REMEMBRANCE - Meg Cabot
Mediator , Book 7
William Morrow
ISBN: 978-0-06-237902-3
February 2016
Romantic Suspense

Carmel, California - Present Day

After everything she's been through, Susannah Simon pretty much deserves her happily-ever-after.  In high school, Suze moved to Carmel and into the home where she met the love of her life – Jesse di Silva.  Unfortunately, Jesse died more than a hundred years earlier and has been hanging around Suze's house in ghostly form to avenge his death.  As a mediator, it's Suze's job to help spirits cross over, but things didn't quite work that way with Jesse, and they fell in love.  After many trials and tribulations, Suze helped reunite Jesse's body with his soul, and now, six years later, they are engaged.  Jesse is finishing his medical residency, and Suze has a job (non-paying internship, rather) at her alma mater.  She's studying to be a children's counselor, but hadn't planned to start actually counselling the students at her old high school just yet.

Suze's world is thrown into chaos thanks to her high school nemesis, and also a sophomore who's got a ghost hanging on her.  Paul Slater, another mediator, has always been interested in Suze and had done his best to get rid of Jesse on many occasions prior to Jesse's reanimations. Paul believes he's finally found a way to get rid of Jesse and have Suze to himself, so Suze is forced to deal with him once again.  While trying to figure the Paul situation out, Suze meets Becca, one of the students at the school, who is haunted by a cherubic looking if viciously overprotective child ghost.  It doesn't take long for Suze to figure out the ghost was murdered, and suddenly Suze is trying to solve a decade-old crime and fend off her high school nemesis, all while trying to seduce her sexy, but incredibly old-fashioned and strictly Catholic fiancé.

Fans of Meg Cabot's Mediator series will be thrilled with REMEMBRANCE, which features a slightly more mature Suze Simon.  The first six books chronicle Suze's journey through high school as well as the beginning of her relationship with Jesse.  This is the first adult novel in the series, but hopefully not the last.  Suze and Jesse still have some obstacles to overcome: Jesse's old-fashioned values are the reason they've put off the wedding for a year, so that he'll have a job that will be able to provide a living for them, in spite of the fact that Suze has a very nice nest egg.  He's also insistent on waiting for the wedding night, which tends to drive Suze a little crazy.  Otherwise, things are going pretty well for them, until Paul returns and Suze knows she's going to have to keep a few secrets from her beloved or risk losing him.  The addition of an angry spirit complicates matters further, and when you add in a little family drama, Suze's life is in turmoil once again.

For those who haven't read the previous books, enough is explained in REMEMBRANCE to have a pretty clear picture of what Suze and Jesse have been through, as well as the rest of the cast of characters.  Suze has three step-brothers, but only two of them are aware of her secret life as a mediator.  Her two best friends do as well, and they also help when they can.

Whether you've read the series from the beginning or not, REMEMBRANCE is what I've come to expect from Meg Cabot's books: enjoyable characters in fun and interesting situations and a good mystery that will make it difficult to put the book down.

Jennifer Bishop