Book Review: Haunted on Bourbon Street by Deanna Chase

Haunted on Bourbon Street is the first book in the Jade Calhoun series by Deanna Chase.  Jade loves her new apartment-until a ghost joins her in the bathroom. When empath Jade Calhoun moves into an apartment above a strip bar on Bourbon Street, she expects life to get interesting. What she does not expect is making friends with an exotic dancer, attracting a powerful spirit, and developing feelings for her sexy landlord Kane. Jane tends to keep her abilities secret, but when the ghost starts terrorizing Pyper, the dancer, it's up to Jade to use her unique ability to save her. Except she'll need Kane's help-and he's betrayed her with a secret of his own-to do it. Can she find a way to trust him and herself before Pyper is lost?

Haunted on Bourbon Street is a solid start to a series. The initial introduction to the characters felt a little off, like I had missed a novella or prequel introducing everyone, but IO was quickly up to speed and had a good grasp on who everyone was and their personalities. For me characters are often the most important part of the story, and as soon as I felt like I knew the characters I started to care about them and was eager to see where their stories would take me.  The interpersonal drama was reasonably well done, though the instant attraction thing was occasionally too much for me. The suspense involving the haunting and its details were also well done, though I did guess the mystery aspect of that fairly quickly. All in all, I enjoyed the read and am glad I took a chance on the book.

I would recommend Haunted on Bourbon Street to readers that like urban fantasy and a bit of romance. The story was well done, and while it was not my favorite of the genre, I do plan on continuing on with the series and have high hopes for Jade and Kane. There are currently four books in the series, with the most recent being published in May of 2013.