Kimberly’s review of Ghostwriter by Lissa Bryan

TITLE: Ghostwriter
AUTHOR: Lissa Bryan
PUBLICATION DATE:   10/11/12
ORDER LINKS:  Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
After being laid off from the newspaper where she worked as a journalist, and losing her boyfriend in rapid succession, Sara Howell is looking to downsize before her dwindling savings run out. Things are finally starting to look up when she lands a job ghostwriting the biography of a popular politician and rents an isolated island house which turns out to have once been the home of her favorite author, Seth Fortner, who mysteriously disappeared in 1925.

But when strange things start happening, as objects break, or go missing, and terrifying visions appear, Sara begins to wonder if Seth ever left, or if she is losing her mind.

What happened to Seth is a secret closely guarded by the family to this day, a family that seems to exist under a terrible curse. Through an old trunk of letters she discovers in the attic, Sara unravels the mystery and becomes caught up in a tale of greed, lost love and the horrors of WWI.

When Sara realizes she is not going crazy and that Seth Fortner’s spirit still haunts her new home on the isolated island, she begins to draw him out of his shell bit by bit. She will discover what happened to the idealistic young writer who went to the battlefields of France to save lives, and to his beautiful bride to destroy the love between them, and what led Seth to make a terrible choice which would have consequences that would echo for generations.

They gradually fall in love in their world of dreams, dreams which swiftly become more attractive than reality, as Sara learns from a ghost how to truly live. Will she be the one to break the “Fortner Curse” by helping Seth conquer his demons, and heal both of their hearts in the process?

REVIEW:
This is a beautiful story with a lovely concept but I had a really difficult time getting interested in it in the beginning. While written wonderfully it was very slow in the beginning. I kept waiting for something to happen and when it did I just didn’t find myself interested for some time. I thought the relationship between Sara and Seth was beautiful as far as the love of characters go but didn’t understand how they could “fall in love” I wish the book had brought in an actual character that Sara could have found herself drawn to instead. That being said it was a beautiful love story and any fan of ghost stories will enjoy it. The time spent getting to know Seth was very intriguing and the dream life of Sara and Seth is very sweet and endearing. I found Sara to be an almost sad yet caring person and found enjoyed her character. Stepping back into the time of WWII was also interesting since I do not know a lot about that time period.

This truly is a love story in every sense of the word and one that will stick with you for a while.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

4 Hearts