This is the first book by Rosemary Altea that I've read. Perhaps I should have read The Eagle and the Rose first, but I got the gist of who the author is (and who her spirit guide is) from this book.
I didn't find any of the stories really mind-blowing (although there were a few that were intriguing). And while I find Altea more credible than Sylvia Browne (comparisons are bound to be made between the two), I do find her just a little bit hypocritical. In one breath, she talks about how she is skeptical, always questioning everything. And yet, anything that Grey Eagle (her spirit guide) says seems to be taken as truth without much questioning at all.
I was also turned off by her talk of "Dark Souls". It's just too similar to the Sylvia Browne canon, and strikes me as a lazy way of looking at things... especially for a psychic.
I do question the value of these kinds of books for being able to help people with their grief. Reading about someone else's experience is not necessarily going to help you with your own, no matter how often you are told so by the author. For many, seeing (or personal experience) is believing.
Other than that, though, the book was interesting. I don't regret reading it. Taken as a collection of interesting (if a little disjointed) stories, it's a perfectly adequate summer read.
This author/medium has a very christian outlook on her mediumship and healing. I was curious about how she works and she describes as best she probably can what this is like including the distress of living through the death of the spirits she contacts. Of course her purpose is to go beyond that and show there is life after death. It is a rather large book and some parts seem a little repetitive. She notes that there are stories of families in different places that are so similar as to be parallel lives. If you are looking for definitive proof of life after death, I don't think this book will convince you. If you want to know what a medium thinks about her life's work, it is interesting.