The Blurb:

Jason Walker is a child star turned teen heartthrob turned reluctant B-movie regular who’s sick of his failing career. So he gives up Hollywood for northern Idaho, far away from the press, the drama of LA, and the best friend he’s secretly been in love with for years.

There’s only one problem with his new life: a strange young man only he can see is haunting his guesthouse. Except Benjamin Ward isn’t a ghost. He’s a man caught out of time, trapped since the Civil War in a magical prison where he can only watch the lives of those around him. He’s also sweet, funny, and cute as hell, with an affinity for cheesy ’80s TV shows. And he’s thrilled to finally have someone to talk to.

But Jason quickly discovers that spending all his time with a man nobody else can see or hear isn’t without its problems—especially when the tabloids find him again and make him front-page news. The local sheriff thinks he’s on drugs, and his best friend thinks he’s crazy. But Jason knows he hasn’t lost his mind. Too bad he can’t say the same thing about his heart.

Twenty percent of the proceeds from this title will be donated to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) National Help Center.

Founded in 1996, the GLBT National Help Center is a non-profit organization that provides vital peer-support, community connections and resource information to people with questions regarding sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Utilizing a diverse group of GLBT volunteers, they operate two national hotlines, the GLBT National Hotline and the GLBT National Youth Talkline, as well as private, volunteer one-to-one online chat, that help both youth and adults with coming-out issues, safer-sex information, school bullying, family concerns, relationship problems and a lot more.

To learn more about this charity or to donate directly, please visit their website: http://www.glbthotline.org/

The Stats:

The Review:

??????.5 Stars

Part of me…erm…well, part of me wonders what the hell I just read.

The other part of me is all squishy because of an engaging love story that I couldn’t stop reading.

How did I get myself into this?

I’m not exactly a fan of paranormal, ghosty things. I think it’s all a bunch of weirdness that I’m bound to have a hard time connecting to—if it doesn’t scare the bejeezus out of me.

And on a somewhat related side note: I’m absolutely horrified, disgusted, and profoundly disturbed about the movie Krampus. Call me whatever names you want…but I find the Horrification of the Christmas Holiday season and, most especially, fucking with all that is the magic of Santa deplorable. I had a temper tantrum about this the other day after seeing a preview. I might have stomped my foot and flailed my arms about. I get the whole “where there is light there is dark” business…but at Christmas? Just NO. Santa doesn’t need an evil counterpart. Leave all that behind at Halloween and let me have my visions of sugarplums dancing in my head.

Sorry, bout that. Done now.

Back to this book.

I’m in this conundrum because I didn’t do what I should always do before buying a book. I didn’t read the blurb. I saw a few reviews on my GR timeline and a little bit of publicity, so I just bought it to have a new holiday themed release to read. And Marie Sexton—she’s prolific enough that I know I really can’t go wrong with one of her books.

So, yes I enjoyed this. I had to suspend a lot of disbelief and go with the flow. Some of it was epic silliness. But, for the most part, poignant and sweet. It’s not so much Christmasy except the timeline covers the holidays.

The one thing I take most issue with are the transitions of meeting a paranormal entity, to friends with said entity, to in love with said entity weren’t exactly smooth to me and each seemed a tad bit sudden. But, once I was in those phases all flowed along nicely.

A few bits of dialogue felt weird, but long paragraphs of expositional monologues often are weird to me.

I didn’t hate it or think it a waste of my time or money. Overall, I’m glad I read the book and have spent time reviewing since my thoughts are so scattered.

It is full of hope and love with some beautiful moments…and that’s what it’s really all about.

OH…also…please do take note that part of the proceeds go to the GLBT National Help Center. I frequently donate to GLBT charities, mostly ones that help kids on the streets, so I was really excited to see that my book purchase was part donation to something I feel so strongly about. I’ll be looking more into this particular charity further to see about an additional donation soon.

This review also posted on GoodReads.