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The Ghost and Miss Demure
Karo Follett left her career in a blaze of glorious rage, ditching both work and its attendant philandering plagiarist, her boyfriend, for a job restoring the Belle Ange plantation in Virginia. On the way, inspiration struck like…well, like lightning.
A billion volts can be eye-opening, but an even bigger shock is on its way. Karo can now see spirits—and what a spirit! Hugh Vellacourt, the original owner of Belle Ange, was eighteenth-century America’s answer to the Marquis de Sade. (She’s not exactly sure what de Sade was asking.) Kinky, snarky, twisted, lonely…his fantasyland in the attic is like nothing she’s ever seen, and his sense of humor requires Karo get together with her whimsical, irreverent, to-die-for boss—a work relationship, which she’s sworn off forever. Romance is in the air, but has it got more than a ghost of a chance?
A billion volts can be eye-opening, but an even bigger shock is on its way. Karo can now see spirits—and what a spirit! Hugh Vellacourt, the original owner of Belle Ange, was eighteenth-century America’s answer to the Marquis de Sade. (She’s not exactly sure what de Sade was asking.) Kinky, snarky, twisted, lonely…his fantasyland in the attic is like nothing she’s ever seen, and his sense of humor requires Karo get together with her whimsical, irreverent, to-die-for boss—a work relationship, which she’s sworn off forever. Romance is in the air, but has it got more than a ghost of a chance?
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 29, 2010
8 people are currently reading
134 people want to read
About the author
Melanie Jackson
168 books183 followersMelanie, an award-winning author of more than fifty novels, stories and poems lives with her writer husband in the California Gold Country with their cat (also a writer who has a page on myspace) and their dog (who is hoping to get a page on facebook as soon as she masters typing). Melanie likes gardening but hates the deer who also like her garden, and she volunteers at a local animal shelter.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 12, 2010
I hope that there are more books to come invoiving this couple.
July 7, 2017
After Karo Folett has thrown a bowl of potato salat on her boss, before the assembled team, she takes refuge in Belle Angle, a plantation in Virginia, to help with the restoration.
On the way to the mansion, Karo come into a storm and get hit by lightning. After this it become even more strange for Karo. Suddenly she can see, hear and feel Hugh Vellacort, the former owner of the mansion in the eighteenth-century. Hugh, who had lived and enjoyed a excessive sex life, embarrass Karo from time to time.
Tristam, Karos good looking boss, don`t belive in ghosts at first. However as Hugh decide to help them in the case of love, Tristam have to accept the reality of "Peeping Tom".
The story is a easy read and is very funny. I recommend it highly!
On the way to the mansion, Karo come into a storm and get hit by lightning. After this it become even more strange for Karo. Suddenly she can see, hear and feel Hugh Vellacort, the former owner of the mansion in the eighteenth-century. Hugh, who had lived and enjoyed a excessive sex life, embarrass Karo from time to time.
Tristam, Karos good looking boss, don`t belive in ghosts at first. However as Hugh decide to help them in the case of love, Tristam have to accept the reality of "Peeping Tom".
The story is a easy read and is very funny. I recommend it highly!
May 29, 2024
I’m not sure what I wasn’t expecting, but this was not it. This being said it was honestly better than I was expecting which isn’t saying much.
It was endearing to see how much Tristam was in love with her, but I’m so confused of what the plot was. I’m still confused on where and why the ghost ties in with the story, and so many things were unnecessarily mentioned.
The ending was incredibly sudden, and I still have so many questions, but, much to my horror, it really wasn’t that bad.
It was endearing to see how much Tristam was in love with her, but I’m so confused of what the plot was. I’m still confused on where and why the ghost ties in with the story, and so many things were unnecessarily mentioned.
The ending was incredibly sudden, and I still have so many questions, but, much to my horror, it really wasn’t that bad.
July 5, 2017
This was a short read but a great story! I thoroughly enjoyed this one, it was full of great humor and had an interesting storyline. I would love to read further adventures of this couple and recommend to anyone who likes contemporary and paranormal romance...definitely a keeper and would read again.
June 25, 2019
Overall, this was really cute. I loved the Gothic style feel of this book along with ghosts. If you like creepy houses, then you'll love this.
October 25, 2022
Trust me: pretend Moira Rose is narrating this book in your head. You won’t be sorry.
July 2, 2010
Recently, I sat down with Melanie Jackson, author of The Ghost and Miss Demure to talk about her new release, where she finds her inspiration and her lifelong love of history.
On your website, you invite readers to take a walk on the Wildside, visit the past and explore new worlds. Are you drawn to any particular genre as your "first love" or do all genres attract you?
I'm a voracious reader of most genres and also non-fiction, but the first adult books I read were Gone With The Wind and Conan The Barbarian. They kind of wedged themselves in the subconscious and an awful lot of the stuff I've written is some weird hybrid of the two.
Can you tell us about the inspiration for The Ghost and Miss Demure?
Ghosts are not my usual material, but since I'm both Celt and also have family in the deep south, it was probably inevitable that I would end up writing about ghosts eventually. Hugh Vellacourt, the main haunt, is a fictional character, but the supporting cast of haunts and eerie experiences are courtesy of my cousin, Richard Magruder, and assorted family legends told around the fire on winter nights.
I was struck by the first line of your 2008 release, A Curious Affair. "Everything was the same until I was hit by lightning." Do you often start with a line of dialogue, a fleeting thought, a setting, as your inspiration?
A Curious Affair was a very intimate book where the heroine talked directly to the reader and I thought carefully about where someone would begin a story about a paranormal encounter if they were not a novelist. However a story begins, be it epic or intimate, the first lines need to draw the reader in. I love a slow pace to build mood and descriptive narrative and all that good stuff-- but not at the first line of the book.
Both Writ on the Water and The Ghost and Miss Demure feature Southern plantations. What is it that draws writers (and readers) to Southern settings?
Ever been out in bayou? Nature is there, patient and hungry, just waiting to kill you. We-- humans-- don't belong there. Where better to place a story of murder and ghosts than in a place where cell phones and airbags can't save you?
You have a wonderful essay on your website about why you write. Can you tell us what writing means to you?
Being a storyteller is not just who I am. It is what I am. Life without writing would only be a shadow of what it is now.
Your husband said, "Melanie's first book, Iona, will always hold a special place in my heart." He went on to say that you both are bibliophiles. Was your love of reading what drove you into writing?
Since my grandfather asked, I announced at seven that I was going to be a writer, but I actually knew long before that. The first book I taught myself to read was The Night Before Christmas. It dawned on me that each word being read to me corrsponded to symbols on a page. Then my mom explained the book-- those symbols-- were written by a man called Clement C. Moore. I felt sandbagged. Someone-- some actual person-- had made up this story! It wasn't just a factual telling of events like dad talking about going to the hardware store, but something they MADE UP in their head. I wanted to do that too.
Any advice for aspiring authors?
Stick with it. Stubborness counts almost as much as talent.
On your website, you invite readers to take a walk on the Wildside, visit the past and explore new worlds. Are you drawn to any particular genre as your "first love" or do all genres attract you?
I'm a voracious reader of most genres and also non-fiction, but the first adult books I read were Gone With The Wind and Conan The Barbarian. They kind of wedged themselves in the subconscious and an awful lot of the stuff I've written is some weird hybrid of the two.
Can you tell us about the inspiration for The Ghost and Miss Demure?
Ghosts are not my usual material, but since I'm both Celt and also have family in the deep south, it was probably inevitable that I would end up writing about ghosts eventually. Hugh Vellacourt, the main haunt, is a fictional character, but the supporting cast of haunts and eerie experiences are courtesy of my cousin, Richard Magruder, and assorted family legends told around the fire on winter nights.
I was struck by the first line of your 2008 release, A Curious Affair. "Everything was the same until I was hit by lightning." Do you often start with a line of dialogue, a fleeting thought, a setting, as your inspiration?
A Curious Affair was a very intimate book where the heroine talked directly to the reader and I thought carefully about where someone would begin a story about a paranormal encounter if they were not a novelist. However a story begins, be it epic or intimate, the first lines need to draw the reader in. I love a slow pace to build mood and descriptive narrative and all that good stuff-- but not at the first line of the book.
Both Writ on the Water and The Ghost and Miss Demure feature Southern plantations. What is it that draws writers (and readers) to Southern settings?
Ever been out in bayou? Nature is there, patient and hungry, just waiting to kill you. We-- humans-- don't belong there. Where better to place a story of murder and ghosts than in a place where cell phones and airbags can't save you?
You have a wonderful essay on your website about why you write. Can you tell us what writing means to you?
Being a storyteller is not just who I am. It is what I am. Life without writing would only be a shadow of what it is now.
Your husband said, "Melanie's first book, Iona, will always hold a special place in my heart." He went on to say that you both are bibliophiles. Was your love of reading what drove you into writing?
