I really enjoy books about old houses with secrets and ghosts. Okay…I’ll admit it. I enjoy stories with any and all ghost. I will also admit that I like some of this author’s books. Love her “In Death” series… and she does have a special way of writing that brings the reader right into the story. [Midnight Bayou] is filled with a kind of tension that keeps the reader turning those pages. It’s just good scary fun. I understand there is a movie based on this book and I will certainly be looking for that. ( )

Declan Fitzgerald moves from Boston to New Orleans. He has recently bought an old plantation house (Manet Hall) and he is going to try to restore it to its former splendor. He can't explain why but he feels a very strong pull towards this house and he even knows how some rooms look inside the house before he even sees them.

One day he sees a girl playing outside with a dog by the pond in the bayou. Later he meets her for real in town. She is the owner of a bar and her name is Lena (Angelina) Simone.

The attraction/pull towards her is so strong Declan asks if maybe they have met before...she jokingly replies maybe in another life. But Declan starts to wonder if this is true. Strange things are happening in his plantation home. He is having weird dreams, sleepwalking and waking up in rooms he didn't want to be in, seeing visions, hearing voices, feeling strong feelings, knowing things he possibly can't know...

I really enjoyed this book. I liked the settings, New Orleans, the bayou... I liked the reincarnation theme. Declan was a wonderful hero, caring, thoughtful, handsome. Lena---she was the cool sultry seductress type. I didn't care for her much at first but she started to grow on me as the story progressed. The other characters were interesting. I liked Declan's friend Remy and his fiancée Effie, and Miss Odette (Lena's grandmother). This book had a captivating storyline with mystery, murder, and secrets from generations past.

This was a good atmospheric read by Nora Roberts. ( )

A very good and easy read. Good romance, just enough "ghost", and a pleasant story. ( )

I realize now that I was to have read this for the Halloween Challenge..... Poot, I set it aside & basically forgot about it.... There went my chance of winning! LOL!

Where to begin? First I have only ever read 1 short story J.D. Robb.... I have never been interested by Nora Roberts, I can't quite put my finger on why.

This story revolves around a long past murder, a haunting, past lives, & love put to rights. Declan has left his fiancee, family, job as an attorney & Boston home to purchase & renovate Manet Hall, a derelict New Orleans mansion on the bayou.

Declan meets & falls for Lena a fiercely independent, hard hearted, frigid talking woman who owns a successful bar and takes good care of her Grandmama, Miss Odette, who raised her. Declan & Lena have a past life to clean up from the long ago murder @ Manet Hall.

Manet Hall is haunted not only by the ill fated star-crossed husband & wife who died there, but by the hate filled spirits of the fromer mistress & her favorite son. All of the previous owners have all run out of the mansion each putting it up for sale in mid refurbishment. As Declan moves in, he begins sleep walking, having visions & knowing things he could not have possibly known.

I liked the story of the haunting, I liked Declan, his friends, and Miss Odette. I did not like Lena, she was a Bitch from the get-go and every time Declan was nice to her or they began to get along, Lena opened her angry mouth, picked a fight & tried to run him off.

As for the writing, I found much of the dialog false..... Just too trite and stilted...... For this reason (and the fact that I detested Lena) I knocked off 1/2 star.
( )

This is the first Nora Roberts book I've ever read. I can see now why she is so popular: the story is nicely paced, there's fun romance (with moderately described sex), relationships are complicated, the setting is appealing (an old house on the bayou being remodeled and New Orleans), and there's a mystery (the past and ghosts). It's a quick read (or listen) and entertaining for those times I want a light romance.