Member Reviews

Spirit Chaser was good, though seemed very drawn out. I feel a good chunk could’ve been removed and the reader wouldn’t have missed a thing. I enjoyed Austin and Casey’s relationship and the twist threw me. Not sure I liked the ending much but was good to get some closure

Was this review helpful?

Thank you to the publisher. All of my options are my own.


We got ghosts, interesting characters, hate-to-love tropes, a few steamy scenes…What more could a reader want?

I was sceptical about The Spirit Chaser but I was pleasantly surprised by it.

It is darker and spookier than I had anticipated and the ending was kind of, sort of unexpected, yet not really.

Anyway, I don’t want to give too much away. I’m glad I gave this one a try.

The writing is quite good and the plot is what one expects. The author takes her time introducing all characters, not only the two protagonists, which is greatly appreciated. It gives the story more of a rounded, well-developed feel.

It’s perfect for a spooky read to get into the Fall/Halloween mood.

Was this review helpful?

I'm sorry I was not able to read and review this book before it was archived due to serious health issues

Was this review helpful?

This story had many elements: romance, paranormal, mystery, suspense, and horror. The author was able to weave all of those elements into a fine story. The characters were strong and I was very interested in the ghost investigations.
Many thanks to CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Was this review helpful?

I was excited to read this, as I adore shows like Ghost Adventures and Ghost Hunters. The characters just didn't come to life for me (no pun intended...). They felt cookie cutter and lacklustre, and if this were a real show, they'd be very irresponsible. They *were* irresponsible. This just wasn't my cuppa, for sure.

Was this review helpful?

The Spirit Chaser was not a good choice for me. It started out strong with lots of interesting elements like paranormal investigations and the like, but at the end of the day the main characters, Casey and Austin, were not likable. It is hard to become enthralled with a book's story line when you cannot find anything redeemable about the main characters.

Was this review helpful?

My thanks to NetGalley and CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform/Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

Ok, I'm not a huge horror reader. I do enjoy some King, Koontz, Max Brooks, but I don't stray far from the big names. I requested this because it sounded interesting and I wanted to expand my horror genre knowledge.

This didn't do a thing for me. As soon as I started it, I had issues with the lack of clarity in identifying the characters in a group. They were referred to by name, by nickname/occupation, etc, so I didn't have a clear idea of how many people were in the group who entered the haunted building.

That annoyance was followed quickly by the most sensitive psychic and best friend of the MC saying, "This is dangerous, we need to leave NOW." He had also been saying he had a bad premonition in the time leading up to them entering this dangerous, haunted building. The MC's response? basically, "Nope, we need the ratings, don't worry, we'll be fine."

So the whole rest of the plot of the book rests on the MC being a jerk and not listening to his best friend and his best friend supporting the jerk ANYway, instead of saying, no, you don't understand, I'm not going in there, it is too dangerous.

And ratings? Yes, they are part of a TV show about finding and exploring haunted areas. So it's for the Benjamins Baby!! Sigh. If they were doing something noble, like cleansing an area of evil and dangerous entities, even if being paid for it, I could see ignoring premonitions and doing their duty. But this is to entertain others and make money?!? Oh HECK no.

Hard DNF for me. Unclear identification of the characters and jerk Hero left me cold and not too interested in what happened next. I didn't get too far into the horror portion of the book, but what I did read seemed to be adequately creepy and atmospheric.

I really can't give it more than 1 star personally, but we do have die-hard readers of horror who come to our store, so I will recommend this to them if they are looking for something different.

Was this review helpful?

Ghost Hunters/Ghost Adventures with a psychic and a romance thrown in. What could be better? Oh, how about a pissed off demon out for revenge? Quite the page turner with fun and exciting moments.

Was this review helpful?

I love the ghost chaser tv show esthetic. I enjoy watching them. The first sentence really sums it up. I love reading books that are horror/ paranormal. One of my fav genres I’m glad I gave this book a chance. I love the realistic descriptions. It’s also a trilogy that I can’t wait to read.

Was this review helpful?

This is probably a love it or leave it book. It has an interesting premise and there was potential for a nice meaty story; all the elements were there. A hunky Hot-Shot ghost chaser and a sassy psychic. A tragic backstory for the heroine. A cocky hero who needs to be taken down a peg or two by the right woman. An intriguing peril and a good supporting cast. It shoulda rocked. But it didn't. I wish a good editor had gotten their hands on it before it issued, because it was clunky and dry. And in the romance dept? No-mance!

I really liked the supporting characters and Could Not stand the leads. He's an odd juxtaposition of devout catholic/hellraiser. She's a...you know what? I don't know HOW to classify the heroine. She's boring and predictable and her sarcasm works better as a blunt instrument than a means of communication.

They come together like the Varsity Quarterback and the Queen of the wallflowers after studiously ignoring each other all year..

