Haunted On Bourbon Street by Deanna Chase

2.5 Stars

It's been a while since I've read a paranormal romance so I thought I'd give this series a chance.  Sounded a little different to my usual vampire/shifter preferences and I have soft spots for anything set in New Orleans (thanks for that Anne Rice!).  Also the premise of a ghost story and a bit of witchy goings on sounded light it would be entertaining.  So, I was actually eager to begin this book.

Unfortunately, I found it to be fairly disappointing.  There are some really good bits and then it spirals in to a bit of waffle and your mind drifts off and then, luckily, you get to a good bit again.  I think the biggest issue is the Kane / Jade thing.  I really couldn't get a handle on the attraction between these two at all, apart from a good old dose of physical want there seems to be nothing else attracting them to each other and yet we, the reader, are supposed to believe it is this grand, unescapable passion.  I just couldn't wrap my head around why.

To be honest that was my entire issue with the book, the characters.  At first I liked that we just jumped in to these people's lives.  We arrive in New Orleans with Jade and are slap bang in the middle of her life.  I like this, means we get to see the character develop on the page and find out about her gently rather than pages of exposition to find out who our heroine is - I like a bit of organic character development so I do.  The problem is I never really felt like I got to know her at all.  Yes, her fractured childhood is explained, yes we learn how much she hates her gift of empathy but other than that I don't think I really figured out what made her tick (apart from Guinness and Glass Bead making).  Even worse are the supporting cast, especially Kane who is central to this story - he is just a cipher on the page and, if we're being honest, rather stalkery.  Pyper, Charlie and Kate have so much more scope in them that it became quite disheartening to learn little to nothing about them as well. 

That is, sadly, not the total of my issues with the book. 

My other very large problem was the nature of Jade and Kane's relationship.  It made me feel exceptionally uncomfortable as it is almost predatory on Kane's part.  In fact the whole romance bit of the book left me feeling uneasy and quite disturbed.  It is not in the least #relationshipgoals it is more red flag after red flag.

However, what saved the book was the ghost plot.  That worked very well and it did keep me reading.  I was even able to overlook my issues with the characters and their choices.  With the seeming appearence of one ghost manifesting in two very different ways it soon got interesting, especially as his behaviour (for it is definitely a male) is so differentiated between Jade and Pyper.  The world building around his appearances and the subsequent ghost hunting sub-plot with Ian was well handled and did get me flipping pages.  It does all go a bit off-piste with the introduction of angels to the tale but it worked and the final showdown had all the tension you could want.

Overall, it didn't leave me wanting to read more of the series but I could see myself picking the next in the series up and hoping that the characters start to show development and that the relationships become less Stockholm Syndrome.