More of the same from White and protagonist Mellie, which will please fans immensely.
Realtor and psychic Melanie Middleton is facing single motherhood in a haunted house she refuses to admit she loves, but it seems her pregnancy has awakened some malevolent feelings in at least one of the ghosts who shares her home.
Mellie is sinking a fortune into her inherited mansion in Charleston, S.C., while trying to convince herself that she hates old houses. Newly pregnant, she has broken up with the father, Jack, a local best-selling novelist, since he won’t tell her he loves her. Mellie is reconciled to single motherhood and has a posse of people around her to help, including her until-recently estranged parents, her best friend, and Jack’s teenage daughter, Nola. Mellie shares an ability to see and interact with ghosts with her mother, which comes in handy when an infant’s skeleton is found in the foundation during renovation work, an event that seems to awaken violent intentions in at least one of the many ghosts who live in her historic home. Working with the circle of friends and colleagues who’ve helped her solve ghostly mysteries before, Mellie races to untangle the complicated secrets of the past and the tragic story behind the tiny buried body, since the poltergeist’s capacity for violence is escalating, threatening Mellie and her child. As she works through the web of past residents of the house, Mellie also finds herself confronting some personal demons, and revisiting relationships with friends, family and Jack, even while their research may uncover truths that threaten her claim on the house that she’s fallen in love with. In this installment of White’s Tradd Street series, there’s nothing groundbreaking or surprising. White is a good writer and carries an intriguing story smoothly forward, combining a number of complex psychic, historical and romantic elements. Mellie can get tiresome (eat a doughnut, already!); the romantic he-loves-me-he-loves-me-not arc becomes annoying; and the historical mystery is somewhat convoluted, but overall, the book is an interesting, engaging read.
More of the same from White and protagonist Mellie, which will please fans immensely.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-451-24059-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: New American Library
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.
Another reboot of Jane Austen?!? Hadlow pulls it off in a smart, heartfelt novel devoted to bookish Mary, middle of the five sisters in Pride and Prejudice.
Part 1 recaps Pride and Prejudice through Mary’s eyes, climaxing with the humiliating moment when she sings poorly at a party and older sister Elizabeth goads their father to cut her off in front of everyone. The sisters’ friend Charlotte, who marries the unctuous Mr. Collins after Elizabeth rejects him, emerges as a pivotal character; her conversations with Mary are even tougher-minded here than those with Elizabeth depicted by Austen. In Part 2, two years later, Mary observes on a visit that Charlotte is deferential but remote with her husband; she forms an intellectual friendship with the neglected and surprisingly nice Mr. Collins that leads to Charlotte’s asking Mary to leave. In Part 3, Mary finds refuge in London with her kindly aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. Mrs. Gardiner is the second motherly woman, after Longbourn housekeeper Mrs. Hill, to try to undo the psychic damage wrought by Mary’s actual mother, shallow, status-obsessed Mrs. Bennet, by building up her confidence and buying her some nice clothes (funded by guilt-ridden Lizzy). Sure enough, two suitors appear: Tom Hayward, a poetry-loving lawyer who relishes Mary’s intellect but urges her to also express her feelings; and William Ryder, charming but feckless inheritor of a large fortune, whom naturally Mrs. Bennet loudly favors. It takes some maneuvering to orchestrate the estrangement of Mary and Tom, so clearly right for each other, but debut novelist Hadlow manages it with aplomb in a bravura passage describing a walking tour of the Lake District rife with seething complications furthered by odious Caroline Bingley. Her comeuppance at Mary’s hands marks the welcome final step in our heroine’s transformation from a self-doubting wallflower to a vibrant, self-assured woman who deserves her happy ending. Hadlow traces that progression with sensitivity, emotional clarity, and a quiet edge of social criticism Austen would have relished.
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-12941-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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