This is my third visit to the Tradd Street series written by Karen White. Beginning with The House on Tradd Street (#1) and continuing with The Girl on Legare Street (#2), The Strangers on Montagu Street (#3) picks up with the same set of characters and moves us along with their lives and complex relationships.

Melanie Trenholm is a successful realtor in Charleston, South Carolina and continues to work on restoring her historic home. Love interest Jack is still on the scene but he's shocked early on to discover he has a daughter he didn't know about. Oh, and Melanie is also psychic but she keeps it on the down low.

Not sure why it is that I enjoy this series so much, is it the frequent mention of architecture, restoration and antiques? Melanie's ability to see/sense ghosts or the tension brewing between Melanie and Jack? I don't usually enjoy the romance elements of a plot but here it works. The Southern location and sultry heat along with unearthing family secrets containing betrayal and loss kept the pages turning with enthusiasm. And there's even a haunted dollhouse, need I say more?

With so much time elapsing since reading the first two books in 2011 and 2015 respectively and with the third in 2024, I'm surprised I was able to immediately dive straight back into the series with such ease and relish. It shouldn't have come as a surprise that while I was off reading other things, the author continued on with the series, ultimately choosing to end it with book #7 in 2021.

It's rare for me to be able to read a series right through to its conclusion - either losing interest, prioritising elsewhere or abandoning the task due to diminishing reading returns - but I'm excited to give it a try this time, and now have the following books to look forward to.

The remaining books in the series are:
Return to Tradd Street (#4)
The Guests on South Battery (#5)
The Christmas Spirits on Tradd Street (#6)
The Attic on Queen Street (#7)

Carpe Librum! ( )

Book 4! Book 4! COME ON, BOOK 4! ( )

Melanie Middleton has now moved back into her house on Tradd Street, but will an unexpected finding cause her to once again move out? Jack Trenholm is finding that life is full of surprises dropped on your doorstep...literally! This is the surprise of his life and will change him and his tenuous relationship with Melanie forever...and cast them into a dangerous mystery.

Book 3 of The House on Tradd Street is just as interesting as the other 2! Currently engaged in Book 4: Return to Tradd Street. ( )

The Strangers on Montagu Street was an entertaining read and kept me riveted. I had a couple of issues with the book though. First, this installment ends with somewhat of a 'cliff-hanger', the mystery mostly solved, but relationship up in the air (again). Second, the hero, who is a flirt and something of a player (at least in the past) puts all the responsibility on the heroine for their relationship. He is very upset that she doesn't trust him, when in the last book, she caught him with her cousin! In this book, he is dating and sleeping with the cousin and doesn't appear to even like her that much , but he supposedly has a thing for Mellie, the heroine. Also, he found out he has a thirteen year old daughter from a previous relationship, that he did not know about.
It just seemed to me the hero was not strong enough to be on his own, without a girlfriend, and has to have someone there while supposedly waiting for the heroine? Not my type of guy!
3.5/5 stars ( )

In this third book in the Tradd Street series Jack Trenholm’s daughter, Nola, comes to live with psychic Melanie Middleton. Nola’s mother has died of a drug overdose and Jack doesn’t feel capable of dealing with a teenage girl so Melanie graciously agrees to the arrangement. Of course, there are again ghosts who have come to Melanie to make their story known. This time they come when Nola’s grandmother gives Nola an antique dollhouse that is fashioned exactly after a house on Montague Street complete with the figurines that are perfect duplicates of the house’s former inhabitants. The ghosts from the house cannot rest until the true story of their demise is known. And Melanie and Jack continue their romantic struggles in this book and the book’s ending leaves the reader with a surprise cliffhanger regarding their relationship.

This book continues the Tradd Street stories with a pleasant mixture of romance, mystery and paranormal elements. Hopefully, Jack and Melanie’s romantic story will be continued or resolved in the next installment of the series. Since I have toured Charleston, I enjoyed the mention in the book of some of the places that I have visited. ( )