Haunted

I've been looking forward to Silhouette's new Nocturne line since I first heard about it. Lisa Childs's Haunted is my first read.

Ariel Cooper is about to marry her soul mate, but she has a secret. She can see ghosts.

For years Ariel's resented her gift, believing it a curse. She's been hiding it from her powerful, brooding fiance, David, afraid that he wouldn't understand. But now she has to tell him. Twenty years ago, she and her two sisters were separated to protect them from a man who had vowed revenge on the women in her family. And someone has resumed the hunt.

Ariel knows she must warn her sisters before it's too late--the killer is closing in and his power is growing stronger. With David's help, they begin the search. But the closer Ariel comes to finding her sisters, the more secretive he becomes. Can she trust the man she plans to spend eternity with? Or has he been waiting for the perfect moment to destroy her?

I thought the premise was interesting, and I wanted to like the book. It didn't quite work for me, though. Childs's writing style is nice. However, I wanted to see more romance. I think it would have helped if Ariel's emotional tie to David had been clear from the beginning. What was clear was that they were engaged, but I wasn't quite feeling the love. They argue in their first scene, then she runs away. The rest of the book sees her coming back to him, wondering if she can trust him, analysis of his suspicious behavior, running away. Repeat.

The trouble was since I hadn't seen David and Ariel happy together, I wasn't terribly invested in their romance. This needed to be established for the story to work for me. Haunted gets a 2.5 out of 5, but I might try the next book in the series. Elena intrigues me, so I'm curious about her story.