The Attic on Queen Street by Karen White

 

There aren't many series that I start and read all the way through to the last book. However, The Tradd Street Series by Karen White is one that I have loved from the first novel published in 2008: The House on Tradd Street. 

I was so excited to read this novel I purposely bought a backpack purse large enough to fit a hardcover and took it on the plane with me when I went on vacation last week. I promptly buckled myself into my seat, opened my book, and read for the next three hours of my flight. 

So, no, do not start with this book if you've never read the series. This really is a series that needs to be read in order so you aren't confused because BIG things happen over the course of the series. So, for a quick recap: Melanie is a realtor selling historical homes in her hometown of Charleston. She's called to a home on Tradd Street to talk to the owner about listing it. However, the owner has something else in mind, and dies, leaving the home to Melanie. 

A gorgeous, stately home, it needs a heck of a lot of work--and as an extra bonus, comes with a few mysteries and ghosts. Melanie has psychic gifts (which she tries to ignore) and gets sucked into not only falling in love with the house, but begins to dive into the history of the house and the previous owners. Along comes author Jack Trenholm, a hot looking man who is also interested in the mysteries attached to the home--and interested in Melanie, as well. 

I won't give anything away that will surprise anyone, but here at the end of the series, Jack and Melanie are married with twin toddlers and Jack's teenage daughter all living in the house on Tradd street. Relationships have formed, strengthened, and have had quite a few tough spots. Melanie is still coming to grips with her transition from an independent go-getter to a mother of three and a wife to a man who continues to challenge her every day. And the spirits that inhabit her home, as well as the others who inhabit homes around Charleston are still calling on Melanie to solve mysteries and murders of the past. Will she finally embrace her gifts and use them to solve one last legendary mystery at her home? 

I can't tell you how much I love this series. It has everything in it I adore in a good book: a bit of romance, paranormal mysteries, history, historical restoration, and evolving relationships. Humor, quirky characters, and realistic relationships keep this series from becoming stale. One day I will visit Charleston! 

Here is the series in order of publication:

The House on Tradd Street

The Girl on Legare Street

The Strangers on Montagu Street

Return to Tradd Street

The Guests on South Battery

The Christmas Spirits on Tradd Street

The Attic on Queen Street

Thank you, thank you Karen White for such a wonderful series. I looked forward to every new novel in this series, and am happy to report while Jack and Melanie's story has come to an end, a new series will begin in 2022 featuring Jack's daughter Nola in New Orleans. The title is The Shop on Royal Street. To say I'm giddy with excitement is an understatement. You can bet I'll be reading and reviewing it!

Rating: 5/6 for a satisfying conclusion to the Tradd Street Series. While I was sad to turn the last page, I did so with a big sigh of happiness-characters got their just rewards.

Available in hardcover, ebook, and audio. 

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The Attic on Queen Street by Karen White

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan

I usually do a bit of pre-reading work before I read most of my books.  By pre-reading work, I mean that I read a synopsis, some reviews...get the lay of the land, so to speak.  
I did not do that for this novel; instead I was captivated by the title, and decided I had to read it without having much of any idea of the plot.  

It took me about halfway through the novel to finally rid myself of the idea that somewhere in the Bright Ideas Bookstore there was a mystical, magical, fantasy storyline just waiting to pop out.  Nope.  Nothing like that at all. Add in a Gas N' Donuts place, and I thought: okay, maybe I'm wrong about the fantasy part, but I bet it's quirky. Yep. A quirky bookstore novel.  

Wrong again. It's actually a crime novel, with a bookstore as a significant setting. Here's a short summary, because I don't want to give anything away:  Lydia works at the Bright Ideas Bookstore, in a part of Denver that's seeing a revitalization.  She's befriended Joey, a young man who has no one and no where to go.  He spends hours at the bookstore, reading and watching people.

One night, as Lydia is closing up the bookstore, she realizes Joey hasn't come down from the third floor.  Irritated, she goes up to the third floor, only to find Joey hanging in the history section.  Curiously, a photo of Lydia as a small child is found sticking out of his jeans pocket. Devastated by Joey's suicide, Lydia scrambles to figure out why, why?! She's been asked to clean out Joey's apartment, and while she does, she finds a box of books that are meant for her. Inside the books, Joey's cut out bit of sentences, leaving little bits of the books missing. Through some smart observation, Lydia starts putting the pieces of the book mystery together, and instead of making things clearer, it only pulls her deeper into the mystery of Joey's life, and death. And they are, somehow, linked to Lydia's past.

Lydia is an interesting character.  At age ten, she was the only survivor to a horrible murder that remains unsolved.  Her father, a librarian, moves them away from Denver, and he himself slowly changes from the loving father Lydia knows to a withdrawn, sad man who slowly closes out his daughter.  Leaving home after high school graduation, Lydia returns to Denver, and becomes a bookseller--the one place where she feels at home.  Her past remains past, as she strives to escape the "Little Lydia" nickname the newspapers gave her, all those years ago.  She doesn't talk about her past, and doesn't have anything to do with her father. 

Joey's suicide stirs things up in Lydia's life; I have to say it was a pretty good storyline that brought Joey's random, sad life and Lydia's dysfunctional adult life together.  I kept wondering just how the two would come together, and that kept me reading.  It wasn't surprising to find out who was the murderer, but it was interesting to find out why this person committed the crime. Most poignant of all was the short life of Joey.  A young man who never had a family, felt completely alone, abandoned, and lost.  A struggle for a meaningful life that ended with a final blow that he just couldn't overcome.  Joey's character is pretty powerful, even though he's dead for the majority of the novel.  

I did come around after a bit and did enjoy the novel, even though I still have a faint disappointment that it wasn't what I had hoped for.  You know how you think the cookie is chocolate chip, but instead it's oatmeal raisin?  You'll eat it anyway, and enjoy it, but darn it all, it should have been chocolate chip.  That's how I feel about this novel. Matthew Sullivan is a gifted writer, and his descriptions of Denver and the bookstore anchor you in the story.  It's a quick read, and you'll keep reading, because you want to find out what the heck is going on, and how Lydia and Joey are connected.  It all connects back to Lydia's childhood and that horrible murder.  Read it and see what you think.  

Rating:  3/6 for a well crafted crime novel that also addresses the plight of the homeless, the abandoned, and the foster care system in our country.  

Available in hardcover, e-book, and audio.

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Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan