Find an angry spirit. Send it on its way before it causes trouble. Leave before anyone learns his name.

After over two hundred years, Peter Shaughnessy is ready to die and end this cycle. But thanks to a youthful encounter with one o’ them folk in his native Ireland, he can’t. Instead, he’s cursed to wander eternally far from home, with the ability to see ghosts and talk to plants.

Immortality means Peter has lost everyone he’s ever loved. And so he centers his life on the dead—until his wandering brings him to Harrington, Ohio. As he searches for a vengeful spirit, Peter’s drawn into the townsfolk’s lives, homes and troubles. For the first time in over a century, he wants something other than death.

But the people of Harrington will die someday. And he won’t.

As Harrington buckles under the weight of the supernatural, the ghost hunt pits Peter’s well-being against that of his new friends and the man he’s falling for. If he stays, he risks heartbreak. If he leaves, he risks their lives.

In The Keeper of Lonely Spirits, E.M. Anderson has created both a heartbreaking and hopeful story about the exploration of grief and loneliness. In a story woven about helping spirits confront their past, Peter has raced away from his own past. But now in Harrington, he must come to terms with his own losses or lose everything he cares for, yet again.

I love the way spirits, ghosts of the past, are used as a way for others to confront their own losses and find a way to move forward. I am also delighted in how Peter progresses into relationships that evolve and he becomes far more attached than he wants to be. But in those attachments he finds strength and hope. While there are moments that are heartbreaking, the ending is beautiful.

If you like stories about love and family, loss and acceptance, The Keeper of Lonely Spirits would be perfect for you. The relationships, friendships and love, are beautifully and authentically written and even the ghosts have heart in this novel about love and loss. The ending is both heartbreaking and hopeful yet perfect even when it brought me to tears. 

Rating: 5 out of 5 vines

Harper Collins

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