The House on Tradd Street by Karen White

I'm not exactly sure how to review this book objectively--it is a very quick, easy read.  But I never connected with the characters, and the mystery was pretty lame.

Melanie is a Realtor (why is that word capitalized, btw?) who specializes in historic homes in Charleston, South Carolina, even though she hates them and thinks they would be better razed and turned into parking lots or strip malls.  Part of the reason she's a hater is because she can see ghosts; another is because girl's got Issues.  Then an old guy deeds his famous house on Tradd Street to her, and she finds herself burdened with the task of living in and restoring one of these loathed historical houses for at least a year.  Fortunately for her, there is a cast of motley fools more than willing to assist her with this monumental task, including her bestie (who just happens to be an art history professor whose specialty is historic homes), and Jack, a charming history writer.

As I mentioned before, this is a light, quick read.  My problems with it started when I couldn't read it as fast as it was meant to be because of work--that's when I started noticing all the holes in the plot.  Melanie sees ghosts, but this point isn't really effectively utilized in the story.  There's also a love triangle in which all the motivations of the male characters are completely obvious to everyone except Melanie, and a mystery where the clues are painfully obvious.  And speaking of the mystery, that isn't even mentioned until the book is almost 2/3rds over (one of my pet peeves). 

But by far the biggest annoyance in this book is the characters themselves, in particular Melanie.  As I said before, girl's got Issues-with-a-capital-I, and it's played way over the top, to point where she is completely unlikable.  I was prejudiced against her as I read of her love of strip malls to replace historic homes, but it gets worse than that.  She doesn't even want the cute little dog!  I seriously question her judgment, as well as the idea that anyone could ever be attracted to her.  Around page 170, I realized I didn't care about any of these characters at all, and really wanted to just put the book aside and move on to something else.  But I couldn't because my mom loaned it to me and I knew she would give me the sad face if I didn't finish it, so I soldiered (re: skimmed) on, and wound up disliking the book a lot more than I would have otherwise. 

In truth, I don't think this is a terrible book, and I don't hate it.  I do resent it for taking up my time and being dumb; however, this book isn't meant to be read slowly and picked apart.  It's meant to be consumed swiftly like an M&M and quickly forgotten about.  So if that sounds like something that would appeal to you, I definitely recommend this book.



Want more review?  I read this book with Colette from A Buckeye Girl Reads for our book club, Romance Readers Anonymous.  While discussing the books, we pretended to be ghosts on Tradd Street, giving Melanie advice.  Go to Colette's blog to read the discussion!

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Hex Hall Discussion

Since Colette from A Buckeye Girl Reads and I were both planning on reading Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins, we decided to discuss it for our book club, Romance Readers Anonymous.  Here is part one; to read part two, go to Colette's blog!


Time:  Very late Thursday night.
Place:  Google Wave.

Heidenkind:

Hex Hall--Most brilliant YA book ever or... not?

Colette:

I'd say not the most brilliant YA book ever-it reminded me a little of HP for some reason. Not sure why, but I think this has a beginning of a great series. I think this will be a word of mouth kind of series.

Do you think this book was a little over the top on the cheesy line factor? My favorite was the witches of clinique. 

Heidenkind:

There were a lot of good one-liners. My fave was when she said she always wanted to know what it was like to live in a mouth.

I agree--this book was just okay, but I can see it developing really well. It reminded me of a younger version of the Chicagoland Vampires Series, actually.

So let's start with the important questions--what do you think of Archer?

Colette:

I liked him, but had a hard time with believing in the romance between the two, I thought that the story could have almost done without him, except for the twist at the end. I just didn't want to believe it.

I thought the same thing with Elodie-I was sure it had to be a love spell, but it wasn't really ever explained. I think if I were in the age group this book was meant for I would have loved that love triangle.

Heidenkind:

You didn't want to believe the twists or that they were in lurv?

I had a hard time believing that Archer and Sophie were so hot for each other, too, but not as difficult a time as I had believing him and Elodie together. I just assumed he was under a love spell or something.

What about Cam? I think he has potential.

Colette:

Was he the groundskeeper? Def potential.

The problem with reading with this during the Readathon was that I read it a little too fast.

Heidenkind:

Yup, Cam was the groundskeeper. I think he's Sophie's betrothed.

Colette:

I got that feeling as well with him. I liked him much better than Archer. I wanted to see more of him :)

Heidenkind:

Too fast? Is there such a thing? I felt like it dragged even though it was a quick read. There still wasn't enough to justify the length, and it felt kind of predictable even though I didn't see some things coming.

Colette:

It did drag a little, maybe because it was predictable. There were a few surprises, but for the most part you knew what was going to happen way before the end of the book. I think the main problem I had with it was while it was cute, it was too similar to other books in the genre.

Heidenkind:

I definitely agree. Another thing I didn't like is that Sophie is supposed to be all smart, but she doesn't figure anything out and makes a lot of dumb moves. That's probably what bothered me the most and made it drag for me.

I don't know, I like Archer--especially now that he's a baddie. :) But Cam seemed super-sweet and I'd like to see more of him, too.

Colette:

Another thing that bothered me was that she is a pretty strong character, (which I think is good for YA readers) and that's why the whole thing with Archer bothered me. Why did she care so much if he liked her? But then that is the adult in me speaking.

Heidenkind:

Silly adult! ;) She cared because she liked him!

Colette:

One of the things that I loved about the book was that there weren't just witches at Hex Hall-it'll be interesting to see how some of the shifters and other supernatural beings factor into the next two books. (if they do)

Who were your favorite characters?

Heidenkind:

I expected the other supernatural creatures to play a much bigger role than they did in the book, to be honest. The shifters don't seem entirely trustworthy.

Hmm, probably Archer and Mrs. Casnoff.


To see how this conversation degenerates into near incomprehensibility due to lack of sleep, and why we end up talking about how much we love The Librarian, read part two at A Buckeye Girl Reads!

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Interview with Chloe Neill + Giveaway

Last week, Colette from A Buckeye Girl Reads and I had a smack-down with Mandi from Smexy Books over who the best hero from Chloe Neill's Chicagoland Vampires series is (naturally I won ;). Today, Colette and I are interviewing Chloe for our book club, Romance Readers Anonymous.



The Chicagoland Vampires series centers around Merit, a grad student who is turned into a vampire without her consent after a vicious attack. So far there are two books in the series, Some Girls Bite and Friday Night Bites. Twice Bitten, the third book in the series, will be released in July.

Colette's Questions:

1. What made you decide to have the series set in Chicago?

I wanted to set the series in a city that was generally familiar to people, but which hadn't been overly done before in the vampire genre. And you can't beat the food and politics in Chicago!

2. Did you have to do any research for the books? If so, what kind of research did you have to do?

LOTS of research. I research a little bit of everything along the way, from information about Chicago (food, geography, architecture, politics, neighborhoods), to magic, to feudal customs, to the French Revolution. I try to infuse the books with factual details to give them context.

3. Do you follow any kind of writing schedule? Do you watch any tv or listen to music to help you write?

I have a day job, so I usually have a minimum per-day word count unless I'm on an editing deadline. Usually the television is on something like Discovery or the Travel Channel while I write.

4. How did you come up with the idea of vampires being in different houses?

I wanted allegiances and alliances to be a crucial element in the story, so I used the House ideas to give the vampires something to root for (their own House) and "enemies" to root against (the other Houses). Humans have baseball and football, so I figured vampires needed teams of their own.

5. I loved how you mention Eureka and Gilmore Girls in the same sentence in Friday Night Bites! Are you a TV science fiction and Gilmore Girls fan? (Am I wrong to think that I see a little Lorelai Gilmore in Merit?)

Thanks! I watch a lot of sci fi (including Eureka), and I LOVED Gilmore Girls. I think Merit has a little Lorelai and Rory in her. Especially the snark.

6. Will Ethan and Morgan have competition for Merit in the third book?

Sorry--can't answer that one. You'll have to wait until July!



Tasha's Questions:

1. Merit's favorite story is that of Tristan and Isolde. Is that a foreshadowing as to how her own story will wind up?

Sorry--that one's a spoiler, too! I will say that I include very few random red herrings in the novels, so if something's in there, there's usually some reason.

2. Is Merit related to the shifters somehow?

Not that I'm aware of.

3. I was a little unclear about the status of the vampire in Merit at the end of Friday Night Bites--is it normal for the vampires to feel separate from their vampire natures like that?

It is very unusual for a vampire not to feel fully and completely connected to their vampire. Merit only knows that it feels "wrong," which is why she's so hesitant about raising the issue to her friends and colleagues.

4. Do vampires have pets?

Absolutely. I think Merit would enjoy having a dog. Problem is, there's no one to take it out if it needed to go out during the day.

6. What is your favorite pizza place in Chicago?

I recently had pizza from CRUST in Wicker Park, and it was fabulous! Four stars.

7. I love the inspiration boards on your website! Do you have one for Friday Night Bites that you're planning on posting?

Thanks! The SOME GIRLS BITE board was actually prepared by Anne Sage of design blog The City Sage. I haven't had time to prepare any inspiration boards beyond the smaller FIRESPELL board, and I didn't even keep a file of materials for Friday Night Bites. I do have some images for TWICE BITTEN, but since the vampires are pretty consistently living in the same House and wearing the same outfits (ditto for FIRESPELL), I only really need one inspiration board per series. :)



Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions, Chloe! Plus, Chloe is generously offering a signed copy of Firespell, the first book in her new YA series, to a lucky commentor on this post! I will chose a random winner later this week. CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED


*Please note that the links to books on this post are Amazon Associate links.

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