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Kindred Spirits
Sequel to Scandalous Spirits
Amazing Grace. . .What kind of paranormal prank is this, anyway?
Shoved from the tower of the haunted Van Buren mansion, 21st century chick magnet Rufus Sinclair wonders how in Hades he's landed in Atlantic City in the Roaring Twenties. Why does he have to be the one to help wayward flapper Izzy Van Buren find redemption? Worse, why does he have to go and fall for flirtatious Izzy's best friend, daredevil barnstormer Grace LaRue? Even in her tomboy togs and aviator goggles, needs-a-man-like-bees-need-knees Grace instantly kindles his erotic interest-then hijacks his love-proof heart. It's almost as if he's lived-and loved her-before. She Dubbed Him Ace . . .
Who is this sheik-sexy stranger who appears out of nowhere, claiming amnesia and wearing pilot's wings? A gift from above, sent to help restore her stunt pilot reputation? Or a Federal agent intent on bringing down her scandalous friends? All Grace knows for sure is that the zing-zap electricity shooting between her and Ace threatens to short-circuit her self-control.
Kindred Spirits? . . . With the friction between them mounting, Rufus risks life and limb to wing-walk on Grace's Word War I biplane . . . slow dances and swills bootleg hooch with her in an all-night speakeasy . . . and creates a media frenzy guaranteed to restore her rep as the East Coast's best aviatrix. Together, they generate enough sexual heat to melt Grace's fear-driven defenses and his no-strings-attached armor. But his panic grows by the hour. He dreads he'll be blown back to the future, failing to save Izzy . . . and leaving his amazing Grace-and his heart-behind.
Amazing Grace. . .What kind of paranormal prank is this, anyway?
Shoved from the tower of the haunted Van Buren mansion, 21st century chick magnet Rufus Sinclair wonders how in Hades he's landed in Atlantic City in the Roaring Twenties. Why does he have to be the one to help wayward flapper Izzy Van Buren find redemption? Worse, why does he have to go and fall for flirtatious Izzy's best friend, daredevil barnstormer Grace LaRue? Even in her tomboy togs and aviator goggles, needs-a-man-like-bees-need-knees Grace instantly kindles his erotic interest-then hijacks his love-proof heart. It's almost as if he's lived-and loved her-before. She Dubbed Him Ace . . .
Who is this sheik-sexy stranger who appears out of nowhere, claiming amnesia and wearing pilot's wings? A gift from above, sent to help restore her stunt pilot reputation? Or a Federal agent intent on bringing down her scandalous friends? All Grace knows for sure is that the zing-zap electricity shooting between her and Ace threatens to short-circuit her self-control.
Kindred Spirits? . . . With the friction between them mounting, Rufus risks life and limb to wing-walk on Grace's Word War I biplane . . . slow dances and swills bootleg hooch with her in an all-night speakeasy . . . and creates a media frenzy guaranteed to restore her rep as the East Coast's best aviatrix. Together, they generate enough sexual heat to melt Grace's fear-driven defenses and his no-strings-attached armor. But his panic grows by the hour. He dreads he'll be blown back to the future, failing to save Izzy . . . and leaving his amazing Grace-and his heart-behind.
- GenresRomance
232 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2003
About the author
Beth Ciotta
42 books471 followersStorytelling comes naturally to award-winning author Beth Ciotta. Limiting herself to one sub-genre does not. Dubbed “fun and sexy” by Publisher’s Weekly, Beth specializes in writing Romantic Comedy with a Twist of Suspense and is published in contemporary, historical, and paranormal romantic fiction. “I can’t think of anything more fulfilling than writing stories where everyone (except the villain, of course) gets a happy ending!”
Beth lives in New Jersey with her husband, two zany dogs, and one crazy cat. Although writing takes up most of her time, she still performs occasionally as a singer, character actress, emcee, and storyteller. To support literacy, Beth also works at her local library.
To learn more about her chaotic life you can visit her Web site at www.bethciotta.com
Beth lives in New Jersey with her husband, two zany dogs, and one crazy cat. Although writing takes up most of her time, she still performs occasionally as a singer, character actress, emcee, and storyteller. To support literacy, Beth also works at her local library.
To learn more about her chaotic life you can visit her Web site at www.bethciotta.com
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 23, 2014
I cannot resist books with airplanes on the covers, especially old ones. And while I normally resist time travel stories, because it's so...unexplainable, I decided to give this one a go when I discovered it was featuring a woman barn stormer in the twenties.
