The Wild Sight, by Loucinda McGary

The leaves are starting to turn color and the nights are getting downright chilly. I busted out my fleece jacket this morning. School is well underway and my kids are getting excited about choosing a costume and collecting candy.

Yep. It’s October: the perfect time for a good old-fashioned ghost story.

If you think that paranormal characters are spooky, not sexy; if you’re looking for a good romance with an engaging mystery and a little dash of delicious scariness-- you need to check out The Wild Sight by Loucinda McGary. This is a good solid romance with likeable characters, good chemistry, and a plot that moves right along.

TWS definitely draws more from traditional ghost stories than the recent trend of hunky vampires and werewolves. Hero Donovan has the gift – or curse – of the second sight, which allows him to tap into “the in-between,” a hazy realm where he finds playmates and brothers from another age, as well as restless, unfriendly spirits.

My one nitpick is with the FORBIDDEN LOVE device. Romance readers are well acquainted with this lurid teaser, usually scripted in tall letters embossed in gold, silver, or red foil. After all, any romance worth its salt must encounter some sort of obstacle for the characters to overcome.

This one is really forbidden, though. At the beginning of this story, Donovan and Rylie believe that they are half-siblings, but are attracted nonetheless. Now, I don’t think it’s a spoiler to tell you, of course, they don’t really turn out to be blood relatives. Ewwwwww. But any romance reader with half a brain will know that right from the beginning.

Still, it’s a slightly squicky premise, and it did put me off a little at the beginning. However, it’s handled delicately, and the interrelated arcs of the developing romance and the unfolding mystery about who fathered whom worked soon enough.

I liked that the mystery wasn’t all woo (only a little woo) with plenty of earthly events and human motivations to keep it grounded. The paranormal element was a nice seasoning: it adds some tantalizing spice, but doesn’t overpower the main dish. It’s a story that could’ve been a straight romance, or even a straight mystery, but the paranormal bits just give it a very nice, very unique sort of flavor.

All in all, big thumbs up from me.