Long and Short Reviews

ErRatic by N.D. Hansen-Hill
Gale Group, Five Star
Contemporary, Paranormal
Full Length, Sweet
Review by Magnolia

Emma Rathburn would love to be normal, if only she can figure out what that is. Her life is a disaster, with unexpected phenomena emerging from the shadows to trample her best efforts at conformity. All too often she finds herself running from trouble, or moving to hide from notoriety. Harley Chalmers is a policeman, prepared to battle human assailants. His arrival at Emma's house coincides with yet another terrifying paranormal event. She is being haunted, but her adversary is more than a wisp of ectoplasm, and far more solid than a bygone memory.

Harley soon discovers that if he wants a relationship with Emma, he's going to have to - literally - confront her demons.

♥ ♥ ♥

ErRatic is most definitely not a book to be read at night or while alone in a large old house. I know because I made the mistake and did both. The romance element is a secondary story line - a strong secondary. This is a scare your socks off horror.

Emma Rathburn is the heroine. Now in every story the heroine has demons - only Emma’s happen to be real. And they are not the nice ones that are in some paranormal. Besides seeing ghost, having a problem with rats, and a demon that is really trying to kill her, Emma’s life is pretty run of the mill. Emma is a strong heroine but not to the point of obnoxious. She readily calls on her friends, the guy she kind of digs, and a group of ‘ghost busters.’

Harley Chalmers likes things black and white. So Emma must be crazy - stay away. Okay maybe Emma’s not crazy but still stay away. When this doesn’t work, Harley must decided if he can deal with Emma’s many shades of gray. In the end, Harley comes through in a big way.

Emma is surrounded by a wonderful group of friends. Dale, her oldest friend, is incredible. I have had friends bale out on me when I burned the cookies for tea, this guy sticks around after numerous demon attacks! Nicky and Chang are also true friends. All the secondary character are well thought out and carefully placed in the story to add to the story.

The plot is an incredible woven mixture of horror, humor, and romance. Not an easy combination to carry off, but ErRatic does it very well. The climax actually had the hair on my arms standing up and sent shivers down my spine.

Comments:

Date: Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 2:36 PM
Your Name: Pam P
Your Comment: Sounds like a real thriller, have it in my TBR pile now, waiting for a night when those shivers won't get to me too much for reading, lol.