SUMMARY:
There's a big curse in little Chinatown…and it's not
Prohibition.
It’s the roaring twenties, and San Francisco is a hotbed
of illegal boozing, raw lust, and black magic. The fog-covered Bay Area can be
an intoxicating scene, particularly when you specialize in spirits…
Aida Palmer performs a spirit medium show onstage at
Chinatown’s illustrious Gris-Gris speakeasy. However, her ability to summon
(and expel) the dead is more than just an act.
Winter Magnusson is a notorious bootlegger who’s more
comfortable with guns than ghosts—unfortunately for him, he’s the recent target
of a malevolent hex that renders him a magnet for hauntings. After Aida’s
supernatural assistance is enlisted to banish the ghosts, her spirit-chilled
aura heats up as the charming bootlegger casts a different sort of spell on
her.
On the hunt for the curseworker responsible for the hex,
Aida and Winter become drunk on passion. And the closer they become, the more
they realize they have ghosts of their own to exorcise…
REVIEW:
Bitter Spirits is book 1 in Jenn Bennett’s new Roaring
Twenties series. The best way for me to describe this book is TECHNICOLOR. This great mystery adventure has vibrant
writing, witty dialogue, nail-biting suspense, and features one of the most
beautiful cities in the world, San Francisco.
I love this setting. It captures
the rich history and energy of the San Francisco I know and the one I imagine
from the 1920’s.
The characters jump
off the page. Aida can see dead people.
Actually, she can call them from the otherside. She can also send them back. Her special talent brings her into contact
with one of the 3 most successful bootleggers in San Francisco, Winter
Magnusson, whom a mysterious stranger has cursed. The attraction is immediate
but the relationship takes a bit longer. Both must overcome a certain
reluctance to be vulnerable in order to be together. As Winter puts it: “Sure,
he’d been thinking about her a lot—too much—but he thought a lot about bacon,
too.”
Winter is dark and
resolved to be that way after a tragic accident kills members of his
family. Now he hides himself behind his orderly world filled by work and guilt. Aida dares to challenge him with
hope. Both carry emotional and physical scars.
That’s what makes their relationship electric (that and just a dusting
of erotica).
One of my favorite
parts of this book is how the eclectic characters defy social convention. They consist of a scarred bootlegger being
chased by ghosts, a full-freckled spiritualist who can call and send ghosts
back from the otherside, a hoodoo witch who owns a speakeasy, and a Chinese
thief turned trusty side-kick. In their
world “social rules concerning race and class went unheeded here.” I appreciate the author's nod to the prejudices of the day.
Jenn Bennett has a
way with words. There are some wonderful
lines and phrases. You can almost hear Winter’s voice: “It was a voice that
could probably talk you into doing anything.
A siren’s call, rich as the low notes of a perfectly tuned cello.”
IN A NUTSHELL:
The tension induced
by the uncertainty of the relationship and the mystery of the curse, plus the
witty writing makes this book a pure pleasure.
I did not want it to end. Bitter
Spirits is one of my favorite PNR reads this year.
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