Problem is, there is very little flying. I was aware this was a romantic story, but there's more sex than flying, and I don't mean sex as in the act itself, but obsession with it. The hero is constantly thinking of getting in Grace's pants; Grace is just thinking of sex period, of getting it out of her system, Izzy wants to have sex with Rufus, and every woman in the book wants to have sex with Rufus, from random waitresses, to Izzy's friends. Frankly, the story made it seem like we're all sex-crazed women who throw ourselves at random good-looking men.
It got annoying. Another pet peeve of mine is virgin heroines and super-experienced man-whore heroes. UGH. Though it was nice to see the tables turned on this dude.
However, the story is funny. The banter between these dead siblings/ghosts, alive or dead, is funny. I chuckled a lot in the beginning. Then halfway through the humor started slowing down, the sex obsession started going nuts, and I began to get frustrated. I also loathed Izzy, and that didn't help matters because she's a main player.
But while I feel it took way too long to get to the bottom of Izzy's issue, at the same time I enjoyed the 1923 setting--the clothes, the lingo, the cars. The authors did a great job on that.
For those wondering, the story is about three ghosts haunting a house in the present. They can't pass over until they figure out what's holding each one here. Rufus, the assistant of the owner of the house, ends up time traveling back to 1923 to help the flapper girl, Izzy, fix her issue. Izzy has a friend named Grace, a barn-storming pilot, who ties into the mess somehow and thus, the sex-obsessed love triangle is born, but whether Rufus beds one of the women or not, if anyone falls in love, how is it going to work? Rufus is from the future... I don't need to say more.
Full review: http://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2014/...
Merged review:
I cannot resist books with airplanes on the covers, especially old ones. And while I normally resist time travel stories, because it's so...unexplainable, I decided to give this one a go when I discovered it was featuring a woman barn stormer in the twenties.
Problem is, there is very little flying. I was aware this was a romantic story, but there's more sex than flying, and I don't mean sex as in the act itself, but obsession with it. The hero is constantly thinking of getting in Grace's pants; Grace is just thinking of sex period, of getting it out of her system, Izzy wants to have sex with Rufus, and every woman in the book wants to have sex with Rufus, from random waitresses, to Izzy's friends. Frankly, the story made it seem like we're all sex-crazed women who throw ourselves at random good-looking men.
It got annoying. Another pet peeve of mine is virgin heroines and super-experienced man-whore heroes. UGH. Though it was nice to see the tables turned on this dude.
However, the story is funny. The banter between these dead siblings/ghosts, alive or dead, is funny. I chuckled a lot in the beginning. Then halfway through the humor started slowing down, the sex obsession started going nuts, and I began to get frustrated. I also loathed Izzy, and that didn't help matters because she's a main player.
But while I feel it took way too long to get to the bottom of Izzy's issue, at the same time I enjoyed the 1923 setting--the clothes, the lingo, the cars. The authors did a great job on that.
For those wondering, the story is about three ghosts haunting a house in the present. They can't pass over until they figure out what's holding each one here. Rufus, the assistant of the owner of the house, ends up time traveling back to 1923 to help the flapper girl, Izzy, fix her issue. Izzy has a friend named Grace, a barn-storming pilot, who ties into the mess somehow and thus, the sex-obsessed love triangle is born, but whether Rufus beds one of the women or not, if anyone falls in love, how is it going to work? Rufus is from the future... I don't need to say more.
Full review: http://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2014/...
Problem is, there is very little flying. I was aware this was a romantic story, but there's more sex than flying, and I don't mean sex as in the act itself, but obsession with it. The hero is constantly thinking of getting in Grace's pants; Grace is just thinking of sex period, of getting it out of her system, Izzy wants to have sex with Rufus, and every woman in the book wants to have sex with Rufus, from random waitresses, to Izzy's friends. Frankly, the story made it seem like we're all sex-crazed women who throw ourselves at random good-looking men.
It got annoying. Another pet peeve of mine is virgin heroines and super-experienced man-whore heroes. UGH. Though it was nice to see the tables turned on this dude.
However, the story is funny. The banter between these dead siblings/ghosts, alive or dead, is funny. I chuckled a lot in the beginning. Then halfway through the humor started slowing down, the sex obsession started going nuts, and I began to get frustrated. I also loathed Izzy, and that didn't help matters because she's a main player.
But while I feel it took way too long to get to the bottom of Izzy's issue, at the same time I enjoyed the 1923 setting--the clothes, the lingo, the cars. The authors did a great job on that.
For those wondering, the story is about three ghosts haunting a house in the present. They can't pass over until they figure out what's holding each one here. Rufus, the assistant of the owner of the house, ends up time traveling back to 1923 to help the flapper girl, Izzy, fix her issue. Izzy has a friend named Grace, a barn-storming pilot, who ties into the mess somehow and thus, the sex-obsessed love triangle is born, but whether Rufus beds one of the women or not, if anyone falls in love, how is it going to work? Rufus is from the future... I don't need to say more.
