Tomorrow is Halloween, which makes this the perfect time to talk about the spookier side of romance. Halloween is the perfect time to fall in love with a ghost! Or for your romance to get a little ghostly assistance. Or, sad but oh, so romantic, to get that one last chance to say goodbye, with a little help from a medium.
You would think that falling in love with a ghost would be the ultimate doomed romance, wouldn’t you? After all, the only logical endings seem to be that the ghost “crosses over” or that the living person dies and becomes a ghost. Platonic love just doesn’t seem like a true “Happily Ever After” to us.
Then there’s Supernaturally Kissed by Stacey Kennedy, which is romantic suspense of the ghost romance persuasion. And is Tess Jennings ever persuaded by the very hot ghost of Memphis Police Officer Kipp McGowen! Tess sees dead people, and in Kipp, Tess sees a man she really wishes she’d met before he died. What makes Supernaturally Kissed stand out from the paranormal crowd is that the romance between Tess and Kipp (and yes, there really is one) is actually very sweet as well as surprisingly sensual under the circumstances. To add icing on the spooky cake, there’s a very bittersweet flavor, as they have to solve a cold police case in order for Kipp to be able to cross-over, as all good ghosts are supposed to do. Yet the possibility of a real happy ending dangles at the end of the story. Supernaturally Kissed is surprising, intriguing and romantic.
The Gravedigger’s Brawl also involves the solving of a cold case, but unlike Supernaturally Kissed, both members of the romantic couple in this one are very much alive and well. It’s the murderer in this one who might be a ghost. Certainly everyone who works at Gravedigger’s Tavern is worried that they are seeing ghosts, or maybe they’re just going crazy. But there is a resident poltergeist wreaking havoc on the blossoming relationship between museum curator Wyatt Case and quirky bartender Ash Lucroix. Solving the puzzle behind the gruesome history of the old building that houses the Tavern will either bond them closer together, or get one of them killed. This is a story where the romance takes second place to solving the extremely creepy historic mystery, so if you like a little romance mixed in with your gruesome for Halloween, visit The Gravedigger’s Brawl.
And if you like your ghost romance with a dash of crazysauce, you might want a taste of Karen Robards new series starring Dr. Charlotte Stone. Charlotte is a forensic psychiatrist who studies serial killers. She picked this particular field because she survived while a serial killer attacked her best friend’s family. As if this wasn’t enough trauma, Charlotte Stone sees dead people. So we have a psychic psychiatrist. In the first book in the series, The Last Victim, Charlotte assists an FBI team in tracking down the serial killer who murdered let her escape as child. But what makes this a ghost romance is that Charlotte is haunted by the ghost of a drop-dead gorgeous convicted serial killer, who might or might not be guilty. And who she might or might not be falling in love with. So much crazy happens in this book that I couldn’t stop reading to see what happens next. There’s even a second book, The Last Kiss Goodnight, and Charlotte gets herself into even more trouble, of the romantic, ghostly and professional persuasions. She’s so busy, it’s downright spooky.
If you are thinking about curling up with a good ghostly romantic movie for Halloween, there are both new and golden age classics. There’s the lushly romantic three-hanky special starring Patrick Swayze as the ghost, Demi Moore as the girlfriend who desperately needs closure, and Oscar-winner Whoopi Goldberg as the medium who makes it all possible in Ghost. Going back into the film’s golden age, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is a gem.
Happy Hauntings!
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