Wednesday, March 16, 2011

It's 5 Roses from Sizzling Hot Book Reviews for POSSESSION!


They say they when you loose one of you senses (like sight or hearing), the other’s sharpen to make up for the loss. J was born blind. But not only are her other senses sharper, she also has a psychic ‘seeing’ ability. She has learned how to use it to help the police in special cases, the latest one involving the maker of the street drug called Possession.

J was born blind, but she could "see" things. Her gift has always helped the police find such things as missing persons, serial killers... a ghost or two.

Detective Kiel Stark has worked homicide for eight years, but he has never met this mysterious Seer his fellow officers claim could almost perform miracles. Not until a gruesome triple homicide has his superiors calling in the reserved woman to help with the case.

Now Stark is faced with a double threat. Not only is he finding himself dangerously attracted to the mysterious beauty, but she could very well discover his own carefully guarded secret—a secret that could bring an end to his career, his way of life, and any future he hoped to have.

Detective Kiel Stark is working undercover on loan to the DEA when his cover is busted and he is attacked. He looses conscious and wakes up a week later in the park. When he goes to Sam Reese’s, his partner and half-brother, place he quickly learns things are much worse than he first thought. He wasn’t just attacked that night, but actually died. With Sam’s help, he figures out he now seems to be some kind of ghost or wrath… When he concentrates he can have a (his old) physical form, or at least seem to. But he no longer sleeps or eats. And he is learning he does have other ‘ghost like’ abilities, like being able to pass through walls or “teleport” to other locations. Kiel doesn’t know why he is still around, so he goes about his old life of being a cop as it is what he knows and loves. But he does have a ‘need’ to find his missing body and whoever killed him. Not that he and Sam make any headway on that front.

But being a ghost just might help them solve their latest case: there seems to be a new serial killer around. This one is sever but maybe smart. The bodies are beaten beyond recognition or even identification, but there are clues left at the scenes of the crimes. When they don’t get anywhere with the case, their captain sends them to a psychic the city police force has discretely used before, J Laurent.

J (Je t’aime) Laurent was a surprise baby. Her parents had tried but finally given up on having children and adopted her brother. Then she came along. They were older, but handled her blindness well. They did the best they could with her ‘gift’ but didn’t listen as they should have. Thus they and her brother were killed in an auto accident when she was six. She was raised by her grandmother, but even she died a few years ago. Between the money left from her father’s investments and the old Victorian house her grandmother left her, J doesn’t have to work or worry about money. But she still can’t ignore her psychic warning and flashes. Especially when bad things happen. So she helps the police with special cases. Now she is getting hints on the latest killings and meets the detectives working the case, Kiel and Sam.

J knows from the first meeting that Kiel is something different. He is also the first ‘person’ to call out to her, to her soul. And Kiel feels a unique pull to her as well. They both want to be together, but know Kiel doesn’t have much time left.

J is able to help with the case. But should they involve a blind lady on such a dangerous case? Kiel feels like he is taking from her when he knows he won’t be around long, that he is on borrowed time as it is. And J wants to get as many memories of Kiel to keep for after he is gone. Then J gets an impression that the killer is like Kiel, dead but still here/living… Now there is another link to both Kiel and J with the killer. Will Kiel be able to keep her safe?

Ohhh, Possession grabbed my right from the start! Some fast action gets us on the edge of our seats and Kiel’s confusion as well as the police mystery keeps us going. Then we have to try to figure out just what happened to Kiel, and what he is now (even he isn’t sure). This was very well done and kept us guessing without being too confusing or slow in the explanation as we go along. Possession ends up being a real page turner that I stayed up late to finish just to find out how everything worked out!

Possession has some unusual characters. The villain/killer is not what one sees often (in more ways than one.) Kiel is a good cop turned super cop, not because of becoming a ghost but because of trying to spare those around him as much pain and lose as possible. He wants to be with J but worries about hurting her, what his leaving will do to her in the long run. He even asks his brother to look out for her when this happens. And he knows that “his brother hasn’t mourned his death yet,” and worries about what his ‘final’ passing will do to him as well. He is a good representation of a normal person in an extraordinary situation. Of course, J is great. She may be a little cut off from the outside world most times, but she has learned to cope with her blindness, within her limits. She has some outside help, checks up that she isn’t being taken advantage of, and even has lots of Braille books for entertainment. So she does manage well enough even though she is on her own now.

As you can guess, I loved Possession. This is not your standard ghost or cop story. And I have to warn you girls, you will need tissues around the end, but there is a HEA ending (I really worried as I got to the end, hope this doesn’t spoil anything for you, but we do expect the hea when reading romances). Possession is a great paranormal, and anyone tired of the standard romance will enjoy this unusual twist on a good ‘who-done-it’ idea.

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