Full review: http://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2014/...
Merged review:
I cannot resist books with airplanes on the covers, especially old ones. And while I normally resist time travel stories, because it's so...unexplainable, I decided to give this one a go when I discovered it was featuring a woman barn stormer in the twenties.
Problem is, there is very little flying. I was aware this was a romantic story, but there's more sex than flying, and I don't mean sex as in the act itself, but obsession with it. The hero is constantly thinking of getting in Grace's pants; Grace is just thinking of sex period, of getting it out of her system, Izzy wants to have sex with Rufus, and every woman in the book wants to have sex with Rufus, from random waitresses, to Izzy's friends. Frankly, the story made it seem like we're all sex-crazed women who throw ourselves at random good-looking men.
It got annoying. Another pet peeve of mine is virgin heroines and super-experienced man-whore heroes. UGH. Though it was nice to see the tables turned on this dude.
However, the story is funny. The banter between these dead siblings/ghosts, alive or dead, is funny. I chuckled a lot in the beginning. Then halfway through the humor started slowing down, the sex obsession started going nuts, and I began to get frustrated. I also loathed Izzy, and that didn't help matters because she's a main player.
But while I feel it took way too long to get to the bottom of Izzy's issue, at the same time I enjoyed the 1923 setting--the clothes, the lingo, the cars. The authors did a great job on that.
For those wondering, the story is about three ghosts haunting a house in the present. They can't pass over until they figure out what's holding each one here. Rufus, the assistant of the owner of the house, ends up time traveling back to 1923 to help the flapper girl, Izzy, fix her issue. Izzy has a friend named Grace, a barn-storming pilot, who ties into the mess somehow and thus, the sex-obsessed love triangle is born, but whether Rufus beds one of the women or not, if anyone falls in love, how is it going to work? Rufus is from the future... I don't need to say more.
Full review: http://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2014/...
April 9, 2015
Well it seemed that this book was in desperate need of a real review so here goes. It was great, the characters were great, the story was beyond wonderful and a timeless romance.
If you ever saw the Christopher Reeves movie "Somewhere in Time" this is a similar story with some much different twists and a better ending.
Make no mistake, while this story picks up on the heels of "Scandalous Spirits" (which you REALLY have to read before this novel) it is a much different story in a much different vein. The connection to the previous book outside of our playboy hero is tenuous and very unlike it.
I hesitated to mention that in addition to the ghostly trio's "I can't pass on" plotline we have a huge romance here between Rufus and Grace that was so much better than I ever imagined it could be, the combination of ghostly problems combined with the time travel should not have worked as well as it did but I loved it.
The plot involving shallow playboy meets virginal heroine has been used before but not as well in my remembrance of recent reading of the past few years so I always enjoy a sacrificial romance and throw in a random angelic appearance and you have yourself an epic tale of the bad boy wanting to be worthy of the heroine (who really does not think she needs any man) and trying to figure out what needs to be done to help our ghostly trio obtain their eternal reward.
Bottom Line: I was prepared for the 'we can't pass on" plot after reading book #1 but I was not prepared for the level of romance in this novel, it had all the trappings that all great romances have and the ending was beyond perfect so grab these two books up and be prepared for some major entertainment by the time you are finished. I had always said that one of the main criteria I use for rating a book was how I felt when I finish it and this one was superb and I give it 5 Stars for making me feel this good :)
If you ever saw the Christopher Reeves movie "Somewhere in Time" this is a similar story with some much different twists and a better ending.
Make no mistake, while this story picks up on the heels of "Scandalous Spirits" (which you REALLY have to read before this novel) it is a much different story in a much different vein. The connection to the previous book outside of our playboy hero is tenuous and very unlike it.
I hesitated to mention that in addition to the ghostly trio's "I can't pass on" plotline we have a huge romance here between Rufus and Grace that was so much better than I ever imagined it could be, the combination of ghostly problems combined with the time travel should not have worked as well as it did but I loved it.
The plot involving shallow playboy meets virginal heroine has been used before but not as well in my remembrance of recent reading of the past few years so I always enjoy a sacrificial romance and throw in a random angelic appearance and you have yourself an epic tale of the bad boy wanting to be worthy of the heroine (who really does not think she needs any man) and trying to figure out what needs to be done to help our ghostly trio obtain their eternal reward.
