I was really in the mood for a gothic story with ghosts in it and my mind immediately went to Simone St. James as an author. I have read her most recent book “The Broken Girls” and I really enjoyed the mystery and the gothic feeling of this book. And there was a ghost in it.

Unfortunately, “The Other Side of Midnight” hasn´t exactly met my expectations. Actually, there are ghosts within the story, but this is due to the profession of the female main character, who is a psychic and who sees dead people. But this book doesn´t feel particularly gothic and the ghost aspect is a very surface-level one.

A big part of my disappointment is due to the fact that I expected this book being in a certain genre, gothic historical fiction, while it in reality is a romantic suspense novel. And it suffers from a few things that I don´t particularly like in this specific genre.

The biggest gripe I have with this book is the romance. Once again, the weak female, Ellie, has to be protected by the strong, manly man, James, a man, whose personality is solely defined by his muscles and who was dull as ditchwater.

The author really felt the need to tell my over and over again, how incredibly muscled and packed the male main character is. She even takes it to the next level and the physique of every other man within the story is compared to James´ muscles.

I really didn´t like James, I found him incredibly dull and I didn´t buy into the love story, which, to top it off, started off with the most ridiculous case of instalove (James gives Elli a smoldering look across the room and she is up and about to throw her knickers at him in a heartbeat).

The mystery aspect of this novel didn´t blow my socks of, either. With this book it felt like the author focused more on the romance than the actual mystery. Which isn´t my favorite thing to read about, especially if the romance between two characters makes me feel nothing.

This book was fast read and it was entertaining, but it wasn´t what I wanted it to be.

The Other Side of Midnight

by Simone St. James

The Other Side of Midnight has a very strong start and a great premise.  Ellie is a great character, and I liked her from the first introduction, wherein she messes with the mind of one of her clients because her psychic powers tell her that he's lying to her, and that he's got ulterior motives.  I loved Ellie's blunt, heck care attitude, although I did get frustrated on her behalf when she got dragged into a murder investigation under threat.

The murder mystery itself was quite full of twists, and the ending was unexpected, even if not entirely surprising.

This particular Simone St. James novel didn't really feature as many creepy, ghostly moments as the previous ones I've read of hers, but they were still well presented.

And while I liked the self-revelation journey that Ellie ends up going through, after a while I started finding some of the flashbacks a bit tedious, even if I DID understand why they were included.  Maybe because I just couldn't figure out the relationship between Ellie and Gloria, or maybe because I COULD figure it out and didn't really care much for it.  The flashbacks involving Ellie and her mother, however, I really enjoyed, and found them to be nicely done.

Meanwhile, the romance itself wasn't really all that front-and-center, even if it wasn't terrible either.  James Hawley didn't really stand out much as a main hero, so I didn't give him much thought.

Otherwise, a very enjoyable book with a gorgeous cover!

London, 1925. Gloria Sutter made her fortune helping the bereaved contact loved ones killed during the Great War. Now she’s been murdered at one of her own séances, after leaving a message requesting the help of her former friend and sole rival, Ellie Winter.

Ellie doesn’t contact the dead anymore. She specializes in finding lost items. Still, she can’t refuse the final request of the only other true psychic she has known. Now Ellie must delve into Gloria’s secrets... Worse, she cannot shake the attentions of handsome James Hawley, a damaged war veteran who has dedicated himself to debunking psychics.

The Other Side of Midnight is quite unlike St. James' first two books (The Haunting of Maddie Claire and An Inquiry Into Love and Death).  The same elements are all still there, but re-arranged.  This is a much more traditionally structured murder mystery, with ghosts but no hauntings, and a slow burn romance.  St. James remains within the genre, but proves she can write a very compelling story without falling back on cookie-cutter story structures.

St. James' male characters always include WWI veterans. They are not glamorised or glorified, but all are working to manage their new realities.  Sometimes they are beautiful; sometimes interesting looking, but they are all broken or damaged or scarred in some way or another.  That you are in post-war England in the 20's is inescapable.

