Hearing Things

by Nancy Young

Mary Catherine Livingston knew that working for the Paranormal Posse reality series wouldn’t be easy. But apart from the threatening spirits and unwanted publicity, she also has to deal with her son’s newfound ability to hear ghosts, her ex-husband’s attempts to reconcile by Christmas, and with Tony, the show’s sexy tech support, who pushes all her buttons.

Tony is definitely one pushy guy, especially if Mary Catherine’s welfare or the show’s profits are at stake. When her son discovers the ghost of a murdered child at an abandoned rest stop, complications multiply. Tony then pushes Mary Catherine to let him offer more than just his technical support.
Will the spirit move her to take a second chance on love in time for the new year?

282 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2015

About the author

Nancy Young grew up in suburban Philadelphia on the Main Line. Since her mother was a librarian, she read her way through the collection, exhausting the children’s section early. After majoring in English and completing graduate school, she taught writing, literature, speech, and film in various colleges in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Nancy currently lives in Fuquay-Varina, NC, a town as interesting as its name, where she worked as a reporter and the editor of the local paper. She’s still married to her high school sweetheart, and their children have grown up to be contributing members of society while still maintaining a healthy sense of humor—a necessity, given their quirky mother.

Reviews

[Harry Krebs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nancy Young’s latest novel, HEARING THINGS, is the second installment in the Something in the Dark Series. The story continues the adventures of paranormal sensitive Mary Catherine Livingston. Mary Catherine has a gift—she can see the spirits of the deceased, even talk to spirits of close relatives like her mother. Thank God I don’t have that problem. But a chance encounter with a ghost at an interstate rest stop gives her something new to stress about. Evidently, her young son D.J. also has a gift. He can HEAR the spirits.

Add in the volatile relationship with boyfriend Tony Proforta and you have a perfect paranormal romance. The plotline had me hooked from the very beginning. The plot was interesting with characters that were well developed with unique and interesting but believable personalities. The narrative was well written and the book was professionally edited.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second in this series and I need to go back and read the first one. I love the possible paranormal and this one really fit that bill! The characters are fully realized and I like that the hero is not necessarily smooth all the time. If you're into paranormal, try this series - you won't be disappointed.

[J.D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read for the pre-Halloween season. It is very hard to make a sequel of any successful first novel—the second-on-a-trilogy dreaded syndrome—but Young succeeds here by building a deceptively simple troubled-family tale, which extends into the supernatural, and grows its (natural) conflicts until they became a complex, layered novel.

The way the story is told, with alternating points of view from the two main characters (Mary Catherine and Tony), works extraordinarily well here and, interestingly, it is enhanced by the different weights and proximity to each chapter’s narrator. These separated blocks make the story more absorbing, in contrast to what (and I can testify of this) ruins so many thrillers and science fiction novels that, after a few chapters jumping between characters, bore and confuse the reader into closing the book. The opposite happens with HEARING THINGS, which gains interest and speed with each chapter.

The ghosts that are heard and seen here are a central part of the story, but, rather than the haunting kind that causes fear, belong to the “stuck with you until something is fixed” category. This is probably less distracting to the whole, and it doesn’t weigh the plot with goriness--although this might not please the fans of horror, which could find these ghostly presences a little aloof.

Perhaps the most fun comes from the periphery of the central story, as in this delicately constructed tale there are plenty interesting sideline actors (An Italian family? A sticky cat that goes everywhere with a character?) And there’s some hot sex, which comes almost as a surprise in the midst of the heroine’s troubles.

For me, there’s something on this book that I haven’t seen in other novels about the paranormal. Young considers perceiving the dead as a disability, something that’s more a curse than a blessing. With our fixation about superheroes and their superhuman actions, we usually get this the other way around; the author makes you understand how the spiritual gift’s dark side is made worse by being invisible to all others. I might forget some elements of a novel over time, but this idea will stay with me, and it makes the book worth-reading beyond fans of romance or the Halloween-esque.

Young is an accomplished writer, and her book is also a gift—one you might consider for some friends, who like ghost tales, romance, and don’t shy away from a little real-life sex here and there. It is an intelligent, well-crafted Goodread.

[Padgett Gerler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary Catherine Livingston can see things—things that most people can’t see. Mary Catherine sees the spirits of the deceased. And it is during a trip from Pennsylvania to North Carolina that she discovers that she is not the only Livingston with The Gift. Turns out her son, D.J., is also paranormal sensitive. D.J. HEARS spirits.

Pair Mary Catherine’s hair-raising interaction with spirits with her racy relationship with nerdy-sexy Tony, and you’ve got yourself a just-can’t-put-it-down paranormal romance. One reviewer suggested the reader just might want to leave a light on. I agree, but I also think that after reading the steamy scenes with Mary Catherine and Tony, the reader just might feel like lighting up a cigarette. Yeah, it’s that good!

If you’re a fan of chills-up-your-spine suspense with a healthy dose of romance, don’t miss Nancy Young’s HEARINGS THINGS.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary Catherine always follows her heart. Her heart steers her though a winter tangled with the ghost of a little girl, finding out her teenage son has inherited the family sensitivity for connecting with the dead, and her pregnancy with Tony. Not to mention the Profortas, Tony's large and exuberant family! There are ghosts, a haunted police detective, an ever-angry and stiff ex-husband, and plenty of sex to heat up the icy weather in this second book of the Something in the Dark Series. Settle in with a cup of tea and a slice of pie and enjoy a rapid-fire story of the paranormal and the totally normal, hectic and challenging life of the living where the dead go along for the ride!

[Helen Dipietro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much better than the first one. Waiting for the third one- Feeling things. Local author