Book Review for The House on Prytania by Karen White

 The House on Prytania by Karen White

Publication May 9, 2023

Genre:  Mystery, Ghost, Thriller

 

Taken from Goodreads:  A woman is haunted--both literally and figuratively--by ghosts of the past in this second novel of the Royal Street series by New York Times bestselling author Karen White.

Nola Trenholm may not be psychic herself, but she's spent enough time around people who are to know when ghosts are present, and there are definitely a few lingering spirits in her recently purchased Creole cottage in New Orleans. Something, or someone, is keeping them tethered to this world. And not all of them are benign.

But with the sudden return of Sunny Ryan, Beau Ryan's long-lost sister, Nola has plenty to distract her from her ghostly housemates. Especially when the tempting--yet firmly unavailable--Beau, wanting to mete out justice to those he blames for Sunny's kidnapping, asks Nola for a favor that threatens to derail her hard-won recovery and send her hurtling backward. He asks her to welcome Michael Hebert back into her life, even though Michael is the reason for Nola's bruised heart. Beau is convinced that Michael's powerful family was behind Sunny's disappearance and that Michael is the key to getting information the police won't be able to ignore--if Nola is willing to risk everything for which she's worked so hard.

Torn between helping Beau and protecting herself, Nola doesn't realize until it's almost too late why the ghosts are haunting her house--a startling revelation that will throw her and Beau together to fight a common enemy. Assuming Nola can get Beau to listen to what the spirits are trying to tell him, because ignoring them could prove to be a fatal mistake...

 

My Thoughts:  I have read Karen White for a long time and this series with Nola as the main character has become my favorite series written by her.  The New Orleans setting is great, but the house is wonderful!  I love the haunting, the ghosts all have personalities that make them more than ghosts, they are characters that make a difference in the story.  Of course, Nola and Beau are the perfect non-couple to solve the mysteries.

 

The story is full of the history of New Orleans, which I love since I could picture the houses and the other settings.  I loved that Karen White took us on a tour of a cemetery, talked about Bourbon Street, and other well-known landmarks.

 

Nola and Beau, could there be a non-couple that belongs together more?  They are circling each other, working hard to non-flirting with each other, and keeping secrets from each other.   Nola just wants to keep Beau from getting killed or hurt by a powerful family, so she decides to do what she can to figure out the secret of Sunny’s kidnapping.   I liked the mystery of Sunny, the figuring out what had happened to her, but for me there was no big surprise at the end.  

 

This is a great addition to the series, and I love that it can be read as a stand-alone.    I recommend this entire series. 

 

Thank you Berkley for a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

 

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Meet Karen White (Taken from her website): Karen White is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 34 books, including the Tradd Street series, The Last Night in London, Dreams of Falling, The Night the Lights Went Out, Flight Patterns, The Sound of Glass, and A Long Time Gone. She is the coauthor of The Lost Summers of Newport, All the Ways We Said Goodbye, The Glass Ocean and The Forgotten Room with New York Times bestselling authors Beatriz Williams and Lauren Willig. She grew up in London but now lives with her husband near Atlanta, Georgia.