Bea Reviews Knight Shift by Krista D. Ball

Publisher: Krista D. Ball
Series: Spirit Caller #3
Format Read: Kindle
Source: reviewer purchased
Release Date: December 10, 2013
Buying Links: Amazon* | Kobo | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate link; the blog receives a small commission for sales made through this link

Blurb from goodreads:

After a lifetime of running away from spirits, Rachel Mills finds herself chasing them. Someone or something is harassing Manny O'Toole, a local teenage spellcaster.

To complicate things, a mysterious man arrives in town. So naturally Rachel has to find out who and what he really is. Provided she can sneak away from Mrs. Saunders, her 93 year old neighbour, a local senior and troublemaker.

On top of it all, Rachel’s made a decision about Jeremy, the secret love of her life. It’s time to have a chat.

Bea's Thoughts:

I enjoy this series, hate the year-long wait between books, and loved this book. Although the series is urban fantasy , there's a romantic subplot and it gets ramped up in this this book. I was teasing Krista on twitter about having written a paranormal romance. She's not really a romance writer but she's done a good job in this series and in this book.

Rachel is still healing, physically and emotionally, from the events in the previous book, "Dark Whispers". In addition, Manny, the depressed teen from that book, is still depressed and doing poorly overall. His parents, oh I wanted to smack his parents - smug, condescending, so sure their world view is the only correct one, unwilling to listen to Manny or what he needs. They're fundamental Christians and extremely closed-minded. They love him and believe that they are doing what's best but they really got under my skin. I felt so bad for Manny, having parents who refused to listen and refused to admit that they might be wrong and actually making his situation worse. But Ball doesn't villainize them or stereotype them, which would have been the easy route.

Manny's problems aren't all organic in nature; there are dark spirits trying to possess him and encouraging his dark thoughts. Rachel wants to help him fight them off but his parents are resistant. They believe all spirits are evil, sent by Satan, and they believe that Rachel is evil or at least, corrupted by Satan. It's a mess and the situation gets nasty.

Ball introduces a new character, Javier, who hunts and destroys spirits. This puts him into conflict with Rachel, especially when he goes after Dema, her spirit guide. Can he help Rachel help Manny fight off the dark spirits? Will he? At first, I thought Javier might be a new love interest for Rachel. Rachel has been in love with Jeremy, a local RCMP officer, since moving to Wisemen's Cove several years ago. However, she and Jeremy have only been friends. What happens now? How will this play out? Will Ball torment us by giving us a love triangle? Please spirits, no!

The story is short, about a hundred pages, but we get romance, religion, action, character development, and humor. Rachel is a great character - confident yet unsure, compassionate, snarky, grumpy, loyal, helpful, funny; someone I'd want to know. The ending, oh I was in tears, messy, snotty tears. It's going to be a looooooong year until the next book. *glares at Ball*

If you haven't started this series yet, you're missing out on a great one.

Salt shaker!


No, I won't tell you the significance of salt shaker. Read the book for yourself. :D

My review of Dark Whispers, Book 2
My review of Spirits Rising, Book 1