Yesternight by Cat Winters

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Paranormal, Mystery
Content: Language, sex and talk of sex


In 1925, Alice Lind steps off a train in the rain-soaked coastal hamlet of Gordon Bay, Oregon. There, she expects to do nothing more difficult than administer IQ tests to a group of rural schoolchildren. A trained psychologist, Alice believes mysteries of the mind can be unlocked scientifically, but now her views are about to be challenged by one curious child.

Yesternight starts off when Alice Lind arrives at a small coastal town in Oregon to administer IQ tests to the students at the local school, but she is soon swept up in the mystery surrounding one of the students, Janie O'Daire. Janie's father is convinced she lived a past life as someone else. There is all kinds of evidence to support it, but Alice, a trained psychologist believes there must be some other explanation. As she delves into the mystery surrounding Janie, Alice begins to believe that her past may be similar and maybe even related to Janie's. Meanwhile there is a growing attraction between Alice and Janie's father, Michael. That's all I'm going to say about the plot so that I don't spoil anything.

I thought this book started off really good, but the more I read the less I liked it. I ended up not liking any of the characters. Alice never learned from her past mistakes. She just kept making unwise choices and lamenting that certain things were unfair for women. Well that may be, but don't be an idiot about it. As for Michael, on one hand I felt like he was a nice guy who really cared about her, then on the other hand he seemed manipulative. I was never really sure which he was, maybe a little of both. He was certainly selfish, and in the end he ended up being not likable.

The thing that ruined this book for me the most was the ending. I couldn't stop thinking about how horribly this book ended, and how terrible the characters ended up being in the end. In all honesty, the last quarter of the book had a completely different feel than the rest of the book and it just didn't fit well with the rest of the story. The thing that bothered me the most I'm going to put under a spoiler here so skip the next paragraph if you don't want to read the spoiler.

***Spoiler*** In the end when Alice hears her son John say "remember when you hit me in the head with your shoe, Alice?" and it becomes obvious that John is Michael reincarnated - yes, that's right, he is his dad reincarnated - all I could think of was that if her son remembers that, then surely he must also remember them having sex right before that too. And that just got way too weird for me, not to mention gross! I really wonder if the author even thought of that when she made things end up that way. ***End of spoiler***

Yesternight is the first book I've read by Cat Winters. I have two other books by this author on my to-read list, but after reading this, I'm wondering if I really want to read them. I'll probably give the YA book a try, but I'm not sure about the other one.

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