A Night in a Haunted House

Murder on the House (Haunted Home Renovation #3)  by Juliet Blackwell (Obsidian mass market, 4 December 2012).

Mel Turner is becoming accustomed to her ability to see ghosts.  Well, a bit less freaked out by it, anyway.

When a couple offer her the chance to renovate their historic house, she leaps at it.  She's even intrigued by the idea that they want to promote it as a "haunted bed and breakfast" inn.  Then she learns that her company is not the only one up for the job, and to win the competition she'll have to spend an entire night in it.

Initially, Mel doesn't see this as a problem, since she met the in-house ghost 11-year-old Annabelle on her first visit to the house.  What's not immediately clear to her is that Annabelle is not the only ghost in the house.

Juliet Blackwell has made Mel a realistic combination of assured (business) and insecure (relationships).  She loves restoring historic houses, and knows she's good at it.  But since her divorce, she's had difficulty allowing her romantic side to show, though that may (slowly) be changing, along with acceptance of her ability to communicate with spirits.

Though this is a cozy series, it does have a few scary scenes in it.  But this wimpy reviewer read (and enjoyed) the book, even before bedtime, with no nightmares.

The volume includes a preview of the next book in Blackwell's other supernatural series, Tarnished and Torn, due in July 2013.



FTC full disclosure:  Many thanks to the publisher for a review copy of the book.