This is going to be a quick message to review what I read in April.
Mystery:
Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich – I gave it 4 stars
Sinister Spring by Agatha Christie – 4 stars
The Shop on Royal Street by Karen White – 3 stars
Classic:
Anne of Green Gables by L M Montgomery – 5 stars
Historical Fiction:
After Anne by Logan Steiner – 3 stars
Non-Fiction:
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot – 4 stars
If you are new to my blog, the reviews for these books can be found under their genre in the menu on the side. All except After Anne – I will be reviewing that one this Friday. Those reviews will summarize the book and explain why I rated each book the way that I did.
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If you are like me, I enjoy a little bit of stats information. So far this year, my most popular post was – What I read in January. It had 107 views.
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“Atmospheric and rich, White’s writing is an indulgent pleasure to read.” – Shelf Awareness
Summary:
The story takes place in New Orleans. Nola Trenholm a twenty something lyric writer has moved from Charleston and is looking at houses with her Realtor stepmom, Melanie Trenholm. It would be difficult if she only had to worry about Melanie’s little eccentricities. Melanie has a little OCD and a thing about spreadsheets. To make things even more difficult, Melanie sees dead people.
Melanie has agreed to not say anything about anything that she sees to Nola who doesn’t want to know. Considering she grew up in her family home in Charleston that had several resident spirits.
Nola has found a Creole cottage that probably should have been torn down but she believes she can re-build it.
The story shows the reader a little history of New Orleans and that probably most houses are haunted.
Melanie eventually goes back home to Charleston leaving Nola to deal with Beau Ryan, a former love interest of Nola’s who happens to own the property. He tries to discourage Nola from purchasing it but Nola talks him into selling it to her.
There is a little glimpse of a possible romance between Nola and Beau but she doesn’t want to get between him and his current girlfriend.
Nola meets Jolene, who works for Ryan. When she finds out that Jolene needs a place to stay, she invites her to be a room mate and eventually move into the house with her.
Jolene takes on some of the characteristics of Melanie. She is very conscious about her appearance, she tries to make everything perfect in the home, she tries to take care of Nola but the one difference is that Jolene is a really good cook. Jolene also uses southern phrases that her grandmother always says. Jolene is a good source of humor in this story.
If you have read any of Karen White’s other books in The Tradd Street series, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Nola’s house is haunted.
The rest of the book shows how Nola and Ryan make the home habitable in more ways than one.
Review:
I do love the Tradd Street series and this is a spin off of that series of books. It has a lot of similarities to that series even though the main characters are different. The one thing I miss in this series was the angst and suffering between Melanie and Jack. They were so much in love but when it all seemed to be working for them something would happen and they would split up, leaving me and them broken hearted.
I saw a little bit of the love interest with Nola and Beau but it didn’t go deep enough to make me really feel sad for them. I plan to read the next one in this series and hope the romance will be as memorable as Melanie and Jack’s.
I enjoyed this book, Karen White’s writing style is easy to read and she always sucks me in. With that said though, this wasn’t my favorite. It was still good but I felt some of the Tradd Street series were better. Because of that, I gave this one 3 stars. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes books about things that go bump in the night but don’t necessarily leave you too scared to fall asleep.
I would also recommend reading The Tradd Street series first.
This book marks my 20th book read so far this year. I am now half way to my goal of 40 books for Goodreads.
I have been working on my blog to update it. I hope you like the new look. I wanted something a little cleaner and less busy. You can now find my book reviews by category, author interviews, and a few author events, I will have some posts about books stores coming soon. If you also write, I have older posts under uncategorized about the writing process. Just check out the category section on the side bar to navigate through my posts.
All The Books 