Review: Stolen Dreams by Stacey Kennedy

Book: Stolen Dreams by Stacey Kennedy
Series: The Lingering Spirit #1
Pages: 442
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Buy A Copy: Paperback / Ebook
Available Formats: Paperback / Ebook
Publication Date: February 19th, 2011
How Did I Get This Book:  Purchased
Description: Tess Jennings has the ability to see and talk to spirits. On a daily basis, they harass and annoy her to save their souls. Sometimes she helps, other times she ignores them, but one ghost will give her no choice. Kipp McGowan, a cop with the Memphis Police Department, uses his ghostly charms to gain her attention and forces her to expose herself to his partner.

As she’s pulled into the five year old cold case of Hannah Reid she wants no part of, she finds herself in more than one precarious situation. But that’s the least of her worries―Tess begins to have a serious problem on her hands. Kipp might be dead, but he’s drop-dead gorgeous and she’s beginning to forget that he’s a ghost.

Murder and corruption has brought Tess and Kipp together. But as her feelings for Kipp deepen, she suspects she just signed herself up for a one-way ticket to the nut house, and can only hope, straitjackets come in a size four.

 

Stolen Dreams by Stacey Kennedy was a cute, charming and delightful read. Tess is a sassy heroine, who has plenty of spunk and appeal. She is incredibly likable and easy to understand.  Kipp was also a great character – he definitely stole the show. I would say that Kennedy struck gold with these two. Their unconventional relationship kept me contemplating about how everything would work out. Honestly, I was completely stumped as to how a ghost a living woman would pull off a romance. Keep in mind that Kipp (the resident hottie/ghost), is a honest to god ghost – he can’t touch anything. I do not want to give anything away, because truthfully, speculating about this was half the fun. 

Kennedy did a good job with the mystery part of the book, but it took second fiddle to the romance. I found the background  to be entertaining and somewhat intriguing, but the main focus is definitely the sparks between Tess and Kipp. Which is generally the case with paranormal romances. Kennedy did such a wonderful job with the chemistry between the two main characters, so I didn’t mind the focus shift. 

The conclusion , shall we say, left me hanging. I guess you could say that the storyline was wrapped up, but  I was hoping for a little more. The overall "mystery" was solved, but I still felt a little cheated. I thought I was going to get more resolution with the Kipp storyline, but Kennedy decided to leave things open for the next book (I hope!).

This was my first Stacey Kennedy book and I just have to say, that I love her writing. The dialogue was always witty, snappy and just plan entertaining. She created some wonderful characters (even the secondary characters were charming) that have no problem carrying the book. all in all, Stolen Dreams was a cute story with lots of charm.

Favorite Quotes 

If you don't stop this grandma behaviour, your va-jay-jay is going to shrivel up and die."

"My sex life was as dead as the man in front of me."

"My hand shot up as I gave him a glare which clearly stated I'd Ghostbuster his ass if he said a word."

"Apparently, he was the one who dealt with the crazies, and I could see why, his kind face was trusting."

"I'm going to hunt him down and then I'm going to haunt the fucker."

"I continued to state at Kipp, not really knowing what to say. But I did know I wanted to say something that involved every single curse word known to man."

"I needed to force myself back into someone that resembled a sane person."

"I glowered, narrowed my gaze at him. "If you try and defend him for one second, I will castrate you."

"Oh, look an elderly woman needs help crossing the road. I best go help her."

"Before I knew it, I was home, whored up, and heading back downtown."

"A while later, I found the energy to move, I snuggled up as much as I could to a ghost."