Cannonball Accomplished :)

It’s the summer of 1927, and Winter Magnusson is one of San Francisco’s top bootleggers.  He runs both quality fish and top-shelf booze in from the California coast, and it’s worth the top dollar he can charge for it – no bathtub gin to be found here. He seems well-known and respected in the community, even if he’s got a suspicious accident in his past, and a scar on his face as a constant reminder.  He’s also got a supernatural hit out on him, and is lucky to have friends like Velma Toussaint, when he shows up at her speakeasy (Gris-Gris), because she’s one of a very few number who can help him with the poison currently running through his veins. Aida Palmer is a trance medium who works for Velma at Gris-Gris, and gets called in to help Winter clear himself of a few unwanted spirits, since the poison has also made him a magnet for ghosts.

When their first interaction includes an ice bath, a dead prostitute, potions, spirits that disappear into thin air, and leaves Winter fascinated with her freckles & Aida seeing a whole lot more of a gentleman than is proper at a first meeting, you just know their relationship is going to be interesting. And that’s BEFORE we get to any of the really interesting stuff.

Said stuff includes a setting that sets it apart from just about every other romance novel I’ve ever read -there’s hardly any romances set in San Francisco in the 1920s.  I don’t know why, because there’s plenty of interesting things happening then and there, and Yes, Please: Set your book here. Between the “black-and-tans,” Chinatown and acupuncture in the 20s, the study of Egypt via archeology & curses, people who had lived through the San Fransisco earthquake & The Great Fire….When Winter started talking about how they were beginning fundraising for the Golden Gate Bridge, I just about swooned, but I’m a history nerd, so … maybe I’m weird? Even if I am weird, it’s nice to read a historical romance that isn’t set in one of three places. Plus: bonus fog! Makes everything more mysterious and romantic, and it’s just there naturally for you to take advantage of (this author does a good job of using it to her advantage, I assure you.)

Also, since the setting’s different, the characters can’t help but be a little bit abnormal -but in a good way!- too. There’s a lot of racial diversity here that I wasn’t expecting going in. Having the heroine live in Chinatown helps, but also the hero’s assistant, Bo,  is Cantonese, and is a main character who (if I had to guess,) might have a larger role in following stories. I’m a little conflicted on the magical racial issues, because while the spell-work and curses, et al. that Winter gets besieged with are compelling, I don’t know enough about Chinese culture to know if all of that black magic stuff is a sore point or not. I do know enough about the history of witchcraft and the history of racism, independent of each other, that I can assume there is some overlapping stereotype having to do with Chinese sorcery, but I will plead complete ignorance to it, as of right now (unless we count the entire movie Big Trouble in Little China, which is what TV Tropes advises me to do, but I’m going to ignore that, because it’s been 20 years since I’ve seen that movie and it creeped me the hell out).

There’s also the characters’ definitions of ‘modern females,’ and how that definition changes depending upon who they’re thinking/speaking about. Winter is glad of his sister’s fiercely independent streak, for example, but I doubt he’d be half as glad for her to grant some man the same liberties he feels Aida is ‘modern’ enough to share with him. (Good old patriarchy: always time-period appropriate!)

While she’s started us off someplace and some when differently, Bennett does a good job of including the things I require of all good romance novels – some action and witty banter; appropriate levels of heat; couples I care enough about to get to know and to watch as they get to know each other; sweet moments interspersed between all the heavy & dramatic ones; and believability. I’m not saying that I’m all of the sudden believing in Gu and ghosts that can get stuck to people, but it’s more about Aida and Winter being believable as characters than it is about the ghosts.
Part historical fiction, part paranormal romance, Bitter Spirits is such a unique blend that I couldn’t pass it up, and I’m glad I didn’t: There’s a lot to recommend it. I’m also glad that it’s first in a series – the sequel, Grim Shadows, was published earlier this year, and tells the story of Lowe Magnusson, Winter’s younger brother, the aforementioned Egyptian archeologist. Who Winter describes in this book as being able to “fall into shit and come out smelling of roses,” so it’ll be interesting to see what kind of trouble someone so seemingly charmed could get himself into.  (Plus, there’s that little sister, and if she doesn’t get her own book, that will be quite disappointing.)