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43 Light Street #25
Phantom Lover
Phantom Lover by Rebecca York released on Mar 25, 2003 is available now for purchase.
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 2003
2 people are currently reading
169 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca York
316 books446 followersRuth Glick (born 1942) is a best-selling author of healthy cookbooks and has also written dozens of romantic suspense romance novels under the pen name Rebecca York.
Ruth earned a B.A. in American Thought and Civilization from George Washington University and an M.A. in American Studies from the University of Maryland. Although she always wanted to become a writer, Glick was convinced that her lack of spelling skills meant that her goal was unattainable. As a stay-at-home mother, she took a community college course to help her choose a career. The course made it very clear that writing was her primary interest. Glick began writing articles for newspapers and magazines, but after several years decided to try writing fiction. Her first book, a kids' science fiction book, was finally purchased by Scholastic Inc..
Since then, Glick has become a highly successful author of over 50 romantic suspense and paranormal novels. Many of her novels are published under the Harlequin Intrigue line, and in June 2003, she became one of the first authors published under Berkley's new Sensation imprint. Before 1997, she often collaborated with Eileen Buckholtz and Kathryn Jenson.
Glick also is a highly regarded author of cookbooks focusing on healthy eating. She sometimes hires trained chefs to test the recipes that she creates, and makes sure that every recipe is tested at least three times before it appears in one of her cookbooks.
Glick is the head of the Columbia Writers Workshop. She and her husband, Norman Glick, live in Columbia, Maryland, where Ruth collects rocks, and enjoys cooking, walking, reading, gardening, travel, and Mozart operas. They have two grown children, Elissa and Ethan, and two grandsons (Jesse and Leo).
Ruth earned a B.A. in American Thought and Civilization from George Washington University and an M.A. in American Studies from the University of Maryland. Although she always wanted to become a writer, Glick was convinced that her lack of spelling skills meant that her goal was unattainable. As a stay-at-home mother, she took a community college course to help her choose a career. The course made it very clear that writing was her primary interest. Glick began writing articles for newspapers and magazines, but after several years decided to try writing fiction. Her first book, a kids' science fiction book, was finally purchased by Scholastic Inc..
Since then, Glick has become a highly successful author of over 50 romantic suspense and paranormal novels. Many of her novels are published under the Harlequin Intrigue line, and in June 2003, she became one of the first authors published under Berkley's new Sensation imprint. Before 1997, she often collaborated with Eileen Buckholtz and Kathryn Jenson.
Glick also is a highly regarded author of cookbooks focusing on healthy eating. She sometimes hires trained chefs to test the recipes that she creates, and makes sure that every recipe is tested at least three times before it appears in one of her cookbooks.
Glick is the head of the Columbia Writers Workshop. She and her husband, Norman Glick, live in Columbia, Maryland, where Ruth collects rocks, and enjoys cooking, walking, reading, gardening, travel, and Mozart operas. They have two grown children, Elissa and Ethan, and two grandsons (Jesse and Leo).
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
August 26, 2023
Deeply silly but very enjoyable mix of gothic romance and detective story with added sex. A private investigator impersonates a teacher to get a job in a mansion where there are shady goings on. Whilst there she falls in love and gets busy with the maybe ghost of a former lover.
dnf
November 20, 2024lost interest and calling it.
December 30, 2023
Mystery and romance with a modern Gothic feel.
** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED **
** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED **
January 14, 2011
Let me just begin by saying, WOW! I did not expect this book to be so imaginative, so cleverly written, and so heart breakingly romantic!
The book starts out with the main character, Bree, driving up to a spooky mansion on a cliffs edge overlooking the ocean in California. The place is seemingly haunted and right off the bat she has an experience as she is taking her luggage out of her car she feels a large heavy hand on her shoulder and when she turns around on a scream she sees no one and is apparentl alone.
She is a private detective in the making, but she used to be a teacher. Her old college friend, Helen, asked her to hire on as her nieces home school teacher at the same time figure out what is going on in her absence. She is out of the country and her corespondance with her brother, Troy, is getting stranger and stranger making her believe it isn't actually him sending the emails. Helen tells Bree that since Troy's wife died a year earlier, he has been depressed and reclouse. She fears that after allowing some distant cousins they don't really know, move in because they are going through some hard times, and now taken over the estate and taking advantage of his depressed state. So now Bree is there under the guise of being the 6 year olds teacher but secretly snooping to find out what is going on.
She is told that Troy had a nervous breakdown and that he is violent so for everybody's safety, he is locked up in the master suites. Bree had a bit of a romance with him 7 years earlier when she went home with Helen to the family's summer ranch for the summer. They spent 2 wonderful weeks falling in love with each other then suddenly Bree's mother fell ill and Bree needed to go home to care for her. Shortly after that, she heard from Helen that Troy married and had a daughter. It broke Bree's heart but she never stopped loving him.
So now that she is here trying to get to the bottom of things she decides she needs to figure out if Troy is dead like Helen fears, or if he is actually locked up in his room.
Her first night she went to bed immediately because she was so exhausted and jet lagged. She woke in the middle of the night without being able to move. She felt drugged and frozen in her body. She felt as if someone was in the room with her but couldn't see cause the bathroom light she had left on was now out. Then suddenly, she felt lips on hers. At first it was soft, gentle kiss, but once she responded, it turned into passionate and demanding. She felt hands caressing her breasts then she panicked and reached out and felt nothing and suddenly she was alone. She immediately started to wonder if it had been Troy. She decided to look to see if there was a secret passage in her closet to explain someone getting into her locked bedroom. She found it. She started through the secret passage then suddenly she felt herself falling. She was holding onto the edge about to let go thinking she could land on her feet hoping the drop wasnt to long, when suddenly someone caught her in the air. She grabbed on and he moved her back and up on the ledge into safety, while still holding her tight. It was pitch black and she couldn't see, but they began talking. The man didn't seem to know who he was. He seemed to have amnesia. Then they started kissing again. Bree began to resist so that she could ask more questions. Questions that seemed to frustrate and confuse the man. Then he told her to go back to her room and that it wasnt safe for her to wander the secret passages. He somehow produced a flaming torch then vanished before she could see him in the sudden light.
Little things like this continued to happen as she continued snooping in between teaching the sweet little girl. Meanwhile the cousins, Mr and Mrs Sterling kept acting strange and cruel. The housekeeper was sometimes nice but sometimes mean. There was a groundskeeper as well who was just plain creepy with the way he would appear and just watch. As time went on everytime Bree encountered Troy, he remembered more and more, but would never let her see him. He would come to her in the dark, or hold her from behind and not let her turn around. All the while kissing her neck, ear, and erotically touching her.
Bree began overhearing different conversations. Most of these conversations only made Bree more confused. Meanwhile someone had gone through her things and taken her cell phone. She snuck into the office in the middle of the night to try to use the phone for help when she found that the phone had a lock on the reciever. She then started going through drawers and found a key taped to the bottom of the drawer. She pocketed it then turned to the computer with hopes to email a message out. The computer had a password that she couldn't bypass. She then was caught by the housekeeper. The housekeeper told her the Sterlings have strict phone and internet restrictions then told her to go.
BTW her car is also out of commission conveniently. Because of all the ghost stories and legends, no mechanic in town would agree to come out and work on the car for her.
