Sugar and Spice Book Reviews: Medium Well by Meg Benjamin ~ Blog Tour and Giveaway

Monday, February 11, 2013

Medium Well by Meg Benjamin ~ Blog Tour and Giveaway

The Question of Ghosts

My first paranormal series, the Medium trilogy from Berkley InterMix, begins with Medium Well, released on February 19. All three books are ghost stories because I’ve always been intrigued by ghosts, from the time I read my first ghost story as a kid and scared myself into staying up all night.
I’ve wondered sometimes where this fascination with ghosts comes from because I’m clearly not the only one who feels it. Part of it undoubtedly comes from the idea that some kind of existence continues after death. But I think part of it also feeds into that universal “unseen presence” experience. Who hasn’t occasionally gotten the creeps in an empty room at night? Who hasn’t had the sensation of somebody watching from the shadows even though you know no one is there? I’d say that’s the foundation for all ghost stories, our own uneasiness with the unknown. We’re pretty sure there’s nobody there, but can you say you’re 100 percent sure? More like 99.999, I’d say.
So have I ever seen a ghost? No. Well, maybe not. I’ve had a few odd experiences, like most people. San Antonio, where I used to live, is filled with ghostly places like the Menger Hotel, which supposedly hosts the ghost of Teddy Roosevelt (he assembled his Rough Riders there before the Spanish American War) and the haunted railroad tracks where parked cars supposedly roll away from the crossing, pushed by the unseen hands of victims from an early car/train collision. I’ve sat in historic bed and breakfasts at night in Fredericksburg, Texas, and felt a little uneasy but I’ve never seen anything. Still that feeling when the hair on the back of your neck seems to go up is nothing to sneeze at. And frankly, I’d rather keep it in my imagination rather than seeing that serial killer under the bed.
The heroes and heroines of my Medium trilogy (Medium Well, Medium Rare, and Happy Medium) are all realists, very happily grounded in a ghost-free existence. But three of them are unknowing descendants of a legendary family of mediums, and all of them end up dealing with some very dangerous spirits. Of course, since the books are also romances, they all come through in the end, but not without a few serious chills along the way.
So can I say for sure that ghosts exist? Of course not. Can I say they don’t? Nope. And maybe that’s the reason I go on being fascinated.

The Medium Trilogy takes place in one of the most historical and romantic neighborhoods in San Antonio–the King William District.

Three Ramos siblings, Danny, Rose, and Ray, all have King William connections. Danny sells historic homes at Vintage Realty. Rose lives in a King William mansion she inherited from her grandmother. And Ray is renovating another mansion so that he and his partner can flip it for a profit. But all three have a hidden talent–so well hidden, in fact that they it’s a secret even from them. They’re all descendants of the Riordan family: legendary mediums and sworn enemies of the ancient ghosts known as the Old Ones.

Medium Well, the first book in the Medium Trilogy, is Danny’s story, released by Berkley Intermix on February 19.

Love At Second Sight

Real estate agent Danny Ramos has always had a knack for selling homes, but when his boss saddles him with a neglected carriage house, Danny discovers that his abilities are more than simple intuition…

On his first visit to the house, Danny is confronted with visions of a violent murder. His assistant, Biddy Gunter, doesn’t seem affected, and Danny starts to think he’s going crazy—until he gets a visit from his mother, who suggests that Danny’s uncanny talent to sell old houses may stem from his family inheritance: psychic empathy.

When Biddy reveals to Danny her own strange dream about the carriage house ghosts, they team up to investigate and discover both the house’s dark history and their own unexpected attraction. But as the hauntings turn from unsettling to downright dangerous, Danny and Biddy need to figure out how to rid the house of its ghostly inhabitants, before their budding romance meets an untimely end…

Read an excerpt.
Buy a copy at Amazon or at Barnes & Noble.

About Meg:

Meg Benjamin is an author of contemporary romance for Samhain Publishing and Berkley InterMix. Her books have won an EPIC Award for Contemporary Romance, the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, and the Holt Medallion among other honors. Meg lives in Colorado with her DH and two rather large Maine coon kitties (well, partly Maine Coon anyway).

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