It’s the roaring twenties, and San Francisco is a hotbed of illegal boozing, raw lust, and black magic. The fog-covered Bay Area can be an intoxicating scene, particularly when you specialize in spirits…
Aida Palmer performs a spirit medium show onstage at Chinatown’s illustrious Gris-Gris speakeasy. However, her ability to summon (and expel) the dead is more than just an act.
Winter Magnusson is a notorious bootlegger who’s more comfortable with guns than ghosts—unfortunately for him, he’s the recent target of a malevolent hex that renders him a magnet for hauntings. After Aida’s supernatural assistance is enlisted to banish the ghosts, her spirit-chilled aura heats up as the charming bootlegger casts a different sort of spell on her...
On the hunt for the curseworker responsible for the hex, Aida and Winter become drunk on passion. And the closer they become, the more they realize they have ghosts of their own to exorcise…
I was very excited for Bitter Spirits! The 1920s! San Francisco! A spirit medium! Bootlegging! It sounded awesome, so I have no clue what happened. But I just did not connect with this book at all. It's like I was reading without really reading. I felt nothing except the occasional annoyance. It started off fine. Winter has been cursed to draw ghosts to him, so he hires Aida to get rid of them. Of course, he has to figure out who is doing this to him and why, and he keeps Aida close since she can banish spirits. Plus he's attracted to her, obviously.
Bitter Spirits was okay. I really should have loved it, but I just didn't. I was annoyed with Winter and Aida in the beginning, because he's constantly talking about her freckles. He's never seen so many freckles! And he's always hard in her presence. Then she's always going on and on about how she's never seen such a big man! He's so tall and huge and imposing! Like, I get it. She's covered in freckles and he's a large man. No need to remind me 30 times per chapter! I did like that Winter wasn't this super gorgeous man though. He has a pretty bad scar across his face and one eye is permanently dilated.
Bitter Spirits just left me underwhelmed. I was just reading to get through it, it felt like. The mystery didn't engage me. The booze raids didn't excite me. The romance wasn't as steamy as I hoped despite all of the sex. The ghosts weren't interesting, since Aida got rid of them before they could do anything. If they were even able to do anything. I just didn't care.
