Title:  Laying a Ghost
Author:  Jane Davitt and Alexa Snow
Publisher:  Loose Id
Publisher URL:  www.loose-id.net
ISBN:  1-59632-198-9
Reviewer:  Michelle Naumann
Rating:  Gold Star Award
Heat level:  H

John McIntyre glances down at his lunch of homemade chicken pie, chips and…three miniature carrots? Katy, the waitress, giggles at his expression and informs him that it is ‘nouvelle cuisine’. Café owner, Stella Duncan, strikes again.  John and Katy watch the ferry steaming towards the little island of Traighshee.  John, who enjoys fishing as well as being a general handyman, runs the local informal taxi service.  As the last passenger disembarks, John reckons he has a fare.

As the stranger walks towards the shop, John notices more than just a fare.  He is tall and handsome with a runner’s build.  Hopefully John can stop his instant attraction from showing on his face.  All he needs is the stranger to realize he is gay.

This book reached out, grabbed me and refused to let me go until I devoured the last page.  All the characters in this book could be living right next door to me.  John has lived on the Scottish island his whole life.  He is part of the community and knows exactly what the community will and will not accept. He knows they will accept Nick’s ability to see ghosts far more easily than they will accept two men living together.  Nick on the other hand, has grown up in a freer, more accepting society, where being gay is accepted.  His psychic abilities were far less acceptable in America. 

The growth in the characters is what really made me relish this book.  I sat there, agonizing with John over his decisions.  Was Nick going to stay?  Could he face living there if he announced he was gay and then Nick left?  As I read more, John grew as a character.  From a lonely man who hid parts of his life from people, to one who knew that he could face whatever life threw at him.  At the same time, Nick is going through his own period of rebirth. The tension, frustration and emotion contained in every scene between these two is amazing.  The instant attraction just adds to the confusion both parties feel.  The sex is hot, sensual and loving. If only the rest of John and Nick’s relationship were as easy as the sex. 

From Erotic Escapades

In the small town of Traighshee, on the island of Hebridean in Scotland, John McIntyre lives a simple life
surrounded by family and friends.  John is a steadfast figure in this small town and everyone would be shocked at
the secret John is keeping.   His normal, predictable world is about to be spun on its axis when Nick Kelley steps
off the ferry and steals his heart.   

Along with his own personal tragedy, Nick, a psychic, is literally running from the ghosts and visions that have
assailed him since childhood.  Coming to Traghshee to claim the house his uncle left him is his starting point.  He is
not looking for romance or entanglements of any kind.  However, the longer he is around John the harder it is to
fight the attraction he feels for him.  Can John help Nick overcome the ghost chasing him and accept the love Nick
has to offer?  Will the small town accept the love these two men feel for each other?

Laying A Ghost by Jane Davitt and Alexa Snow is a superb love story with a well-constructed plot that keeps
the reader on their toes.  Sharing an almost instant connection, John and Nick’s tender and heartwarming passion
left me with tears in my eyes.  The powerful feelings they share are expressed in many ways and on many levels.  The
most profound of which is the intense hunger they have for each other.  The love scenes are wickedly delightful as
they show the characters’ growing emotions.

Ms. Davitt and Ms. Snow’s portrayal of the struggles in these young men’s lives is brilliant.  The internal and
external pressures John faces about his sexuality add many layers to his character.  John starts out as a man hiding
his true self in order to please the people around him, but he takes a stand when the man he loves become the target
of the spiteful gossips.  Nick is a wounded soul looking for peace.  The constant bombardment of spirits
surrounding him keeps him constantly searching for a way out.  Both of these characters are handsome and sexy
with many demons to face.  

John and Nick’s touching story will stay with me for a long time.  I will read their story again and again.  

Ophelia

From TCM

Reviewed by Jasmina Vallombrosa

When Nick Kelley first steps off the island ferry, John McIntyre cannot help but feel an instant connection to the tall dark stranger. The son of a local woman who has come back to discover his roots after his uncle’s death, Nick represents a deeply mysterious enigma with a haunting secret. A shock to John comes when only after a few hours Nick offers him employment which then succeeds in piping his interest even more in learning more about Nick’s deeply guarded past.

While John desperately tries to keep his wandering sexual thoughts away from his new boss, it soon becomes apparent that Nick feels the same way about him. The result is instant combustion in a wild night of indulgent passion and pleasure. As the two quickly become closer, Nick confides that he can communicate with ghosts and that he is haunted by his own grief and guilt over the death of his former lover.

As the relationship deepens, John begins to see the importance of letting down his guard and allowing his friends and family to see him as he really is; a gay man happily in love with a wonderful man. The conflict mounts as his mother learns the truth, but as she realizes the newfound happiness in her son, she quickly accepts it.

I really enjoyed this book not only for its tantalizing sex scenes, but for the overall story of how two men grew together, through their love, to become confident in themselves as a gay couple within a rather conservative environment. I feel that through the development of the characters, the steaminess of the erotic scenes, and the constant flow of the story, one must applaud Jane Davitt and Alexa Snow for their compelling and intriguing storytelling.

