Book Review: Ghost Gifts

Author: Lisa Spinella
Title: Ghost Gifts
Publisher: Montlake
Publish Date: March 1, 2016
Buy: Amazon
Book Blurb: All Aubrey Ellis wants is a normal life, one that doesn’t include desperate pleas from the dead. Her remarkable gift may help others rest in peace, but it also made for an unsettling childhood and destroyed her marriage. Finally content as the real estate writer for a local newspaper, Aubrey keeps her extraordinary ability hidden—until she is unexpectedly assigned the story of a decades-old murder.

Rocked by the discovery of a young woman’s skeletal remains, the New England town of Surrey wants answers. Hard-nosed investigative reporter Levi St John is determined to get them. Aubrey has no choice but to get involved, even at the terrifying risk of stirring spirits connected to a dead woman’s demise and piquing her new reporting partner’s suspicions.

As Aubrey and Levi delve further into the mystery, secrets are revealed and passion ignites. It seems that Aubrey’s ghost gifts are poised to deliver everything but a normal life.

Review: Ghost Gifts is one of those books that's just about perfect. Its a mystery and it involves a woman that has an ability to speak to the dead. Think of it as Ghost Whisperer but with a little more grit.

Aubrey works for a small newspaper writing a realty column. She also has a gift of talking to the dead. When this mystery she's now working on with reporter Levis St. John, I expected there to be some communication between Missy and Aubrey, but there wasn't, at least not in the way I expected.

I loved how the mystery of who killed Missy really was the focus. Sure there were a lot of subplots, including Aubrey and her soon to be, maybe ex husband, Owen. The best parts of the book involve Aubrey's interactions with the spirits.  Between Frank and Levi's messages from beyond, it is pretty hard not to shed a tear  or ten for these characters.

Everyone in the story has serious flaws, but not the kind that make you dislike them. Their flaws make them more human, more likable.

But I have to stress, it is Missy's story that makes this such a great read. She's the victim but her life is so sad and there's so much more to her.

When you reach the end of the story, the killer is not who you will expect it to be. It definitely wasn't who I was expecting. I was blown away by that.

The Levi situation was the part that through me off at the end. She leaves us hanging and then the epilogue comes along and suddenly so much has changed. I would have liked a little more between them, because even though there was a spark, it didn't totally justify the stuff we learned in the epilogue.

I can't wait to move on to the next book.

Rating: 4 flowers