Review of The Girl on Legare Street

The Girl on Legare Street (Tradd Street #2)

by Karen White

4 out of 5 stars

It took me awhile to finish The Girl on Legare Street, not because the book didn’t keep my interest but because my life kept getting in the way. A lengthy road trip gave me the opportunity to finish the second in Karen White’s Tradd Street Series. Despite a few writing style choices that made me cringe, I enjoyed The House on Tradd Street very much and looked forward to reading the second book in the series. I wasn’t disappointed. I’ve come to appreciate an intricately woven ghost story. Ms. White delivers.

In this second book in the series, once again Melanie Middleton and Jack Trenholm combine complementary skills to solve a decades old mystery. Melanie’s estranged mother Ginette Prioleau returns to town and buys the old Prioleau home. An angry ghost haunts the Legare Street house and threatens both Melanie and her mother. When Ginette begs Melanie for help, emotional ghosts from Melanie’s past start causing all sorts of trouble. Not only does Melanie struggle with feelings of abandonment, but she also struggles with her feelings for Jack. Her love/hate relationship with Jack adds to the suspense. Insert another woman in Jack’s life and Melanie’s mix of emotions turns into a nasty concoction of denial, frustration, anger, and longing. It makes matters worse that Jack’s other woman, Rebecca Edgerton, manages to stick her nose into Melanie’s business.

If you read Tradd Street, then you already know Jack is H.O.T. hot and easily distracted and Melanie is a control freak. I grew tired of Melanie’s whining in Tradd Street and her attitude didn’t improve much until the end of Legare Street. I didn’t feel sympathy for this woman’s whiny attitude and stubborn denial. Most of the time I wanted to slap some sense into her.

Despite my less than warm feeling for the main character, I still wanted a happily ever after for the hero and heroine. I was disappointed. Ms. White takes one and five-sixths books for Jack to kiss Melanie! She keeps her readers anxiously waiting for the big moment when Jack and Melanie confess their feelings for each other. Some very tense writing, but enough unrequited sexual tension already. The important moment of reading satisfaction doesn’t happen by the end of book two. Maybe so the reader will buy book three?

Legare Street is romantic suspense. There is a hero. There is a heroine. There is intense attraction between them. There is suspense. As a reader I want to fall in love with the hero. Jack let me down. His actions caused him to fall from his hero pedestal. If he loves Melanie, why would he do what he did? Ms. White pushed my suspension of disbelief beyond credibility. I can’t give my whole heart to Jack any longer and I’m not sure I want Melanie to give hers either!

Will I read the third book in the series? Yes, despite my lack of sympathy for the hero and heroine, I intend to read the next book. Ms. White writes a good ghost story with some great moments of suspense and some very nice twists. But if I was Melanie I’d ditch Jack, and if I was Jack, I’d forget about Melanie. On second thought, maybe those two deserve each other.