Ellie was odd at first; early on, the author pulls out some foreshadowing that made me think Ellie was going to be a whingin' engine, something that wasn't going to endear me to the character or the book.  Thankfully, no whinging came to pass.  I'm not sure I have any idea of Ellie as a character, but I don't think she had much idea of who she was either, even by the end, so maybe that was the point.  The building romance between her and James though, that was excellent.  The author gave the feels without giving a show; not many can do that and make it work.  

As I mentioned earlier; no hauntings, but lots of ghosts.  And they're disturbing.  Ellie describes seeing them as:

"'Like plunging your hands into a bucket of worms in the dark,' I said. 'Except it's inside your mind. It's repellent, and cold, and you don't know what you're touching because you can't see–you don't know what it looks like, and you don't want to know.'"

So, still a high creep factor, but I could read this sitting alone at night in an empty house with a minimum of nervous paranoia.  

The mystery, which is at the forefront of this book, is really well plotted.  A tiny bit out-there, but comparatively feasible given the backdrop.  I never had a clue about who the murderer was.  I knocked off the last half-star because part of the plot was too tidy: timing of events, leaps of intuition that were just too lucky - or unlucky.  The fuel for this train of events relied too heavily on coincidence, but the story was strong enough to compensate for most of it.

I remain a firm fan of Simone St. James' work.  So far, she's 3 for 3 and I'm really looking forward to the remaining two I have in the stacks.

After a quiet couple of weeks, the books started pouring in through the post.  I suspect based on shipping notices a few more might stumble in this afternoon, but so far this is what I've got.  In addition to the ones at the top, I also received Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening - Louise Riotte.  I spent yesterday afternoon flipping through it and reading most of it (it's setup to be largely a reference book).

If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home I bought based on Degrees of Affection's updates as she listened to the audio.  She never steers me wrong in non-fiction!

The Madwoman Upstairs:  I saw It's a Mad Mad World's review of this one and it just sounds like a must read for me.  Clues!  Books!  Yay!

The Semester of Our Discontent is the first in a Henery Press series that takes place on a school campus.  

Lost Among the Living and The Other Side of Midnight are two of the three works by Simone St. James that I haven't yet read (the third should arrive any day).  The first two are some of the best ghost stories I've ever read, and I have high hopes for these two.

The Conspiring Woman I don't know for sure, but I think this might be the last book in this series (unless the author plans going self-pub.  I suspect it was part of the Penguin/Random House culling.  It's a shame if so, the series was good, if not strong and I want to find out what happens to the MC.

Crime and Poetry and Basket Case are two first in new series.  I've stared Crime and Poetry last night and the opening gambit is ridiculous but I love the raven!  Vanilla Beaned and Breach of Crust are the latest in on-going series.

New books: 11

Books read: 5

Total physical TBR: 221

Hope everyone has a happy weekend!

I received this book to give an honest review.

First let me start off with saying to the author I am so sorry it took me a long time to get to read your book. 

So Naomi Stone young, very talented, and ends up in love sounds good right but what happens when she learns the truth of everything? 

I really don't want to give too much away as I feel I will give away a lot of spoilers that occur.

The one thing I can say is when I got to one part of the story I had to re-read as I thought the author made a mistake with names but as I continued reading I realized that was the twist, and I was like WHAT!!! No way. 

I found this read to be very enjoyable I loved the mystery surrounding everything, all I can say is justice is served. The question to ask is who is truly the bad guy in the end? 

I liked how we go back and forth between the present and leading up to the present to see what truly happened I thought this came together quite nicely. 

The reason I gave this book four stars and not five is the way Naomi was, there was something about her that just didn't sit right with me. I felt she was a school girl and always needing her mother's approval if that makes sense. 

A decent mystery if you are looking for one.