Review: Last Regress

Title Last Regress
By Rachel J. Thorne
Genre Adult supernatural/paranormal
Pages 219
Recommended by Rachel J. Thorne

First sentence Five o'clock on a Friday evening is a time that fills most people with a sense of joy, expectation  and excitement.

Synopsis
Alyssa is a skeptical paranormal investigator. She's never had proof that ghosts exist until a dark shadow appears in her room and she's attacked by frightening creatures. And when a handsome stranger appears to save her she begins to question her sanity. Either ghosts really do exist or Alyssa is going crazy.


What it has going for it
Any time an author contacts me to read and review their book I always download a sample first to see if I'm really interested. The first chapters of this book had some fun set up, a snarky character, and some clever writing so I accepted. This book had potential. It really did. It's not as if there was anything we haven't seen before but I love a good romantic ghost story and I was hoping this one would be just that. It started out promising and had an urban fantasy feel to it. I adore urban fantasy. I also liked how sacrificing the characters were. Unfortunately, besides it's potential, this one just didn't do it for me.

What's lacking
This one was lacking a lot and I feel terrible saying anything negative on these independently published books. I know I usually just bash a book to death if I didn't like it but that's because I hold traditionally published books on a higher standard. Anywho, here's what bothered me about this one.

• Omniscient viewpoint. Not a huge fan. Jumping from one characters head to another without any breaks to show that we're changing heads is just hard to get used to. 
• For the first half of the book nothing really happened. It was just a repetitive play by play of whether Alyssa was crazy or not. 
• Insta-love. Not a fan. This one wasn't completely instant but pretty dang quick.
• Cain. No not the character; the name. What a horrible name to give a character. I guess if you're not a bible reader you might not get that but, yeah. 
• The sex chapter. Yep, that's right, this one got not just a scene but a chapter. What bothered me wasn't the sex scene it was actually pretty sad and understandable but it felt like it came out of nowhere! 
• I really would have liked to see more of the city and Alyssa's work. There just wasn't enough world building.
• Telling not showing. I can easily overlook this fault but it got a little tiresome in this one.

Favorite moment
When Nathaniel comforted Cain. Very sweet

Yea or Nay?
With a little bit of work this one would have been quite good. Without it, I just don't know if I can  make a recommendation.