What do you think?
Rate this book
The Rarest Rose
Beautiful Eleanor Teal has accepted the tragedy in her life and gradually become reclusive, living alone in her Georgian home in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds—a place she once shared with the woman she loved and lost, and a place where she feels safe and cocooned with her memories. But suddenly the house doesn’t feel safe anymore. Things start to happen there—things distinctly paranormal. She finds her life being haunted by the presence of a ghost who is desperately trying to tell her something.
Help comes to Eleanor in the unexpected form of Kiernan Foyle, a freelance photographer with an abundance of Irish charm and wit but who hides a secret that makes her recoil from love.
Brought together by the haunting, they soon discover the power of true love, but are they willing to risk loving again?
Help comes to Eleanor in the unexpected form of Kiernan Foyle, a freelance photographer with an abundance of Irish charm and wit but who hides a secret that makes her recoil from love.
Brought together by the haunting, they soon discover the power of true love, but are they willing to risk loving again?
240 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2013
3 people are currently reading
101 people want to read
About the author
I. Beacham
5 books27 followersI. Beacham grew up in the heart of England, a green and pleasant land, mainly because it rains so much. This is probably why she ran away to sea, to search for dry places. Over the years, and during long periods away from home constantly travelling to far away places, she has balanced the rigidity of her professional life with her need and love to write. Blessed with a wicked sense of humor (not all agree), she is a lover of all things water, a dreadful jogger and cook, a hopeless romantic who roams antique stores, an addict of old black and white movies, and an adorer of science fiction. In her opinion, a perfect life. She is recently retired from the Royal Navy and went back to her hobby of writing.
Read the Bold Strokes Books Interview with I. Beacham
Read the LeftLion Magazine Interview with I. Beacham
Read the Bold Strokes Books Interview with I. Beacham
Read the LeftLion Magazine Interview with I. Beacham
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 1, 2013
I picked this up on the strength of the author's previous work, Sanctuary, which is one of my all-time favorite reads.
In Rarest Rose, two women, a photographer and her subject, are drawn together by a haunting. As they attempt to delve deeper into the mystery, they start to develop feelings for one another. However, both are hampered by their respective pasts--one, a failed love and the other, a terrible loss. As their feelings escalate, so do the hauntings.
I liked the very British feel of the entire book. Everything from the gentle countryside setting, to the dialogue, to all the nicely drawn characters, and even the weather! I could almost hear the accents. But I feel the very Britishness of the whole book also holds back the passion. The two women are very reserved, as in stiff-upper-lip reserved. Too civil, too polite and a bit too dispassionate. There is chemistry, but not enough spark and not enough sexual tension to sizzle the pages.
There is an interesting mystery attached to the ghost story. I enjoyed the way it played out though TV addicts may find it rather cliche. The ending was a bit weird and cheesy, but it gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling.
Overall, the book is typical BSB quality--well-plotted, well-edited and no obvious typos.
Highly recommended if you like ghost stories (its not too creepy, but just enough that it doesn't overwhelm the romance) and gentle British romances.
4.4 stars
In Rarest Rose, two women, a photographer and her subject, are drawn together by a haunting. As they attempt to delve deeper into the mystery, they start to develop feelings for one another. However, both are hampered by their respective pasts--one, a failed love and the other, a terrible loss. As their feelings escalate, so do the hauntings.
I liked the very British feel of the entire book. Everything from the gentle countryside setting, to the dialogue, to all the nicely drawn characters, and even the weather! I could almost hear the accents. But I feel the very Britishness of the whole book also holds back the passion. The two women are very reserved, as in stiff-upper-lip reserved. Too civil, too polite and a bit too dispassionate. There is chemistry, but not enough spark and not enough sexual tension to sizzle the pages.
There is an interesting mystery attached to the ghost story. I enjoyed the way it played out though TV addicts may find it rather cliche. The ending was a bit weird and cheesy, but it gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling.
Overall, the book is typical BSB quality--well-plotted, well-edited and no obvious typos.
Highly recommended if you like ghost stories (its not too creepy, but just enough that it doesn't overwhelm the romance) and gentle British romances.
4.4 stars
February 23, 2016
I loved this book! Great characters, interesting and nicely wrapped up plot, sweet tender romance and... ghosts. An excellent book that goes on my re-read list. I really like I. Beacham's style of writing and I am looking forward to more great stories from her.
June 20, 2019
Lovely story and well written book. Though there is a ghost in this book and he frightens Ele, one of the main characters, there is really very little angst. Though Ele and Kiernan are at first frightened by the appearance of the ghost, after a while they are more excited about finding out about who he is and about the way to help him find peace. Both Ele and Kiernan have a past that makes them reluctant to look for new love in their lives. The ghost story is used to build a friendship between the main characters and build up the romance between them. I enjoyed reading this book, it’s a warm-hearted romance story with a little ghost storyline. 4 stars
August 27, 2018
I was sorry to see The Rarest Rose come to an end as it is one of the sweetest and most riveting novels I have read in a while, with the bonus of having a genuinely challenging, spooky mystery I was mesmerized by. I am ready to start another book by I. Beacham, though I am disappointed to see there are just four books by her (at least, for right now) and I will have to purposely go slow with them: that's how good she is!
June 25, 2014
It was ok as a romance, I mean give me some broken characters that heal throughout the story, and I'll lap it up.
For a ghost story, it was a bit too simplistic for me. While at the beginning it was intrigueing, the solution was way too easy.
All in all, a nice read.
For a ghost story, it was a bit too simplistic for me. While at the beginning it was intrigueing, the solution was way too easy.
