Author: Margaret Ethridge
No of Pages: 215
Release Date: 31 December 2010
Camellia Stafford has never been alone in her room. For twenty years she’s been engaged in a fierce power struggle with her bedrooms previous tenant, Frank DeLuca, the ghost trapped in the light fixture above her bed.
Caustic and cranky, Frank has one soft spot – Cam. Over the years, their feelings for one another have evolved from grudging friendship to an enduring love that burns white-hot until Frank puts his feelings for Cam on ice.
When she suffers the loss of her beloved father, Cam returns home to say good-bye, and confront her feelings for Frank. She finds and unexpected shoulder to lean on in neighbour, Bradley Mitchum. Cam falls hard and fast for the handsome ad man’s charming smile and passionate nature, but Brad’s easy-going exterior masks a steely backbone tempered by adversity.
Now Cam must choose – Is her heart strong enough to determine which dream could lead to a love that will last a lifetime?
My Thoughts:
Paramour was interesting, if a little odd.
Camellia Stafford’s dad has just passed away so she has come back to her childhood home to clean up and say her last goodbyes. But Cam has been keeping a secret for all these years, there is a ghost in her room, and she’s been in love with him ever since she was a teenager.
Cam is a strong, funny woman who is easily likeable. What’s not likeable about her is the fact that she has a hot, strong, successful live man, begging her to be hers and yet she is still hung up on a cranky ghost who can’t let go.
Frank has been with Cam since she was a child; he has been her friend, her supporter and her secret crush. The only problem with Frank is that he’s dead. He is a ghost who has haunted her wall sconce ever since he was shot in 1987.
Brad is the guy next door, he’s hot, spunky and completely in love with Cam. They have been neighbours for most of their lives and he was the typical geek turned god as he grew older. Brad is there for Cam when her dad passes, he is her friend but he wants something more, and so does she.
So we have the perfect basis for a human romance, yet Cam can’t seem to let go of Frank. This is what frustrated me throughout the whole novel. Frank didn’t want her, Frank never wanted her, and here she has a perfect man package scratching at her front door, and she still wants Frank.
Paramour was interesting, and made me want to read to the end, but the premise of the story was frustrating and un-relatable. Hot man or irritable ghost. There isn’t really a choice there. I was expecting more from Paramour maybe more humour or more light-heartedness.
Paramour was well-written and flowed nicely, but Cam’s hang-up with Frank was a let-down, I couldn’t see the attachment, I couldn’t understand how there was a choice. It was silly. I enjoyed Paramour immensely for the human romance and seeing if it would work between them is what made me read to the end, the addition of a frustrating ghost didn’t do much for me. The relationship between Cam and Brad is deeply emotional but kept light through their playful banter.
Paramour was a quick, hot read which was beautifully written, the only thing that really took away from it was the romanticisation of the relationship between Cam and Frank.
