| Title | : | The Ghost of Marlow House (Haunting Danielle, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Format Type | : | Kindle , Hardcover , Paperback , Audiobook & More |
| Number of Pages | : | 258 |
| Publication | : | First published March 7, 2017 |
The Ghost of Marlow House (Haunting Danielle, #1) Reviews
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Danielle Boatman has inherited Marlow House from her aunt. With the help of her friend Lily, she plans to turn the old mansion into a bed and breakfast destination. When the two show up at the house, they find it is in disrepair but still looks pretty good for a house that has been unoccupied for ninety years. On their first visit to the house, Danielle finds a surprise waiting for her. The previous owner, Walt Marlow, is still in residence, even though he is dead.
Danielle has been seeing and dealing with ghosts for much of her life, ever since her grandmother visited her after she passed. So although she is not afraid of seeing Walt, she is worried how he will take the news that he is no longer alive. And she does not know how his being there will affect the opening of her bed and breakfast. When she tries to help him pass to the other side, he asks her to look into his death, which was ruled a suicide. She sure has a lot to deal with: fixing up the house and preparing for the opening of the bed and breakfast and trying to solve a ninety year old mystery. She is not sure how she is going to accomplish any of that.
The writing style flows smoothly and the book is an easy read. The author has created characters that are realistic (even though one is a ghost), well rounded and three dimensional. They are a cast of characters that are very likable and I wanted to spend more time getting to know them. I really enjoyed the interaction between Danielle and Walt and I could have kept reading about them all day long. The mystery is well plotted and maintained throughout much of the book. There are twists and turns that kept me guessing all along the way.
Sometimes, when I am looking through book sites looking for something to read, I come across a book that I really enjoy. That is exactly what happened when I purchased The Ghost Of Marlow House. And after further checking, I found out that this is the first book in the series. So I hit the jackpot when I found this one, especially since cozy ghost books are one of my favorite genres to read. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well crafted cozy and if you like paranormal, then you really want to pick this book up. -
A fun paranormal mystery!! I will definitely read more in this series!
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When Danielle Boatman inherits her aunt's house she has no idea that she is also inheriting the resident ghost. Walt Marlow has been dead for a very long time, but has never moved on. He tells Danielle that he might be able to move on if she can discover who murdered him. Danielle starts sleuthing so that she can fulfill her dream to turn Marlow House into a bed and breakfast.....sans ghost.
The Ghost of Marlow House is the first book in the Haunting Danielle series. The series has 20 books. I enjoyed this first book enough to keep reading. Cute, nicely paced, cozy mystery. I'm always up for a ghost story, even a humorous one. Walt wonders why other people are in his house....and Danielle wonders why she has to be burdened with a cranky ghost. Slowly she realizes that he has a reason to be a bit cranky -- someone murdered him and it's remained unsolved for nearly 100 years. That would make anybody a bit touchy.
Fun, entertaining story! On to book 2....The Ghost Who Loved Diamonds! -
I'm sorry, I really gave this book a chance and read the whole thing despite wanting to DNF after 40 pages, but this really wasn't great. Unfortunately as well, I don't think a lot of the flaws were even a case of personal preference, but rather just bad writing and structure in general. I rarely give a book 1*, as I do try to consider the fact that some of my criticisms may be due to personal preference, and therefore it's unfair to issue a 1*, but this book really was something else.
I'm a big fan of both spooky haunted house books, and ones like this that are more cosy mysteries, and are not written with the intent of scaring anyone. The premise seemed cliche enough, nothing particularly unique, but I was happy to roll with it, as I was in the mood for just a typical, cosy mystery to read across a few evenings.
The plot to this however was both painfully basic, and painfully illogical at the same time. None of the following are particularly spoilers, as you find them out quite early on, but the premise of the book is that Danielle inherits a big house that no one has lived in for years blah blah blah history of someone dying it in yadda yadda yadda so her and her thirsty BFF Lily move into it, with the intention of turning it into a B n B. Seems bearable at first sight. Cue Walt; the dude renowned for dying in the house by hanging himself in the attic, in ghost form. Very spooky. However, here comes the first illogical part of the book. Only Danielle can see him, Lily cannot, however upon seeing a fully grown man in her house, who does not look ghost-y (i.e. isn't silvery and whispy and doesn't say "boo"), Danielle automatically knows that he is a ghost, and isn't phased in the slightest by his appearance. Umm, what? Firstly, how does she automatically know he is a ghost? And secondly, for someone who claims she is kinda freaked out by her previous experience with ghosts, why is she so nochalant about this one? I'll tell you why. Cause Walt died as a young man, and young man Walt was a fit young man. Yep, Danielle kinda has the hots for ghost man Walt, which brings us nicely on to my next point.