All in all, a nice read.
Read
July 27, 2021My copy counts 230 pages
August 8, 2013
Review previously posted at The Good the Bad and the Unread
I do love a good ghost story mixed in with my romance, and this gentle romance most definitely features a ghost, although the mystery remains for a long time over whether the spirit in question is malevolent or simply misunderstood.
Eleanor Teal was a major star of British breakfast television, until the day ten years ago when she suddenly dropped out of the limelight. Now she lives with her cat in a Georgian-style former vicarage and paints pictures of wild birds. Her first illustrated book is about to come out, and she's appeared in public opening a shopping mall, so the editor of a local glossy magazine sends photographer Kiernan Foyle round to get a photo-story. All very British. We love our perky, early-morning presenters and every county or major city seems to have its own style magazine that crops up in supermarkets with pictures of gala dinners and country shows on the cover and inside. Like Hello, but with the added attraction that the readers are more likely to bump into those featured while buying the magazine for themselves.
Ele and Kiernan don't completely hit it off on first meeting, and then it all goes downhill when Keir has to call round and re-take her shoot twice – once because none of the images come out and then again because a mysterious man appears in every shot. A man who definitely wasn't there when the photos were taken. Ele initially accuses Kiernan of trying to con her, and then more weird stuff starts happening – including her cat rubbing up against the legs of someone neither of the women can see.
Ele and Kiernan start to investigate former inhabitants of the house, and become closer to each other in the process – cautiously because Ele's withdrawal from public life came as a result of her childhood sweetheart's illness and then death, and because Kiernan's previous lovers have all left her – but even once they figure out who the man is, they can't understand what he's trying to tell them. It has something to do with the alterations Ele has made to her property – and the building contractor's wife seems to have fallen ill around the same time – but what? I did like the fact that the women investigated each obvious conclusion at around the time I thought of it, and that when the answer finally came to them it was something that seemed so mundane until you knew the whole story that anyone could have overlooked the same possibility.
A few little niggles for me with this one, all relating to cars. Because I'm a car geek, I found it hard to accept that a Land Rover would have a squeaking door due to age after only eight years. And an MGB should not be described as a veteran, when the term has a very specific meaning to classic car enthusiasts, nor would its temperature gauge tell Kiernan that the roads were likely to be icy unless she'd been to Halfords and fitted a gizmo herself. Those niggles kind of distracted me from a big dramatic car moment at one point as I tried to remember which way my MGB used to skid on ice and whether that fitted what the book was describing. If it hadn't been for the niggles I'd have just gone with the drama.
Car niggles aside, this one started a little slowly, but then I was gripped with a need to know what the ghost wanted and whether our heroines were ever going to come to their senses and trust each other's feelings. Some lovely similes in the descriptive passages too.
I do love a good ghost story mixed in with my romance, and this gentle romance most definitely features a ghost, although the mystery remains for a long time over whether the spirit in question is malevolent or simply misunderstood.
Eleanor Teal was a major star of British breakfast television, until the day ten years ago when she suddenly dropped out of the limelight. Now she lives with her cat in a Georgian-style former vicarage and paints pictures of wild birds. Her first illustrated book is about to come out, and she's appeared in public opening a shopping mall, so the editor of a local glossy magazine sends photographer Kiernan Foyle round to get a photo-story. All very British. We love our perky, early-morning presenters and every county or major city seems to have its own style magazine that crops up in supermarkets with pictures of gala dinners and country shows on the cover and inside. Like Hello, but with the added attraction that the readers are more likely to bump into those featured while buying the magazine for themselves.
Ele and Kiernan don't completely hit it off on first meeting, and then it all goes downhill when Keir has to call round and re-take her shoot twice – once because none of the images come out and then again because a mysterious man appears in every shot. A man who definitely wasn't there when the photos were taken. Ele initially accuses Kiernan of trying to con her, and then more weird stuff starts happening – including her cat rubbing up against the legs of someone neither of the women can see.
Ele and Kiernan start to investigate former inhabitants of the house, and become closer to each other in the process – cautiously because Ele's withdrawal from public life came as a result of her childhood sweetheart's illness and then death, and because Kiernan's previous lovers have all left her – but even once they figure out who the man is, they can't understand what he's trying to tell them. It has something to do with the alterations Ele has made to her property – and the building contractor's wife seems to have fallen ill around the same time – but what? I did like the fact that the women investigated each obvious conclusion at around the time I thought of it, and that when the answer finally came to them it was something that seemed so mundane until you knew the whole story that anyone could have overlooked the same possibility.
A few little niggles for me with this one, all relating to cars. Because I'm a car geek, I found it hard to accept that a Land Rover would have a squeaking door due to age after only eight years. And an MGB should not be described as a veteran, when the term has a very specific meaning to classic car enthusiasts, nor would its temperature gauge tell Kiernan that the roads were likely to be icy unless she'd been to Halfords and fitted a gizmo herself. Those niggles kind of distracted me from a big dramatic car moment at one point as I tried to remember which way my MGB used to skid on ice and whether that fitted what the book was describing. If it hadn't been for the niggles I'd have just gone with the drama.
Car niggles aside, this one started a little slowly, but then I was gripped with a need to know what the ghost wanted and whether our heroines were ever going to come to their senses and trust each other's feelings. Some lovely similes in the descriptive passages too.
March 30, 2018
This is a well written ghost story, more mystery than horror but a few chills. A romance develops naturally and slowly as a part of the story not just to have the woman hook up. A wonderful way to spend my day off - reading a ghost story under covers.
May 30, 2013
Pleasantly English.
July 31, 2013
So trite and boring.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews