Stolen Dreams by Stacey Kennedy

Stolen Dreams
Stacey Kennedy
Book 1 in the Lingering Spirit series

Tess Jennings has the ability to see and talk to spirits. On a daily basis, they harass and annoy her to save their souls. Sometimes she helps, other times she ignores them, but one ghost will give her no choice. Kipp McGowan, a cop with the Memphis Police Department, uses his ghostly charms to gain her attention and forces her to expose herself to his partner. As she’s pulled into the five year old cold case of Hannah Reid she wants no part of, she finds herself in more than one precarious situation. But that’s the least of her worries―Tess begins to have a serious problem on her hands. Kipp might be dead, but he’s drop-dead gorgeous and she’s beginning to forget that he’s a ghost. Murder and corruption has brought Tess and Kipp together. But as her feelings for Kipp deepen, she suspects she just signed herself up for a one-way ticket to the nut house, and can only hope, straitjackets come in a size four




First line

"Starbucks was in its usual rush hour craze when I breezed through the doors."

Teaser

“If I was him, I would have had you back in my bed the moment I laid eyes on you.”
My front teeth clamped down on my bottom lip in shock and to also force the little feelings of excitement in my belly to go away. Why did his words give me such a reaction? I’d never experienced anything like this in my life. It was only words, but it had the same effect as if he was staring at me with smouldering eyes or enticing me with soft touches."


My review

Wow. What a story! When I was asked to read and later review STOLEN DREAMS, the comment “I hope you like this Belinda” was offered. In my mind, it’s a Stacey Kennedy story so for me it was a no brainer – I would read it and fall head over heels in love with it. It didn’t matter that there were no vampires or werewolves in it; I was ready to try a new kind of supernatural… a ghost. Having read some of the amazing scenes from Stacey’s previous books, I had no doubt the story would be filled with humor and incredible emotion. What I was curious about was how would she give me those hot yummy bedroom scenes when one of the characters was strictly no touching? Would the story still contain the heat I’m addicted too? Let me tell you… OH HECK YEAH!

STOLEN DREAMS tells the story of Tess Jennings. She’s just a regular character – beautiful, successful, great best friend. But there’s something that sets her apart. Something that others may call a gift but most days, she calls a flat out curse because she can see, hear and talk to ghosts. These lingering spirits come to her for help and to keep them from annoying her for eternity, Tess sucks it up and helps but one morning as she’s in Starbucks getting her morning dose of caffeine, she finally meets her match. Tired of feeling harassed, Tess ignores the ghost who approaches her, hoping the spirit will take the hint and take a hike. And he does… to her work, her apartment and out on a blind date where he proceeds to arouse her with some HOT HOT dirty talk. Knowing that if she doesn’t respond to him she’ll be walking around with a perpetual blush, Tess learns that the ghost – Kipp McGowan was a cop who worked on a famous cold case and he has an important message to give his partner – he has a clue to the murder of Hannah Reid that is linked also with his death. He needs Tess’s help and after a little reluctance, she agrees. The story unfolds as the duo include Kipp’s partner Zach and Tess finds herself knee deep in detective work, all the while fighting hard the attraction she feels towards Kipp. She tells herself she shouldn’t feel this way, that as a ghost he’ll move on but the chemistry between the two is scorching and it leads to some pretty imaginative scenes. As both their hearts become invested, the question lingers in the air – how long with Kipp be around before he moves on and how will Tess ever be able to survive it?

Stacey did such an amazing job writing this story because it was filled with so many funny moments that helped lighten some of the tense moments. She has such a good sense of humor that shines through her characters and my favorite scene would have to be where the men explained to Tess how police work was such a rush that it gave them all hard ons. Can you imagine being Tess, in the middle of nowhere (they were on the case) suddenly standing still? Where do you think her eyes would have gone? Yep and she just had to comment on it. Made me chuckle so hard, I had to share it with my husband. I love that I was able to picture the story in my mind because it made it so much easier to become a part of what I’m reading. Stacey always does such a great job describing each scene and there was one mid way that will forever be etched in my mind it was so HOT *fans self* Another thing I loved about how it was written was there are books where you’re part way through and you can pretty much guess the way it’ll end. With STOLEN DREAMS, you think you know but as I read there were just so many different possibilities. It helped keep everything fresh and my mind intrigued because I wanted to know what would happen. When I finally did get to the end and everything was revealed, I was left with a huge smile on my face because I was completely satisfied.

Tess had so much sass and I loved it! I could feel the turmoil she went through as she tried to fight how she felt for Kipp and that man didn’t make it any easy for her. I loved that she was able to stand up for herself and put her foot down when people tried to get her to do something she didn’t want to do. Fat lot of good it did because she ended up helping but she was able to do things on her terms. I really liked the image I have of her in my mind, of the silent conversations she had with Kipp and how she would get completely caught up in them. More and more she started seeing him as a man, not just as a sexy but pesky spirit. I can’t wait to see where the next book takes her as she finally realizes that she has been given a gift and that her life has now changed.

Kipp can come haunt me anytime he wants, especially if he brings that sweet talking mouth of his. My first reaction to Kipp as I watched him try to get Tess’s attention was to shiver and giggle because he was just downright sexy. He’s the type of man that once he focuses on you you’re a goner and that pretty much sums it up for Tess. I can’t begin to imagine how hard it was for him being a ghost – not being able to touch or smell, to spend all day with the woman you love and never be able to truly kiss and hold her. But he didn’t just heat up the pages for me, Kipp also had a very caring heart and I wept for him when he finally had that moment of “OMGSH I’m a ghost. I’ve really lost my opportunity to live the normal life I’ve dreamt of” He always came across as a strong, focused character that seeing those moments where he was vulnerable were endearing. I loved how he was with Hannah and the strength he had to put solving her crime first, even though it looked like doing it would make him move on also. So many incredible moments with this character and it was impossible not to fall in love with him.

This is definitely going to be another hit for the author because STOLEN DREAMS is the story that sucks you in and leaves you sighing. All I can say is thank goodness this is a series because I haven’t gotten close to enough of Kipp and his charming ways and I have a feeling as Tess begins to learn more about her gift, things will really start getting interesting. Can’t say enough about just how much I loved this book. Go grab yourself a copy from Smashwords.com. Happy Reading!

 
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