[third and fourth books]

Because I'm an overachiever, we've got another two-fer this week! I decided to combine them into one post, just to see how I liked it. Also they were part of a series so it just seemed to make sense.

Source

Up first was Karen White's The Girl on Legare Street, sequel to last week's The House on Tradd Street.

Plot
Melanie Middleton has only recently come to terms with the psychic ability she's firmly ignored since childhood. She's also recently faced down ghosts, reconciled with her now-sober father, inherited an historic (albeit dilapidated home) and met the most obnoxious man alive. Then out of the blue, the mother who abandoned her as a small child contacts her: she's moving back to Charleston and wants Middleton to help buy the old family home on Legare Street. Turns out the house comes with a lot more than just some really tacky attempts at re-decorating. It comes with a dark family secret that the ghostly inhabitants would rather not have uncovered. Middleton must learn to work with her mother if they're going to reclaim the house as their own.

Review
Legare Street is just as well done as Tradd Street. The usual cast of characters is there and the relationship between Trenholm and Middleton continues to evolve. Like Tradd Street, the book feels authentic. The ghosts and the psychic abilities aren't hokey. You feel like you're in Charleston. Sure sometimes I just wanted to pop Middleton upside the head and tell her to move on already but there was something that still bound me to her. Legare Street is also a little more frightening than Tradd Street: the ghosts are more forceful and insistent from the very beginning. Overall this was another solid novel from Karen White. I couldn't wait to finish it and start the next one to see what happens to the gang, especially because this one ends with quite the unexpected twist.

Source

My second book was the third book in the Tradd Street series: The Strangers on Montagu Street.

Plot
Having successfully exorcised the ghosts from two family homes, the gang is getting quite adept at solving old family mysteries. But nothing could prepare them for the sudden arrival of Jack Trenholm's thirteen-year old daughter, Nola. As it turns out, Trenholm's old college girlfriend left South Carolina for California without telling him an important tidbit of information: she was pregnant and he was going to be a father. Thirteen years later Trenholm finally learns that his daughter exists when she show's up on Melanie Middleton's doorstep. To help Nola feel more comfortable in her new home, Trenholm's parents buy her an antique dollhouse that comes with a lot more than dolls and furniture. Instead the dollhouse also comes with some angry ghosts and dark family secrets that the gang must unravel before they consume Nola.

Review
All of my previous reviews still stand: everything from Charleston to the characters feels very authentic. But there's something else that I really like about this whole series. In many of White's books, things wrap up neatly and the couple realizes how badly they need each other. Everyone rides off happily into the sunset to start their new lives together. That's one of the things I like about the books. But not these three. The Tradd Street series is very different and that different just works. Instead of being infuriating and making me want to walk away, the different keeps me intrigued. I can't elaborate much further without giving too much away. But I can say this: whenever book 4 comes out, I will be reading it.


I also wanted to give everyone a little head's up: next week I probably won't be posting the fifth book. I'm taking advantage of being ahead of schedule to read the rather lengthy Pillars of the Earth.