Ok so at this point I already figured out that Troy was in fact dead and that he was a ghost. He was also able to control wind and he appeared and disappeared without the use of the secret passage ways. One night she went to his room and snuck in and he actually appeared to her. They hugged kissed then fooled around, but not all the way. Just when Bree reached for him to go further, he disappeared. She was furious feeling as though he was playing games. At this point he remembers everything now. He indicated that it was actually his sister Helen who invited the Sterlings to stay with him and that he doesn't trust her. He told her the key she found goes to a safe hidden behind a panel in his closet. So the next night she sneaks back to the room with the intent to retrieve the contents of the things in the safe that he said are important. When she gets to the room he is there and this time he tells her tonight is different. They end up actually making love this time then falling asleep in each others arms after she beggs him not to leave her. He wakes her up at dawn and tells her she needs to go through the contents of the safe but first he has to show her something. They dress and she follows him outside and he leads her to some woods to the side of the house. He then points to a long narrow indentation in the dirt and tells her that it is Troy London's grave. She loses it. She starts yelling at him and squeezing his arms yelling that if he doesn't start being honest and up front with her then just leave her alone. He says fine, then turns around and storms off with a wirl of wind shooting up between them preventing her from following after him. After she calms down she goes in the house and goes to the safe and goes through the safe. She soon discovers that Helen had bought a bunch of stock with her inheretance and the stock had crashed. She had invested all her money and had lost it all. ALong with that, there were letters from Helen to Troy, her begging him to give her money and him telling her he wouldn't have any for awhile till some bonds matured and he could cash them in. (his wife before she had died had been bleeding him dry spending money to renovate the estate. Troy and his late wife used to fight all the time and the accident happend while his wife was driving and they were arguing. He blames himself for fighting with her. He had been thrown from the vehicle and survived, but she went over the cliffs with the car and drowned) Helen began demanding that Troy sell the estate so that she could have her half. He refused over and over. Helen began threatening Troy in the letters. Also the letters revealed Helen telling Troy to take the Sterlings in. Bree decides she can't trust her so called friend and then decides to leave the papers in the safe where they will remain safe.
She over hears Mr and Mr Sterling arguing and Mrs Sterling saying she wants out of here and that she is leaving. Then the next day she overhears Mr Sterling asking Mr Graves if he has seen his wife. Mr Graves reveals that he oveheard them and that he believes that she left him. A couple hours later she overhears a scream. She rushes into the direction of the scream heading toward the back door when the housekeeper stops her and tells er that she should go check on the little girl and that she would go get Mr Graves to check out what is going on. Troy appears in the hallway and has her go into a secret passageway with him and leads her to a wall that has little pin prick spy holes looking into the kitchen. She watches the housekeeper calmly wash dishes for a bit then Mr Graves walks in and she asks him if Mr Sterling is dead now. He says yes and then starts bitching about how he did it for her just like he killed Mrs Sterling for her too. She snaps and says that they had to go cause they were getting too nosey and that soon Helen will be here to tie up loose ends. She then says that now that Troy is dead, that they can blame it on the Sterlings and Helen can sell the house and they can all cash in. Then she said that Helen will get rid of the teacher when she gets here.
Troy tells his daughter to have Bree meet him outside in the woods. When she does, he is pretty much telling her good bye. He tells her that right after his wife died, he asked his sister for Bree's phone number and Helen tells her she lost touch with her years ago. When he tried finding her he couldn't find her cause she had recently changed her name from Bonnie to Bree after she quite teaching and started working for the detective agency. He tells her that he had always loved her and had turned to his wife to try to distract himself from the loss of Bree from his life, accidently got her pregnant and married her out of obligation. She tells him that she loved him too and has since that summer years ago. He then gives her instructions to go into the house turn the power off at the breaker, then while he created a storm, she was to go and hold his daughter till it ended. He said that he was going to take care of Mr Graves and the housekeeper once and for all. After she was to go into the housekeepers room and find the letters between her and Helen revealing the concocted plan that would get Helen put away. Then he informed her that he made an amendment to his will dated six weeks earlier saying that Bree would get custody of his daughter. Sobbing Bree runs off to carry out his instructions.
When she gets to the kitchen to go into the pantry where the breaker is the housekeeper catches her and asks her what she is doing. Bree tells her she is hungry and looking for food. The housekeeper gets her some food and coffee then goes about watching her eat. Then the buzz for the dryer goes off and the housekeeper leaves to handle the laundry. Bree runs to the pantry turns off the power then runs off to where the little girl is and holds her as the storm Troy is creating reaches an all time high. Wind, lightening, thunder. He starts yelling at the housekeeper and Mr Graves telling them to leave. Scared shitless they begin running out to leave and Troy aims his wind to push and spin them into confusion and they both end up going over the cliff to their deaths.
Bree heard their scream and knew right away what happened. At first she thought she felt Troy there with her and his daughter, then the feeling left. She called her friends at the detective agency and told them what happened. They concocted a story to tell the police without her sounding crazy. They agreed to omit the part where she ever saw Troy. She did however tell them she overheard them say that they had killed him. For days after that they got the place ready for her and the little girl to leave. Everyday she went wondering the woods looking for him. Calling for him. She searched all the passgeways.
The last day when they were about to leave for the airport she went out one last time. As she stood in the woods where she had last seen Troy, last kissed him and hugged him, she suddenly felt a pressure build up. The kind of pressure build up that she would feel when he was calling up the wind. Suddenly he appears and they grab each other hard and just hold each other afraid to let go. After a few moments the wind dies down and they are standing there, locked in embrace. He tells her that he feels different. More solid. She feels a difference too. They realize that he was given a second chance and he is alive again. He then asks her to marry him and live there in the estate with him. She says yes and they run in to tell his daughter.
It was such a different plot. Such a surprise! I really liked it a lot, and highly reccomend it. Very spooky too. Good night time read.
The book starts out with the main character, Bree, driving up to a spooky mansion on a cliffs edge overlooking the ocean in California. The place is seemingly haunted and right off the bat she has an experience as she is taking her luggage out of her car she feels a large heavy hand on her shoulder and when she turns around on a scream she sees no one and is apparentl alone.
She is a private detective in the making, but she used to be a teacher. Her old college friend, Helen, asked her to hire on as her nieces home school teacher at the same time figure out what is going on in her absence. She is out of the country and her corespondance with her brother, Troy, is getting stranger and stranger making her believe it isn't actually him sending the emails. Helen tells Bree that since Troy's wife died a year earlier, he has been depressed and reclouse. She fears that after allowing some distant cousins they don't really know, move in because they are going through some hard times, and now taken over the estate and taking advantage of his depressed state. So now Bree is there under the guise of being the 6 year olds teacher but secretly snooping to find out what is going on.
She is told that Troy had a nervous breakdown and that he is violent so for everybody's safety, he is locked up in the master suites. Bree had a bit of a romance with him 7 years earlier when she went home with Helen to the family's summer ranch for the summer. They spent 2 wonderful weeks falling in love with each other then suddenly Bree's mother fell ill and Bree needed to go home to care for her. Shortly after that, she heard from Helen that Troy married and had a daughter. It broke Bree's heart but she never stopped loving him.
So now that she is here trying to get to the bottom of things she decides she needs to figure out if Troy is dead like Helen fears, or if he is actually locked up in his room.
Her first night she went to bed immediately because she was so exhausted and jet lagged. She woke in the middle of the night without being able to move. She felt drugged and frozen in her body. She felt as if someone was in the room with her but couldn't see cause the bathroom light she had left on was now out. Then suddenly, she felt lips on hers. At first it was soft, gentle kiss, but once she responded, it turned into passionate and demanding. She felt hands caressing her breasts then she panicked and reached out and felt nothing and suddenly she was alone. She immediately started to wonder if it had been Troy. She decided to look to see if there was a secret passage in her closet to explain someone getting into her locked bedroom. She found it. She started through the secret passage then suddenly she felt herself falling. She was holding onto the edge about to let go thinking she could land on her feet hoping the drop wasnt to long, when suddenly someone caught her in the air. She grabbed on and he moved her back and up on the ledge into safety, while still holding her tight. It was pitch black and she couldn't see, but they began talking. The man didn't seem to know who he was. He seemed to have amnesia. Then they started kissing again. Bree began to resist so that she could ask more questions. Questions that seemed to frustrate and confuse the man. Then he told her to go back to her room and that it wasnt safe for her to wander the secret passages. He somehow produced a flaming torch then vanished before she could see him in the sudden light.
Little things like this continued to happen as she continued snooping in between teaching the sweet little girl. Meanwhile the cousins, Mr and Mrs Sterling kept acting strange and cruel. The housekeeper was sometimes nice but sometimes mean. There was a groundskeeper as well who was just plain creepy with the way he would appear and just watch. As time went on everytime Bree encountered Troy, he remembered more and more, but would never let her see him. He would come to her in the dark, or hold her from behind and not let her turn around. All the while kissing her neck, ear, and erotically touching her.
Bree began overhearing different conversations. Most of these conversations only made Bree more confused. Meanwhile someone had gone through her things and taken her cell phone. She snuck into the office in the middle of the night to try to use the phone for help when she found that the phone had a lock on the reciever. She then started going through drawers and found a key taped to the bottom of the drawer. She pocketed it then turned to the computer with hopes to email a message out. The computer had a password that she couldn't bypass. She then was caught by the housekeeper. The housekeeper told her the Sterlings have strict phone and internet restrictions then told her to go.
BTW her car is also out of commission conveniently. Because of all the ghost stories and legends, no mechanic in town would agree to come out and work on the car for her.
Ok so at this point I already figured out that Troy was in fact dead and that he was a ghost. He was also able to control wind and he appeared and disappeared without the use of the secret passage ways. One night she went to his room and snuck in and he actually appeared to her. They hugged kissed then fooled around, but not all the way. Just when Bree reached for him to go further, he disappeared. She was furious feeling as though he was playing games. At this point he remembers everything now. He indicated that it was actually his sister Helen who invited the Sterlings to stay with him and that he doesn't trust her. He told her the key she found goes to a safe hidden behind a panel in his closet. So the next night she sneaks back to the room with the intent to retrieve the contents of the things in the safe that he said are important. When she gets to the room he is there and this time he tells her tonight is different. They end up actually making love this time then falling asleep in each others arms after she beggs him not to leave her. He wakes her up at dawn and tells her she needs to go through the contents of the safe but first he has to show her something. They dress and she follows him outside and he leads her to some woods to the side of the house. He then points to a long narrow indentation in the dirt and tells her that it is Troy London's grave. She loses it. She starts yelling at him and squeezing his arms yelling that if he doesn't start being honest and up front with her then just leave her alone. He says fine, then turns around and storms off with a wirl of wind shooting up between them preventing her from following after him. After she calms down she goes in the house and goes to the safe and goes through the safe. She soon discovers that Helen had bought a bunch of stock with her inheretance and the stock had crashed. She had invested all her money and had lost it all. ALong with that, there were letters from Helen to Troy, her begging him to give her money and him telling her he wouldn't have any for awhile till some bonds matured and he could cash them in. (his wife before she had died had been bleeding him dry spending money to renovate the estate. Troy and his late wife used to fight all the time and the accident happend while his wife was driving and they were arguing. He blames himself for fighting with her. He had been thrown from the vehicle and survived, but she went over the cliffs with the car and drowned) Helen began demanding that Troy sell the estate so that she could have her half. He refused over and over. Helen began threatening Troy in the letters. Also the letters revealed Helen telling Troy to take the Sterlings in. Bree decides she can't trust her so called friend and then decides to leave the papers in the safe where they will remain safe.
She over hears Mr and Mr Sterling arguing and Mrs Sterling saying she wants out of here and that she is leaving. Then the next day she overhears Mr Sterling asking Mr Graves if he has seen his wife. Mr Graves reveals that he oveheard them and that he believes that she left him. A couple hours later she overhears a scream. She rushes into the direction of the scream heading toward the back door when the housekeeper stops her and tells er that she should go check on the little girl and that she would go get Mr Graves to check out what is going on. Troy appears in the hallway and has her go into a secret passageway with him and leads her to a wall that has little pin prick spy holes looking into the kitchen. She watches the housekeeper calmly wash dishes for a bit then Mr Graves walks in and she asks him if Mr Sterling is dead now. He says yes and then starts bitching about how he did it for her just like he killed Mrs Sterling for her too. She snaps and says that they had to go cause they were getting too nosey and that soon Helen will be here to tie up loose ends. She then says that now that Troy is dead, that they can blame it on the Sterlings and Helen can sell the house and they can all cash in. Then she said that Helen will get rid of the teacher when she gets here.
Troy tells his daughter to have Bree meet him outside in the woods. When she does, he is pretty much telling her good bye. He tells her that right after his wife died, he asked his sister for Bree's phone number and Helen tells her she lost touch with her years ago. When he tried finding her he couldn't find her cause she had recently changed her name from Bonnie to Bree after she quite teaching and started working for the detective agency. He tells her that he had always loved her and had turned to his wife to try to distract himself from the loss of Bree from his life, accidently got her pregnant and married her out of obligation. She tells him that she loved him too and has since that summer years ago. He then gives her instructions to go into the house turn the power off at the breaker, then while he created a storm, she was to go and hold his daughter till it ended. He said that he was going to take care of Mr Graves and the housekeeper once and for all. After she was to go into the housekeepers room and find the letters between her and Helen revealing the concocted plan that would get Helen put away. Then he informed her that he made an amendment to his will dated six weeks earlier saying that Bree would get custody of his daughter. Sobbing Bree runs off to carry out his instructions.
