A Ghost of a Chance

A Ghost of a Chance by Cherie Claire

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***
I rated this a three because it falls in between 1 and 5. Some part of this book warrant a 5 while others are a 1 so I selected a number in the middle.

There are really three stories embedded in the one book. The first is a ghost story and it's a 5. The ghost story leads into a mystery and it's a 5 as well. The third story is about a woman beset by lots of emotional turmoil. She lost her daughter to leukemia. She lost her home to hurricane Katrina. She suffers from ADHD. She may be suffering from PTSD. She's in the process of walking away from her marriage. Simply put she's a mess and now she's trying to take the first steps towards building a new life starting with a new career. I rated this one a 1 because I can't stand characters who emote all over the page; however, I think the 80/20 rules applies to this story and I'm in the 20. I believe 80% of readers will thoroughly enjoy this third arc so I think it can be recommended.

It's pretty standard these days in books coming out to focus on characters more and plot less. Certainly during the course of this book we encounter an individual who's struggling and barely keeping her life together. Frankly I disliked the protagonist so much I found myself rooting for the villains and two of them, although long dead, were pretty bad. The third wasn't so much a villain as an irritant. We meet Richard early in the story and he seems pretty unlikable. He never improves but as we get to know Vi, our heroine, Richard starts looking pretty good. At least he can function.

Vi tells us at the outset her marriage is over. Then her ex shows up and instead of telling him to take a hike, she allows him to stay with her and they even partake in the obligatory sex scene. Fortunately it's only a couple of pages so it doesn't detract from the story to any great extent but I found her willingness to do that sort of thing with someone who's supposedly in her past a little difficult to believe.

There is a subplot involving the mayor of the town these travel writers are visiting. This mayor believes Vi is in cahoots with some activists trying to stop a development project. It had definite possibilities but it sort of fizzles out without any real climax. Yes the development is stopped and the mayor who was about to run for governor changes her mind but we are told that. It isn't dramatized within the story.

As I said, I didn't like the protagonist and therefore I couldn't relate to the story. I do think plenty of others can read and thoroughly enjoy this book to I recommend it with the caveat that if you want a protagonist who's fully functional and has her life together then stay away. Everyone else can read and enjoy it.



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