Review: Ghosts of Coronado Bay by J.G. Faherty

Ghosts of Coronado Bay by J.G. Faherty

A Maya Blair Mystery #1

Paperback 160 pages

Published June 10th 2011

by Journal Stone

I received this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program in exchange for an honest review. 

Thank you. 

By all accounts, 16-year-old Maya Blair is a typical teen-age high school student. She hangs out with her best friend Lucy, has a turbulent relationship with her ex-boyfriend Stuart, and works at her family's diner - the main restaurant on the island of Coronado Bay. 

But Maya has an extraordinary secret - she can see, hear, and talk to ghosts. And when spirits are near her they revert back to solid form. She is what her deceased grandmother Elsa calls a Seer. 

For years, Elsa was the only ghost Maya knew. But that changes when the century-old wreckage of the Black Lady, a ship that capsized in Coronado Bay's waters, is raised from the ocean floor and placed on display in the local museum. During a school tour of the Black Lady exhibit, Maya meets Blake Hennessy, a young, fair-skinned boy to whom she is instantly attracted. Shortly thereafter, a sensual, gothic young man named Gavin Hamlin crosses her path, and she is equally smitten. Her feelings bloom before she realizes they are both ghosts - Blake, the kind-hearted spirit who cares for Maya's well being, and Gavin, the dark wizard who thirsts to finish the evil task he longed to complete 100 years before. 

To accomplish his nefarious plan, Gavin has to be human again. And for that, he needs the blood of a virgin witch. In his mind, Maya is the perfect candidate. Now it's up to Maya, Lucy, and Blake to save Coronado Bay and the world from destruction. But time is running out, people are dying, and Gavin's powers are growing. 

Things were so much simpler when all she had to worry about was a date for the dance.

"Ghosts of Coronado Bay" tells us the story of a girl, Maya  Blair who can see, hear, and talk to the ghosts. But the only ghost she knows is her dead grandmother Elsa, so when new ghosts start showing up in Coronado Bay, she will have a hard time trying to discover the real problem. Also you need to add two hot ghosts that will make Maya's live more difficult. Who is hotter?

I love ghost stories, so that is why I fell in love with this book when I saw it on LibraryThing. Even though the cover is not so pretty when you see it for first time, I remembered those books with not so great covers that I ended up loving after I read them, so I gave "Ghosts of Coronado Bay" an opportunity to show me that the story was much better than the cover. How wrong I was… 

The story started really good with a short introduction that takes place in 1908, and later the first chapter in the present day.  I really liked that part, showing you a little bit of mystery in the beginning before presenting you the main character Maya. 

And that is when everything went wrong. 

I want to begin by saying that I didn't like Maya's character. She was too capricious, foolish, insufferable and whiny. Thinking all the time about sex, hot guys and her psycho ex-boyfriend. Also her best friend, Lucy …she was worse. I didn't like any character at all, including the hot guys. They were not credible and poorly developed.

The plot was awful. Maya is all the time between the "two guys", and her psychopath, also stalker ex-boyfriend, reaching the point of obscenity. Supposedly she is the chosen one who is going to save the world, but how can she do it, if she cannot think in anything besides her relationships. It was gross. Also, I found some inconsistencies and plot holes.

Conclusion. Short book, hateful characters and not so great story.  Maybe I was waiting too much about this book. I had the opportunity to read the Mediator Series by Meg Cabot, and that story is so awesome and so well done, that for a moment I thought I would find another one with similar plot or maybe better. But I was wrong. I'm really disappointed, and ashamed of myself for making comparisons with a such good story. 

Run before it catches you. 

J.G Faherty grew up in the haunted Hudson Valley region of New York, and still resides there. Living in an area filled with Revolutionary War battle grounds, two-hundred year-old gravesites, ghosts, haunted roads, and tales of monsters in the woods has provided a rich background for his writing. A life-long fan of horror and dark fiction, JG enjoys reading, watching movies, golfing and hiking with his wife and dogs, volunteering as an exotic animal caretaker, and playing the guitar. His favorite holiday is Halloween (naturally), and as a child, one of his childhood playgrounds was an 18th century cemetery. 

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