Books4Tomorrow: QUICK REVIEW: "House on Plunkett Street"

“HOUSE ON PLUNKETT STREET”

by Lorena Bathey

REVIEWED BY: Ellen Fritz

OVERVIEW

Phoebe Bertram is boring, bland, and unexciting. She works a job that is inadequate of her abilities. She has a boyfriend that is a dud. She is on the treadmill of her life and doesn’t know how to get off.

With changes in her job and her apartment going condo, she must find a new place to live. Her friend Meghan brings her to the perfect apartment and the moment Phoebe steps in the door she knows there is something atypical about this perspective residence.

What she never expects are the three ghosts that arrive on her couch to teach her how life is really meant to be lived.

Author of Beatrice Munson, Lorena Bathey, has brought us another great example of character study combined with a moral at the end of the story. This book will make you laugh, cry, and look at your world with new eyes.

REVIEW

“House on Plunkett Street” is not at all your usual, creepy, haunted house ghost story. In fact, it is a cheerful story full of friendly people and, yes, unusual ghosts.

When Phoebe, the main character, moves into an apartment in what used to be the house on Plunkett Street, she senses that it is a building filled with happiness and good memories. Three ghosts, on a mission to help her, make their appearance one by one, and Phoebe's life changes dramatically.

First there is Isolda - who was involved with the first suffragettes and who made the house available as a refuge for women who needed to start over - who convinces Phoebe that she needs to get rid of her boring boy friend and find her niche in life.

Next comes the jolly, perky Polly, formerly a singer and dancer in a twenties club, who sweeps Phoebe along to buy a new, colorful wardrobe and encourages her to crawl out of her dull existence and enjoy life.

Lastly there is Hazel the down to earth African American lady who teaches Phoebe about relationships.

When the owner's nephew causes Phoebe to spill coffee on herself and shortly thereafter she backs her car into his truck, one would think that the possibility of a romance between them is remote. But enter the three ghost ladies, who have other ideas, and you’re in for a treat. This story has its fair share of sadness and drama. With ghosts from different time periods acting as life coaches to a modern woman, there is bound to be some hilarious moments.

All the characters, including the ghosts, are brilliantly original and the kind of people all of us would love to have as friends. In dialogues the author used the language and vernacular of the time period in which each of the ghosts lived, while they were coaching Phoebe, which added a very pleasant and unique touch to the eloquence of this book. I read “House on Plunkett Street” in one long sitting; not for the mundane reasons of suspense and action but just because I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

There are pearls of wisdom in this book which will appeal to every kind of reader, so do yourself a favor and go grab this gem of a book. It is more than deserving of its 5 stars!