Review: Spirits Manifest - Sophie Weeks

Synopsis:

Two ordinary young women, new to adulthood, seeking to define their futures against a world that has already defined them. Two uncanny encounters with a world of spirits hostile and benign. This intriguing collection contains two novels that deftly blend poignant human drama with unleashed supernatural bonds. Two stories of hope, and finding the courage to break from traditions that haunt us.

Faced with an impossible decision, 20-something Margaret Campbell must choose between returning home to her father’s farm in Alberta to help raise her two orphaned cousins, or fulfilling her fashion designer, city-life dream. What would you do? In the second of the two novels, against the backdrop of old and dusty Cambridge, recent Ivy League graduate Sarah is an engaging voice for new adult women who strive to break from tradition and find a place in the world.

The Soured Earth Review

So, to start I should probably tell you that I do not usually read New Adult books. I am not hugely into love affairs or talking about sex in books. I prefer action and really big events. I like the supernatural. I like sweet love that grows slowly but doesn't embroil its-self within the plot too much. So anyway. I liked the sound of these two books because they had a supernatural label to them, but I was pessimistic about the rest.

So this book took me forever, even though it's rather short. I think the fact that this story is set in a ranch in America really doesn't help me, As I live in the UK and am more used to the Great British countryside, meaning I couldn't connect to the place.

As I was reading, I found that the story was very much about Margaret and her relationships, rather than the ghost story I was expecting. Although there was a slight bit of otherworldliness in the story, I found it was very much based in reality, even down to the final explanation as to why the crops were not growing.

Overall this story was enjoyable, but not really for me, and could benefit from not being in this collection as it doesn't quite work with the description.

Unsettled Spirits Review

This story was much more like it. There is most definitely a ghost here. The beginning of the story is great and I really got into it as the characters are all very engaging. Although I may not agree with some of the things that Sarah does, I can relate to her and her situation well.

Unfortunately the story then starts to lose its way as it goes very much into Sarah's personal relationships with her employer and her boyfriend. While I do care, I actually care more about the ghost, who seems to fall entirely by the wayside.

Luckily, that is all rectified in the end, and I was content with how the story turned out.

Overall

While is did enjoy these books, they took me some timeto get to grips with them and didn't capture me the way others do, perhaps simply because I didn't think they were otherworldy enough, or caught my attention enough with mysteries. Anyone who liked some drama with a little bit of otherworldy thrown in will definitely love these. Maybe NA just isn't for me.

Kyra_x

Spotlight: Spirits Manifest -Sophie Weeks

Spirits Manifest: A Collection - Sophie Weeks.

eBook available at Amazon, iTunes and Barnes and Noble. 

Synopsis:

Two ordinary young women, new to adulthood, seeking to define their futures against a world that has already defined them. Two uncanny encounters with a world of spirits hostile and benign. This intriguing collection contains two novels that deftly blend poignant human drama with unleashed supernatural bonds. Two stories of hope, and finding the courage to break from traditions that haunt us.  

Margaret Campbell of The Soured Earth said goodbye to broad prairie skies a long time ago in favor of college, the East coast, and a budding career in fashion design. But when faced with an impossible decision, the 20-something Margaret must choose between returning home to her father’s farm in Alberta to help raise her two orphaned cousins, or fulfilling her fashion designer, city-life dream. What would you do? Margaret goes home, and once there, finds a local Native American ritual gone awry, and the larger community plunged into chaos as a devastating blight settles over the land. She finds comfort in the arms of Gene, a thoughtful ranch hand with a heart full of wanderlust, but will the pull of family ties and new desire be enough to quiet her own ambitious yearnings? 

Sarah Markham of Unsettled Spirits thought she had everything figured out. Leave home, go to college, build a new life. It's the last part that proves tricky when Sarah, unable to find a job that matches her lofty ambitions, takes on a job and a room in a haunted bookstore owned by an eccentric intellectual. Lucy Larch, dead for over half a century, has been waiting for someone to help her pass over—but can Sarah, herself perplexed in matters of life and love with handsome Irishman Ian, find a solution? 

Author Bio: 

Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Sophie Weeks received a Masters degree in English Literature from Mills College in 2006 and completed her PhD in Victorian Literature at Rice University in 2013. Sophie resides in Payson, Arizona with three furry miscreants, who are wanted in multiple states for criminal adorableness. She is also the author of the whimsical Sherlockian pastiche, Outside the Spotlight. Learn more at http://sophieweeks.net. 

Excerpt - Unsettled Spirits 

THE GHOST SAYS HELLO 

Her head rested against the dingy upholstery, and for a while she looked over her surroundings with a kind of detached interest. But then she fell quite asleep, and it was from within the confines of a dream, hours later, that she heard a voice say, “Wake up. Wake up, stupid. Don't you ever do anything but sleep?” The girl sat on the cold floor in front of Sarah, mirroring her position. Sarah's eyes opened, and she studied the girl closely. Lovely shoulder-length curls of brown hair framed laughing eyes and a strong-willed mouth. She wore a yellow dancing dress with a cardigan over it, despite the hot night. 

“Finally,” the girl said, clapping her hands as Sarah awoke. 

“Who are you?” asked Sarah, quite calm. “You're not Esther.” She felt quite sure of that now. 

“I'm Lucy Larch. Who's Esther?” 

“My sister,” Sarah replied. “She died a long time ago.” 

“I died in 1946,” Lucy said, “which is a hell of a year to die in—I never evergot to eat as much as I wanted, and then after rationing ended, the streets were flowing with bread and jam!” 

“Why did you die?” Sarah asked, soft and dreamlike. 

Lucy scrunched up her face, annoyed just thinking about it. “I was running away with Jasper Clarke, who was not as good a driver as he was a lover. Tenderhearted, and what did he end up doing? Steered us into an oak tree to avoid a deer! If I let myself think about it, I get just furious.”

Kyra_x