It was the art work on this novel's cover that drew my eye. And I've read a couple of other Karen White books in the past. This book is the 7th and final book in the Tradd Street series. I'm unfamiliar with the series, but this was ok as a "stand alone" story. I probably won't read any of the first 6 books in the series. I did love her novels The Color of Light and The Memory of Water. This one in no way is as good as those two.
STORY SUMMARY
Melanie Trenholm needs to think about her future. But she doesn't want to. She has been involved in some devastating events in the last few months, and now that Christmas is over she just wants to focus on her family. She has been recently separated from her husband Jack, at his request. She also has twin toddler children, Sarah and JJ and a step daughter, Nola. Nola's mom is dead and so Nola came to live with her dad (Jack) and new step mom a few years ago. She is a teenager about to leave for college.
Melanie's career is in real estate and her best friend Veroncia and her husband Michael have hired her to help them look for a new home. Veronica and Michael have a teen daughter named Lyndsay who happens to be Nola's best friend.
Melanie's historic home is still being restored and her life seems very chaotic. Then to make matters worse, her long time nemesis Marc Longo comes to them with a proposition: he wants them to allow their Tradd Street home to be the setting for a new film that his best selling book is based on. If they allow this, he will help Jack re-establish his writing career. Melanie is hesitant but Jack jumps at the chance. There is "bad blood" between them and Marc because Marc basically stole Jack's idea for the book and then made sure Jack's own publishers would drop him.
And Melanie's gut instincts are correct: Marc has an ulterior motive: he wants to get inside their historic home to look for the supposed half of the Hope Diamond that is purported to be buried somewhere on the property.
Melanie, however, has an unexpected ally....the ghost of a girl from the Civil War era.....this girl warns her of threats to the family. And this girl....this ghost...is not the only spirit to haunt Melanie.....a spiteful ghost...seems to be determined in stopping Melanie from investigating the decades old murder of Veronica's sister Adrienne. This particular spirit will stop at nothing to protect its secrets....even from beyond the grave.
Melanie and Jack must work together to find the answers before the evil spirits of the past and present destroy everything they have worked for and love.
MY THOUGHTS
This is a stretch....although a cute stretch......personally i don't believe in ghosts and certainly not ones that point us to truth or justice or who try to enact revenge. Yes I believe there are demons...but the book isn't about demons and angels.
That said, this is an easy and fluffy story to read. It's an ongoing family saga apparently (The Tradd Street series) and you don't really need to read the first 6 books to know what is going on as the author does do a good job in filling in the back stories. I appreciated that aspect of the book.
I especially liked Nola and Melanie. Both are strong women, who are independant thinkers and Melanie is even super organized which I can relate to.
I found it endearing that they were still in love even though Jack had reasons to mistrust Melanie. I loved that their marriage survived during the trials and that it ended well.
There were some quirky characters which makes the book fun: Rebecca who is pregnant, obsessed with all things pink and married to Marc Longo. She just is hilarious and very "dumb blond" type of character. Then there is Beau....a bit mysterious......I loved his character as well and got the feeling that he is new to the series. (although I could be wrong).
It is a fast-paced book with many characters but it isn't difficult to keep them straight as they all somehow are either related to each other, or they tie in to the main plot nicely.
The description of Charleston does make me want to put this southern city on my bucket list of places outside NY to visit.
There were a couple of very good quotes that jumped out at me:
"We don't always marry someone we can live with. We marry someone we can't live without." (pg 147, The Attic on Queen Street by Karen White, c. 2021)
"....but then you lick your wounds, pull yourself up, and get to work fixing things because it's not in us to live with a mess. We know that no matter how ad things look, we always figure out how we can fix them." (pg 323)
"Sometimes all it takes is acceptance that you're both wrong. And then hold your breath and take a leap of faith." (pg 341)
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 14 and older.
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this an 8.
5 comments:
Sounds interesting, but I will probably pass on this one because I have so many on hold at the library right now, and I have new one I am starting tonight. Thanks for the review!
I do like the artwork on the cover too! And I do like a good quirky character in a story.
Great review Faith.
I saw this book 'peeking up' from your FFF post and had to take a look! I do like Karen White's books, although, like you, I find some of them better than others. I may pass on this one, at least for now. I have another one on my TBR by her and it's a collaboration with two other authors, called The Forgotten Room.
Oh I've read all in the series and love them!!
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