MILES, Cindy Forever More Chicken House, 2013 220pp $17.99 pbk ISBN 9781908435927 SCIS 1619884
Ivy’s mum has remarried, and the family are locating from the USA to her new Scottish Laird husband’s castle. It’s a dark and gloomy place. Strange events happen to Ivy the moment she arrives. Ghostly whispers try to scare her away from the place, an evil presence pushes her into a freezer, and the cold grandmother is ripe with nasty intentions. One apparition becomes more than friendly after she stands up to it – an eighteen year old ghost called Logan. Ivy enlists the help of her new school friends and their relatives to explore Logan’s death and try to understand the creepy castle curses. Logan is constantly by her side and she wishes whole-heartedly that he wasn’t a ghost. By meeting an American author married to a Scot, Ivy begins to wonder whether Logan can’t be made mortal by breaking the curse that surrounded his death – just as the author did with her husband and his brothers. Ultimately . . .
If you’re thinking that elements of this plot seem familiar then you’ll be right. The plot is thick with romance, making it a breath-taking read, but its mystery is too conveniently solved. However this will be a winner for the romantically inclined. There’s nothing too shocking, and Ivy and her violin are a vibrant character combination that will have readers on her side from the start. PH