Book ~ "Ghost Lover" (2013) Liza O'Connor

From Goodreads ~ Two sexy English brothers. One irresistible ghost. Who would you choose as your lover?

Completely broke and with a criminal record to boot, Senna Smith is one day from eviction from her apartment when Brendon, her promiscuous roommate from London, suggests she go to England, marry him and manage his fortune. With few other options, she agrees to an open marriage. But she’ll never, ever, have sex with him, knowing if she falls in love with him, he’ll break her heart.

As trustee of Brendon’s family fortune, there is no way Brendon’s older brother, Garrison Durran, is going to let him marry a self-professed American gold-digger. As Senna tries to embrace castle life and English society for Brendon’s sake, Gar discovers Senna is the perfect woman for him – beautiful and intelligent, kind and caring. Now, if she wasn’t already engaged to his brother ...

The ancestral ghost of Durran Castle has to intervene if the Durran brothers have any chance of an heir. He can’t leave them to fix matters on their own. They are useless buggers when it comes to love. As counselor to Gar, matchmaker for Brendon and lover to Senna, a ghost’s work is never done.

Senna is friends with Brendon.  She is broke so they strike up a deal that they will marry so he can get access to his trust fund and he will support her.  She has made it clear that the marriage will be in name only and he is free to have as many relationships as he wants.  Even though Brendon has stolen from her, she sees only the best in him and blames his upbringing for him being the way he is.  They head to Brendon's family's castle in England so Senna can meet Gar, his brother who is responsible for his trust.

“So my brother steals all your money and to compensate you, he suggests you come to England, marry him, and he’ll give you his trust fund.” Only his brother could contrive such an absurd plan.

“Yes.” By her brief answer, he gathered she thought it a perfectly reasonable solution.

His brother might be an idiot, but this gold digger would soon discover Gar a force to reckon with. “Did he steal a half million from your bank account?”

Brendon laughed. “Do you have any idea how long that would take? Cash machines only allow you two visits a day at two hundred dollars a pop.”

“How much did he take?” Gar restated his question.

“Four hundred,” Senna replied.

Gar stared up at the ceiling praying for patience, then glared at Ditz. “So why didn’t you pay her back the four hundred?”

Ditz stubbornly refused to answer, and instead glanced at the girl.

She sighed and faced Gar. “Precisely what I asked. He said he didn’t have the four hundred, but if I married him, he would come into a half million. Since the landlord planned to evict me, I really had no choice but to accept the offer.”

At first there is friction between Gar and Senna but as they get to know each other, they begin to care for each other.  But alas, she is engaged to his brother.  The castle has ghosts ... two appear prominently in this story.  One is a ghost cat named Mr. Finch and the other is Lassier, an ancestor of Gar and Brendon's who has a hand in guiding the events that happen.

This is the second book I've read by this author and I liked it.  The story is farfetched and silly at times but it's a fun read.  You have to leave your sense of belief at the door and go with it.  I liked the writing style ... it's written in third person.  At times the language is for mature readers.

The characters are fun.  Senna is caring and loyal.  Gar starts out being dominating and mean but with Senna's influence ends up being a nice guy.  When I was reading this book, I pictured Russell Brand as Brendon ... spoiled and selfish but not meaning any harm.

If you are looking for a fun romantic escape, you should check this book out.

Book ~ "Saving Casey" (2012) Liza O'Connor

From Goodreads ~ Having been diagnosed with cancer, Cass Goldman decides to opt out of any futile medical care and end her life. While she has some thoughts on afterlife, she never expects to reincarnate into the body of a seventeen-year-old girl named Casey Davidson.

When she awakens in a hospital, Cass discovers two disturbing facts: One, she is now inside the body of a troubled teenager, and two, the former owner of this body committed suicide but only Cass knows that. Everyone else believes Casey has survived but suffered a complete memory loss. Cass has two choices: to take on Casey’s life and turn it around or to confess the truth about her reincarnation and end up in a mental asylum. Given this second chance at life, Cass decides to take on the future life of Casey—the frightening ghoul-faced teen with short, black, spiky hair.

Every person around Cass has an ulterior motive and discovering the truth of Old Casey’s life is more complicated than the “new math” she is forced to learn in school. In addition, Cass has to contend with raging teenage hormones and the prior crimes of Old Casey, which she might not remember but everyone else certainly does. However, her biggest frustration concerns her feelings for her father’s rugged security specialist who sees her only as a teenager and doesn’t want to explore the mutual attraction between them.

Will her second chance at life prove to be worth the struggles she has to overcome?

Eighty-year-old Cass gets the news that she has an incurable brain tumour.  Rather than waste her time on chemo, she takes her beloved twenty-year-old dog, Jess, into the garage and closes the door, starts the car and overdoses.  She wants to die on her terms ... and she does.

She's very surprised to discover that she wakes up in the hospital in seventeen-year-old Casey's body.  Casey has just swallowed a bottle of Valium in an attempt to commit suicide.  Cass doesn't remember anything about Casey's life but is determined to make a positive impact with Casey's life. She gets quite a shock when she sees herself for the first time!

Upon settling down on the toilet, Cass noticed the floor to ceiling mirror facing her and screamed at the sight of the creature within it. Short black hair spouted about its head, black circles surrounded both eyes and fell like triangular knives down the cheeks. Black lips, stretched in horror as if in a nightmare. Pulling up her pants, she moved closer to the mirror.

She was a ghoul, an honest to God ghoul!

The door crashed open and her father stared at her, fear and panic clear in his eyes.

She touched her face. “Please tell me these aren’t permanent.”

His panic remained a second longer as her words filtered into his brain and then he pulled her into his arms. “Don’t worry, we will get them removed—if you want to …”

“If? Oh, I definitely want them removed,” she said.

How can I turn around my life if I look like the walking dead from a low-grade monster movie?

When Cass moves into Casey's life, she discovers that she has a nasty past ... shoplifting, crashing cars, etc.  No one at school will bother with her and the cook in the cafeteria spits in her food.  To turn her life around, she hits the books and starts the painful process of having the tattoos on her face removed.  She discovers what happened when she was thirteen that made her the way she is ... and sets out to fix it.

I thought this was an interesting premise for a story and I was curious to see how the author would do it.

I liked the writing style.  It was well-paced and moved along well.  As a head's up, the language at times is mature and a traumatic experience had happened in the past.  I did have a hard time buying that one person had so much power and influence, though, but I just went with it.

I liked Cass ... her intentions in turning Casey around given all the obstacles were heart-felt and honorable.  She is strong and tough and determined to right all the wrongs even when she is hurt and knocked down ... she never gives up.  Though Cass' maturity was obvious with her in Casey's body, both in actions and language, I wasn't hearing an 80-year-old's voice ... to me it was a younger person, maybe in their thirties.  She acted a bit too hip and accepting given how old she really was.

The ending gave closure to the story.   I'd recommend it if you are looking for something different.