
Not Quite Dead
Lyla Payne
(A Lowcountry Ghost Story)
Publication date: April 1st 2014
Genres: Mystery, New Adult, Paranormal
A broken engagement sends Graciela Harper crawling back to Heron Creek with her tail between her legs, but finds the sleepy little town too changed to set her life right. Not even her budding drinking problem can obscure her Gramps’s failing health, or erase the mental picture of her first love happily married to her childhood best friend. To top it all off, she’s having a heck of time convincing the town’s dashing young mayor of her unfit-for-dating status.
When the ghost of 18th century lady pirate Anne Bonny starts insisting on a near daily audience, Graciela has to confront something else she never expected—being certifiably nuts at twenty-five years old.
Her brand new “I don’t give a crap” attitude makes it easy to dismiss the mysterious threats that seem to be tied to her search for more information on the long dead pirate, but when her family becomes a target, Gracie knows she needs to find out why the ghost insists on being a constant, reeking companion.
If Graciela can put aside her prejudice against people without a pulse, she may discover that Anne Bonny’s problems are intricately linked with her own. The past harbors answers could help the cantankerous spirit find closure, but she is, after all, already dead. If Graciela doesn’t move fast, she might find herself doing the haunting, instead of the other way around.
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A new adult, paranormal romance with ghosts! And no, no one is in love with a ghost. Graciela Harper returns to the small town of Heron Creek, South Carolina to take care of her grandfather who is not doing to well health wise. She is also using the homecoming as a retreat after an embarrassing break-off engagement. Gracie has to quickly come to terms with being an adult,with her grandfather's health, old friends with new dynamics and a cousin who might be in an abusive relationship, even though she would rather drown her sorrows in alcohol and not come out of her bedroom. Meeting the town's hunky new mayor doesn't help matters; neither does the appearance of the town's rather insistent resident ghost, Anne Bonny. It seems that Gracie is the only one who can see Anne and Anne really wants Gracie to do something for her.
This was a good mix of genres, a cute romance, a light haunting and plenty of family drama. Gracie starts out as a pretty pitiful mess, but she has a fierce love of her family and history. It was a little hard to connect with her in the beginning, but things picked up for me when the ghost of Anne Bonny started to appear. I liked the tie-in's with actual history and learning more about Anne Bonny and Mary Reid, actual women pirates. I also enjoyed going back in time for a while with Anne's journal entries. The added mystery of what Anne wanted Gracie to find was fun, but I could see where it was going. I am anxious to see what happens in the next book as Gracie is left with another ghostly dilemma. Overall, a fun, light, different type of ghost story.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

Lyla Payne has been publishing New Adult romance novels for a little over a year, starting with Broken at Love and continuing with the rest of the Whitman University series. She loves telling stories, discovering the little reasons people fall in love, and uncovering hidden truths in the world around us – past and present. In her spare time she cuddles her two dogs, pretends to enjoy exercising so that she can eat as much Chipotle as she wants, and harbors a deep and abiding hope that Zac Efron likes older women. She loves reading, of course, along with movies, traveling, and Irish whiskey. Lyla’s hard at work, ALWAYS, and hopes to bring you more Whitman University antics and at least one more Lowcountry ghost tale before the end of the year.
Lyla Payne is represented by Kathleen Rushall at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.
If you want to know more, please visit her at http://lylapayne.com
If you’re a fan of Young Adult fiction–science fiction or otherwise–please check out her work that’s published under the name Trisha Leigh. http://trishaleigh.com
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