ghosts!

This is a spin-off of Karen White’s popular Charleston based ‘Tradd Street’ series.

Nola, has stumbled into adulthood, but is trying to move past those times with a fresh start in New Orleans, when she discovers that she must deal with ghosts from her past, as well as new ones.

‘The Shop on Royal Street’ caught my eye primarily because any book set in Louisiana, I need to read it! Growing up in Louisiana, paranormal activities and spirits was always apart of my life. I loved how Karen White enhances the story regarding the paranormal world with an accurate description of how a Southern identifies ghosts.

Full of southern dialect and intrigue, I would recommend this one to all, especially those who are interested in the ‘true’ paranormal world.

Thank you Berkley Books, NetGalley and UpLit for my gifted book in exchange for my honest opinion. ( )

This was such a disappointment. I really enjoyed the Tradd St. series except I found the main character (Melanie) really annoying. I was so excited when I found out about this spin-off focused on Nola.

Karen White just copied Melanie and Jack's personalities onto Nola and Beau. Nola and Melanie were nothing alike in the original but after six years she's her mini me?!

The 'strong independent woman' who is really damaged, fragile, and weak around men gets old real fast. Seriously Michael is just a carbon copy of Marc. ( )

This hard-to-put-down novel is a spin-off from the author's Tradd Street series. Young Nola Trenholm is now a college graduate and working as a researcher of historic buildings in New Orleans. She also bought an old house as a "fixer upper" but is discovering there's more "life" in the house than she anticipated, involving an unsolved murder that occurred there in 1964! She's also dismayed to find that Beau Ryan has moved back to New Orleans and is living with his grandmother. The mystery surrounding the disappearance of his sister during Hurricane Katrina remains cloud over the entire Ryan family. The many paranormal experiences involving Nola's house, along with her tension filled relationship with Beau and her delightfully southern roommate Jolene, combine to make this novel engaging, entertaining, and suspenseful. ( )

2.5**

From the book jacket: After a difficult detour on her road to adulthood, Nola Trenholm is looking to begin anew in New Orleans, and what better way to start her future than with her first house? But the historic fixer-upper she buys comes with even more work than she anticipated, as the house’s previous occupants don’t seem to be ready to depart. Although she can’t communicate with ghosts like her stepmother can, luckily Nola knows someone in New Orleans who is able to – even if he’s the last person on earth she wants anything to with ever again.

My reactions
This is the beginning of a spinoff series from White’s popular Tradd Street novels (which I haven’t read). White has included all the tropes of Southern gothic and chick-lit romance: ghosts, family secrets, an irascible grandmother, enemies-to-friends (lovers), a stereotypical Southern Belle best friend who speaks in cute-n-colorful Southernism.

It was a fast read but completely forgettable. Oh, and White ends the book on a cliffhanger, which I absolutely hate. ( )