Walt is a dick. He is clearly a product of his time (he died back in the 1920s or something) when it was considered cool and okay to be misogynistic and racist. Danielle rightfully puts him in his place about his politically incorrect terms that he uses, however she just kind of blushes and thinks about how he wants to kiss him (yeah, really) every time he makes inappropriate comments about her appearance and lounge wear and whatnot. And why is that? BECAUSE HE IS A FITTY. So it's okay. I'm guessing somewhere in the next book in this series, Danielle discovers the Red Room in this house? Because we all know its totally okay for men to be misogynistic if they are fit...right? Fml.
As if all this wasn't bad enough, the plot's mystery basically gets solved about 20% of the way in. Basically, when we meet dear old Walt, he doesn't realise he is dead, he thinks he's still living his best life. When Danielle, breaks it to him, he is positive he didn't kill himself, and reckons the reason he can't move on is because he was actually murdered. So, Danielle decides to help him work out who killed him, and staged it to look like a suicide, so that Walt can stop haunting her B n B and stop crawling into bed with her and refusing to get out (classic Walt). Every reader can pretty much work it out straight away, but just in case you had any doubts, Danielle makes it obvious asf who killed Walt around 20% in, and thus the mystery is gone. The following 200 pages just involve Danielle's angsty conversations with Walt, and her trying to locate a stolen necklace, whilst her thirsty friend Lily is trying to get into the pants of the dude across the road by making jokes about boobs, despite the fact that this dude lied to her about his profession, whilst also drooling over Walt who visited her dream (idek by this point what I'm doing with my life). And if that wasn't all cool enough, guess how she found out that he was lying about his profession? His dog told Walt who told Danielle who told Lily. Can't even trust the dog in this book, cause it's a snitch.
The grand finale of all this, ladies and gentlemen, was just the writing style itself. All of this could have been a 2*, and I could have put it down to it just not being my kind of story (cause it seemed so illogically put together). However, the writing was really quite bad. It just read like a middle-grade book in regards to the maturity and complexity of the writing. Now, I'm not saying every "adult" book needs to be written to a certain standard, however given some of the themes in this book, you'd expect a bit more maturity. A lot of the syntax read like something a 10 year old would write; it made sense, but it just seemed so underdeveloped. For example, there was the classic "they sat and spoke for about another 15 minutes"...seems harmless enough at first, but "about another 15 minutes" doesn't feel like something professionally written. It's the "about" that just makes it seem like the writing has purposefully been watered down, and even kind of seems a bit "i don't really care" on the author's behalf. You're the one writing it! Tell us how long it was for. Don't just give a random guess, it seems so offhand, and as if you either don't really know what's going on with your book, or worse, you don't really care. This seems like such a small thing, but as someone who has studied English before, and is very passionate about the semantics and psychology behind word choice, this book is just full of stuff like this, that makes it seem more like someone recalling a story aloud as opposed to writing and crafting one.
I'm not often this harsh on books, but I really do think this was a poor book. The author clearly has an ability to develop a narrative in their head, and flesh it out with some characters, but when it came to actually writing it down and producing the story, it just seemed like they completely threw it all away. I also have no clue what the editors role was in all of this, but I'm guessing non-existent. This book could have easily been a 3* with some tweaks to the writing style, the handling of Walt's misogyny, and a bit more logic and coherence between events, but instead this unfortunately felt like the first draft was just written up then published with no real consideration or editing. -
This was a really cute story and was much more than I expected it to be. Very charming and refreshing.
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now i am hooked. This was such a great, easy and creative book. i was hooked after the first page.
The characters were easy to fall in love with and follow, along with the story. the author made the mental visions so easy and vivid of the surroundings and the characters actions felt so real.
i would highly recommend this author and this book. -
The Ghost of Marlow House
Haunting Danielle Series, Book 1
By: Bobbi Holmes, Anna J. McIntyre
Narrated by: Romy Nordlinger
This was a fun cozy mystery about a woman that inherits a house and of course there is a ghost there that doesn't know he is dead. Sure, same old story, right? Wrong, this one is fun! She can see ghosts and then the mystery is one as why he is there. Why is someone breaking into the house after almost 90 years of people leaving it alone? Why is there a new guy asking questions and lying that he is a teacher? It is a fun and enjoyable listen and has great characters, good plot, and fun situations.
The narrator does a fantastic job of the voices and making the story stay fun. -
I'm sorry, but I just can't finish this book. I tried to like it, but I didn't.