Bottom Line: I was prepared for the 'we can't pass on" plot after reading book #1 but I was not prepared for the level of romance in this novel, it had all the trappings that all great romances have and the ending was beyond perfect so grab these two books up and be prepared for some major entertainment by the time you are finished. I had always said that one of the main criteria I use for rating a book was how I felt when I finish it and this one was superb and I give it 5 Stars for making me feel this good :)
May 2, 2014
I started Kindred Spirits immediately following the first book, Scandalous Spirits, in this two book series. Despite a couple of references to people and situations from the first book, I feel it can be read as a stand alone.
I enjoyed this book more the S.S. because the focus was definitely on Rufus and Grace, though Izzy did have a fairly large role. Through divine intervention, Rufus ends up in 1923 and tries to find out and fix what Izzy did in the past so her spirit can move on in the future. Rufus meets and falls for Grace who shares his love of flying.
I found the actions and responses of the characters in keeping with their personalities and reasonable. The authors also did a good job of setting the time period through the clothes, settings, vocabulary and sexist actions.
Kindred Spirits does have a slightly old?, traditional? feel to it. It could have been written 20 years ago. If I remember correctly there's one, very basic, non-descriptive sex scene, two at most. Can't recall any vulgar language either.
I received a copy of Kindred Spirits from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
I enjoyed this book more the S.S. because the focus was definitely on Rufus and Grace, though Izzy did have a fairly large role. Through divine intervention, Rufus ends up in 1923 and tries to find out and fix what Izzy did in the past so her spirit can move on in the future. Rufus meets and falls for Grace who shares his love of flying.
I found the actions and responses of the characters in keeping with their personalities and reasonable. The authors also did a good job of setting the time period through the clothes, settings, vocabulary and sexist actions.
Kindred Spirits does have a slightly old?, traditional? feel to it. It could have been written 20 years ago. If I remember correctly there's one, very basic, non-descriptive sex scene, two at most. Can't recall any vulgar language either.
I received a copy of Kindred Spirits from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
April 21, 2014
***ARC from NetGalley in Exchange for an honest review***
A sequel to the “Scandalous Spirits” book deals with Rufus Sinclair, the effervescent and funny PA to Marcus Van Buren. This takes up where the other one leaves off. The Van Buren ghosts are getting closer to crossing over but still need resolution to the dramatic Izzy’s yet undisclosed regret. Enter Rufus (who is a ghost-o-phobic and has stirred up Izzy’s interest) who gets flung into the roaring 20’s (cellphone still working! – I want his provider) to figure out that very dilemma, one that apparently features one of his very own past lives. Izzy (now not yet dead) is smitten with the mysterious Ace (Rufus) but so is Izzy’s friend Grace…and Rufus returns Grace’s regard. There the conflict ensues. This is a convoluted love pentagon (to include Izzy’s and Grace’s ardent admirers) with Rufus right smack in the middle. Time travel. Paranormal. Cute. Funny. Entertaining. The characters are well-developed…enough to set up and follow the premise and the promise.
A sequel to the “Scandalous Spirits” book deals with Rufus Sinclair, the effervescent and funny PA to Marcus Van Buren. This takes up where the other one leaves off. The Van Buren ghosts are getting closer to crossing over but still need resolution to the dramatic Izzy’s yet undisclosed regret. Enter Rufus (who is a ghost-o-phobic and has stirred up Izzy’s interest) who gets flung into the roaring 20’s (cellphone still working! – I want his provider) to figure out that very dilemma, one that apparently features one of his very own past lives. Izzy (now not yet dead) is smitten with the mysterious Ace (Rufus) but so is Izzy’s friend Grace…and Rufus returns Grace’s regard. There the conflict ensues. This is a convoluted love pentagon (to include Izzy’s and Grace’s ardent admirers) with Rufus right smack in the middle. Time travel. Paranormal. Cute. Funny. Entertaining. The characters are well-developed…enough to set up and follow the premise and the promise.
November 18, 2014
Rufus doesn't want to believe in the ghosts haunting his friend/employers home. However after some different experiences he cant' rule it out...however he can avoid the house whenever possible.
Izzy has a huge regret that she wants to forget forever. No way will she let anyone near the truck to reveal what she did. Brought back ot the house Rufus is thrust back into the past and is suppose to help Izzy get over adn let go of whatever it is she did wrong.
What he doesn't expect is Grace. Its a good story and I really enjoyed reading it.
Izzy has a huge regret that she wants to forget forever. No way will she let anyone near the truck to reveal what she did. Brought back ot the house Rufus is thrust back into the past and is suppose to help Izzy get over adn let go of whatever it is she did wrong.
What he doesn't expect is Grace. Its a good story and I really enjoyed reading it.
October 21, 2015
I found this story very enjoyable with the interesting twist of time travel!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews