The House on Maple Street by Heidi Slowinski
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Suspense/Mystery, Paranormal, Contemporary
Length: Full Length (184 pages)
Heat Level: Sweet
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by AstilbeExcited for a fresh new start, Hillary Altman is about to begin her first semester of graduate school at small New England college. Ever the procrastinator, Hillary waits to the last minute to find housing. But fate smiles upon her, when she takes a room in a picturesque Victorian home, run as a boarding house. But Hillary quickly finds, that all is not as it seems at The House on Maple Street…
Some houses are filled with secrets.
Males with small male organ can increase erection size naturally with the help of ayurvedic sexual pleasure oil – Saffron M Power oil. cialis generic purchase Nerve damage after surgery, stroke, trauma and accidents also cause ED. cute-n-tiny.com tadalafil cheap Oodles of folks around the world have hypothyroidism (low low cost levitra thyroid). His partner is losing cheapest generic viagra interest towards him. The friendship between Hillary and her best friend, Rachel, was charming. There’s something lovely about reading about characters who’ve known each other for so many years that none of their flaws or strengths are ever a surprise. These two friends always knew exactly what to expect from each other even when one of them did something that may have appeared to be out of character at first glance. That was lovely.
It was difficult to understand Hillary at times. I assumed she’d be an intelligent and observant person based on the fact that she’d graduated from college and had been accepted into what sounded like a pretty demanding graduate school program. While I would have totally understood it if she’d occasionally missed clues about what was really going on in the boarding house she moved into, it seemed unlikely that she’d overlook or misunderstand all of them. I liked this character a lot otherwise, but the disconnect between her personal and professional life when it came to thinking things through logically played such a big role in the course of the plot that I sure would have liked to know why it happened.
I appreciated the fact that this book didn’t spend a lot of time focusing on what era it was set it. All but a few scenes could have just as easily been set in 1950 as in our era. In fact, some scenes felt much more historical than they did contemporary, especially when it came to what Hillary expected from living in a rooming house. This gave the storyline a timeless feeling that I enjoyed.
The romantic subplot would have benefited from more development. The characters involved in it knew virtually nothing about each other and spent little time together, so I was surprised by how quickly they fell for one another. I liked the idea of tying a romance into a mystery about a family that had tried so hard to cover their tracks decades ago, but there simply wasn’t enough substance here for me to determine if I wanted these two particular characters to end up together.
With that being said, I was pleased with the ending. This was the sort of mystery that gave readers plenty of hints about how it would turn out, so I was glad to see how the main character reacted when she finally realized how all of the clues fit together. The short, snappy resolution made a great deal of sense for something that had already explained so much stuff already.
The House on Maple Street should be read by anyone who likes paranormal mysteries.
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