Kirkus Reviews QR Code
SEDUCING ABBY RHODES by J.D. Mason

SEDUCING ABBY RHODES

by J.D. Mason

Pub Date: July 18th, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-05226-1
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Soon after an African-American woman in Blink, Texas, buys a haunted house that was the scene of a murder 30 years ago, the handsome son of the victim shows up. Wildly attracted to each other, the two also sense that they’re instrumental to resolution for the restless ghosts.

Abby Rhodes loves the house she just bought and has loved it for years. She felt “like she’d belonged in it, and every time she’d walked away from it, she’d missed it.” A contractor, she plans to renovate but realizes there’s something weird going on. Her psychic friend, Marlowe, confirms that the house has spirits but says they like Abby. Then a stranger stops by, and the ghosts welcome him, too. The man is Jordan Tunson, adopted son and heir of Julian Gatewood, a “black man with balls big enough to jump into a white man’s game” and a murder victim in the house three decades earlier. Jordan has already grown Julian’s company immensely and is working on an astronomical opportunity. Not a good time to be drawn to the new owner or the secrets of the house where his father was murdered, but Jordan feels compelled. As Abby and Jordan fall in love and sort out how to help the agitated ghosts by digging into the past, Jordan's recent ex-lover, Robin, isn’t ready to give him up and will go to astounding lengths to keep him. Mason sets up a fascinating, multilayered storyline with a lot of moving parts that she keeps generally smooth, well-oiled, and nicely paced, though the end feels a bit rushed. Robin is slightly unhinged, and readers might ask the same questions she should—and Jordan does—about whether anyone should want a man so desperately when he doesn’t want you.

A romance chock full of unexpected twists, turns, secrets, and spirits plus a healthy dose of redemptive love.