Book 83, 2024

[chez_jae]

Spirited Situation by Louisa Masters

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Earlier this evening I finished reading Spirited Situation by Louisa Masters. It's the first in her "Ghostly Guardians" series of male/male romance with a paranormal flair. Main characters are Josh, who's always been able to see and speak to ghosts, and Ewan, who works as a blacksmith on the historic Mannix Estate.

Josh is excited to land an interview to work at Mannix Estate. It's known to be haunted; therefore no one will look at him oddly if he's seen talking to empty air. The night before his interview, Josh hooks up with a burly hottie in a bar, only to later learn that his one night stand also works at Mannix Estate.

Ewan has gone into town in hopes of pulling someone. He didn't expect to spend the night with an adorable little firecracker. When he finds out later that his hook up is the estate's new hire, Ewan decides to let Josh take the lead on whether or not to remain colleagues or explore the connection between them.

As if relationship and new-job drama aren't enough, Josh has been informed by the resident ghosts that they managed to trap a soul-eating demon in the basement 50 years ago, and they would like him to get rid of it. Josh knows nothing about banishing demons, but with some in-depth research, the backing of his new co-workers, Ewan's steady presence, and a little help from an anonymous internet source, he thinks that maybe, just maybe, he can do this.

A delightful story. I enjoyed the easy, slow pace of Josh and Ewan's relationship, as well as the easy acceptance of not just their co-workers but also the ghosts. The author could have delved into horror with the whole subplot of the demon, but while it was certainly creepy, it didn't give me the willies. Characters, including the ghosts, were portrayed well, and the narrative moved forward in a sensible, steady fashion.

Favorite lines:
♦ We had a Zoom meeting last week. I did the whole thing in a salt circle, praying the evangelical ghost that lives on the downstairs landing hadn't somehow managed to get into my apartment and was about to pop up to ask me if I'd heard about Christ our savior.
♦ Who knew I had a secret fantasy about being ravished by a blacksmith?
♦ I'm pretty sure it's a health and safety violation for us to have a being that tries to kill people and eat their souls on the premises.
♦ "We really need to, if only so I can assure myself I took all possible steps to prevent a demon from eating souls."
♦ There's an awkward little silence while we all mull over how much we don't want to be shoved down a flight of stairs by a dark spirit that's hoping we'll die so it can eat our souls.
♦ "Twincest is not as good as McDonald's."
♦ "We're really bad at this. Scooby and Shaggy were smarter than us."

One would think that having a soul-eating demon on the premises isn't funny, but it made for some of the most amusing musings. LOL! Very good story, four stars.