Rebel Spirits

Rebel Spirits
Lois Ruby
300 pages
Released: June 1, 2013
Publisher: Point
Source: purchased
★★★☆☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

So here's what happened - I was at Barnes & Noble the other night with the rest of my Christmas giftcards itching in my pocket.  Wait, let's all take a minute and be impressed that I was able to stretch my book buying giftcards to August - oooh, ahhh.  Anyway, I was browsing the YA aisle when this cover caught my eye.  What a dapper young gentleman in uniform.  What a catchy tag line.  I read the blurb and what - it takes place in Gettysburg?  I knew I had to buy it.  Here's the thing - I've been to Gettysburg more times than I can count.  As a child, almost every single summer road trip started with an overnight in Gettysburg since we were usually always headed South and it was a reasonable stopping distance from our home in Buffalo.  I will admit, part of the thrill of reading Rebel Sprits was recognizing all the places the author mentioned.

But let's get on with the actual story.  Lorelei (aka Lori) has been uprooted by her parents as they move from Philadelphia to Gettysburg so they can run their own Bed & Breakfast.  When they get there they find a mysterious staff already there, but Lori finds something more mysterious in her bedroom - a ghost.  They're immediately attracted to each other and fall madly in love and...

Oh gawd, inter-paranomral-instalove.

The fact that Lori had a bout of instalove with a ghost kind of threw me off.  I believe in ghosts and it just doesn't seem very plausible to me, but I'm willing to overlook that for the sake of the story, especially since this guy was evidently pretty handsome and had a mystery that needed to be solved.  Yes, he died at Gettysburg but he didn't die from a war related injury - someone murdered him.  Dun dun dun! But who?  In order for him to rest peacefully, Lori need to solve that mystery.  Oh, and she only has a few days left to do it.

To further complicate things, the gardener has the hots for Lori, too.  Oh gawd, inter-paranormal-love triangle.  But that's okay with me, because when you have an option between ghost or real human flesh, there's only one clear option to me.  That option wasn't as clear to Lori, though.  So she carries on her murder investigation with the help of the gardener and a ragtag group of locals/B&B guests.  Meanwhile, there's also a fancy dress ball - fun!  And why is the staff acting so weird - ou, mysteriousness continues.

Three stars!  I don't think Rebel Spirits is a book the average reader would exclaim over, but if you're a nerdy history buff like me who also likes a touch of the paranormal in their reading, this is definitely a book to check out.