A slow week ...

Ghoul Interrupted (Ghost Hunter Mystery, Bk 6) by Victoria Laurie (library copy) -

Okay, time to get real.  I feel guilty every time I read one of her books (like I'm betraying my fellow readers), but I've been keeping up with this series anyway.  In doing so, I've managed to witness a miracle.  VL wrote a book with no preaching!  No lectures to us non-believers about how wrong we are and how we'll get ours!  In fact, I'll go so far as to say this is the best book in the series.  In addition to no preaching, Gilley wasn't as annoying, the American Indian theme was interesting, and I guessed the bad guy correctly.

I did a skip and jump (i.e. I read my favorite parts and the main parts) through Guardian of Honor (Summoner series, Bk 1) by Robin D. Owens.

I jumped around through Attack of the Fiend (Last Apprentice / Wardstone Chronicles, Bk 4) by Joseph Delaney.  I had checked it out thinking I hadn't read it yet and soon realized I had.  I continued to randomly jump ahead and refresh my memory so I'm better prepared to read the next book in the series.

I started a couple other things that I should finish and post soon, but for the most part I've been fighting off a reading slump.

Ghouls, Ghouls, Ghouls

Title: Ghouls, Ghouls, Ghouls

Author: Victoria Laurie

Publisher: Obsidian Mystery

Copyright Date: 2011

Print Date: January 2011

ISBN: 9780451231970

Pages: 336

Series: 5th in the Ghost Hunter Mystery series

Book Description (from back cover):

GHOST HUNTERS TURNED TREASURE HUNTERS

When M.J. and the crew of her cable TV show, Ghoul Getters, venture to the haunted ruins of Dunlow Castle in Ireland, they hope that the road will rise up to meet them, that the wind will always be at their backs, that the sun will shine warm upon their faces...and that the resident phantom won't push them off a cliff.

That is what has befallen others drawn to the castle by the legend of hidden treasure. Dunlow Castle has more spooks than turrets — including the long-dead lord in all his ghostly greediness — but they pale in comparison to the phantom. If M.J. and her fellow ghost busters treasure their lives, they need to get the drop on the menacing phantom – before they plunge headfirst into one cliff-hanger of an ending....

Comments:

Issues with the author aside (see my post for Ghouls Gone Wild), I do keep coming back to this series... a sign that I enjoy it. I was immensely pleased that I, as the reader, wasn't lectured about believing in psychics, etc. except slightly on one page some 200+ pages in. I was not so pleased that M.J. often seemed to treat Gilly more like a pet than a human being.  Beyond that it was an interesting story.

Ghouls Gone Wild

Title: Ghouls Gone Wild

Author: Victoria Laurie

Publisher: Obsidian Mystery

Copyright Date: 2010

Print Date: March 2010

ISBN: 9780451229410

Pages: 314

Series: 4th in the Ghost Hunter Mystery series

Book Description (from back cover):

M.J. Holliday has an unusual ability: She can talk to the dead. But when she finds herself investigating an ancient curse, even her gift might not be able to get her out of a witchy situation.

ONE HEX OF A MYSTERY

When M.J. and her friends travel to Scotland to film the first installment of their new cable TV show, Ghoul Getters, they find plenty of spooky action in a series of supposedly haunted caverns. But when they discover the body of a maintenance worker, the cause of death is reminiscent of an old legend.

Centuries ago, a mob of angry townsfolk chased a witch, her lover, and her five sisters into the caverns and killed them one by one. Since then, it is said that every hundred years, seven of the town's residents will perish under mysterious circumstances — victims of the witch's vengeance.

Now M.J., Gilley, and Heath have to figure out whether the curse is just superstition or it something more sinister is at work — before anyone else falls victim to the witch's wrath.

Comments:

Oh, where to start...

In 2008 there was a bit of an uproar over Victoria Laurie's extreme reactions to some reviews about her books. It made me hesitant to read anything else by her (I'd hate to be supportive of that), but read I did. Books 2 and 3 of the Ghost Hunter Mysteries last year and now (from the library) Ghouls Gone Wild.

Regarding the series, I have mixed feelings. I enjoy the overall stories. After all, I've continued reading them.

But. I do have one issue that really annoys me. The books are SO PREACHY!!! (Can you feel the frustration yet?)

I don't believe people actually have psychic abilities. Nor do I believe in ghosts. Period. I'm not going to be convinced otherwise. However, I love reading Paranormal FICTION.

When an author spends the first part of a book going on about sceptics, and how wrong they are, and how real psychic abilities are, etc. in what basiclly amounts to a lecture to the reader on what they should believe (I'd love to think it's just part of the characterization and backing for the story, but it goes on too much and too emphatically for that), I become irritated. And that detracts from my enjoyment of the overall book.

End of mini-rant.

Regarding Ghouls Gone Wild in particular... I've read some reviews (on Amazon) commenting about the violence (perhaps more than you'd usually find in a series generally classified as cozy), Gilly's whining (you could argue he has reason, based on circumstances of the story, but some felt this was too much of a stereotype), and cutesy language (M.J. also does plenty of the snarky/sarcastic to kinda balance the cutesy bits). These are things I generally overlook — I'm sure you can tell by now what I didn't overlook =) — but I'm mentioning them because they are there.

As positives, the story includes ghosts, witches, a curse, and some murder. Oh, and a ghost-busting reality show to fit with current TV-watching trends.

I'll probably read book 5, Ghouls, Ghouls, Ghouls. And I'll probably become irritated all over again. ::sigh:: But I'm interested in discovering what will happen to M.J. and her crew next, so...