Review by Booklist Review
The latest in White's Charleston, South Carolina-set Tradd Street series continues its trademark otherworldly creepiness and intricate human entanglements while also featuring the longing ghosts that hover around Melanie Middleton. When Jack Trenholm, the object of Melanie's conflicted affections, shows up on her doorstep with his alienated teenage daughter and asks whether she can keep the girl for awhile, Melanie warily agrees. Nola is defensive, a touch spoiled, and crying for attention in typical rebellious fashion. Her mother has just died, after all, but her ghost is hanging around. Things take a disturbing turn when Jack's mother buys an antique dollhouse for Nola in an attempt to reach the emotionally closed-off teen. The dollhouse harbors malevolent entities, and they make their presence known. A realistic balance among Melanie and Jack's back-and-forth relationship, Nola's angsty expressions, and the sinister overall tone is achieved with careful flair. Followers of the series will be eerily charmed, and those who enjoy their southern women's fiction with a paranormal twist should gravitate toward this title, as well.--Trevelyan, Julie Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
White's third Tradd Street paranormal (after 2009's The Girl on Legare Street) delivers powerful emotions, weird old Charleston architecture, and a hint of mystery as psychic realtor Melanie Middleton and her boyfriend, bestselling author Jack Trenholm, navigate their treacherous relationship. Nola, Jack's 13-year-old daughter, adds an extra challenge by arriving on his doorstep from California after her drug-addicted songwriter mother's suicide, with her mother's guitar in hand and her mother's comforting but restless spirit in tow. When sullen Nola becomes haunted by evil spirits living in a beautiful antique dollhouse that Jack's mother gives her, tracking down the story of the house on which the miniature home is modeled becomes a priority. Charming and complex living characters, combined with unsettled ghosts that balance uncanny creepiness with very human motivations, keep this story warm, real, and exciting. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
