The Man Who Fell In Love With A Ghost

‘An Unlikely Match’ by Sarah M. Eden is a clean regency romance that takes place in Wales in 1805.

Nickolas Pritchard was an impoverished gentleman, until one day a solicitor shows up and tells him that he has just inherited a large house, property, and lots of money from a very distant cousin who died. The house is called Tŷ Mynydd (pronounced Tee Muh-nith), and is in the town of Radnorshire, Wales. Nickolas grew up in England and has never been to Wales, but he’s not about to turn down property and money! And he’s had his eye on a young lady, whom her parents would never see him (a penniless man) as a possible suitor. But with money available to him, surely they would accept him as a suitor now.

There is one minor detail. As the solicitor is about leave, he says one final thing before he hurries on his way. “The late Mr. Prichard wished me to inform you, at the last possible moment, that the house you have inherited, though sound in every other way, is I fear, quite inarguably haunted.” Yes indeed, the house is haunted by one Gwenllian ferch Cadoc ap Richard of Y Castell, Gwen to her friends.

Nickolas of course doesn’t believe in ghosts. So he sets out for his new home and invites the family of his best friend over, along with the Miss Charlotte Castleton and her parents. After having been at the house for a couple weeks and having seen no sign of any ghost, disregards the staff’s warnings and assigns Gwen’s room to his hopefully future wife, Miss Castleton.

Gwen makes few demands of the owners of the house through the generations. The only demand of hers is that her bedroom by left alone except to be cleaned and fresh flowers to be brought. So you can image what she will do when she finds another female in her room! It doesn’t matter that she can’t sleep or ‘lay’ on her bed anymore. Her room is the one place of peace and solitude in the entire place for her. What will Gwen do to Miss Castleton? What will Gwen do to Nickolas when she finds that he has disregarded the warnings of the staff about her? It is said that if you please Gwen, then your time there with Gwen can be quite pleasant. But if you anger Gwen, she made make your life a living nightmare!

So Nickolas is stuck there with a fickle ghost and a house with guests. Not only that, but instead of falling more in love with Miss Castleton, he finds himself falling for Gwen! What is Nickolas going to do? He can't marry a ghost! And just to make things more interesting, Mr. Castleton is intrigued by the ghost and follows her around pestering her.  Is there any way that Gwen’s spirit can be laid to rest after having been around for over four hundred years? Can Nickolas let Gwen go from his heart so that he can marry another?

**Warning: Spoilers! Gwen’s ghost was created by the blackest of dark arts to protect the castle from falling into the hands of the English. There is a curse that must be broken for Gwen’s spirit to finally find peace, but no one knows about the curse until the end of the book. So if you don’t like to read that type of thing, don’t read this. Without giving away too much more of the story line, by the end of the book Gwen’s ghost no longer haunts Tŷ Mynydd. And there is a nice ending. **

I don’t normally read ghost stories but this one didn’t sound scary, and isn’t until the end. But I was glad when I pressed on and finished the story. I would not recommend this story for the faint of heart or someone that scares easily. This story comes in book and e-book format.