Blog Tour: Not Quite Dead by Lyla Payne Review

Not Quite Dead by Lyla Payne
(A Lowcountry Ghost Story, #1)
Release Date: April 1, 2014
Published by: Createspace; 257 pages
Rating:

A broken engagement sends Graciela Harper crawling back to Heron Creek with her tail between her legs, but finds the sleepy little town too changed to set her life right. Not even her budding drinking problem can obscure her Gramps’s failing health, or erase the mental picture of her first love happily married to her childhood best friend. To top it all off, she’s having a heck of time convincing the town’s dashing young mayor of her unfit-for-dating status.

When the ghost of 18th century lady pirate Anne Bonny starts insisting on a near daily audience, Graciela has to confront something else she never expected—being certifiably nuts at twenty-five years old.

Her brand new "I don't give a crap" attitude makes it easy to dismiss the mysterious threats that seem to be tied to her search for more information on the long dead pirate, but when her family becomes a target, Gracie knows she needs to find out why the ghost insists on being a constant, reeking companion.

If Graciela can put aside her prejudice against people without a pulse, she may discover that Anne Bonny’s problems are intricately linked with her own. The past harbors answers could help the cantankerous spirit find closure, but she is, after all, already dead. If Graciela doesn’t move fast, she might find herself doing the haunting, instead of the other way around. 

This book has a wonderful world of different emotions in it, and the quirkiness of the main character Graciela, was priceless.  This book was packed full read, with so much twists and turns that you could not put this book down.

It seems a bit slow in spots and Gracie's attitude with the mayor makes me wonder why there are not men like him out there, but every part fit into the story perfectly. It may at times felt slow and stretched out to me, but the relationships in this story were real, and you felt each and every one.

I love that this is a ghost story, but when you start reading it, you have no idea. It doesn't even get "ghosty" until almost half way through. The characters and their lives grab you and make you invest time in them and want to know how their lives are going to turn out. I loved this different type of story and how it connect two different worlds with such ease that it doesn't even seem fake, it seems like a story that could have really happened. Loved it!!

Author Bio:

Lyla Payne has been publishing New Adult romance novels for a little over a year, starting with Broken at Love and continuing with the rest of the Whitman University series. She loves telling stories, discovering the little reasons people fall in love, and uncovering hidden truths in the world around us - past and present. In her spare time she cuddles her two dogs, pretends to enjoy exercising so that she can eat as much Chipotle as she wants, and harbors a deep and abiding hope that Zac Efron likes older women. She loves reading, of course, along with movies, traveling, and Irish whiskey. Lyla's hard at work, ALWAYS, and hopes to bring you more Whitman University antics and at least one more Lowcountry ghost tale before the end of the year.

Lyla Payne is represented by Kathleen Rushall at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

If you want to know more, please visit her at http://lylapayne.com

If you're a fan of Young Adult fiction--science fiction or otherwise--please check out her work that's published under the name Trisha Leigh. http://trishaleigh.com

Twitter | Facebook | Website |Goodreads