Title: In Love with a Haunted House

Author: Kate Goldman

Publisher: 2019

Genre: Romance

Pages: 130

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

The last thing Mallory Clark wants to do is move back home. She has no choice, though, since the company she worked for in Chicago has just downsized her, and everybody else. To make matters worse her fiancé has broken their engagement, and her heart, leaving her hurting and scarred. When her mother tells her that the house she always coveted as a child, the once-famed Gray Oaks Manor, is not only on the market but selling for a song, it seems to Mallory that the best thing she could possibly do would be to put Chicago, and everything and everyone in it, behind her. Arriving back home she runs into gorgeous and mysterious Blake Hunter. Blake is new to town and like her he is interested in buying the crumbling old Victorian on the edge of the historic downtown center, although his reasons are his own. Blake is instantly intrigued by the flame-haired beauty with the fiery temper and the vulnerable expression in her eyes. He can feel the attraction between them and knows it is mutual, but he also knows that the last thing on earth he needs is to get involved with a woman determined to take away a house he has to have.

Big caveat: I realize that this is more like a short story than a novel, so my review might be a bit unfair. But I still stand by my thoughts on this one.

I really really really wanted to love this story. I love the set-up of a woman returning to her hometown and attempting to buy the gothic mansion next door. I love the arrival of a long-lost grandson to stake a claim on the mansion. I love love love the idea of them getting together and working out how to deal with their attraction to each other and the house over the course of the story. I disliked how rushed this all feels. And I really dislike the weird interludes from the ghost. This seems like more of an initial story treatment than something that you actually publish.

Next up on the TBR pile: