Review: The House on Tradd Street

The House on Tradd Street by Karen White
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Melanie Middleton is a well know real estate agent in the Charleston, SC. She specializes in historic home, but she herself doesn't like them, nor does she or has she ever done a renovation. She feels that the people that love and buy these home are wasting their money, because they are a money pit.

She goes to see Mr. Nevin Vanderhorst to try and get him as a client. When she arrives at the house she smells the fragrant of roses and she sees a woman dressed in the early 1900's attire, and see's a rope swing, swinging in the breeze. But there isn't a breeze on this day. Upon talking to Mr. Vanderhorst, she learns that his mother abandon him when he was eight years old, just like her mother did to her. She also learns that the woman she keeps seeing is actually the ghost of Nevin's mother Lousia, and she only appears to those that she likes. Nevin tells her the story that all of Charleston knows except for Melanie, that it is rumored that Louisa disappeared one night along with Joseph Longo and where never heard of again.

The next morning, before the crack of dawn, Melaine gets a phone call from an attorney asking her to come down to his office. When she arrives there she learns that Nevin Vanderhorst passed away and he left her his house on Tradd Street. Melanie is in utter shock as she can't figure out why he would leave her his house to someone he meet the day before, his entire estate, and with conditions as well. She has to live in the house for one year and restore it to it's natural beauty, and during this time, she might find out what actually happened to Louisa, why she would leave her young son that she simply adored, and what happened to Joseph Longo.

Melanie is also told that the money for the restoration will be in the hands of a trustee, her alcoholic father. Can things get any worse for Melanie. Enter Jack Trenholm, an author who gets into contact with Melanie and wants to write a book about the disappearance of Louisa Vanderhorst and Joseph Longo. If that's not enough Marc Longo, grandson of the missing Joseph Longo wants to hire Melanie as his real estate agent to buy old house, the one he has in mind, 55 Tradd Street to be exact, Melanie's house.

Melanie is overwhelmed by her responsibilities and finds herself getting wrapped up in the mystery surrounding Mr. Vanderhorst's mother's disappearance and the ghosts that haunt her new home.

This book has everything in it, ghost that haunt the house, romance, mystery, hope, new found friendship, healing, good guys, bad guys, lost loves, and changes. The characters were well written, the reader can identify with their personalities, there need for control, the journey they go on and how it affects their lives as well as the way they live their daily lives. You find yourself wanting to know the discovery of the mystery that surrounds the house and the disappearance of the people, how the Middleton family is connected to the Vanderhorst, and which of the two men will Melanie choose or not choose.

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