Tara Belle Talking: The After House by Michael Phillip Cash

I hope everybody had a marvelous Halloween! My family had a ridiculous marvelous party where we had homemade soup, a bonfire and lots of crazy costumes. I was the Evil Queen/Regina from Once Upon a Time and we had 3 other witches in my family, all from The Wizard of Oz. Their costumes were perfect because my aunt was Dorothy and she carried around Tara all night who loved all the attention. Did you have fun on Halloween too? Costumes anyone?

Moving onto my review...

I received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review.

I have this thing about people/authors that use their full names. It's very common here in the South and I feel like it makes me trust someone more, for some reason. It's like "Here is my family history in my name and you can probably figure out who my father and grandfather are before introductions are over." So when I saw that this author wanted reviewers, I was already inclined to read it.

Then I read what it was about. A spooky haunted house? A rogue sea captain ghost? Sign me up.

I love a good cover and this one was certainly lovely. I love that the house has a light on upstairs since it sort of pulls your eye into the center of the page, away from the boat. That shows me, at least, that the majority of the plot will not be happening at sea in that tiny boat but in a house that is reflecting on the sea, if that makes sense.

This is an out and out ghost story. Perfect for October. Eli Gaspar is an old fishing captain with a tragic past that has been left in relative peace for the past few hundred years, occupying his 300 year old fishing cottage on the coast. He doesn't remember much of his past and that's ok with him. Until Remy and Olivia move into his abode.

See, Eli doesn't much like change and his previous tenant was finally removed to an elderly care facility after revealing that he talked to Eli. Now Olivia, a precocious little girl, can see him and the new tenant Remy, is determined to stick it out by herself.

Remy is going through a difficult divorce with a crazy ex. She wants to live on her own and show the world that she is strong and independent, especially her parents. But things are getting weird in this big old house and her ex is acting erratically.

The After House is a good ghost story but it also has some wonderfully modern elements to it. A woman is being stalked and the ghost is being protective. The one aspect that I didn't really like were the guardian angels. I think the plot could have stood on its own without them. It would have made Eli a stronger character since he would have been making positive developmental changes on his own, without outside forces. That being said, it really was a fantastic book.