The Ghost Next Door: A Love Story (Romantic Ghost Stories Book 1) Kindle Edition

First in the Romantic Ghost Stories paranormal romance series and revolving around Elizabeth Jennings and her daughter, Claire, in Blayton, Virginia.My TakeThe story focuses on romance: Elizabeth and Nathan's and Claire and Perry's. Very cozy, very sweet with an ending I would never, ever, have suspected.The Ghost Next Door is a combination of characters and action with an amazing town where everyone knows each other. Where people tend to leave without warning. A place where Elizabeth feels "at ease and alive". A place with a reason for people to come here and heal.And we learn what some of the townspeople need for healing through third person global subjective point-of-view, which allows us to listen in on the thoughts and feelings of a number of characters — Melody's need for mean is the most negative.Considering that ending and the difficulty in getting communications in from outside Blayton, how exactly did Nathan hear about the place from Bernie or find out that Belle and Melody had moved here? How does Elizabeth's company know about the Gazette? No, I want, no, I need, Baird to make this more believable. Sure, it didn't become unbelievable until the end, but I do not like being broadsided.I do like Elizabeth's policy of only being nice. It's a hard row to hoe, but reaps the best harvest.Three graves? Not five? Not seven?The StoryIt's a request Elizabeth can't ignore. Her boss wants her to revive Blayton's town newspaper. Worse, the house they rent is across the street from a cemetery and next door to an abandoned (and ghostly) Victorian. Nor is Claire happy about being uprooted.Then creepy things begin to happen next door. Claire is being bullied in school. And the sheriff bakes the most amazing chocolate chip cookies.The CharactersElizabeth Jennings is a journalist assigned to restart the town newspaper by her news organization (based in Richmond and Jerry Walker is her boss). Claire is her fifteen-year-old daughter who writes stories and songs. Cash Jennings left them twelve years ago. No loss, he turned into an alcoholic with a temper. They move in next door to the old Fenton place where Phantom, the cat, appears.Blayton, VirginiaThe town paper is/was The Town Gazette run by Pinkney Gale some ten years ago.The easygoing Sheriff Nathan Thorpe is a renowned baker. Martha Holt is the dispatcher, the extremely bored dispatcher. Nathan's librarian sister, Belle, has a troubled (bullying) daughter, Melody. Tony Richards had been Belle's husband. Nathan and Belle's dad had been a highway patrolman, shot in the line of duty.Lexington "Lex" Holt is Martha's husband and runs the only communications firm in town: satellite TV, Wi-Fi, broadband, etc. The Wilcutts bought the old mill store and turned it into a pool hall/saloon. Bob Robeson is a realtor; his wife runs a daycare. Janet Campbell — who gets funny feelings, has premonitions, and sees auras — runs the Dollar Store and is married to Deputy Sheriff Bernie Campbell. More townspeople from the past, the present and in the future include the Daniels, the Rileys, the Parkers who suddenly disappeared with their toddler son, the Carletons, Emma Gray and her mom, the Baileys and their Irish triplet sons who are into mischief all the time, and Alex Marshall who's moving here with his eight-year-old son, Winston, who is a new deputy. Monica is also a librarian.Claire's fellow ninth-grade students include Joy Holt (Martha's daughter), the even meaner Penelope, and Lilly who gang up with Melody. Mr Harris is a teacher or principal?? Mrs Peabody is uptight and prone to yelling.The older Perry lives with his uncle Dan, a former Marine who did two tours in Iraq and now owns an apple orchard.Betsy Jean has been a friend of Elizabeth's since high school.The Cover and TitleThe cover is both sweet and spooky! In front of steps leading to a porch badly in need of painting, the winter-clad Elizabeth and Nathan are embracing, her back to his front. All the text is in white and left justified with the author's name at the very top and the title starting below their waists. An epigraph is in italics below that.I have no idea where the title comes from. It's not The Ghost Next Door, but the "haunted" house that's next door.

Interesting, albeit trite premise. Idyllic setting where folks just up and disappear. A lot like the tv show, Lost.The characters are as flimsy as tissue paper. The dialogue is stiff n a lot of places, and dated. The pacing is meh. The believability is zero.I hit my limit of snarky comments a third of the way through, but finished it because I wanted to see how the author would tie everything together at the end. I’m having difficulty thinking of one thing about the book that I liked, but if pressed I’d have to say it’s the marmalade tabby named Phantom.Save your money and your time.

Single mom Elizabeth and her teenage daughter Claire have been on their own for over a decade. They've struggled to make it, but at the end of the day, they have one another, and that's all that really counts. So when Elizabeth's editor sends her to the remote little town of Blayton, Virginia to try to resurrect their defunct newspaper, the duo is ready to tackle the unknown.But to Elizabeth's amazement, this time the unknown involves Nathan, the local sheriff. He's handsome and kind, and the two seem drawn to one another almost from the moment they meet. Elizabeth is a little hesitant; there's been no real man in her life since Claire's dad left them, and she's afraid to lose her heart. Before long, however, it seems Elizabeth and Nathan are meant to be, as though they always HAVE been.Just as wonderful, Claire's falling in love herself. Her new classmate Perry is everything a girl could ever want in a first boyfriend, and she's thrilled.The one damper on their newfound happiness is the house next door. It's an old Victorian, up for sale, presumably after an old woman died there under some questionable circumstances. The porch rocking chairs tend to creak unexpectedly, strange noises can be heard at night, and urban legends abound.Before long, however, Elizabeth and Claire begin to understand the house next door is hardly the spookiest thing about their new lives...Baird does a good job, creating a world in which her characters move along normally and at times almost too languidly. Then she springs her readers with a shock, turning upside down everything they thought they knew about the characters and the town of Blayton itself.

For fans of sweet romantic suspense, The Ghost Next Door would be the perfect read. Elizabeth and her daughter Claire are dismayed to discover their rental home is located adjacent to an old abandoned house, and right across the street from the town cemetery. You can imagine their location doesn't bode well for them or for sheriff Nathan who comes to their rescue on a regular basis. The secondary storyline centers around Claire and the girls who constantly bully her at school. Unfortunately, each storyline is somewhat predictable, with a PG romance and an instant attraction between Elizabeth and Nathan that I found unrealistic and annoying. Imagine my delighted surprise when that predictable storyline suddenly took a left turn that I never saw coming! With less repetition and a little more emotion between the two adults this would have been a much better read for me.

I was a bit confused reading this book as characters and situations would change suddenly from one paragraph to another. It would have been better to separate them so the reader knows the situation or character has changed immediately.I felt the ending was a bit rushed and although I know it is a paranormal / ghost story it seemed a bit far-fetched at the end. I feel it could have benefited by being a few chapters longer.Apart from the above couple of points I thought it was a good read. A bit of a mystery, a bit of romance and a bit of paranormal thrown in.

what a great story the characters were very likeable and the situation they were in brought them closer. An odd combination of characters but all becomes clear at Halloween. The twist in this tale was very well written and a complete shocker that I don't think anyone would expect.More great writing from Ginny, will be reading more.

What a great twist at the end - I certainly didn't see that coming! Would definitely read more by this author.

Great light read with a twist

good read