Customer Reviews

The Girl On Legare Street (Tradd Street)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Melanie Middleton's life has been turned upside down. First, she inherited a historic home on Tradd Street in Charleston. Then, she met a most handsome rogue named Jack Trenholm who has a devilish way of getting under her skin. Now Ginnette Prioleau, the mother who abandoned her over thirty years ago, has come back into her life. If only she could turn back the clock to the simpler days when being Charleston's best real estate agent was her only concern.

Being a top-notch broker like Melanie has its advantages. She knows how to spot a true diamond in the rough, and she'll do whatever it takes to seal the deal. So naturally when her historic childhood home on Legare Street comes on the market, it's no surprise that the interested party wants her for representation. Unfortunately, the client just happens to be her estranged mother.

Putting her feelings of betrayal aside, Melanie chooses to help her mom buy the property back and even goes one step further by agreeing to spearhead the home's restoration project. As the walls start coming down, Melanie comes to realize that there is more to this project than meets the eye.

With the help of Jack and her mother, she soon discovers a menacing ghost seeking revenge against her family. With no other choice than to combine their sixth senses, Melanie and Ginnette prepare to fight the haunting figure that has threatened the Prioleau women for centuries. With Jack by their side, they dare to cross the forbidden boundary in an attempt to save their lives.

THE GIRL ON LEGARE STREET is the highly anticipated sequel to THE HOUSE ON TRADD STREET. Once again, White masterfully captures the essence of Charlestonian life in a haunting tale of betrayal, lust, and most importantly family honor. Through her vivid descriptions and spell-binding prose, she brings together the past with the present in a supernatural tale definitely worth the read.

Both this book and The House on Tradd Street are phenomenal - just the books I've been waiting for, about historic houses, hidden treasures, ghosts, and historical mysteries. The one thing that keeps these books from being utterly delightful is that the main character is an insufferable b****. I get it that she had a rough childhood, but come on, she's almost 40 years old and she still acts like a spoiled child around everyone in her life. It's a wonder that the hunky love interest is still even interested in her considering what a shrew she is to him. And in this book she's unnecessarily mean to her estraged mother, too.

Despite this drawback, I continue to be a huge fan of the series and am looking forward to the next book. I just hope Melanie mellows out a little bit.

I received a copy of this book and was instantly intrigued by the premise. While I am not a huge fan of contemporary fiction (I much prefer chick lit), this book sounded very interesting. The Girl on Legare Street is actually a follow up to another book entitled The House on Tradd Street - which I have never read and frankly, I think would have helped me understand the backstory of Melanie - the main character of both books.

Nonetheless, I meet Melanie who has gone through some difficult times in The House on Tradd Street. As Melanie enters the second book in the series, she is trying to get her act together as well as her career as a real estate broker. Just as she thinks her life is back on track, she will come face to face with her long lost mother, who is back in town and wants to meet her as well as make a bid on their old "family" home a three story Georgian double-house. Although Melanie does not want to meet her mother, nor help her restore the house, her mother prevails - by telling Melanie that she has been having deadly visions of Melanie and they involve the house.

Working together, although reluctantly, mother and daughter will get to know each other despite each other and may have to come face to face with an evil spirit - who lives on the supernatural side (or maybe not?).

This book is a tad slow moving - kind of gets bogged down with too many details at one point, however, the book pace seriously picks up once we get into the house and our main characters end up face to face with a dark force.

The writing is good, but again, a little too detailed in some places. It also took me a while to connect with Ginette or Melanie - never quite certain about Ginette's true intentions and trusting nobody.

This book was good because of the paranormal aspect of it, which is weird, because usually that is the aspect that turns me off - but this was sufficiently creepy enough to keep me engaged.

This book was such a let down after the first, The House on Tradd Street. This latest had too many characters, and previous characters were "out of character"! Talk about an open ending..... very poorly done. The plot was contrived,and the so called mature main character and her love interest had me feeling I was reading an adolescent love story. Wouldn't recommend it nor do I plan to purchase the next in the series.

There are many reviews that tell lots about the story. My short review is this.....if you enjoyed the House on Tradd Street you will also enjoy the latest adventure, The Girl on Legare Street. If you are new to this series you will enjoy it! Since there are some references in Legare Street to the first in the series it is probably to your benefit to start with The House on Tradd Street. Also, there are other books written by Karen White that are great. I highly recommend all of them! Also, if you have the opportunity to go to one of her book signings--GO---we really had a good time meeting her. She is funny and friendly!

I'm conflicted about this book. On the one hand, it's a ghost story with a pretty decent plot-an evil ghost trying to get back what she feels is hers, a good ghost protecting people, a mother and daughter trying to establish a relationship after the mother abandoned the daughter 30 years before, a reporter who isn't just what she says she is. On the other hand, there are some very slow moving parts, and the main character, 39 year old Melanie, is bent on denying her attraction to Jack, the man who helps her solve the mystery- typical romance novel stuff that drives me insane.

Not only is it a ghost story and a romance, it's a mystery. Who is the female ghost that has haunted the house Melanie grew up in- sold years ago and now back in her estranged mother's hands? Why does she hate Melanie and her mother? And is she connected to the skeleton found on a boat raised from the ocean after over 100 years underwater- a boat that belonged to Melanie's ancestors? And who is the male ghost who protects the women of the family? The story slowly gets solved through hidden rooms, genealogical research, old newspapers and talks with ghosts.

My final opinion? It's a good story if you like- or can manage to ignore- the typical romance novel I-hate-you-but-I-really-love-you stuff.

Unfortunately, I am not gifted at writing reviews. If we could sit down face to face, I could tell you all of the things that made me enjoy this book, but for now, I would just like to say that Karen White is now one of my favorite authors.
The House on Tradd Street was so entertaining that I spent months anticipating the second in this series.
Needless to say, I downloaded The Girl on Legare Street to my Kindle the first day it became available, and have gone through it like a box of See's truffles!
This series has it all- old mansions, ghosts, a little humor, and a little romance. I couldn't ask for anything more.

Her opera star mom Ginnette Prioleau Middleton pleads with her Charleston, South Carolina realtor daughter Melanie Middleton to help her buy back the family home on Legare Street that just came on the market. Melanie wants nothing to do with her mom whom she has not seen in decades; although as an expert on historical house restoration, she is the right person for the job.

A psychic like her daughter Ginnette hides from her daughter that she fears for Melanie's life from paranormal elements. Melanie's friend Jack Trenholm nudges her to allow her mom back into her life. He even agrees to investigate the supernatural to eliminate the threat from beyond while a reporter pushes to tell the story of the return of the great diva.

The sequel to The House on Tradd Street returns Lowcountry's top realtor Melanie in an entertaining tale of a mother-daughter dysfunctional relationship amidst ghosts and other spirits. Though intended as humor Jack's seduction efforts detract from the prime plot of Ginnette trying to reconnect with Melanie as she fears for her offspring due to visions that the spirits are coming to haunt her. Still fans will enjoy the return to Charleston.

Harriet Klausner

In her new novel The Girl on Legare Street Karen White brings us back to Charleston to revisit the wonderful characters we first met in The House on Tradd Street and have the pleasure of meeting a few more. Where we find Melanie Middleton reunited with her mother who abandoned her when she was six, but if she thinks that's her biggest problem she's whistling Dixie.
Karen's love for the south, especially Charleston and it's wonderful historic homes really shines through in this her second of four books in her House on Tradd Street series. It's a haunting tale of fear and fearlessness of loss and love and redemption. Her story line/plot is not unique to anyone who's ever walked through an old building and felt the temperature drop or saw a hint of something that couldn't be explained, but she makes it uniquely her own with her twist of a classic ghost story. Her characters are endearing and funny and quirky and she knows them so intimately that you can feel the anal attentive qualities of Melanie and the sexual tension between her and her co-star, co-conspirator Jack Trenholm sexy author and amateur historic sleuth, you can feel the apprehension and tension she feels toward her mother and her feeling of abandonment. Her supporting characters are equally interesting from her best friend Sophie to her recovering alcoholic father, to her ghostly apparitions and all the rest. And they are all constantly breathing life into her story. Her amazing descriptive dialogue paints her words into pictures in our minds as she tells her tale. She will make you laugh and cry, empathize and sympathize with the various characters. She gives us the continuing non-relationship that our heroine Melanie and our hero Jack are too afraid to pursue and the sexual tension between them just about kills me. Knowing there are two more installments before completion makes me impatient for the next one, to not only see what lies ahead with the ghosts and hauntings, but also finding out what's in store for Melanie and Jack.
So be prepared to expel many emotions through this exciting and sometimes terrifying wonderful new novel. Be prepared to laugh and cry, hold your breath, bite your nails, to be haunted and sit on the edge of your seat as you turn the pages. And most of all be prepared to fall in love with the grand olde dame of the south, Charleston and with Karen's wonderful characters in her new book "The Girl on Legare Street". A must read for 2009. As mentioned this is the second book in a series, but holds up very well as a stand-a-lone read.

I really loved "The House on Tradd Street" and would recommend it to anyone. This one is not as good, but still a fun read. Melanie needs to realize that she is not the only person in the world that has been hurt and needs to "get over herself". I think if there is another book in this series, Melanie needs to see how much Jack cares for her and stop pushing him away. Her antics and self-pity are tiresome at times. More of General Lee would be fun, too, please.