78. The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

listened on Libby

368pgs.

2022
Adult Contemporary Ghost Story/Fantasy
Finished 11/16/2024
Goodreads rating: 3.92
My rating: 3

My comments: Well, I didn't take down notes on this and it's a good six weeks later.  I do remember the story, and I remember shaking my head about some of it....her relationship with siblings, why she never returned home, and why she'd do all the writing she did as a ghostwriter for a hugely successful series and not be compensated better....

Goodreads synopsis:  Florence Day is the ghostwriter for one of the most prolific romance authors in the industry, and she has a problem—after a terrible breakup, she no longer believes in love. It’s as good as dead.

When her new editor, a too-handsome mountain of a man, won’t give her an extension on her book deadline, Florence prepares to kiss her career goodbye. But then she gets a phone call she never wanted to receive, and she must return home for the first time in a decade to help her family bury her beloved father.

For ten years, she’s run from the town that never understood her, and even though she misses the sound of a warm Southern night and her eccentric, loving family and their funeral parlor, she can’t bring herself to stay. Even with her father gone, it feels like nothing in this town has changed. And she hates it.

Until she finds a ghost standing at the funeral parlor’s front door, just as broad and infuriatingly handsome as ever, and he’s just as confused about why he’s there as she is.

Romance is most certainly dead... but so is her new editor, and his unfinished business will have her second-guessing everything she’s ever known about love stories.

A disillusioned millennial ghostwriter who, quite literally, has some ghosts of her own, has to find her way back home in this sparkling adult debut from national bestselling author Ashley Poston.

78. Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff

Book borrowed from CCLS

2021, Dial Book for Young Readers
188 pgs.
Mid Gr CRF
Finished 7/24/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.30 - 371 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: contemporary rural Vermont

First line/s: "It's strange living in our old house now that Uncle Roderick is dead."

My comments: It's very difficult to review this book without spoilers, but I feel it's very important to read it without knowing exactly what is going to happen.  It's written beautifully. From the beginning I knew I wouldn't be able to put it into my new school's library, being a Catholic School and all the problems that Catholics seem to have with anything LGBTQ.  I need this job, so I won't fight that externally, only internally.  And now, spoilers are coming, so if you have not read this book and even have the tiniest notion you might, do not read further.  Bug, the protagonist, goes through an incredible transformation of identity in the summer s/he turns 13 and is getting ready for middle school.  Bug has been born with female "parts," and has been raised as a girl.  He discovers the reason that he never really sees himself when he looks in the mirror, just a copy of himself.  He discovers so much more than that as well...that he is transgender and immediately begins referring to himself as HE instead of she.  Everyone in his life is so understanding, no one bullies him or makes him feel in any way awkward or uncomfortable, neither kids he's grown up with or administrators in the new-to-him middle school.  How I would like to very much believe this would be the reality for kids like him!  In one of the reviews I read about this book, Betsy Bird says that she thinks that some kids are just getting tired of books and movies full of bullying and meanness (my words/translation).  I sure hope she's right!  The afterword by the author is very enlightening, I'm guessing this story - or a big part of it - is autobiographical.  

Goodreads synopsis:  A haunting ghost story about navigating grief, growing up, and growing into a new gender identity

          It's the summer before middle school and eleven-year-old Bug's best friend Moira has decided the two of them need to use the next few months to prepare. For Moira, this means figuring out the right clothes to wear, learning how to put on makeup, and deciding which boys are cuter in their yearbook photos than in real life. But none of this is all that appealing to Bug, who doesn't particularly want to spend more time trying to understand how to be a girl. Besides, there's something more important to worry about: A ghost is haunting Bug's eerie old house in rural Vermont...and maybe haunting Bug in particular. As Bug begins to untangle the mystery of who this ghost is and what they're trying to say, an altogether different truth comes to light--Bug is transgender.

12. A Stitch in Time by Kelley Armstrong

listened on Audible
narrated by Samantha Brentmoor
Unabridged audio (10:39)
2020
336 pgs.
Adult Time Travel/Romance/Ghost Story
Finished 2/9/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.07 - 2598 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary and 18th century England/American protagonist

First line/s: "Six months ago I inherited a haunted house."

My comments: This time travel/ghost story is written by one of my favorite mystery series writers, so I though I would try it while I wait for number six in the Rockton series to appear.  Wow, is it ever different than the Rockton series!  Bronwyn is able to slip back and forth in time as long as she is in one particular room in the Thorn manor house in England.  One major problem s that this manor house has a number of ghosts - ghosts that had chased her away for 23 years.  In those years she has married, lost her husband, Michael, to a brain tumor, and only returns to the manor when it was bequest to her by her aunt.  And upon her return she is whisked back and forth in time once again. She is reunited with William Thorne, the young man who she had adored as a child....who has missed her and waited for her to return.  And now she has a mystery to solve.  Again very different from the Rockton series, but a fun read nontheless.

Goodreads synopsis:  Thorne Manor has always been haunted...and it has always haunted Bronwyn Dale. As a young girl, Bronwyn could pass through a time slip in her great-aunt’s house, where she visited William Thorne, a boy her own age, born two centuries earlier. After a family tragedy, the house was shuttered and Bronwyn was convinced that William existed only in her imagination.
          Now, twenty years later Bronwyn inherits Thorne Manor. And when she returns, William is waiting.
          William Thorne is no longer the boy she remembers. He’s a difficult and tempestuous man, his own life marred by tragedy and a scandal that had him retreating to self-imposed exile in his beloved moors. He’s also none too pleased with Bronwyn for abandoning him all those years ago.
          As their friendship rekindles and sparks into something more, Bronwyn must also deal with ghosts in the present version of the house. Soon she realizes they are linked to William and the secret scandal that drove him back to Thorne Manor. To build a future, Bronwyn must confront the past.

92. The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

listened to audible borrowed from Bosler Library
narrated by Brittany Pressley and Kirsten Potter
Unabridged audio (11:00) though my "timer" said 12:19 at the end of listening
2020 Berkley and
327 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 6/6/2020
Goodreads rating:  4.10 - 25,405 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: 1982 & 2017 Fell, NY

First line/s:  "The night it all ended, Vivian was alone."

My comments:n  A ghost story.  A real, believable ghost story - and I don't believe in ghosts.  A serial killer.  Two 20-year-old protagonists, 35 years apart. 1982 and 2017.  Aunt and niece, both following the same clues and encountering the same ghosts.  A good story.

Goodreads synopsis:  The secrets lurking in a rundown roadside motel ensnare a young woman, just as they did her aunt thirty-five years before, in this new atmospheric suspense novel from the national bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls.
          Upstate NY, 1982. Every small town like Fell, New York, has a place like the Sun Down Motel. Some customers are from out of town, passing through on their way to someplace better. Some are locals, trying to hide their secrets. Viv Delaney works as the night clerk to pay for her move to New York City. But something isn't right at the Sun Down, and before long she's determined to uncover all of the secrets hidden…

27. Bellamy and the Brute by Alicia Michaels

read on my iPhone
2017 Clean Teen Publishing
 300 pgs.
YA Ghost Story/Fantasy w/mostly RF
Finished 5/3/17
Goodreads rating: 3.92 - 302 ratings
My rating:  2
Setting: Contemporary Wellhollow Springs

First line/s: "Loose gravel crunched beneath her boots as Special Agent Camila Vasquez navigated the almost-empty parking lot to her car."

My comments:   The first half of the book was quite interesting but, for me, rapidly deteriorated in the second half.  Much too much lovey-dovey, kissy stuff and more telling than showing.  Not enough information about why the bad guys were bad guys.  The ghosts weren't connected enough and could have been tackled in a really interesting way ... but no such luck. All in all, a disappointment.

Goodreads synopsis:   When Bellamy McGuire is offered a summer job babysitting for the wealthy Baldwin family, she’s reluctant to accept. After all, everyone in town knows about the mysterious happenings at the mansion on the hill—including the sudden disappearance of the Baldwin’s eldest son, Tate. The former football star and Golden Boy of Wellhollow Springs became a hermit at the age of sixteen, and no one has seen or heard from him since. Rumors abound as to why, with whisperings about a strange illness that has caused deformity…turned him into a real-life monster. Bellamy wants to dismiss these rumors as gossip, but when she’s told that if she takes the job she must promise to never, ever visit the 3rd floor of the mansion, she begins to wonder if there really is some dark truth being hidden there.
          Tate’s condition may not be the only secret being kept at Baldwin House. There are gaps in the family’s financial history that don’t add up, and surprising connections with unscrupulous characters. At night there are strange noises, unexplained cold drafts, and the electricity cuts out. And then there are the rose petals on the staircase. The rose petals that no one but Bellamy seems to be able to see. The rose petals that form a trail leading right up to the 3rd floor, past the portrait of a handsome young man, and down a dark hallway where she promised she would never, ever go…
          As Bellamy works to unravel the mysteries of Baldwin House and uncover the truth about Tate, she realizes that she is in way over her head, in more ways than one. Can her bravery and determination help to right the wrongs of the past and free the young man whose story has captured her heart?

54. Darkscope - J. Carson Black (Writing as Margaret Falk)

read on my Kindle
it says 2010 as a publishing date, but I think it's older than that...
349 pgs.
Adult murder mystery/ghost story
Finished Friday, 10/7/16 - spent the day reading
Goodreads rating:  3.57 - 107 ratings
My rating: 4/ quite an enjoyable read, especially because of the setting, which was a major character in itself!
Setting: Bisbee, Arizona and it surroundings....1930's to 1980's

First line/s: PROLOGUE:  "Lucas McCord knew his death was imminent.  It didn't matter how he knew.  Like an animal searching for a quiet place to die, he had already retreated into that part of his sould reserved for waiting."
PART ONE:  "The volunteer caretaker at the Bisbee Historical Society whisked a feather duster over the display case near the window.  And halted, mid-whisk."

My comments:  The only "ghost" stories I've ever read have been for kids.  This adult ghost story was great fun for me on a number of levels.  I LOVED the setting - Bisbee, Arizona (with forays to Tucson and the area/s between) including lots of explanation and history.  And the story was multi-layered and a really interesting mystery.  I actually could have done without the ghost parts (I think it could have been written as an un-ghostly mystery and been even better), but I enjoy the occasional fantasy, and so much the better if it's about an interesting mystery.

Goodreads synopsis:  After photographer Chelsea McCord’s marriage falls apart, her great uncle Bob talks her into starting a new life in 1980s Bisbee, Arizona, the historic mining town with a notorious past. Bob's father, mining magnate Lucas McCord, helped build Bisbee in the early 20th century.
     Chelsea discovers an old box camera in a dusty trunk, the film still inside. Sfjhe uses it to photograph the town. Is it her imagination, or does the stench of death emanate from the camera’s inner workings?
     And when Chelsea looks through a viewfinder wavy with age, she sees children in gunny sack clothes, their eyes dark and grainy. Children from the 1920’s. She sees a young man and woman at a train station that no longer exists. The same young woman appears in each of the camera's photographs.
     As the past superimposes itself on the present, Chelsea learns the secret of her powerful family’s dark legacy. With one click of the shutter, she has unleashed a pure and hungry evil that will consume everyone she loves.
     Pitted against a supernatural force and stalked by a psychopathic killer, Chelsea rediscovers her capacity to love as she fights to save her beloved uncle–and herself.
     “Skillfully blending elements of mystery, horror and a nice touch of irony, DARKSCOPE weaves a fascinating spell. 4 ½ stars."
---Frank A. Loporto, Rave Reviews
     “Buy the book and send it to people you want to visit here. If they aren’t scared away by the plot, they’ll soon come in.”
---Bisbee Gazette

36. Skylight Confessions - Alice Hoffman

Audio read by Mare Winningham
6 unabridged cds (7.5 hrs.)
rating:  interesting story, holds attention, depressing and clever
272 pgs.
2007 Hachette Audio
Alice Hoffman's 19th novel

Setting:  Contemporary small-town Connecticut with bits of NYC
OSS:  Arlyn (Arly) Singer, at 17, enters a more-or-less loveless marriage with John Moody thinking he's her destiny.....dying a few short years later after both partners have dabbled in infidelity, leaving a disturbed son, Sam, and baby daughter, Blanca.

The story begins with Arly, switching to Blanca and then to the governess that raises Sam, Blana, and John & his new wife's child.  Secrets are uncovered, ghosts are watched, lives unfold through the years.  It's sad, filled with heartache, and pretty much a downer to listen to, although I was quite mesmerized (beautiful reading by Mare Winningham) by the writing.

15. Unraveling Isobel - Eileen Cook

2012, Simon Pulse (Simon & Schuster)
TPPL Teen
290 pgs.
Rating:  2.5/It was okay

Setting:  An island off the coast of Washington state, big enough for its own high school.
OSS:  When Isobel's mother marries a guy with a "hot" son her own age, she has to move to a strange high school during her senior year and deal with weird, ghostly things that happen in the huge old mansion she must now inhabit.
1st sentence/s:  "When the minister asked if anyone knew any reason why these two shouldn't be married, I should have said something.

Isobel's mother is a self-centered woman who has never been a particularly good mother, and this sort of things irritates me (of course).  It's a real happenstance, and I like that it was written that way.  The new stepfather, Dick, has only been widowed for seven months, so that's cause for head scratching and great and immediate questioning about his   The developing relationship between Isobel and her stepbrother Nathaniel is.....interesting.  And then there's the weird happenings in Isobel's bedroom - the room that used to house Nathaniel's drowned sister.
A fast read, perfect for reluctant teen readers. I found it predictable, but I've read many similar books. It went fast and was interesting, but isn't a standout for me. There were also a number of misspellings that hadn't been caught or edited, and this bothered me (although it shouldn't have!)

72. The Tale of Halcyon Crane - Wendy Webb

read on my phone through Kindle
2010, Henry Holt & Co.
352 pages
written for adults
Rating:  It was okay
Some reviewers called this an "eerie gothic mystery." It was a ghost story, but I didn't find it particularly eerie, or even too mysterious.

Setting:  Contemporary Grand Manitou Island in Michigan
OSS:  After receiving a letter from the mother Hallie has always thought was dead, she travels to her ancestral home to be accosted by a group of ghosts and memories of her NOW dead mother.  Fast, implausbile love interest as well.

Never Say Boo - Robin Pulver

Illustrated by Deb Lucke
Holiday House, 2009
$16.95
32 pages
Rating: 2.5
Endpapers: black with dancing skeletons (there are no skeletons in the story, only human kids and one ghost....)

This book has a silly premise - that ghosts walk around like humans, living in haunted houses and going to school. In this story, Gordon, a ghost, has moved with his parents across town and must now go to a closer school. He is certain that kids will be scared of him because he will be the only ghost at this new school. At his old school, all the kids had been ghosts. And he knew how hard it was to make friends.

The first thing that happens is that his teacher, although she is expecting him, is still so frightened that she passes out. When she comes to she tries to assure all the kids that everything is all right - but the day continues badly for Gordon. All the questions the teacher asks have BOO somewhere in the answer, and he knows that his BOO is really scary, so even though he knows the answers, he doesn't dare contribute. Then at lunch his mom has packed scary surprises in his lunchbox, so the kids are all weirded out. But then something happens that makes him a hero and he instantly becomes everyone's best friend.

Okay. I don't know. Just didn't do it for me, although there are some great words used in the book. And some fun word play.

I also like the illustrations and the endpapers. Lots of black - where white would normally be. Although the story has nothing to do with Halloween (nothing to do with trick-or-treating, witches, pumpkins, etc) this would be the time to share it. So it has it's place as a not-so-scary story about not-scary-at-all ghosts. I guess.

Robin Pulver's website.
It doesn't look like Deb Lucke has her own website, but see some of her artwork here.

36. Dying to Meet You (43 Old Cemetery Road: Book One) - Kate Klise

Illustrated by M. Sarah Klise (sisters)
Published: April, 2009
Harcourt/HMH
$15.00
160 pgs.
Quick read
Rating: 4
Front endpaper: house floorplans and "slice"
Back endpaper: Pictures and info on interior features

Meet I. B. Grumply (actually, Ignatius), Seymour Hope and his cat, Shadow, and Olive C. Spence. A grupmy, 60ish, has-been author, an abandoned 11 year-old boy, and an almost 200 year-old ghost are the protagonists in the story, set in Ghastly, Illinois, in a falling down old house on 43 Cemetery Road.

Grumply has rented the house for the summer, hoping that it will help loosen his writer's block so that he can write the 13th book in his children's "Ghost Tamer" series. He does not realize that the house comes with an abandoned 11 year-old and the house's original owner, the ghost of an unpublished writer of graphic epistolary novels. Through a series of letters we meet them, attend to some of the goings-on in the town, and watch as they build a relationship, then a family.

This is an entertaining, funny book that took no time at all to read, with all sorts of lighthearted nods to the dead and macabre, particularly with names that are tongue-in-cheek plays on words....the realtor, Anita Sale, the lawyer, E. Gadds; the book publisher, Paige Turner; M. Balm, the chief librarian; Barry A. Lyve, pet store owner.....to name a few.