Challenge Book Review: A Reason To Believe by Diana Copland

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: A Reason To Believe
Author: Diana Copland
Heroes: Matthew Bennett & Kiernan Fitzpatrick
Genre: M/M Contemporary/Paranormal Mystery
Length: 81,000 words
Publisher: Carina Press
Release Date: October 22, 2012
Available at: Carina Press, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Barnes and Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads & Booklikes

Blurb: Detective Matthew Bennett doesn’t believe in ghosts. So when the spirit of a murdered child leads him to her body, he’s shaken to the core–and taken off the case. Unable to explain his vision, or to let go of the investigation, Matthew turns to renowned medium Kiernan Fitzpatrick. Though he has doubts about Kiernan’s claims to communicate with the dead, Matt is nevertheless drawn to the handsome psychic, who awakens feelings he thought were long-buried.

Haunted by the lingering spirit of the little girl, Kiernan is compelled to aid in the search for her killer. The chance to get closer to the enigmatic Matt is an unexpected bonus. Although Kiernan’s been betrayed by people who turned out to be more interested in his fame than in himself, with Matt he’s willing to risk his heart. As the two men grow closer, Kiernan helps Matt rediscover that life offers no guarantees–but love offers a reason to believe…

Review:

This is the story of Detective Matthew Bennett finding the body of a 6 year-old with a little help from the girl’s ghost. When he let’s it known the little girl led him to her, he’s immediately taken off the case and forced into taking some personal time. But when his sister-in-law takes him to see well-known medium Kiernan Fitzpatrick, he’s told some things that only the police should know, which pushes Matt into trying to find the killer on his own with a little help from Kiernan. Can these two find the real killer before an innocent man is charged with the murder instead?

I have to admit, I struggled with this story a lot. It wasn’t until well into the book (about two-thirds) that things started to pick up and I really felt that urge to continue reading it. Before that, I would just read a few pages and put it down. It was just too slow for me and I couldn’t help but think that things could have moved faster.

I enjoyed the characters for the most part. Matt is still grieving over his work and life partner, Brad, and now he’s trying to wrap his brain around seeing ghosts. He’s in a sad state where he doesn’t want to do anything but wallow in his grief and new-found insanity. Kiernan is just adorable. He’s quirky to say the least but has experienced enough in life to understand things well beyond the average person can understand. One of my issues with the story, though, is that I couldn’t really grasp Kiernan as a character. I felt like what we saw of him was just a façade and that there were obvious layers to him but we never got to see them completely.

On top of that, I felt like it was very repetitive in regards to Matt’s grief. I understand that he still hadn’t gotten over Brad but I felt like I was being reminded of it too much within the story. If I had liked Matt more as a character, I wouldn’t have noticed it but because I struggled so much, it was extremely obvious. Also, I wasn’t very fond of Matt’s sister-in-law, Sheila, she was so pushy and had a tendency to tell Matt’s secrets to Kiernan when he even told her not to. IMO, those were things Matt had every right to tell himself but Sheila took that option away from him and I can’t help but feel like some connection was lost between Matt and Kiernan because Matt wasn’t able to tell Kiernan things that were so personal and heart-wrenching. Beyond that, the ending left me really unsatisfied and leaves me wondering what will happen now. It just ends with us knowing Kiernan is fine but what happens next? They declared their love after only knowing each other for a few days but that means nothing if they’re going their separate ways soon. It was just completely open-ended to the point it doesn’t feel like anything in Matt’s personal life was solved.

In the end, this wasn’t a bad story. It was just too slow for me and honestly, I was annoyed and frustrated with a lot of small things because of the pace. When the mystery really started to get into the meat of things is when I became interested and I will admit that it was a good mystery, although I still have questions about certain aspects of it that didn’t make sense. With that said, while it missed its amazing mark on me, I have no doubt that others will enjoy this more especially if you like some angst with your mystery.

Overall Impression: It was good

*I purchased my own, personal copy of this book for review.*