“Now I know what a ghost is. Unfinished business, that’s what.” ― Salman Rushdie
Title: Forgotten
Author: Rider Jacobs
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Pages/Word Count:
Rating: 4 Stars
Blurb: Some houses come with secrets, and some secrets should never be forgotten.
After eight years together, Peter and Rhys have finally achieved success: good jobs that keep them comfortably fed and a happy married life. The icing on the cake is their move from a small city duplex to a large farmhouse in need of repair.
Peter instantly senses something going on in the house that he can’t put his finger on, something a bit sinister. Things start to happen: whispers in the night, crying only Peter can hear, faucets that turn on for no reason. When Peter starts to dream of a dark-haired young man who tells him how much he loves him, he feels like he’s losing his mind, especially since Rhys doesn’t see or hear anything.
Only after suffering accidents and injuries does Rhys agree the house is haunted, and they’ll have to figure out how to fight a lovesick ghost.
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Review: Let me begin with the fact that I’m a sucker for a ghost story. It’s very hard for me to turn one down, so when I saw the blurb for Forgotten, well, I just couldn’t pass it up.
Forgotten started off with a bang, as you immediately get a rough idea of how this particular haunted house treats anyone that is unwelcome, starting with the ghost’s way of evicting its tenants. Yeah, after what happen to this one renter, I think I would be beating feet in the middle of the night to escape too. Adding a brief history here, this old farm house was built in the 1840s. When the previous owner, Demetri Romanov (who bought the house in the 1930s), became too old to take care of the house, he was placed in a nursing home. Except for an occasional tenant that never stayed more than 6 months, at the most, the house has remained empty. Until the owner dies. This is all told by the realtor, who is showing Peter and Rhys the house. While Peter is not so crazy about purchasing a home that will require a lot of work, Rhys, his husband, is in ecstatic-remodel-mode as he moves from room to room. As Rhys is busy convincing Peter that this is it, their new home, Peter feels the first wisps of a presence…
Now, both characters, Peter and Rhys, are a very likable married couple. It was cute how one moment they could act like a couple of kids on their honeymoon and the next, act like an old married couple with sentences like, “Not tonight, I’m tired.” There was no doubt that these two little lovebirds love each other very much. However, I did have a couple of moments with Rhys. When Peter was trying to tell him that he strongly suspected the house was haunted, saying he was hearing noises such as voices and was dreaming of a young man by the name of Alexey, Rhys kept putting it down to Peter’s overactive writer’s imagination. And even when Rhys started experiencing the same thing, his logical mind refused to entertain that they were dealing with something from beyond the grave. It was this type of attitude, with all the things that were happening, that cause the story to drag a bit. The denial went only so many pages before my interest started to ebb. At one point, I was mumbling to myself, “Come on, you create video games. You’re gonna tell me that your imagination won’t even entertain the idea that you’re dealing with a ghost? Especially a ghost that is showing signs that it wants YOU and only YOU to leave!”
As for Alexey, the ghost, well..I liked him even though he behaved badly, especially towards Rhys, you just couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. Very tragic, what with what happened to him.
All in all, it was an interesting ghost story. The ending wasn’t something I expected to happen and quite different from the usual I’ve experienced when reading paranormal romance. So I’m giving Forgotten a 4 Star paranormal recommendation.
You can buy Forgotten here:
