The heroine is known to be such a stern, damaged and stubborn woman despite her youth. Her childhood wasn't the greatest. Seeing her mother die at a young age from suicide, seeing her father treat her with the cold shoulder and neglect-these have molded her into a person who feels insecure about herself, like it was something she did to make her mother leave her and her father treat her so harshly. Then, later in life the man she thought she was madly in love with cheated on her. All these experiences have made the heroine the ay she is-much to the displeasure of any man thinking about getting involved with her. The one good memory from her childhood was living with her aunt down in New Orleans in a beautiful old house full of history and roses. Now that house has been left to her with her aunts passing and she doesn't hesitate to up route from her apartment in New York and start a new life down south. But the paradise she remembered isn't what she finds now. The house is is complete disarray and in desperate need of renovations and the heroine has very little in the way of money to see them done correctly. Also, the house seems to come with a few ghosts-not that the heroine believes in such things. She meets the hero on the property the first day and is comically stunned by just how gorgeous the man is with all his muscles and broad chest. They unfortunately don't get off to the best start and the hero takes acceptation to the heroine's abrupt attitude and the heroine is scared off by the level of desire she has for the well known playboy. But, regardless of their rocky first meeting, the hero is captivated by the seeming tortured woman. He likes a challenge, and the heroine sure is a challenge. He wants her in his bed. Not forever mind you, he's not into commitment, but he wants her as his lover for as long as he wants-something he makes clear to the heroine. On the flip side, bruised by her previous boyfriend, the heroine has in mind exactly what she wants in her perfect man. And as it happens, the beautiful handyman hasn't nothing on that list. So, she pushes him away. She spurs his advances in favor of the 'obvious' choice. Throughout the story the heroine was stubborn, ignorant and childish with every single encounter she had with the hero. She always found a way to make the typically easy going Cajun man irritated or offended by her suspensions or her-lets call it her New York attitude. She was by far the most frustrating, the most stupid, the most.... I can't describe how much she made me want to smack her. I wanted to leap through the pages and throttle her so badly. She just could not accept that she found the perfect man and he was right in front of her. Granted, he did say at the start quite plainly that he was not the settling down type, but regardless, he changed his mind quickly enough I felt and he fell in love with her! She opened up to him about her insecurities, her regrets and her relationships. He was the first person she called when the ghosts frightened her and he can running not hesitation. He was beautiful with that accent that made me turn to goo. But despite all these things, it wasn't until the very end when the heroine truly surrendered to her feelings and gave in before she lost the man who loved her. The hero in turn had the patience of a saint and despite a few hiccups here and there, he remained calm and easy going. Using his Cajun charm to slowly woo the head strong northerner and boy was his job cut out for him. I enjoyed their chemistry and the spooky hauntings and thought this was a very lovely book. ( )