Book Review: The Girl Who Saved Ghosts

The Girl Who Saved Ghosts (The Unbelievables #2)

By: K.C. Tansley

Published By: Beckett Publishing Group

Publication Date: October 17, 2017

Page Count: 280

Buy it at Amazon & Barnes & Noble

Source: ARC Kindly Provided by Author

Young Adult - Fantasy/Paranormal

Review of Book #1: The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts

I was so excited when I was asked to review the second story in this series, The Unbelievables by K.C. Tansley, since I had read and reviewed the first a couple years ago and really enjoyed it. I was not disappointed, either. The Girl Who Saved Ghosts had the same suspense that The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts did; it captured and kept my attention from beginning to end. 

 In this second installment, we join Kat at the beginning of her school year, after the summer she and Evan travelled back in time. Kat has accepted her role in helping ghosts, but she learns from them that she may not have long to live. A darker force, called The Dark One, is after her and the four families whose paths are entwined. She travels to her ancestral house along with Evan, and learns of her family’s past and the histories of the families from two aunts she had never met before. They also teach her the magic of her family, training her to one day fight against The Dark One. Soon, Kat and Evan find themselves once again travelling to the past to save their families and unravel a mysterious murder. They have to race against time so they aren’t lost forever. 

 What I loved about this story, was finding out more about the families, the history behind how they were all linked. I loved meeting new characters: Kat’s mom, her aunts, Percy and Ellie, but I missed the friends we met in the first book. They weren’t in this story for long at all. 

 I didn’t quite understand why, and this may be something I forgot from the first book, Kat and Evan had to keep what happened to them a secret from Morgan and Seth, their two friends from the first book, and from her mom. They all knew exactly what happened in the first story, and Morgan and Seth are both apart of the entwined families, so why couldn’t they know what was going on? That was my only confusion. 

 Tansley has a way of sucking you in with the suspense of the story. You can feel the tension while Kat and Evan are in the past, racing to save their families and get back to their own time before they are lost forever. She also makes you feel the passion and longing between Toria and Alistair, and even the intangible pull between Evan and Kat. Tansley is a very talented author, the way she can evoke emotions from her readers. 

 Though parts of the story were a bit slow, it all flowed really well. The slower parts were essential to the story’s overall plot, and you know, as you read, they will benefit the future books in the series. I can’t wait for the next book in the series, to see where in the past the future will send Kat and Evan once again. 

 One Last Thought: This story seemed to flow a lot more smoothly than the first story (if you read my first review). It had more long sentences, it had a better mix of short and long. Where I felt the first book fit more with the younger teen age group, this one reads a bit older. It was a bit darker in parts. 

Favorite Thing About this Book: I love the unmistakable connection between Evan and Kat, and their ancestors. The past seems to be continually repeating itself, but Kat and Evan are ready to change it for the better. You can cut the tension and pull between them with a knife. 

 First Sentence: “I can’t help you now,” I said to the ghost beside my desk. 

 Favorite Character: Kat 

 Least Favorite Character: Lydia

Synopsis:

She tried to ignore them. Now she might risk everything to save them. 

After a summer spent in a haunted castle—a summer in which she traveled through time to solve a murder mystery—Kat is looking forward to a totally normal senior year at McTernan Academy. Then the ghost of a little girl appears and begs Kat for help, and more unquiet apparitions follow. All of them are terrified by the Dark One, and it soon becomes clear that that this evil force wants Kat dead. 

Searching for help, Kat leaves school for the ancestral home she’s only just discovered. Her friend Evan, whose family is joined to her own by an arcane history, accompanies her. With the assistance of her eccentric great aunts and a loyal family ghost, Kat soon learns that she and Evan can only fix the present by traveling into the past. 

As Kat and Evan make their way through nineteenth-century Vienna, the Dark One stalks them, and Kat must decide what she’s willing to sacrifice to save a ghost.

Outlander series meets The Haunting of Sunshine Girl series.