From Fallen Angel Reviews

Laying a Ghost by Jane Davitt and Alexa Snow is a homoerotic paranormal story. As the story begins, you find one of the main characters, John McIntyre, in a diner when the ferry arrives and a visitor comes ashore. The visitor, Nick Kelly, arrived and he needed transportation to his late uncle’s home. It just so happened that John also runs a taxi service. This was John’s lucky day, as he becomes very interested in Nick, not only because he is a new face, but also because he wants to get to know him better. John didn’t really know what to make of Nick. Nick was either very tired, little bit strange or both. John decided to do the neighborly thing and help him get settled. As John begins to get to know Nick, he finds out that he had been in an accident three months ago and sustained many injuries. The next day, John takes Nick out to the local pub for a brew and something to eat. Nick seems to be frequently distracted and has an aversion to being touched, which confuses John. When they return to Nick’s house, John hears Nick talking to himself and begging for something. John goes to help Nick and Nick yells and screams for him to get out. Not long after John leaves, he sees Nick looking for him. Nick wants to explain what was going on, and he tells John that he sees and hears ghosts. As you would think, John has a hard time believing Nick until he has an experience that he can’t explain.

As the story continues, Nick and John begin to get closer together and each seems to fill needs that the other has, both emotionally and physically. The love scenes between John and Nick are very touching. The two characters click in ways that are not often seen in books. As Nick and John learn more about each other, they begin to understand what formed each other’s characters and what they each need the most.

There are many twists in the plot. As in many small towns, there is a lot of resistance to change, especially when it comes to dealing with homosexuality. This can be seen all over the world in news stories about places where people are unwilling to accept or tolerate differences in individuals. This is a very important subject that has very important long-term social ramifications. Will John and Nick find a way to over come all the obstacles that life has placed in their way? Will they find acceptance? Will John find a way to cope with Nick’s special abilities? And even more importantly, will John find a way to help Nick cope? Please read this book to find the answer to these and many other questions. It is this reader's hope that there will be a sequel to this story. I would love to read more about Nick and John. I fell in love with them while reading this book! I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a beautiful love story that has the added twist of the paranormal to add spice to it.

Reviewed by: Teresa

From Night Owl Romance Books
4.5 stars out of 5

Nick Kelley is running away from his ghosts – literally. A psychic, whose ability to see ghosts and to help them pass on lead to the death of his partner in a car crash, he flees to his mother’s ancestral home on a small Scottish island, where he hopes he can find some peace. What he finds instead is John McIntyre. Instantly attracted to one another, can their love survive the prejudice of the insular island community where everyone knows everyone’s business? And can John help Nick to lay his ghosts once and for all?This is a lovely book. A little like John himself, it is slow moving, soft spoken and full of charm. The island community in all its gossipy small-mindedness is instantly believable, and the authors do a wonderful job of showing not only the suffocation of that, but also the appeal. The ghosts are genuinely scary and disturbing, making it easy to sympathize with Nick’s emotional exhaustion and fragility. And John, rugged but welcoming as the island, is a hero I couldn’t help falling for. I enjoyed the slow, detailed build-up of the attraction and relationship between John and Nick. Their love was completely believable, yet never saccharine, and I found even their arguments touching. The sex scenes in the book are equally detailed, realistic and touching, with an intimacy and genuineness of emotion which is rare in my experience. Very sensual and hot. Unfortunately it’s also the sex scenes, which stopped me from awarding that extra .5 of a point. However good they are, I felt that there were so many that they began to get in the way of the story. Having set up John’s understandable fear of the community’s reaction, the resolution of that fear could have done with a little more emphasis, I thought. That said, this is still one of the best romances I’ve ever read, and one to recommend wholeheartedly.

Reviewer: Alex Fitzroy.

From Joyfully Reviewed

Laying a Ghost by Jane Davitt and Alexa Snow

Reviewed by Amelia
http://www.loose-id.net/detail.aspx?ID=86

John McIntyre lives a quiet life on a small Scottish island. He fishes and does odd jobs around the small city. At the age of 31 he rents a cottage from his widowed mother and keeps the fact that he is gay a secret.

Nick Kelley is a psychic recovering from a car accident that killed his lover. He comes to the island to live in a house bequeathed to him by his late uncle. Nick has always been open about his sexuality. His real secret is his psychic gift.

When John gives Nick a lift to his new home the two men strike up a relationship that quickly becomes heated. But John is used to hiding things from the tiny island where people are judgmental.

Of course it’s hard to hide things in a small tight-knit community and the men’s relationship soon becomes common knowledge, leaving them open to hostility from family and local residents.

Laying A Ghost by Jane Davitt and Alexa Snow is a tender, sweet romance.  The authors did a wonderful job of building characters that were very believable and easy to take into your heart.

Nick’s car accident left him very vulnerable and I was instantly touched by John’s need to help him, even before their physical relationship started. And John’s acceptance of Nick’s psychic gift, which brings several ghosts into their lives, was also heartwarming.

Readers looking for a tender romance about acceptance of people as they are will enjoy Laying A Ghost.

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