Allie Harrison

Hargrove House by Allie Harrison
Book #1: The Haunted Series
Source: Netgalley/Publisher
My Rating: 3/5 stars
My Review:

Everyone in town knows Hargrove House is haunted and only the truly brave will take up the dare to go into the house. As a child, Torrie Reynolds took up the challenge, entered the house, and heard it call her by name before she bolted. For 15 years Torrie has managed to avoid Hargrove House but when Will Dalton walks into her office with deep pockets and free rein to redecorate, she once again walks in to Hargrove House.

The moment Torrie takes on the Hargrove House restoration, everything goes her way. The contractors and crews she wants are all available immediately, the rooms seem to speak to Torrie in terms of decoration, and every item she wants for decorating is available and shipped instantly. Will Dalton made it absolutely clear, there are only two conditions, don’t enter the master bedroom and meet the December deadline. With the luck Torrie is having, the deadline won’t be any problem at all.

You know that phrase if it seems too good to be true, it probably is? Torrie does too and from the beginning, Hargrove House just doesn’t feel quite right. Torrie seems to be the only person who ever sees Will Dalton, on a regular basis she hears what sounds like digging from the cellar, and every time she leaves the house, she feels an incredible sense of loss. For every oddity, there is a warm, fuzzy: Will’s interest in Torrie is made clear almost instantly, the new house keeper is an excellent cook, and much to Torrie’s surprise, Will has children she adores from the very moment she meets them. As the deadline for the project goes ever nearer, Torrie begins to feel as if she won’t ever be able to leave Hargrove House and she just doesn’t understand why.

The Bottom Line: Hargrove House turned out to be an OK read for me. It’s hard not to get hooked when the opening pages have a little girl hearing her name being whispered in a reportedly haunted house and then running all the way home. 15 years later . . . from the moment Will walks into Torrie’s life something is simply off and every time Torrie begins to suspect or ask questions, Will has an answer ready to go. Even when another kid appears. As the plot unfolds (and I won’t be spoiling anything here!), it is easy for the reader to figure out what’s really going on and how everything is going to play out but by the end, there are some elements of the plot that aren’t adequately addressed or simply ignored. I found myself frustrated by the lack of explanation but not so much that it kept me from finishing the book and generally enjoying it. I tend to cut the author a bit of slack for a first in a series read and fully intend to check out the second book in The Haunted series.… (meer)

It was the infant’s wail that called her out into the killer storm racing toward her and her name called on the wind, but it was more than that that pulled Alissa until she stepped through the doorway in time and found herself with a family her heart and soul recognized even though she didn’t.

It wasn’t the ‘how’ of it that troubled her, though, it was the ‘why’ she’d lost two years of her life. It was the question of who the woman was that she’d become in those two years lost to her. Why and how could she have changed so much and who was it that wanted her dead?

Rating: Sweet/Sensual.
http://www.newconceptspublishing.com/outofthestorm.htm… (meer)