There were several things that bugged me about this book. First off, the friend/sidekick Lily was annoying as all get-out. Aside from the fact that SHE NEVER STOPS TALKING, she also makes some pretty huge assumptions about what she can do/allow in relation to Danielle's new house. Seriously, I would never just assume I could let a stranger into my friend's newly inherited house in a strange town where neither of us know anyone. I also would not be flapping my lips about every detail of my friend's inheritance, house, history, etc. to that same STRANGER over multiple discussions without even asking my friend how she felt about her business being shared with someone she doesn't know. Especially after Lily and Danielle discuss it and it is obvious - to me at least - that Danielle is uncomfortable with Lily talking about her and the house with this guy.
Then there was how incredibly obvious the plot was. I never try to figure things out before the reveal, enjoying letting the story play out in its own time. But I knew exactly what was going on very early in the book. Honestly some of the conversations Danielle has, and conversations other characters have does everything but use a neon sign to telegraph what the situation is and what is going to happen in the end. If it's so obvious even I know what's going on at the 40% mark then it's really obvious.
Finally, there was the ghost. Now, let me just say that I enjoy books with ghosts normally. It's a fun thing to have in the right book. But this ghost was weird and a little creepy, and I found the stuff he did oogey. I mean lying on top of Danielle in her bed when she is in her pajamas? That's nasty, even if he sunk through her because of his ghostly nature. And refusing to give her any privacy except when she goes to the bathroom? Yeah, if I were Danielle, I would threaten to sell the house and leave him there if he refused to behave. And don't even get me started on all the judgey and obnoxious opinions he had on "modern women". Dude, you've been dead for 80 years, nobody cares about your antiquated opinions on the world, and you NEED Danielle to investigate for you, so stop acting like a tool!
There was just too much about this book that irritated me. I couldn't finish it. Just a bad fit for my likes and interests in a book. Moving on to the next. -
4 Stars… This was such a light, fun, easy read but with an intriguing mystery and interesting characters... Danielle and Walt engaged in some entertaining banter with some sweet flirtatious moments that leaves me wondering where the author will eventually take this unique relationship... I am a huge lover of cozy mysteries and this one was no exception; I will definitely be continuing on with this series:)
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I don't really like to read about ghost and hauntings ( one of my fears irl) but somehow I was drawn into the book and I'm so glad I listened to this. This was such a fun and exciting mystery trying to solve what happened to a ghost 90 years ago. Because any form of evidence and clues is long gone by 90 years the mystery was solved by interviews and checking old news papers and so on which I absolutely loved. it did really helped that I fell for all the characters and especially the ghost.
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Not a glowing start to the new month of reading:) I wanted to like this book...after all, I am “The Ghost Story Junkie”. I love ghost stories but this one just didn’t do it for me. I believe that the author was going for an entirely different story than what she got in the end. The idea had promise but the theme that the author started with became lost somewhere in the mixed-up storyline that contained so many grammar and punctuation errors I lost count. I gave the book a reluctant 2.5 stars because I felt that most of the errors were probably not entirely, if at all, the author’s fault. Some copywrite editor should be ashamed of themselves to allow this to go to press like this. The story needed some “first aid” ...like some red herrings thrown into the plot and less of the early reveals that should have been left until later in the story before being shown to us. Some of the coincidences were simply unnecessary. It appeared to almost be an attempt to rack up word count. We also didn’t need a full run-down in every new chapter of everything that had previously happened. Another attempt for word count. The only thing that all of this did was make the book become very much less of a real ghost story and more of an off the wall romance...which really didn’t work well either.
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This is a 4.5 star read.
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It was a great story that actually had 2 mysteries combined. One was the question what happened to Walt Marlow, now the ghost of Marlow house and the other one was the hunt for the necklace.
My favourite character was definitely Walt Marlow who doesn't realize that he isn't alive anymore.... -
The Ghost Of Marlow House The actual title of the book is The Ghost Of Marlow House, which is Book 1 of the Haunting Danielle series. I don't know why the name of the series gets the biggest font on the cover, unless the author wants to discourage people from reviewing it, since it was a little difficult to find at first.
Just an okay book. I liked the plot (actually 2 plots, solving the death of The Ghost Of Marlow House and solving the lost necklace mystery.) Both were great, lots of twists and turns and although somewhat predictable, it was at least entertaining.
My issue is with the characters and the dialogue. The MC's friend, Lily, is annoying to a fault. Babbles on endlessly, until I finally started skipping pages whenever she was in a scene. Ditto the dialogue, which bordered on inanity. Pared down, it might be more enjoyable.
Overall, worth a read but nothing spectacular. Probably won't bother with future books, though. -
Over all I mostly enjoyed this book however it got a wee bit slow towards the middle and I had to push a little to get through it. Once I did however, it did get better towards the end and I finish pretty keen to pick up book number 2. I liked main character Danielle and I have always liked the whole MC can see ghosts kind of thing and that part was done a little differently than most. My biggest problem with it through was that as I read it it reminded me of a number of other books and stories I had read so I pretty much picked most of the mystery from the get go and didn't really have too many surprises, which was a little disappointing. That being said it was still an intriguing and relative fun and fast read so I will definitely be moving further in the series.