"So. Do'ya wana?"
"Er. Why not?"

Uggh!

I'm not going to tear the story apart. It's unnecessarily mean. I'll just share a story from my own life that pretty much reflects my experience with this book.

A while back I went to see one of my favorite bands in concert. I was off the charts excited to see them. The warm up band was boring. So boring that sitting there I could not understand how they got the gig. You could feel the lack of energy in the room. We clapped politely when prompted to but were figuratively holding our hands over our ears until the main event took the stage.

Until the last song.

I guess luke-warm praise can light a fire under some people, because Holy Crap. They all but tore the roof off the venue. They did an Amazing rendition of "I am the Walrus". It was like night and day. Hella bad to OH my God where was that 20 minutes ago? Mind officially blown.

I wanted to clap till my hands went numb. They deserved it. I could tell the rest of the audience felt the same, because applause started the moment the last beat fell. (authentic praise, not the polite 'that's nice' sort of clapping we'd been doing) With a lot of enthusiasm and it started to build... for a beat, until it dawned on us collectively that if we clapped like we wanted to we'd probably encourage them to take an encore. No. Just, no. So I kept my applause sedate, everyone else did too. And, no encore. Hallelujah!

Bottom line. The Spirit Chaser is a lot like that performance. An OK debut that covered all the basics and had one hell of an ending. I went through most of this book thinking I was going to recommend it only for new UF readers and people who are put off by too much intimacy -- until the ending scenes when it went dark. Like Prometheus DARK.

I requested a digital review copy from Netgalley. These are my honest thoughts #thespiritchaser#netgalley

Was this review helpful?

I love books like this, the author did it fairly well, I would read more from them in the future and would recommend them and this book as well.

Was this review helpful?

I really became invested in these characters!! The ending went in a direction I never saw coming, and that says a lot because I am a pretty seasoned horror fan. I’m good at predicting endings, which can be annoying!! This was a pleasant surprise!! I’m excited to read the next in the series!!! 👍🏻👍🏻

Was this review helpful?

I read this via a digital copy through Netgalley.

Well-researched contemporary horror/thriller set on one of those ubiquitous ghost-hunting reality shows.

This group works so well together, it's a shock to the entire team when a vital member quits the show, and the team. He has good reason.

Eventually, the team finds a temporary replacement, and the show goes on.

The ending is rather shocking, or it was for me, but not so much I'd avoid reading more. If there were any.

Was this review helpful?

I could not put this book down for the life of me.. It was super creepy and intriguing!!!! I was on the edge of my seat throughout this whole book.

Was this review helpful?

I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading more about these characters.

Austin Cole has a TV show called Spirit Chasers where he proves the existence of ghosts and spirits. Unfortunately he is also attracting very bad spirits and the hurt one of his people. This leads the way for Casey to replace the physic in the show. She doesn't like how Austin tries to control everything and there always seem to be fireworks between them.

The book really doesn't slow down much and is a bit creepy at times. I didn't want to put the book down. The world is very fleshed out and believable. Austin can be a bit annoying sometimes but I love Casey and the rest of the gang.

Was this review helpful?

Didn't get a chance to finish this book, but will be doing a reread to give a better review. But from w hat I read it was pretty good

Was this review helpful?

It was good, scary! i like the world as well as the characters!

Was this review helpful?

This topic is no longer of interest to me and I will not be finishing this book.

Was this review helpful?

This was my first paranormal romance. It was interesting read, but I will not be rereading it. I didn't connect with it.

Was this review helpful?

I found the first 1/3 of these pretty interesting. The writing wasn't great (lots of very distracting inconsistencies and changes in POV), but the story at least had potential. But MAN, as soon as the romance kicked in, this plummeted to a 1 star read for me. The characters already weren't my favorite, but Casey went from being slightly annoying to being down right rude and idiotic. And Austin, the hunky heartthrob? Ugh. No. He was a jerk right from the start and being in a relationship just made him worse. Also, this book has some of the worst, unsexiest sex scenes I've read. And I'm not even gonna get started on the sexual dysfunction subplot that was utterly pointless and went no where.
In addition to those things, the action scenes tended to be anti-climatic (just noticing how ironic that is...considering that subplot I mentioned...) and it was pretty clear that the author either A) knew nothing about how TV shows were made or B) simply didn't care about glaring errors and omissions in relation to how shows are made. But as someone who does know these things, I found that HUGELY distracting. I wrote in an update that I wish this had been a web show or maybe a local PBS show. That would have made so much more sense. But no, Austin had to be a super hot celebrity, so #1 rated cable show it is. Ugh. No.
That said, I must be a masochist, cause I AM kinda interested in seeing where the series goes. I saw the ending of this novel coming a mile away, but I'm not sure where the story will go now. But I'm not sure I want to risk it. We'll see.

**I received this copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

Was this review helpful?