The Warden and the Clocktower by Steve Conoboy

Hannah Warden is a Wyrder. Ever since her father died suddenly, she has been the sole Wyrder in the idyllic seeming town of Overmere. Every night without fail, she leads a ghost walk through the town, telling the stories of the unsettled ghosts who reside in town. Some may think this is just a spooky nightly walk, where tourists are being told tales of imagined ghosts. But in Overmere, the ghosts and hauntings are real, and without the nightly walk where their stories are remembered, they would become unsettled and begin to wreak havoc once again. Tonight, Hannah’s new apprentice is joining her for his second ever ghost walk. He is new in town and has a bit of a temper, but Hannah desperately needs the help. She expects it to be a relatively calm night, but it turns out to be anything but quiet. The ghosts are unusually unsettled and easily provoked. Hannah hasn’t had such a rough night in a very long time. The question is why are they so agitated?

I read a review copy of this book. It was a delightfully spooky story, and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. It was also a quicker read than many of the books I have been reading lately. (Of course, to be fair, many of the books I have recently read have been unusually long.) I enjoyed the characters and the tension created by both the spirits haunting the locations and among the characters on the walk themselves. It was a fun story and one that is a good choice for a Halloween season book to read. It’s spooky, with at times a suggestion of gory happenings, though such instances do not graphically take place during this story itself.

I think that anyone who enjoys stories that are somewhat creepy or eerie, who enjoys mild spooky stories, and can handle stories involving haunted toys as well as location will enjoy this book. I also think that anyone who has ever been on a ghost walk or who has thought about participating in a ghost walk will enjoy reading this story. Although I suspect that in our world, most ghost walks are not as full of agitated and angry spirits as the ones in this story seems to contain. (At least I hope not, though some locations just might have a few such hauntings of their own.)

This book was the first book in a series. (I think there are only two books in the series, though I am not entirely certain if there are or will be more at some point.) I enjoyed reading it and look forward to reading book two in this series at some point. And with this being the Halloween season, it’s a good time to check this one out for some spooky and fun reading.

Mail Order Bride’s Promise, by Florence Linnington

Clara moved from England to America with her sister, brother-in-law, and their baby boy. She had been looking forward to a grand adventure in a new land and had just accepted a position working for a family in Chicago, but just before boarding the train to leave, she received word that her sister and brother-in-law were killed in an accident, leaving Clara as Elija’s only living relative. She couldn’t abandon him, but also couldn’t find a job that would hire her with a baby to care for. Just as she was running out of hope, she saw an advertisement seeking a mail order bride for a man in colorado. Taking a chance, she started writing to him, and soon found herself on her way to Colorado expecting to get married. Only when she got there, Adam had no idea who she was. It turned out that his father had been matchmaking, and had neglected to tell either of them that he’d sent for a wife for Adam. As you can guess, this did not go over well with either Clara or Adam.

I read a review copy of this book and as always, enjoyed reading Ms. Linnington’s latest book. The two main characters in this story had a unique set of problems, made more difficult  by Adam clearly suffering from PTSD after the war. These challenges only strengthened the story, along with a few other challenges that I haven’t named here. This book definitely has a lot going on, and was one that I found very entertaining. It deviates only slightly from the pattern of most mail-order bride stories, but I feel it added something to the inevitable happy ending that I always look forward to in Ms. Linnington’s books. I will note that this book is pictured on Amazon with the title of Mountain Bride’s Promise” on the cover art, but in order to actually find it on Amazon, you need to look for the title of Mail Order Bride’s Promise. I’m not sure why there is a discrepancy in the title of this book, but when I first looked for Mountain Bride’s Promise to post my review on Amazon, I could not find it until I looked up Mail Order Bride’s Promise instead.

If you enjoy Mail Order Bride stories with a bit of a twist, slow-burn romance stories, stories that deal with a couple dealing with post-war PTSD, or are just looking for a nice, story that is easy to read and is usually guaranteed to have a happy ending, then I think you will enjoy this book, As always, I did.

Amazon requires me to state that I have an Amazon Associates account that I use to generate the links to the books on their website. Purchasing something after following those links will earn a few pennies for me off the sale, though as of yet I have not earned anything from my Amazon Associate links.