Title: Spiritus
Author: Dana Michelle Burnett www.DanaMichelleBurnett.com
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: October 11, 2011
Genre: Paranormal Romance
This is a story about a teenage girl who shifts to a new town and moves into her ancestral home. At school she gets a crush on the most gorgeous boy in the school and is amazed when he seems to be interested in her – she is, of course, nothing exceptional. Add jealousy from the cheerleader bitch and you have a common scenario, made even more familiar by the addition of another gorgeous man that she can’t really have in any realistic way because he is a ghost – at least he’s not a vampire.
A nice twist on this formula young adult story is that Becca is a reincarnation of the wife of the ghost, Alastor. She begins to remember their time together and her love for him reawakens. Eventually, she discovers that she murdered him because he was an adulterer. The question you need to read the book to answer is, did he come back for love or revenge?
The book was enjoyable enough, but nothing special. The characters were believable and likeable and the plot well constructed. However, there were too many unnecessary words which took away from the impact of the story – whole sentences say what we could infer ourselves and characters say more about situations and feelings than they would in reality.
I also felt that there were too many line editing errors as well as a consistent major punctuation error. Like other indie works I’ve read, this author used a full stop (period) instead of a comma at the end of dialogue before the dialogue tag, eg “Go away.” She said. Instead of, “Go away,” she said. I believe that all books that are published should be properly edited and proof read regardless of who published them.
I give the book 3 stars. At 99c it’s probably okay for teens who haven’t read a lot of this kind of story, but I would be pointing out the punctuation error so they don’t start to think that that is the correct punctuation. Ms Burnett has potential as a writer and it’s worth watching out for future books.
Sales Links:
Amazon:Spiritus, a Paranormal Romance (Spiritus Series, Book #1)
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/spiritus-dana-michelle-burnett/1106609487
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/96006
