Special Offers

Title: Special Offers
Author: M. L. Ryan
Source: from publisher for review
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review Summary: A nice light read with a well developed paranormal element, a fun romantic sub-plot, and a great sense of humor.

When Hailey orders a cheaper kindle with “special offers”, she gets more than she bargained for. Through a strange series of events, a super-natural being named Sebastian has been trapped in the kindle and is released to inhabit Hailey’s body when she turns the kindle on. Fortunately for Hailey, another super-natural (and also super sexy) being is look for Sebastian. With his help, perhaps she’ll be able to retrieve Sebastian’s body from his killer and put him back where he belongs.

M. L. Ryan’s writing style reminded me of Janet Evanovich in a lot of good ways. The snarky sense of humor is definitely there and the plot is just complex enough to be really interesting, while keeping this a particularly light, relaxing read. The main character is also very similar, particularly her disenchantment with men, and she is made relatable by the mundane details of her life that the author works into the story. Even better, the similarities to Janet Evanovich end there, with the violence and the language seeming less crude to me than in Evanovich’s work.

The sex and the strong language were actually a little more graphic than I expected. While that doesn’t necessarily bother me, in this case it felt jarringly out of place. With that exception, I very much enjoyed the writing. I also thought the plot was well done, with well-explained and creative super-natural elements plus a romantic sub-plot that added to the main story without distracting from it. I would highly recommend this to fans of paranormal romance, but also to fans of Evanovich, even those who don’t usual read stories with paranormal elements.

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