Stevie‘s review of Medium Rare (Ramos Family/Medium Trilogy, Book 2) by Meg Benjamin
Paranormal Romance published by Intermix 20 Aug 13
This book includes a bunch of elements I generally like in a paranormal romance: ghosts, a mismatched pair of protagonists (one believer, one skeptic), a complete lack of vampires and shapeshifters, and a mystery that will challenge at least one protagonist’s assumptions. However, this book doesn’t work for me, and it isn’t a matter of it being the second in a trilogy, since the story works very well as a standalone. After much thought, I think I’ve figured out what my problem is: it feels to me that there are just too many extraneous plot details shoehorned in there. I’m not entirely sure the story starts at the right time-point either.
I’m one of those readers who doesn’t actually mind prologues and is generally happy to read them, whether they add to the story or not. On the other hand, I like to see a prologue labelled as such and kept to a couple of pages, rather than being a full chapter length or longer. Prologues, in my opinion, are good for showing us something that impacts on the plot, but isn’t immediately obvious; I like them less when they just feed us a big chunk of backstory. In this novel, Chapter 1 opens with the heading A couple of years ago . . . and then tells us the story of how former librarian Rose comes to inherit her home, complete with the family ghost that has guided her female ancestors for a number of generations. After some initial misgivings — and resentment at her mother for not telling her any of this — Rose decides to accept the family vocation and become a medium, but under her own terms. All of which I would have been happier to have been fed slowly as the plot unfolded.
We then jump to Present day (and, to be honest, I’d have quite liked a date to go with that term) at the start of Chapter 2, where we meet the hero, Evan, who has devoted his life to exposing fake mediums of the type that steal money and property from those who want to believe in the existence of an afterlife. He’s investigating, in conjunction with the police department’s fraud group, a celebrity medium who has recently moved to Rose’s hometown. Meanwhile, Rose and her family ghost — in a break from their routine work of reuniting the living with lost heirlooms — are investigating the same man.
And then comes Chapter 3, which I think would have made a great prologue, since we’re suddenly in the point of view of a character who will become vital to the plot and meets with a nasty demise before the chapter’s over.
After the muddle of the first three chapters, the novel settles down to a fairly standard pattern for this type of story. Rose gets a job undercover as Evan’s assistant in order to find out what he knows that she doesn’t about the fake medium; weird stuff happens around them; they investigate and slowly become closer to each other and deeper into a deadly situation. Some mention is made of one of Rose’s brothers, who apparently was the hero of the first book in the trilogy, but nothing that pulled me out of the story to wonder who he was and what had happened to him. The danger escalates to include more of Rose’s family, which I feel is a good part of her journey into accepting the whole of her past. Evan is also reconciled to his family history, so that part feels nicely balanced.
What works least well for me is the big showdown with the bad guy, who turns out not to be quite who we’d been led to believe earlier on. Lots of peril get thrown at Rose and Evan, and the two spirit-animal guardians they’ve acquired along the way – a raven called Lenore who says ‘Moron’ at (in)opportune moments, and a hellhound called Helen who eats the container as well as her food. I love those two an awful lot. However, the resolution feels a little anticlimactic: all this bad stuff gets thrown at them, and then they escape.
Overall, this story stands alone okay, although I suspect the ending was set up to give us a lead-in to the last part of the trilogy. It has its good points, but overall I feel it could have done with a really good edit for content and chapter-ordering, along with a ramping up of the tension in the final showdown.
Grade: C
Summary:
Rose Ramos was a reference librarian, until she inherited her grandmother’s house—and the family talent for connecting with the other side…
Moving into the lovely Victorian in San Antonio’s King William District is a dream come true for Rose—and also a nightmare. That’s the only explanation she has for the man hovering above her bed. But Skag is a ghost who’s been part of Rose’s family for generations. And now he’s all hers.
When Evan Delwin, a reporter out to debunk the city’s newest celebrity, posts an ad looking for a research assistant to investigate a famous medium making his home in San Antonio, Skag suggests that Rose apply for the job. Delving into the dark side has its own dangers for Rose—including trying to resist Delwin’s manly charms. But as the investigation draws them closer together, the deadly currents surrounding the medium threaten to destroy them all…
Read an excerpt.
Other books in this series:
Happy Medium – December 2013
