Better Homes and Hauntings

by Molly Harper

Author of the beloved Half Moon Hollow series of vampire romances (Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs), Molly Harper has created a standalone paranormal romance in which a dilapidated haunted house could bring star-crossed lovers together—if it doesn’t kill them first!

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.

• ISBN10: 1476706034
• ISBN13: 9781476706030
• Publish Date: 24 June 2014
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Pocket Books
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Berls]

Yes I realize I JUST marked this as currently reading but it is #deweys24hourreadathon today and I did start it around 11am and then listen non stop while doing errands.

This was so fun! I loved the two threaded story, with the ghost mystery in the background and all the possessions and hauntings that went with it. And then the primary story - all these interesting people living together while renovating an old family mansion, essentially trapped on an island together. As always, Harper wrote fun characters that are hard not to love. Was a great choice for the readathon. Especially with Ronconi narrating to keep me engaged.

[kimbacaffeinate]

Caffeinated Aspects:

• Better Homes and Hauntings is a standalone paranormal romance filled with humor, a benevolent spirit and diverse group of people working to restore an old family mansion.

• The setting is fantastic. The home is on an island surrounded by water and reached by boat. The house built in the early 1900’s has secret nooks, a ballroom and tons of atmosphere perfect for spirits.

• The cast is very diverse from the tech geek to the gardener creating for entertaining meals, feuds and friendships. We get multiple Pov’s, and the narrator did an excellent job of bringing forth their personalities which added to the listener’s enjoyment. I loved the banter, late night girls’ talk, the bickering and of course, the romances that developed.

• Ghosts, old family legends, murder and more made Better Homes and Hauntings interesting. I loved the old family tragedy, the hauntings and the slow build as the entities’ anger escalated. Back-stories and threats from Nina’s past had me fully engaged.

• The romances were very different. Nina and Deacon’s romance so cute, sweet, awkward and funny. Cindy and Jack had history, and theirs was a haters to lovers’ romance that made for a hilarious listen.

• Amanda Ronconi did an excellent job narrating and quickly gave a unique voice to each character making the transition from each character seamless. The humor and hauntings were enhanced by her skill set.

Decaffeinated Aspects:

• While we get a few creep-tastic moments, for the most part this is a G haunting, and I would have loved darker tones.

• The tale is predictable, and moments lagged a little, but overall this was entertaining.

• A little something was missing, and I cannot quite figure out exactly what I needed. Perhaps because no aspect of the tale was the main focus, and multiple POVs left me wanting more depth.This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer

[EBookObsessed]

As a self-made billionaire, software genius and only successful Whitney in the last 100 years, Deacon Whitney wants to prove once and for all that there is no family curse against the Whitneys. What better way than to reclaim the family estate which he just inherited out on Whitney island. But anyone within 100 miles has heard the rumors that the mansion is haunted, and so in order to keep his key people working, he needs to keep them with him on the island, before the houses creaks and moans scare them from the job for good.

He has chosen his friend Jake Rumson, to be his architect, Cindy Ellis to help with the clean up and restoration, and Nina Linden to design the landscaping. Deacon hired Nina for her talent, but he will admit that there is more to his interest in the lovely gardener than just her choice of plants.

Everything is going well once everyone arrives and the work begins. Is that because the “ghosts” are quiet or because no one wants to be the first to admit that they’re the crazy one who is seeing ghosts?

The real question is whether there really is the ghost of Catherine Whitney, supposedly murdered by her jealous husband Gerald, haunting the island or are the things going bump in the night made of flesh and bone? There are several family members and overlooked competitors who have various reasons why they don’t want this job to be completed.

Whether the ghost is real or not may be the least of their problems since the attacks are getting more and more violent as the days go on. These meddling kids better hurry up and solve this mystery quickly before they become the next victims of the Whitney curse.

THOUGHTS:
There are no werewolves and vampires this time, but Molly Harper has definitely written a ghost story which is a grown-ups version of a Scooby Doo mystery. Although I miss her beloved characters, her writing is still as entertaining in this stand alone novel as in her Nice Girl and Naked Werewolf series. But unusual in a Molly Harper novel is the various POVs. It jumps between Deacon, Nina, Jake, Cindy and Deacon’s cousin, Dotty. Her novels are mainly 1st person narratives with a few exceptions.

Deacon Whitney may be a billionaire software genius, but he is still deep down a geek and Geeks in Love are always adorable as he tries to awkwardly flirt with Nina and gets excited when told that Nina likes him. Nina is just as much a geek as Deacon and she gets all his SciFi and fantasy references which just makes more cartoon hearts float around Deacon’s head.


Cousin Dotty just shows up in the middle of the renovation determined to document the renovation for her book while she searches for Catherine’s missing diaries. Dotty wants to prove that Catherine’s husband, Gerald, didn’t kill her. Dotty is quirky and flaky and hasn’t finished one project yet, but you can’t help but love her.

We also have a secondary love interest story going on between Cindy and Jake which was interesting. Jake keeps trying to get close to Cindy, but all she does is growl at him. What Jake doesn’t remember is that he dated Cindy years ago, and never called her again after their second date. Now he’s looking at Cindy with interest and Cindy refuses to tell him why she’s so pissed of at him.

This is all part of the POV changes throughout the story, which includes the different romances and the various ghost sightings by the various characters.

As always Molly Harper gives us fun story with great dialog and this time with a little spooky added in.

Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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