Restless Spirits
Restless Spirits by Rachel Wilson is part of the Haunting Hearts series and is a novel which centres not on a romance between a ghost and a mortal, and not between two mortals with a matchmaking ghost. Instead the ghost of this novel is a murdered man whose soul is searching for a body to take over. And the body he has chosen is that of Harry Potter, an American visiting London for the wedding of his best friend.
Harry and his sister Penelope 'Penny' Potter are newly arrived from America for the marriage of Arthur 'Art' Collingsworth.
At first Harry is happy for his friend until Art confides in him that he is only marrying Juliette Griffin in order to save his family from financial ruin. Feeling guilty for all the years he spent travelling the world with Harry, Art knows that he must marry "English Money" to save them from ruin. It is a marriage of convenience on both sides, for the icy Juliette is marrying solely to climb the social ladder of the 19th century. For while her family may have money they don't have title, and Art's is the best chance they will get.
But for all his good intentions Art did not take into account that Harry's little sister has grown from the clumsy girl he knew into the striking beauty who has disembarked from the ship.
Penny Potter had fallen for Art when she first met him at her parents ranch in Montana. And even though she is to see him marry another she is unable to control her feelings for him. But despite her feelings she feels that there is no room in her life for a husband. It is her intention to travel the world and write about her adventures for a published journal. She has no intention of being shackled to a husband who will make her keep house and raise children in the confined atmosphere of one house when there is a whole world to see.
Art and Penny find themselves thrown together in even more distressing circumstances when on his first night in England, at Art's party, Harry's behaviour undergoes a dramatic change. The normally polite, well mannered gentleman becomes a rowdy troublemaker who is arrested for firing off a gun in Piccadilly and tries to steal items from Art and his other guests.
Art whose sole intention at the party was to drown his sorrows has trouble remembering what had happened at the party when, the next morning, a highly irate Penny storms into his house demanding an explanation he cannot give.
Harry is soon himself again but it is not long before Chester Pease takes over him again. For every time he is in a weakened state he is vulnerable to the assault of the spirit. And one of the ways to weaken his defences against the evil entity is to drink alcohol.
But with Penny and Art are determined to rid Harry of the spirit and enlist the health of Dr Gruenstein, who agrees with Penny that it is certainly a case of a spirit taking over the body of a living person.
Art meanwhile is very sceptical but when Harry becomes weaker and his chances of surviving are diminishing even Art is convinced that there can be no other explanation.
Art and Penny find themselves together more and more as they battle to save Harry, much to the annoyance of Juliette and her family. And soon Art is finds himself falling for Penny. But he knows he cannot jilt Juliette and discard his honour. Such action would ruin his family and he knows that he cannot marry Penny instead, because although her family is as wealthy as Juliette's family, hers is American money.
Can Art and Penny find a way to have a life together despite her independence and his honour?
And will Harry be a part of their lives or will the evil Chester Pease be the victor in the battle for Harry's body?
A lively story with lots of action and a great deal of humour. Also there is a little speculation at the end which is an unusual touch in this type of novel and opens the possibility for a sequel, though I feel that a sequel would be unlikely to be in the romance genre.
Nicely written, if a little predictable, I found this a fast paced novel with plenty of humour, particularly from Art as he observes Penny in various situations.
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