Bantam, Aug 2002, 5.99, 317 pp.
ISBN: 055358457X
Though she has ridden waves in Hawaii and Australia among other global locales and the Atlantic is a bit cold in May, Josie Parker enjoys surfing so much that she arises early to ride the waves off of Parker's Inlet, South Carolina. However, instead of the anticipated smooth ride, she wipes out because her board hit something. The next breaker includes the treasure chest that wiped out Josie. Removing barnacles from it, Josie pries open the chest to find a necklace with a yellow stone dangling from it. Suddenly out of nowhere Bagan, Guardian of the MacNeil Stone, appears though no one else see the little man. He informs her that she is engaged to Connal MacNeil, who happens to have died about three centuries ago.
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Before she knows what happened, Josie heads to Glenmuir, Scotland where the spirit of Connal has awaited her return for three hundred years. As Josie and Connal begin to fall in love, she wonders what kind of future is there with someone from the eighteenth century.
It is the use of mundane items such as surfing and Josie and the Pussycats (TV show not movie) that make THE CHARM STONE a charming paranormal romance. The plot is fun especially when Josie teaches the ghost and the senior citizens of Glenmuir how to surf as Donna Kauffman never takes her story too seriously even with a warm romantic undertow. Sub-genre readers will want to ride this wave from start to finish.
Harriet Klausner
The review of this Book prepared by Harriet Klausner