When she gets to the kitchen to go into the pantry where the breaker is the housekeeper catches her and asks her what she is doing. Bree tells her she is hungry and looking for food. The housekeeper gets her some food and coffee then goes about watching her eat. Then the buzz for the dryer goes off and the housekeeper leaves to handle the laundry. Bree runs to the pantry turns off the power then runs off to where the little girl is and holds her as the storm Troy is creating reaches an all time high. Wind, lightening, thunder. He starts yelling at the housekeeper and Mr Graves telling them to leave. Scared shitless they begin running out to leave and Troy aims his wind to push and spin them into confusion and they both end up going over the cliff to their deaths.
Bree heard their scream and knew right away what happened. At first she thought she felt Troy there with her and his daughter, then the feeling left. She called her friends at the detective agency and told them what happened. They concocted a story to tell the police without her sounding crazy. They agreed to omit the part where she ever saw Troy. She did however tell them she overheard them say that they had killed him. For days after that they got the place ready for her and the little girl to leave. Everyday she went wondering the woods looking for him. Calling for him. She searched all the passgeways.
The last day when they were about to leave for the airport she went out one last time. As she stood in the woods where she had last seen Troy, last kissed him and hugged him, she suddenly felt a pressure build up. The kind of pressure build up that she would feel when he was calling up the wind. Suddenly he appears and they grab each other hard and just hold each other afraid to let go. After a few moments the wind dies down and they are standing there, locked in embrace. He tells her that he feels different. More solid. She feels a difference too. They realize that he was given a second chance and he is alive again. He then asks her to marry him and live there in the estate with him. She says yes and they run in to tell his daughter.
It was such a different plot. Such a surprise! I really liked it a lot, and highly reccomend it. Very spooky too. Good night time read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 7, 2020
HI #706 = 2.5 stars
January 27, 2021
This book isn’t my normal reading fair. It is a deeply atmospheric, romanticized ghost story but set in a modern setting.
May 13, 2025
2/5 STARS! Why couldn't this just end on a ghost story? Lol ending ruined it but fun book anyways.
August 9, 2024
This was fine.....just....fine.
February 12, 2016
This was one of the most suspenseful books I've read. In no way could you predict anything that was going to happen. Be sure to keep a box of kleenex handy! I was so swept up in the book I couldn't wait to find out what happened to all the characters. The ending took so many different turns I was pleasantly surprised! This book will keep you wondering ;)
January 9, 2015
this is one of the books that I keep coming back to, so as to read it again. Something about it has caught me and I get into moods that only this books seems to appease. It is an entertaining and quick read that I love.
July 13, 2011
Loved this book to death. It's so beautiful and romantic and sensual yet eerie and mysterious at the same time. Perfect for anyone else who is very much into the paranormal romance but sick of vampires and werewolves. :)
November 27, 2011
A quick read for romance lovers, this gothic background of a haunted California estate provides a great place for a dark secret and a love story to play out - both in the cliffs outside the house and deep inside its darkest depths.
June 29, 2013
I didn't like how the book was implying that a ghost can come back from the dead and turn into an actual person. It definitely is not a clean pg rated book. The ending was ok. But overall I didn't like the book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 19, 2013
Odd story.
February 14, 2016
I never thought that I would be a romance novel person, and this is the only one I have ever read, which I read on a whim. But it was quite good! I may read more.
June 22, 2016
I really enjoyed Phantom Lover. Was hard to put down. Nice easy read and not predictable. Good ending. Had romance, intrigue, excitement, and suspense. Would recommend.
March 10, 2017
I really loved this book. It actually brought tears to my eyes. Rebecca York is a great writer. She draws you into the world she has set, and makes the characters real.
May 29, 2017
The storyline was okay overall but it vwas very far-fetched and I found myself rolling my eyes a lot.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews