Hayley is Roz’s distant cousin from Little Rock, who packed up her life and moved after her dad passed away and she found herself “in trouble” from getting to cozy with a friend. When she showed up on the doorstep of Harper House, she was six months pregnant and banking on family ties to give her and her baby a chance at a fresh start. But she wasn’t looking for charity. Hayley is a hard worker, determined to earn every opportunity she’s given.
Now, Hayley’s baby, a gorgeous girl named Lily, is fourteen months old and has never known a home outside Harper House. Hayley has built herself a life here, and a family. She couldn’t be happier, except for the fact that she’s been celibate for almost two years and can’t seem to focus her attentions on anyone but Harper, Roz's son and Hayley’s coworker and semi-boss. Turns out the feeling is very, very mutual. But neither will act because they both assume that their not just alone in their feelings, but wrong to even have them. Thankfully, something changes, and we get my favorite of the three romances that make up this series.
We also get a lot more of our crazy, angry ghost. We finally find out who she is, what she wants, and how she died. And we find out all of these things in large part from Hayley, who the ghost has decided makes a perfect vessel. So, in the course of this trilogy, our haunting goes from mainly benign spirit with an almost singular interest in singing children to sleep, to a poltergeist with rage issues and a serious hatred for any male above the age of twelve and any women who develops a romantic interest in one of said males, to a sly, conniving entity who has discovered the fine art of possession, but with an even bigger heaping helping of lunacy that seems to be expanding all the time.
Like all Nora stories, we have a happy ending, with the mystery element neatly tied up. Which is why I enjoy her novels so much; I always know exactly what I’m getting, and sometimes predictability is a nice change of pace. Nothing is more comforting that sitting down with a book you already know you’re going to love.
If you’re interested in my mini-review of book two of this trilogy, entitled Black Rose, you can find it here on Goodreads.
