across the east river bridgeRating: 3.75 stars
Buy Link:
Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novel


Christopher Finnegan’s academic career went up in smoke when Troy Rafferty discredited Christopher’s Ph.D. dissertation back when they were at the same university. Nowadays, Christopher works as a research assistant to a woman who writes historical books. When she sends him to the museum across the East River Bridge to research a woman who ran for President back in the late 1800s, Christopher is not expecting to learn the new curator of the museum is none other than his old academic rival – Troy.

Troy is convinced the museum is haunted and asks “Finn” to lay aside their rivalry and help him investigate the lives of the ghosts he believes are haunting the museum. In return, Troy will help Finn research his own project. As the two begin to piece together the lives of the two men they believe are haunting the museum through their diaries, newspaper clippings, and police reports, they become convinced the two were murdered. They are also convinced the two ghosts are real and capable of affecting thoughts, feelings, and actions.

friends and enemiesAs Finn and Troy start falling for one another, Finn becomes convinced that he’s being manipulated by the ghosts to stay with Troy to solve the case. Meanwhile, Troy is convinced that the love between them is real and he will need to get rid of the ghosts to prove to Finn how real it is.

This story is a mixture of contemporary, historical, and the paranormal. I know, who’d have thought to combine the three? Honestly, though, it works! The book focuses on the contemporary characters of Finn and Troy – two men who have had a love-hate relationship that spans back to their college days. Add in two gay ghosts – Teddy and Wash – who are eager to have Finn and Troy investigate their murder, and you’ve the makings of an entertaining romantic mystery!

Finn despises Troy…or at least that is what he tells himself, because if he doesn’t have Troy to blame for his academic failures, it means that he only has himself to blame. So, it is easier if he just blames Troy. While in college, the two had this love/hate relationship where they jump into bed with one another for a steamy night of sex, only to go right back to hating one another the following morning. Yet, when Troy debunked Finn’s dissertation, what little love they had between each other died a sudden death. Nowadays, Finn is forced to work as a research assistant for a woman who doesn’t let him forget that the reason he is doing what he is doing is because he failed to complete his Ph.D.

 

Let’s just say – the best part about an enemies to lovers trope is the sex – and this book does not disappoint! There is just something about redirecting all that hate into a much more positive direction! The mystery/paranormal/historical part of the book was just as entertaining. As Finn and Troy begin piecing together the lives of the two men who lived at Brill House during the 1870s, readers learn how dangerous it was for gay men living back in those times. While ordinarily I am not a fan of paranormal at all, I actually found myself enjoying this part of the storyline as the ghosts help Finn and Troy solve a 100+ year old mystery.

Which brings me to the mystery/paranormal part of the story. As most of you already know, I usually abhor paranormal storylines….yet, in this case, it actually worked for me. I loved that Teddy and Wash came alive through their diaries and newspaper clippings. I also liked how these two ghosts manipulated Finn and Troy into investigating and pointing them in the right direction. Their story was quite moving.

My one complaint about this story is that despite Finn and Troy’s fourteen-year long love-hate relationship, it took so long for the two of them to get it together! Even though this story only basically covers the time period of their investigation, I found myself getting angry at Finn for holding on to his anger go right up until nearly the end.

Overall, I thought this book had the right amount of romance, mystery, paranormal, and historical. If you like enemies to lovers stories, you might want to check this one out!

Wendy sig