I give this book 3 1/2 -
I did not care for this book at all. And didn't even finish it. I felt it was starting to have a creepy feeling about it. I mean this ghost, who was supposed to be looking for his wife, is having feelings for Danielle? And she tells him to stop coming in the bedroom and he tells her the only room he will leave her alone in is the bathroom?! And then he is telling her that she would look fine in his wife's nightgown? What a pervert ghost!! No thanks, moving on.
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Dnf 25% I've been overzealous with the cozies
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There is a really good story in here, but somehow it’s hidden under too many subplots and unnecessary characters and scenes that have no purpose. I love Walt, but I have to give up on the story because I can’t keep it all straight in my mind.
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“The Ghost of Marlow House (Haunting Danielle #1)” is yet another road trip selection that failed.
MC Danielle is completely clueless, and her friend Lily is amazingly stupid as she tells everything to the evil villain Ian. We stopped after 2 chapters. 2* DNF -
1.5*
Detektyvas su vaiduokliais. -
Very enjoyable book. I absolutely adore the ghost Walt!! Some of the minor characters didn't seem necessary. The author could have left them out and the book still would be just as fabulous.
I liked how they touched very slightly on history, which I love reading about history.
I liked the ending, it is certainly different than the usual mysteries I have read!! -
I loved and devoured this book. Easy five star. I cannot not think of a negative thing to say about it. ♡ So... on to book 2...
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I enjoy audiobooks, and found this one to be an entertaining listen while on my daily walks. I found myself going for extra minutes just to listen to another couple fo chapters. Win/win
I love old houses and used to live in a four-story built in 1898, and I found myself picturing my old house as Danielle began to renovate Marlowe House into a B&B and encounters Walt Marlowe, the ghost who comes along with her inheritance.
I also love dual time-lines, and although this is set in the present, there's plenty of history to go along with the story behind the story.
The first in the series, The Ghost of Marlowe House will captivate you with its quirky cast of characters, wonderful seaside setting, and easy to follow plot line as the story unfolds (nothing worse than losing track of who did what, when, and how) I look forward to the next in the series.
Cozy mystery/ghost story lovers will devour this book--and there are several more in the series to keep the ghostly connection going! -
This was terrible, but I might read all 32 in the series.
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The Ghost and Dani!
So those of you that love old classics like me, will remember the movie and later tv show called The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. This book has a lot of similarities. 1. A ghost with un - finished buisness. 2. Marlow House is situated near a beach. And 3. Both ghosts and main characters develop a friendship, companionship to one another.
This was a very good paranormal mystery! I loved the bits of history, topics about the 1920's and the mystery. Who killed Walt or was it really a suicide? Who took the necklace and why? Will Walt cross over when these answers are revealed or will be be in book two?
Mystery, murder, friendship all together equal a brilliant book with amazing characters and storyline! I didn't dislike one thing about this book, 4.5 stars!!
Free at time of purchase and highly recommend if you just want a good, what seems like old fashioned mystery novel! -
Great ghost
I wasn't far into this book when I was sure I'd read it before. I still can't place when, but I'd forgotten enough details that I knew I wanted to finish re-reading. I loved the history of the mystery, loved the characters, and flat out adore Walt the ghost. Now I'm eager to check out the next book in the series ! -
This was a really good story. I was hooked and wanted to know what happened to Walt. I loved the fact that in the end it was about 2 mysteries. Walt seems like a nice guys and it's a shame he married who he did. I'm glad he got answers and that he'll be sticking around. Danielle seems like a nice person and hopefully she'll get the b and b running soon. It feels like they will make a nice pairing in mystery solving and running the b and b. I can just see walt scaring all the guests with his TV trick.
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Danielle Boatman and her friend Lily arrive at
the Marlow House. Danielle has inherited the
house from her Aunt. She plans to turn it into
a bed and breakfast. What she did not account
for was the ghost of Walt Marlow to still be
present in the house.
Danielle has a gift of being able to see and
communicate with ghosts. She needs to prove
that Walt Marlow was murdered and didn’t
commit suicide. Not an easy task after soooo
many years have past.
There is also a mystery about a priceless
necklace being hidden in the Marlow House.
This brings some unsavory happenings.
Cleverly crafted, well defined and interesting
characters involved in two puzzling mysteries. -
Such a good cozy mystery. Danielle inherits Marlow House and wants to make it a B&B, but she meets the ghost...
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Three stars but don't get me wrong; I'll probably read the entire series.
