RATING: 3✨
SPICE: 🌶️🌶️🌶️.5
Trope/Setting Highlights:
#️⃣ ~170-page dark contemporary supernatural novella
📖 Taboo
📖 Next-in-line spirit groundskeeper FMC x ghost/spirit entity MMC
📖 Insta-lust
📖 HEA
🌶️Rough/dominant MMC
🌶️Non-con + dub-con
🌶️Pain + pleasure play
🌶️Choking/breath play
Review:
With a name like Ghost Dick, I knew it had to be… something. And it was.
Ghost Dick by Kinsley Kincaid is Book 1 (I believe?) in A Port Canyon Chronicle series. This is my first read by Kincaid, and I honestly went in pretty blind, going solely based on the dark and creepy cover vibes and a quick read of the blurb. But I just knew I couldn’t save this for next Halloween.
This story caught me off guard in a lot of ways, again, most likely because I went in semi-blind. First and foremost, this story definitely deals with taboo elements, which is especially showcased in the main romantic relationship of this novella.
Our 20-year-old FMC, Fallon, has just lost her father, Mark, and has nowhere else to go. Her mother abandoned them long ago, her father’s only brother, Merrick, took his own life over 30 years ago, and Mark’s mother, her supposed grandma, has hardly ever been mentioned, nor has the town of Port Canyon.
Yet that’s exactly where Fallon ends up, in the driveway of a sprawling gothic manor, glorified roommates and barely conversational with her own grandma, who’s kind of a dick herself.
Turns out, there’s a reason that makes Port Canyon a little different. And one of those reasons confronts Fallon her first night there.
My hands are still struggling with whatever has me pinned like this. How do I get out of this?
As my hope fades, my coughs become fewer and my lungs continue to beg me to breathe, a deep voice, nothing more than a whisper, speaks next to my ear. “Stupid fucking girl. You have no idea what you’ve done.”
And there’s our charming Merrick, the joint-smoking, bleach blond dyed dick. I mean, Ghost Dick.
Merrick thought driving himself off the only bridge in and out of Port Canyon would be enough to escape the town forever, but not even in death, or whatever supernatural spirit state he’s in, allows him to leave. There’s a family legacy to uphold after all. And Fallon is next in line.
The romance in this novella is between Fallon and Merrick. Fallon is currently 20, and Merrick took his own life at 20 over 30 years ago. They are also blood related. Merrick is the older brother of Fallon’s father Mark, even though Merrick died when Mark was young. They are uncle and niece. Just wanted to point that out as a safety warning, along with graphic smut that sometimes pressed heavily on the fence of non-con/dub-con, and certainly dark, dominant, and rough.
I wouldn’t say that any character was particularly likeable in any way. The whole story was a bit wild. It was like watching a train on the tracks, brakes faulty, rushing towards two pathways, on one end complete derailment, the other, relative safety. And then the train busted through a third, new, secret path.
It was ridiculous. It was addicting. It was dirty. It was eyeroll inducing. But I COULD NOT STOP THE TRAIN.
Ghost Dick can act as a standalone, but based on the ending, I believe the series will continue with Book 2 about two supporting characters from Book 1. And if I had to guess, it’s the FMC’s best friend Harper and the FMC’s ghost dad Mark. And turns out it is, because the next book in the series is called Fuck Me, Daddy🤭