round out a romance where the things that go bump in the night are real.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
There was a lot of promise in this book, but I ultimately found it pretty frustrating. The first big issue I had was a complete lack of depth for either Blaine or Flynn. We learned the backstory for each of them but it had relatively little to do with their current states. The two fell in love almost immediately (in a week? Really?). Much of their relationship was them telling each other how much they cared for each other, though, and not enough showing this in their actions. I was unable to muster much empathy for either of them and this took me completely out of the story.
The book’s point of view switches back and forth between Blaine and Flynn chapter by chapter. The problem is that the way the book is written it wasn’t always clear whose POV we were seeing, and I saw some discrepancies in third-person narration that just made things that much more confusing.
As for the plot, it’s mostly coherent. There are a couple of out-of-left-field bits that popped up that strained logic of the story. More importantly the tone of the story tended to swing rather wildly from fun and happy-go-lucky to dark and broody pseudo-horror. Everything was wrapped up neatly in the end (and the stage obviously set for the next three books in the series), and even though all of the plot threads were addressed I still found it all unsatisfying.
Perhaps if you are a fan of Sean Michael you would like this book. Anyone else, though, I’d suggest skipping it.