The Medium (Emily Chambers Spirit Medium Trilogy #1) by C.J. Archer Series: Emily Chambers Spirit Medium Trilogy #1
Published by Oz Books
Published on July 2nd 2012
Pages: 260
Add to Goodreads
Buy from Amazon | Buy from The Book Depository
Seventeen year-old spirit medium Emily Chambers has a problem. Actually, she has several. As if seeing dead people isn't a big enough social disadvantage, she also has to contend with an escaped demon and a handsome ghost with a secret past. And then there's the question of her parentage. Being born an entire year after her father's death (yes, a year) and without the pale skin of other respectable English ladies, Emily is as much a mystery as the dead boy assigned to her.
Jacob Beaufort's spirit has been unable to crossover since his death several months ago. It might have something to do with the fact he was murdered. Or it might not. All he knows is, he has been assigned by the Otherworld's administrators to a girl named Emily. A girl who can see and touch him. A girl who released a shape-shifting demon into the mortal realm. Together they must send the demon back before it wreaks havoc on London. It should be a simple assignment, but they soon learn there's nothing simple when a live girl and a dead boy fall in love.
THE MEDIUM is the first book in the bestselling EMILY CHAMBERS SPIRIT MEDIUM TRILOGY.
SUMMARY
Emily Chambers is a seventeen year old orphaned spirit medium who lives with her older sister in Regency London.
PLOT
When Emily and her sister accidentally unleash a shapeshifting murderous demon from another dimension on London, the Administrators from the Waiting Area send a solid ghost called Jacob to Emily to help defeat the demon. But Jacob has secrets of his own, and Emily is determined to help find his killer.
I love how slow these books are forced to move plot wise because no one’s got a telephone and the characters have to walk everywhere to ask their suspects questions. While light on plot, this book is strong on character development, and especially on the romantic development that quickly happens between Emily and Jacob. Jacob is possibly the most handsome man Emily has ever seen, and since she’s only seventeen with all the emotional maturity of a teaspoon, she falls head over heels in love with him, even though sometimes he’s borderline abusive when he gets mad or orders her around and sometimes quite childish when he disappears on her.
CHARACTERS
Emily is our resident spirit medium. Not only is she an orphaned seventeen year old girl in Regency London, but she’s also mixed-race and not nearly pale enough to pass off as white. Luckily her sister, Celia, is white, and the two live very modestly as barely middle-class workers, charging to Emily to hold séances. Because of the nature of the business, most people think it is light entertainment or possibly fraud.
Celia is Emily’s overprotective big sister by about sixteen or so years. Too old to settle down and get married, her main goal in life is to marry off Emily and to keep her away from Jacob because obviously, what with him being dead and all, they can’t be together.
Jacob is Emily’s resident ghost, a young man who was unfortunately killed in a twisted revenge plot. For some reason he is much more solid than other ghosts, to the point where he and Emily could be intimate, if they wanted to be. He falls in love with Emily, too, and finds her exotic looks beautiful, and her brain smart and interesting.
WRITING
I love the writing in CJ’s books. Even though CJ is Australian, I always read them with very distinct English accents in place. I love the words CJ uses to describe the settings and fashion. I love the dialogue. I love the manners and the wit used against foes. I love how the genre is a mashed-together mix of historical, paranormal, urban fantasy Young Adult kind of thing.
PACING
Probably the only thing I don’t really enjoy about this book is the repetitive tendency to have to find someone’s address, approach them, interview them, and possibly return because they didn’t tell the truth the first time. After a while it gets slightly tedious. Also, the romance sometimes gets in the way of ‘there’s a murdering demon loose in London and we’ve got to stop it.’
OVERALL
I really enjoyed The Medium and I do wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who likes mash-up genres, historical, paranormal, romance and YA.
Share this:
About Nemo
A lover of kittens and all things sparkly, Nemo has a degree in English Literature and specialises in reviewing contemporary, paranormal, mystery/thriller, historical, sci-fi and fantasy Young Adult fiction. She is especially drawn to novels about princesses, strong female friendships, magical powers, and assassins.
