Better Homes and Hauntings by Molly Harper
Publication Date: June 24, 2014
Reviewed By: Reading in Pajamas/ Donna
Rated: 3.5 Stars
When Nina Linden is hired to landscape a private island off the New England coast, she sees it as her chance to rebuild her failing business after being cheated by her unscrupulous ex. She never expects that her new client, software mogul Deacon Whitney, would see more in her than just a talented gardener. Deacon has paid top dollar to the crews he’s hired to renovate the desolate Whitney estate—he had to, because the bumps, thumps, and unexplained sightings of ghostly figures in nineteenth-century dress are driving workers away faster than he can say “Boo.”
But Nina shows no signs of being scared away, even as she experiences some unnerving apparitions herself. And as the two of them work closely together to restore the mansion’s faded glory, Deacon realizes that he’s found someone who doesn’t seem to like his fortune more than himself—while Nina may have finally found the one man she can trust with her bruised and battered heart.
But something on the island doesn’t believe in true love…and if Nina and Deacon can’t figure out how to put these angry spirits to rest, their own love doesn’t stand a ghost of a chance.
This was a fun fast-paced ghost story that kept you guessing through the whole thing. The romance was light through most of the book but heated up toward the end and flowed nicely with the storyline. I loved that Deacon was a geek as it added a fun wrinkle to the romance. The group of characters interacted with each other naturally and the banter was quite humorous. They made quite the ensemble to counteract the ghostly and human dangers lurking about. All in all a fun read.
*Review copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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When Molly Harper was eight years old, she set up a “writing office” in her parents’ living room, complete with an old manual typewriter and a toy phone. And she (very slowly) pecked out the story of her third-grade class taking a trip around the world and losing a kid in each city. She had a dark sense of humor even then.
When Molly was considerably older, she headed for Western Kentucky University, where she majored in print journalism. After graduation, she landed a job with The Paducah Sun and married her high school sweetheart, David, a local police officer. After six years at the newspaper, Molly took a more family-friendly secretarial position at a local church office.
Her husband worked nights and Molly was alone with their small child in the “The Apartment of Lost Souls.” A big fan of vampire movies and TV shows, she decided to write a vampire romance novel. Molly created Jane Jameson, a bit of an accidental loser. Jane is single, almost 30, and a librarian working in Half-Moon Hollow, Ky. She has become a permanent fixture on her Mama’s prayer list. And despite the fact that she’s pretty good at her job, she just got canned so her boss could replace her with someone who occasionally starts workplace fires. Jane drowns her sorrows at the local faux nostalgia-themed sports bar. On her way home, she’s mistaken for a deer and shot by a drunk hunter. And then she wakes up as a vampire. The three-book Jane Jameson series–which includes Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs,Nice Girls Don’t Date Dead Men and Nice Girls Don’t Live Forever—was released in 2009. A fourth and final installment, Nice Girls Don’t Bite Their Neighbors, was released in 2012.
Molly continues stories in the Jane Jameson universe through her Half-Moon Hollow series,Driving Mr. Dead, The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires, Undead Sublet, and A Witch’s Handbook of Kisses and Curses. Undead Sublet is a short story in The Undead in My Bed anthology. A Witch’s Handbook of Kisses and Curses will be released in June 2013. A special free audio holiday novella, I’m Dreaming of an Undead Christmas, was released in December 2013.
Molly will update her popular Naked Werewolf romance series in 2013. How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf, was released in February 2011, quickly followed by The Art of Seducing a Naked Werewolf. A third installment, How to Run With a Naked Werewolf, will be released in December 2013. Her first-ever “haunted house story,” Better Homes and Hauntings, will be released in June 2014.
Molly will launch her first-ever contemporary romance series with My Bluegrass Baby in December 2012. Rhythm and Bluegrass was released in October 2013.
Molly’s books are published by Pocket Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. They are available in print, as e-books and audio books at major book stores and on Amazon. Molly is a native of Kentucky. She lives in Paducah with her husband and children.
Website: http://mollyharper.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Molly-Harper-Author/138734162865557?ref=ts&fref=ts
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mollyharperauth
Books: http://mollyharper.com/books/
