Melanie is only going through the motions of living since refusing Jack’s marriage proposal. She misses him desperately, but her broken heart is the least of her problems. Despite an insistence that she can raise their child alone, Melanie is completely unprepared for motherhood, and she struggles to complete renovations on her house on Tradd Street before the baby arrives.
When Melanie is roused one night by the sound of a ghostly infant crying, she chooses to ignore it. She simply does not have the energy to deal with one more crisis. That is, until the remains of a newborn buried in an old christening gown are found hidden in the foundation of her house.
As the hauntings on Tradd Street slowly become more violent, Melanie decides to find out what caused the baby’s untimely death, uncovering the love, loss, and betrayal that color the house’s history—and threaten her claim of ownership. But can she seek Jack’s help without risking her heart? For in revealing the secrets of the past, Melanie also awakens the malevolent presence that has tried to keep the truth hidden for decades.…
Comment: This is the fourth book in the Tradd House series by author Karen White. The main story line features Melanie Middleton, a realtor, and the fact she sees ghost, a family inheritance so to say, has always affected her life and emotions but now she is 40, she is finally close to accept this side of her.
Warning: there will be some spoilers related to the previous books!
This story begins very soon after the events of the previous story. Melanie is pregnant, still at odds with Jack over everything, especially the fact he didn't use the same words when she told him she was in love with him. To make things even more complicated, she is back at her Tradd street house but something new has been found after foundation work, this time the remains of a baby. Suddenly, she starts hearing the cry of a baby and smelling roses, meaning there is more than one ghost in the premises. Since the problems don't seem to stop, Melanie and her mother investigate, Jack helps too and this means they must deal with their issues, but can Melanie learn her lesson, that sometimes she must deal with things head on and not simply ignoring them?
I admit I didn't feel the same notion of rightness about this book as I did about the previous one, when all pieces seemed to fit perfectly. Nevertheless, I like the world building and I can focus quite well on the characters and their challenges, so I can't say I'm ever bored and more than that, I tend to feel engaged very quickly to the story, as if I'm reconnecting with familiar people.
It is a bit difficult to mention certain things without spoilers from previous books, the ghost references change from book to book most of the time (new ghost I mean) but we still follow the lives of Melanie and the other characters around her, and things evolve, change, so we feel like getting updated on the lives of someone we might feel close enough to, so that what happens to them matters. For some readers, this might feel reductive but I personally like the simplistic details, the mundane ones, somehow everything kind of works for me.
The ghost business here was interesting, who could be the baby buried and now found, how and why did someone hide him by burying him in such a spot, and still with a christening gown? Although the investigation seems to made a bit simpler due to the fact there is always someone handy to help, such as the librarian Yvonne, I don't feel this was badly done, after all the setting is Charleston and the place is known for its historical richness. Still, as things were uncovered, I wondered how the author would solve things, since I already knew the main characters would be successful somehow!
The complicated details were well placed, yes, but my real interest was on following Melanie as she went on with her life being pregnant. Melanie is one of those practical people, fixed on order and well planned events, and being pregnant wasn't always smooth cruising. But deep down, I feel Melanie is just a vulnerable woman who was way more affected by her childhood troubles - ghost and family related - than what she wanted to admit, so I was looking for the moment she gave in and finally trusted others with some of her fragility. Being pregnant forced her to think about different expectations for her life and even the silly stuff like her love for sweets now being barred over nutritional needs making her cranky was something cute to watch.
As for romance, I can safely say things finally progressed into the scenario many readers anticipated. This isn't one of those sugary styled stories where people act like teenagers, and since we have Melanie's POV, things never stop being a bit more serious, but I liked how she and Jack finally talked as they should have from the start. I think perhaps the author planned this to be the last book in the series, since it feels as if all threads - or the necessary ones - were dealt with and the end is conclusive. Of course there's room for more, as it is obvious when 3 more books were released, but if things had been finished here for good, I don't think much would be missing.
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