Hello everyone!
I'm honestly super stoked about these novellas, or should I say short books because I don't think all of them qualify for novellas, but truth be told it's about what's in them rather than what the actual length of the book is.
And I've fallen in love with the characters.
Not just the main one either!
The supporting cast is absolutely stellar in my personal opinion, you have a core group and then some who flit in and out depending on when and how they're needed.
It's a smart decision not to overwhelm readers, I think, because sometimes you get books that introduce far too many people and then attempt to juggle everyone without losing focus. It doesn't always work out, so this is a much better logic.
Also, yes, it's an ARC! The first three were available on BookSirens.
So come along with me and let's discover everything there is to find about Spirit Guide.
Madame Chalamet returns in her third installment and we as readers really couldn't be happier if you ask me, because things are beginning to heat up - not just between the two main characters either!
After her introduction in Ghost Talker and excursion into culinary delights paired with raving madmen in Delicious Death, Elinor is back for another round with her Duke, though Tristan is the one who seeks her out without preamble this time.
He needs her help; a good friend of his is looking for his daughter who's gone missing in the city, after previously letting her parents think she was going to marry this one guy (who was actually always chasing after her lady's maid, at that).
And apparently, she's mentioned the Morpheus Society to boot, bringing this case much closer to home for Elinor.
Their first job being to find the lady's maid - all while trying to keep her apprentice Twyla from opening her mouth too soon and being too direct for her own good - they seem to be hitting dead end after dead end until it's Twyla herself who finds her.
Her delivery could use some work but, well, we get SOME answers here, some that Elinor has predicted would happen, and some that boggle the mind.
Because apparently, this daughter character never got over the death of one of her childhood friends, who passed away in an unfortunate riding accident, and it's indicated that she was deeply in love with the other girl. Equally, however, that she was passionate about "manly" pursuits and had little patience with those who maybe weren't as skilled in them, but also that she'd do anything whatsoever to get her friend back.
Which is where her would-be beau comes in, as he's the one who introduced her to the Morpheus Society - and their supposed séances.
Elinor is concerned and outraged when she hears of these meetings where ghosts apparently walk among them again, in the flesh, because it sounds like the conduit for all of it is a young woman, of whom nothing else is heard afterwards.
So do these young women participate voluntarily, and do they survive? Because the Beyond, where Elinor has been before, is unfriendly to the living and inhospitable unless a practical sort of corner is carved out within it, which would take immense psychic powers.
Of course even as she and Tristan argue back and forth, she and Twyla run into the ghost from the very beginning of the book, a black-hearted murderer (who, it turns out, murdered the lady's maid too), and the only way to escape him because he's flesh and blood and apparently not really ghostly anymore, is for Twyla to drag them both into the Beyond.
This is where they find the daughter, with an apparition that's more puppet than lifelike of that deceased friend, and she explains the palace belongs to her Master, and when the next séance is going to be.
Now, having interviewed the Morpheus Society leader previously, learning he has to be deathly sick and getting nothing much out of him, he now approaches Elinor with a dangling carrot about having information on her father's murder. He's also mistakenly convinced it's ELINOR who dragged herself and her apprentice to the Beyond, not Twyla, so she puts safeguards in place as she goes to secure the poor girl, drugged out of her mind and probably never to recover, then actually enters the Beyond again.
Once there though, things take a side-ways turn, because she realizes that because the living aren't meant to be in the Beyond, the Beyond is releasing ghosts back into the real world - not that this seems to concern the idiot who wants to live there forever and escape his disease.
She finds the other missing girls though, utilizing their power to sever the soul of the murderer who's also invited to this private party and cuts her down the arm, but in doing so, she destroys the safe pocket within the Beyond and is basically presumed lost ...
Outside, Twyla and the Duke arrive to deal with the perpetrators in actuality, only to find that Elinor is insensible and that the leader apparently jumped to his death from the balcony (but there's a sergeant standing over him, and I'm unconvinced). Tristan is beside himself with a lifeless Elinor, and Twyla being the helpful apprentice she is, writes down all he says to Elinor while she's out of it.
She wakes up after her apprentice drags her back, on the Duke's estate, slowly recovering, but also knowing she isn't anywhere near to solving her father's murder other than what Tristan already seems to know: all roads lead to one person masterminding everything, and that old murder has something to do with the same mastermind.
And also, he was worried sick, so could Elinor please NOT in the near future?!?
This might be my favourite book of the series thus far - possibly influenced by that argument. What can I say, I'm that kind of gal haha!
Honestly though? I love it. I love the way we keep slowly but steadily exploring deeper and deeper into these characters, seeing more about the Duke and being able to read more into him running hot and cold all the time, as well as allowing Elinor to actually voice her annoyances now and throwing them at his face.
The cases, as well, continue to grow, and the best bit? The author's style never falters or diminishes. It's consistent, sharp, witty, on point, and each character gets a chance to shine in their own way without seeming to be carbon copies of one another in such a short span of pages!
The individual cases keep getting solved, but we're finally starting to gain some traction in the overarching narrative that seems to be tying the Duke and our Ghost Talker together on professional and personal level both, and I, for one, am ALL IN FOR THIS.
Also, 10/10 Dupont did it. If you read the book, you'll know what I'm talking about.
Another superb entry into this series, and now we're halfway through. I can't WAIT to read what's to come!
Honestly though? I love it. I love the way we keep slowly but steadily exploring deeper and deeper into these characters, seeing more about the Duke and being able to read more into him running hot and cold all the time, as well as allowing Elinor to actually voice her annoyances now and throwing them at his face.
The cases, as well, continue to grow, and the best bit? The author's style never falters or diminishes. It's consistent, sharp, witty, on point, and each character gets a chance to shine in their own way without seeming to be carbon copies of one another in such a short span of pages!
The individual cases keep getting solved, but we're finally starting to gain some traction in the overarching narrative that seems to be tying the Duke and our Ghost Talker together on professional and personal level both, and I, for one, am ALL IN FOR THIS.
Also, 10/10 Dupont did it. If you read the book, you'll know what I'm talking about.
Another superb entry into this series, and now we're halfway through. I can't WAIT to read what's to come!
xx
*image not mine
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