Skeptic

by Denise Mathew

Millions of viewers know twenty-four-year-old Elise Weston as the Skeptic, a renowned paranormal investigator who won’t give up until she’s discredited every myth and legend about the supernatural. The only problem is it’s all a lie, the paranormal world does exist and Elise knows it because she’s a medium and can connect with the dead.

Elise never wanted to be the Skeptic, or a fraud for that matter, in fact she started her investigations by calling out money hungry fake psychics. But it didn’t take long for her best intentions to go askew and turn her into the very thing she was against, someone who lies and fabricates evidence to get the results she wants.

Dakota is a paranormal investigator who not only works alongside Elise but loves her too, but he knows she has secrets, ones that keep her up late and night, and every time he gets close to finding out what those secrets are she pushes him away.

But when a powerful Wiccan witch named Tansy somehow figures out Elise’s ability and blackmails her into admitting to the world that she’s a liar and a cheat, Elise confesses everything to the only person she can trust, Dakota. With Dakota by her side and bound to undo her mistakes, Elise decides to quit the show but that’s when her life goes from bad to worse. Because the truth is, Tansy doesn’t really care about the show at all, it’s vengeance for the death of her sister she’s after, a death that she’s certain Elise had something to do with. And since Tansy is old school and believes in the an eye for an eye mantra, she won’t stop until Elise is dead too.

Genres: Fiction

373 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 3, 2012

About the author

I love good chocolate, lots of coffee, my kids, when they behave, and of course writing stories. I believe that housework should be banned and wish that potato chips were the most healthy and nutritious food on the planet.
My garden is a mix of many colors and plants, I steer clear of uniform and the same holds true for my books. I don't believe in writing only one type of genre since I don't like to limit my creativity and so I write contemporary, dystopian and paranormal. I plan on writing until the stories run out, which I hope never happens.


Today is life - the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Dale Carnegie

Reviews

[Jasmyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skeptic starts off running introducing you to Elise and a few pages later, Dakota. Elise is a larger than life character, playing the part of a paranormal debunker - even when she knows it's all real. Dakota suspects something's up, especially when he overhears her talking to herself in a haunted kitchen, but he doesn't know how to make her open up to him.

After the introductions, we're jumped right into the middle of the adventure when a witch comes astrally projecting into Elise's life to claim vengeance for her sister. Things begin to spiral out of control for Elise and Dakota goes along for the ride to try and protect her. Enter the bad guys - can't tell you who all of them are, but I was very surprised near the end when they had their big reveal - never saw it coming (major kudos to the author).

The only real downside, was that the hot and heavy scenes weren't between our main characters at first - and I really wanted to see them hook up. There is a good reason it was done this way, but it just rubbed me a little too much in the wrong way to completely accept it.

The whole story was wrapped in a very climatic ending that had me reading way past my bedtime to try and finish. I definitely wasn't going to put it down. Make sure you have plenty of time to finish the book - after the half way point you won't be able to stop.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the story overall, but there were a lot of typos which made it frustrating to read at times.

[David Johnston · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found myself baffled by why the protagonist, fully aware that the supernatural exists, and is all around her, would choose to go into business as a professional skeptic on television. I mean it's not like a debunking show is going to be more profitable than a show that sometimes pronounces itself baffled by the evidence or even eagerly pretends to see what isn't there. The question was never adequately answered as the story went off at right angles as if the authors (and there are two) couldn't quite figure out what to do with their initial premise.