Haunting Hope (Haunting Hearts) [Paperback]

Raina Lynn (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Jove (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0515126551
• ISBN-13: 978-0515126556
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,721,115 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I really loved this story!, November 7, 2000

By 

Sarah "sssspro" (North East, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Haunting Hope (Haunting Hearts) (Paperback)

Have you ever read a book and it just bowled you over as a great story? This is what happened to me with Haunting Hope. Hope and Britt are two characters that I really wish I could know personally. The story revolves around Hope trying to get past a bad marriage to an alcoholic. Ms. Raina obviously did her homework about wives of substance abusers. She shows how Hope tries to overcome her self-doubts and become an "in your face" person instead of a "mouse". Add into this struggle your resident I-have-always-fantasized-about-you, you-are-my-hero ghost, and poor Hope has a lot on her plate.

Britt is such a fun and great character, I do not even know where to begin talking about him. A good, solid man in life, he becomes a lost and lonely ghost, never quite being able to do anything right with any human contact he makes. There are strong feelings of guilt riding on his shoulders and loneliness. Even with all this baggage, he can't help but to step in and help Hope against her husband (who happens to be a 5th or 6th generation relative of his). All of this happens within the first 1/3 of the story. The remaining plot is wonderful and inspiring to read.

This is not my usually choice of romance books to read, but I loved every minute I spent in this story. Ms. Raina does and excellent job of reconciling the ghost/love interest thing and brings so much realism to the story that it almost made me believe in ghosts. If there are such things, I wish they are all like Britt. Although a fairly quick read, don't miss Haunting Hope.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb ghostly romance, July 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Haunting Hope (Haunting Hearts) (Paperback)

In 1872 in the Sierra Mountains foothills, Sheriff Britt McLean heads back to his hometown of Manzanita with his prisoner Tyler Carbow in tow. During a robbery, Tyler murders the cooperating bank manager. Tyler's partner Ira Fleming kills Britt. When Britt realizes that Tyler plans to return to town to rape and kill his wife Lucinda, the deceased law enforcement officer refuses to enter the nearby light. Instead, he races to town to protect his kin, only to thankfully observe his friend Nestor rescue Britt's spouse and children by killing Tyler.

In 1999 Manzanita, Britt a ghost follows his journal to the restored mansion that, after marrying Lucinda, Nestor built for his new family. In the Hawkings House Victorian mansion, he senses the evil essence of his great, great, great grandson Richard McLean and the goodness of his descendant's wife Hope. When he believes that a drugged out Richard will kill Hope, Britt intervenes by frightening Richard in an effort to sober up his relative. Hope learns that Britt resides with them. She has loved Britt ever since she studied about him in school. He quickly falls in love with her too. However, he is a ghost and she is a mortal married to his relative.

HAUNTING HOPE is a deeply passionate otherworldly romance that will haunt readers with its angst-laden characters. Britt is a hero in mortal and spectral form, willing to risk everything including eternal bliss to provide for the safety of his loved ones. Hope is a caring individual with an uncaring past. Richard is evil because his need for drugs consumes everything else. The intelligent story line centers on the special triangle that fans will cherish for a long time to come.

Harriet Klausner

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing, May 23, 2000

By 

Crazy for Words - See all my reviews

This review is from: Haunting Hope (Haunting Hearts) (Paperback)

Hope McLean had been in love with a dream, but married into a nightmare. Now it was time to wake. Her abusive, addict of a husband had torn her self-esteem to shreds, now it was up to her to sew it back together.

Since discovering the journals of Britt McLean during a high school assignment, Hope had been obsessed with the historical figure and immersed herself in his family history, surrounding herself with McLean possessions and even purchasing the Victorian home of his widow. During her research, she'd met his great-great-great grandson, who turned out to be the direct opposite of the man of her tender fantasies. Just when she decides to rid of herself of the loser, she is startled to receive help from none other than Britt McLean himself - - in the form of a ghost.

Britt has returned to Hawkings House to be near his last remaining journal, an anchor to his existence. As if over a hundred years of watching his family live and die weren't heartbreak enough, seeing the waste of human life this descendant has turned out to be is humiliating and infuriating. In helping Hope, he inadvertently reveals himself. Despite the fact that interaction with her in unwise, discovering her feelings for him is love he can't refuse, he has been too lonely too long.

Ms. Lynn offers readers and enticing tale that is difficult to put down. The only thing about it that slowed me down was toward the end, I felt that the conflict was drawn out too long, could have been resolved sooner.