3.5 Stars

One Liner: Intriguing
 

Simone accepts the offer to house-sit a gorgeous Victorian mansion in the New Orleans Garden District. Soon, she realizes that the house has seen many horrific events and the ghosts need her help. Simone has to use her ancestral powers to help those in the afterlife find closure. 

However, danger escalates as some of the dead and living target her. Can Simone unearth the secrets and end the evil saturated in the house? 

The story comes in the first-person POV of Colin (prologue), Jensen, Simone, Corinne, Rebecca, Joseph, and Gisele, and a third-person POV of the ghosts. 

(Yeah, that’s a lot, but except for Jensen and Simone, others get only a chapter each) 

The book is the third in the series but works as a standalone. I haven’t read the previous two books and could understand the plot without any difficulty. However, I can see that it would work better for readers following the series since there’s a prominent thread that continues from book two. 

Despite so many first-person POVs, we don’t find it confusing due to the chapter titles, which may reveal mild spoilers but are essential. However, I wish only Simone’s POV was in the first-person, and the others were in the limited third-person. That’s because this series belongs to Simone and should prioritize her. (It doesn’t help that we get two different POVs before she makes an entry). 

The snippets with ghosts’ voices (POV) were a great addition and added another layer to the suspense and tension. 

For a paranormal suspense mystery that borders on horror, the setting has to come alive on the pages. The book scores high in this aspect. The ghosts, the sounds, the violence, and everything related to the Ballard House is wonderful. I love the creepy and chilly vibes it gives. 

The pacing is slow, very much so (took me 3 days to read a 280-page book). However, I wasn’t bored at any point. 

Simone starts great. Though I didn’t know her character, I could empathize with her reluctance to use her ‘gifts’ to talk to the dead. However, as the story progressed, I was torn about her actions. Her instincts are spot on, which makes her repeated dismissal of them strange. It seemed more like a way to extend the reveal (there are better ways of doing this without affecting character development). 

Can’t speak for others, but if I were to live alone in a huge mansion with ghosts and suspect more than the other-worldly presence (which needs to be figured out for my safety), I wouldn’t touch a drop of alcohol. Things can get dangerous even otherwise, why add muddle-headedness to the mix? 

The present timeline is set during covid (2020) and has many references to it. It is not a trigger for me, but it can upset some readers (check other TWs). 

The climax and ending felt a little underwhelming despite the seriousness of the situation. I think this is more due to my expectations (I hoped the MC would have an active role throughout). No issues with the reveal or conclusion since everything aligns with the foreshadowing and other details provided. I just wasn’t wowed by it. 

To summarize, Echoes of Ballard House is an intriguing suspense read with a strong gothic touch and a spooky setting. 

My thanks to the author and Coffee and Thorn for the digital ARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.