#BookReview: The Guests on South Battery by Karen White

I received a review copy

southbattSummary:

New York Times bestselling author Karen White invites you to explore the brick-walked streets of Charleston, where historic mansions house the memories of years gone by, and restless spirits refuse to fade away…

With her extended maternity leave at its end, Melanie Trenholm is less than thrilled to leave her new husband and beautiful twins to return to work, especially when she’s awoken by a phone call with no voice on the other end—and the uneasy feeling that the ghostly apparitions that have stayed silent for more than a year are about to invade her life once more.

But her return to the realty office goes better than she could have hoped, with a new client eager to sell the home she recently inherited on South Battery. Most would treasure living in one of the grandest old homes in the famous historic district of Charleston, but Jayne Smith would rather sell hers as soon as possible, guaranteeing Melanie a quick commission.

Despite her stroke of luck, Melanie can’t deny that spirits—both malevolent and benign—have started to show themselves to her again. One is shrouded from sight, but appears whenever Jayne is near. Another arrives when an old cistern is discovered in Melanie’s backyard on Tradd Street.

Melanie knows nothing good can come from unearthing the past. But some secrets refuse to stay buried….

Review:

While I haven’t read the other titles in the Tradd Street series, I am quite familiar with Karen White and have read plenty from her and quite enjoy her books. I do like a bit of mystery in my reads, and I like when the past and present are somehow linked, so this sounded like a good one for me. I really did end up enjoying it, and found it hard to put down. The mystery had me befuddled right until the very end, but it was that kind of mystery that I kept thinking I could get the puzzle pieced together if I just read one more page…one more page…one more page. The only thing I didn’t love was our main character Melanie. She rubbed me the wrong way quite often in the book, not wanting to take responsibility for certain things like her weight, and hiding things from her husband yet constantly getting mad when he hid something from her. Even the end, where it becomes evident the Tradd Street series is not over, she once again decided to hide something from Jack, and that really irked me. Minus that, a really good read, quite spooky at times, and an attention keeper.

4 stars