While I don’t read many paranormal romances, occasionally one pops up at just the right time. Eternal Sea was very close to becoming a keeper, but a problem with the second half of the book prevented that. All the same, it is a sweet story, and I can’t help but recommend the book.

Miranda Burke is a teenager who isn’t too happy about living with her uncle’s family. After her aunt tries to mold her into a person she is not, Miranda runs away from home, hiding in an abandoned house she discovered while sailing. Only, the house isn’t exactly abandoned, but is owned and haunted by Captain Eric Wolfe, who died in 1849 and who isn’t at all thrilled with the intrusion. Gradually, Miranda and Eric come to terms with the situation: Miranda, on being on her own in a haunted house, and Eric, with the fact that a mortal can see him on land. But Miranda’s family wants her, or rather her money, back. With the help of a malicious ghost, they manage to track her down and convince her that her beloved Eric is imaginary and that she is in dire need of psychiatric treatment.

Years pass, and a much changed Miranda returns, only she has forgotten about Eric and is so befuddled by drugs that he cannot reach her. But even if he manages to contact her, what could ever come of the love between a ghost and a living woman?

Miranda of the first half of the book is a wonderful heroine. She is capable, clever, and loyal in her love, despite her youth. When faced with a crewful of ghosts, she is quicker to adapt than they are. The transition in personalities and the weakness she displays around midway through the story felt somewhat artificial, although the later effect of drugs and a decade of being “shrinked” was believable.

Eric is a sea captain, known as the Sea Wolf, but his bark (or is that barque?) is worse than his bite. He, alone among the ghosts of the sea, is allowed to return to land for two months every year, since he is linked to the house where he would have settled down, had he lived. Untangling the emotions under his gruff exterior takes time, but therein lie the clues as to how he became a ghost and how to reverse it.

I liked the story overall, but for one scene. The scene where Miranda and Eric make love almost had me closing the book then and there. Ick! Miranda has touched Eric before, noting how clammy he was, how coarse his hair. The sudden moonlight transformation didn’t manage to transform me, and all I could think was: Yuk! She’s doing it with a corpse. Romantic necrophilia?!

So, Eternal Sea is a nice read, and I’m already making up a list of people to lend my copy to. The two versions of Miranda and that instance of physical lovemaking kept it from earning a higher grade from me, but let that not deter you from trying out this book.