Review – ‘Haunted on Bourbon Street’ by Deanna Chase

Blurb 

Jade loves her new apartment—until a ghost joins her in the shower!
When empath Jade Calhoun moves into an apartment above a strip bar on Bourbon Street, she expects life to get interesting. What she doesn't count on is making friends with an exotic dancer, attracting a powerful spirit, and developing feelings for Kane, her sexy landlord.
Being an empath has never been easy on Jade's relationships. It's no wonder she keeps her gift a secret. But when the ghost moves from spooking Jade to terrorizing Pyper, the dancer, it's up to Jade to use her unique ability to save her. Except she'll need Kane's help to do it—and he's betrayed her with a secret of his own. Can she find a way to trust him and herself before Pyper is lost?

Review

I normally don’t read chick-lit but this one caught my eye. I liked the hero, Kane, and most of the secondary characters, but I couldn’t connect with the heroine, Jade.

Jade Calhoun moved to New Orleans for a job and to be closer to her best friend, Kat. When she finds out Kat is now dating her ex-boyfriend, Dan, a rift grows between them. Jade moves into an apartment next door to a strip club and her hunky landlord, Kane, is also the owner/manager of the strip club. His best friend, Pyper, is the owner of the coffee shop on the other side of the apartment building and she’s also a stripper/manager of the strip club.

There are a lot of side characters. Other than Kat, Dan, and Pyper, there’s Charlie (the female bartender), Ian (a ghost hunter and Kat’s friend), and some other people. Jade spends a lot of time befriending these people and very little time developing a romance with Kane.

Jade is an empath (a person who can feel and draw on the emotions of others) and most people think she’s a freak, so she keeps this part to herself even when bad things start to happen around her and her friends. This, in essence, put her friends in danger. Jade grows throughout the story, learns to trust her friends and in herself, but I found her a little selfish and self-absorbed. I mean, she often drew on Kane’s emotions but got angry with him when he used his gift on her (he can dreamwalk into people’s dreams). She also flirted with Ian, but had no romantic interest in him. She has feelings for Kane, but won’t tell him and gets jealous when she thinks he’s with someone else. He’s not a sleazy perv, but that’s how she’s pegged him.

When Jade and Kane finally become a couple, they still spend so much time apart. I understand this technically isn’t a romance book, but there was just so little romance between them that their newfound love felt forced to me.

Since this is a continuing series about Jade and her friends, I’m sure the unanswered questions in this book will be answered in the later installments of the series.

3 Stars

Disclaimer – I downloaded this book from Amazon and volunteered to review it. I am not compensated in any way, shape, or form for this honest review. I will not change or alter this review for any reason unless at my discretion.