NEW RELEASE REVIEW: Hot Ghoul Summer – Pine Ridge Universe – S.C. Principale

Toby

Death takes a vacation. Literally.

I’m a not-very-grim Reaper, just enjoying my annual two-weeks summer holiday when something happens that I can’t ignore. I hear some lowlife striking a deal to save his sorry neck by giving his beautiful stepdaughter to an even bigger piece of pond scum. Even though I’m not supposed to intervene, I can’t resist, especially after I see her photo and see the face of the girl I fell in love with ages ago. I know this woman and the love I lost aren’t the same, but I know a sign when I see one. I’m supposed to save Molly—even if I have to break all the rules to do it.

Molly

When my stepfather tells me he wants to leave me a beautiful beach house, it’s a dream come true. One, it means he’s finally trying to make amends for the crap he put me through, and two, if I sell this place, I can pay off my student loans.

But when I arrive, Gary (AKA Loser Two) is nowhere to be found, and I’m someone’s prisoner.

It’s Death. Actual Death, a pale, ghoulish guy who reaps souls. Well, he’s not getting mine without a fight.

Funny, he almost makes me believe that he doesn’t want my soul—just my heart.

Two Weeks

I've promised Molly that I’ll let her go when my vacation is done—after I hunt down the man who tried to hurt her. I know it’s hopeless to believe that a monster like me can win her heart in just a few days, but I’ve got to try. Who knows? Maybe moonlight walks on the beach and a romantic retreat with someone who would die for her (or kill for her) will turn my eternity alone into a hot ghoul summer that never has to end?

Hot Ghoul Summer is a steamy paranormal/monster romance from the author of The Minotaur's Valentine and Velvet Wings. It's a spicy stand alone novella in the Pine Ridge universe!

Reviewed by Linda Tonis

Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team

Toby is a reaper on his two-week vacation at a beach side mansion specially prepared for him. When he hears a conversation about a girl Martina (Molly) between the stepfather Gary and a hoodlum offering her to the hoodlum to save his own life Toby has no choice but to save the girl.

Toby knew another Molly back hundreds of years ago, a girl who saved his life and who looks remarkably like the present Molly. He knows he will do anything to protect her and although it is not something he is supposed to do he ends the hoodlum’s life. Toby orders Gary to bring Molly to him and Gary, coward that he is couldn’t agree fast enough.

When Molly is brought to Toby believing the lie that her ex-stepfather gave her, she doesn’t trust Toby and fights him with all she has, although she doesn’t have a chance of hurting him. Trust is not something that comes easily to Molly given the men in her life, a father and a stepfather both useless individuals who only put their own wants and needs before her.

Toby tries hard to gain Molly’s trust but that becomes even harder when she realizes what he is. She is a nurse and is dedicated to keeping people alive while Toby, in her view, kills them. It will take a lot before Molly even slightly begins to believe Toby is a good guy or monster, but he doesn’t have much time to change her opinion of him. He has two weeks and there is no way that Gary is going to stop going after her.

Looking through Molly’s scroll he comes to learn that she will be killed in three weeks and although he would love nothing more than to kill Gary and the dead hoodlums gang members he is not allowed to.

Toby called on Sera a Morrigan and his pet, Musketeer, a three headed Cerberus corgi to watch over Molly while he investigates where Gary is and how much danger Molly is in. Molly finally sees Toby for what he really is a reaper with a kind heart, if he has a heart, and a man who cares deeply for her putting his own well-being aside to save her.

This book was wonderful, filled with wonderful characters who want to do good and characters that only want to do harm. I won’t reveal what happens but will highly recommend reading this book for yourself, well worth it.

There is explicit sex, danger, cruelty and the ever popular good vs. Evil. As a bonus the author has added steamy sneak peeks of other books in the Pine Ridge Universe series, you are in for a treat.