Nine Lives

August 17, 2015
This sweet, romantically melancholic first in a new paranormal series from bestseller Staub (Nightwatcher) introduces newly widowed Isabella Jordan, who embarks on a road trip with her young son, Max, from Bedford, N.Y., to visit her hated mother-in-law in Chicago. Car trouble strands Bella and Max in the spiritualist enclave of Lily Dale, N.Y., where they wind up attending to the needs of a very pregnant cat. In addition, the Victorian guesthouse where they’re staying suddenly needs tourist-season help due to the drowning of the caretaker, Leona Gatto. The locals’ attitude that contact with the dead is possible makes Bella wonder whether her beloved late husband could be watching over them, but she’s terrified by dreams that suggest Leona’s death was no accident. Staub doesn’t overplay the quirkiness of the guesthouse residents for color, nor does she rely on ghosts and psychics to solve the murder, opting instead to pull the heartstrings of readers soft on animals, young kids, and the idea of love beyond the grave. Agent: Laura Blake Peterson, Curtis Brown.

September 1, 2015
A young widow stumbles on a town filled with psychic energy that encourages her to investigate an accidental death that may have been a murder. Following her husband Sam's death after a long illness and the loss of her job as a teacher, Bella Jordan, out of money and options on where to live, is forced to make the trek from New York to Chicago to start a new life with her mother-in-law. That's not what Bella wants, but she needs to have some way to take care of Max, her young son. Not very far along the way to Chicago, Bella and Max rescue a cat who seems determined to meet its end on the road. Unable to stop herself from trying to deliver the pet to its owner, Bella detours into the little town of Lily Dale. Though she finds the guesthouse the owner ran, she's too late to meet Leona, who was recently found drowned in spite of her lifelong fear of water. The town's residents press Bella into service to take Leona's place, at least for the summer. After all, Lily Dale is a tourist destination, with folks coming from all over the country to enjoy the spirits. That's the spirits of those who have died, not the ones that come in bottles, though after a few interactions with the kooky residents, Bella thinks it could be both. Even though she's a skeptic, Bella has some small hope that being surrounded by the spirit world could put her in touch with Sam. Instead, it leads her into wondering whether Leona's death was an accident or whether there's something more afoot. Though this new series from Staub (Blood Red, 2015, etc.) is being compared to Mary Higgins Clark, the story, for better or worse, is a good deal sweeter and gentler than Clark. No spirits were bruised in the writing of this tale.

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October 1, 2015

Newly widowed Isabella Jordan and her son, Max, are moving to Chicago to live with her mother-in-law but get sidetracked to the spiritualist town of Lily Dale, NY, after their car breaks down and Max finds a pregnant cat that needs tending. The feline's owner, the proprietress of a successful boarding house, recently died, and Bella is coerced into running the Victorian guest house until someone can be hired to replace the late Leona Gatto. But as she and Max settle in, Bella soon discovers that Leona's death may not have been an accident. VERDICT Not to be confused with Staub's YA "Lily Dale" paranormal quartet, this charming series launch returns to the unusual community of psychics that Staub explored in her stand-alone thriller In the Blink of an Eye. She introduces a host of warmly appealing characters and throws in a touch of the otherworldly. Recommend for readers who enjoy the TV show Charmed.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2015
As she grieves after the death of her husband, Bella Jordan realizes that she needs some positive change in her life. So she leaves the home she shared with her spouse and young son and embarks on a journey that turns out to be far more strange than she intended. While she and her son are on their way to Chicago to stay with her mother-in-law, Millicent (or Maleficent, as Bella calls her, after the evil antagonist in Sleeping Beauty), their car breaks down, they come across a mystifying cat which needs rescuing, and they find themselves in Lily Dale, a quaint little town unlike any other. Somehow they are enticed to stay and take charge of an old inn that has more than a few mysteries of its own. Best-selling author Staub (In the Blink of an Eye, 2002) takes readers back to the little New York resort favored by psychics in her newest Lily Dale mystery, luring readers on a spooky journey into the unknown while lightening the mood by weaving in sweet, heartfelt, hopeful moments.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)