ARC Review— Stars Like Gasoline by Jessika Grewe Glover
When Celia, a Florida art curator, purchases the haunted house of her brother’s deceased fiancé, the spirits threaten her life and her career. To rid the home of the malevolent ghosts, she enlists the help of her brother, Oscar, and Adrian, the best friend of Oscar’s late fiancé, who was killed in Afghanistan. The three are about to be thrown into a chasm of events involving a dead French artist, a Dutch aerospace heiress, and a missing Japanese painter who is presumed to be dead. Not to mention a stalker that begins to threaten Celia and Oscar.
The link between these events appears to be a hidden journal from the 1980s Celia discovers in the home, belonging to a revered French artist. As Adrian helps decipher the clues, an attraction burns between him and Celia, raising the stakes of the game someone is playing. A game that no one might make it out of alive.
Thank you to the author for the opportunity to read this story in advance!
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Suspense, ghosts, and romance, with a sprinkling of poetic prose, Stars Like Gasoline will remind you of a captivating piece of artwork in the museum you now want to visit again immediately. Which makes sense! This story is chock full of art, from Celia’s career as an art curator to the lush descriptions of the paintings. The spine-chilling encounters with the ghosts haunting Celia were just as stunning, too. Glover has delivered a story that will draw you in and keep you turning pages for so many reasons.
A few passages I enjoyed:
My emotions embarrassed me; I always thought no one needed to hear the raw edges of my thoughts.
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“Did you know that when you feel like you have nothing left, you’re only 40 percent to your max? It’s an old navy rule.”
I was thinking that I didn’t know if I could face 60 perfect more heartache.
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Privilege doesn’t understand the animosity of those who struggle. The ones who spend their lives from cradle to grave clawing for purchase on some semblance of the life so often romanticized.—
And our kiss crashed together like every moment we’d been forced apart had to fit within this one.
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This story is for readers who enjoy well-crafted characters with a storyline that will keep you guessing, give you chills, make you swoon, and keep you on the edge of your seat while falling head over heels by the end. Glover is masterful in the way she weaved the unique pieces of her story together.
Jessika Grewe Glover grew up along the humid shores of South Florida, eventually marrying her British husband and moving to Los Angeles, where they live with their two teenage children and rescue bulldog. Jessika writes multiple genres from literary to speculative fiction. When she is not writing or reading, she can be found traveling, creating art, making chocolate dragons, and bantering in song lyrics.