Since my grandfather asked, I announced at seven that I was going to be a writer, but I actually knew long before that. The first book I taught myself to read was The Night Before Christmas. It dawned on me that each word being read to me corrsponded to symbols on a page. Then my mom explained the book-- those symbols-- were written by a man called Clement C. Moore. I felt sandbagged. Someone-- some actual person-- had made up this story! It wasn't just a factual telling of events like dad talking about going to the hardware store, but something they MADE UP in their head. I wanted to do that too.
Any advice for aspiring authors?
Stick with it. Stubborness counts almost as much as talent.
December 18, 2024
Jobless after making the mistake of dating her boss and then making an even bigger error in letting him take credit for her research, the heroine jumps on the opportunity to work at an old Bayou mansion getting the estate ready for tourism. Even if she does just consider it a filler job, she's excited by history and the place does seem to have genuine antiques for her to look at. But life has never been easy for the heroine so why did she think her new job would be anything but difficult?
Stepping foot on the property she's almost hit by lightning. Disoriented she stumbles down the spooky driveway to the spooky house, sees a ghost in the room and manages to make a complete ass of herself in front her new and stunningly handsom British employer. But she can blame her disarray on her near death experience but what she can't explain away is the presence of the ghost who haunts the place. Still, she finds herself enchanted by the hero who matches her in wits and banter and is certainly easy on the eyes.
Together they spend their time cleaning up the place trying desperately to make the truly ugly and unappealing house into a tourist attraction. Alone for the entire book with secluded in a spooky house where the previous owner experimented with S&M and they can't shake the feeling of being watched, the hero and heroine neither the less grow attached to one another.
There wasn't much of a plot line that I could tell, just the regular days of sprucing up the house or dealing the with ghost and his resting place. And normally I would have become bored with the lack of action or drama but I can't say that I was ever bored. The witty banter and the innocent, charming way the two characters interacted made me smile. I found them both to be super funny in that dry humor sort of way and their relationship was easily and stress free for the most part. Granted in was far from a beyond amazing book but I liked it all the same.
Stepping foot on the property she's almost hit by lightning. Disoriented she stumbles down the spooky driveway to the spooky house, sees a ghost in the room and manages to make a complete ass of herself in front her new and stunningly handsom British employer. But she can blame her disarray on her near death experience but what she can't explain away is the presence of the ghost who haunts the place. Still, she finds herself enchanted by the hero who matches her in wits and banter and is certainly easy on the eyes.
Together they spend their time cleaning up the place trying desperately to make the truly ugly and unappealing house into a tourist attraction. Alone for the entire book with secluded in a spooky house where the previous owner experimented with S&M and they can't shake the feeling of being watched, the hero and heroine neither the less grow attached to one another.
There wasn't much of a plot line that I could tell, just the regular days of sprucing up the house or dealing the with ghost and his resting place. And normally I would have become bored with the lack of action or drama but I can't say that I was ever bored. The witty banter and the innocent, charming way the two characters interacted made me smile. I found them both to be super funny in that dry humor sort of way and their relationship was easily and stress free for the most part. Granted in was far from a beyond amazing book but I liked it all the same.
April 21, 2016
This was an unusual ghost story, and it started slowly, but in the end I quite enjoyed it as a light, fluffy, fun read.
The beginning of this felt a bit choppy and disjointed, but it settled down around page 50 and found its flow.
This is kind of hard to describe though. There's definitely a ghost/haunted house component, but there's also some romance, some gothic, some historical and just a touch of cozy elements here. What brings is all together is the character of Karo. She is a bit neurotic, but mostly she's determined and smart and spunky. I liked her, even when she was doing slightly dopey things. She had a sense of humour about what was going on, as did the book. There are some very amusing scenes in this that kept things light and easy.
There is a touch of sex in this, although only a touch, and there are some other slightly risque goings on with the historical members of the house being restored that might not be appropriate for the very young or the very innocent, but nothing to bother anyone who's read any sort of romance.
This was overall just a lot of fun.
The beginning of this felt a bit choppy and disjointed, but it settled down around page 50 and found its flow.
This is kind of hard to describe though. There's definitely a ghost/haunted house component, but there's also some romance, some gothic, some historical and just a touch of cozy elements here. What brings is all together is the character of Karo. She is a bit neurotic, but mostly she's determined and smart and spunky. I liked her, even when she was doing slightly dopey things. She had a sense of humour about what was going on, as did the book. There are some very amusing scenes in this that kept things light and easy.
There is a touch of sex in this, although only a touch, and there are some other slightly risque goings on with the historical members of the house being restored that might not be appropriate for the very young or the very innocent, but nothing to bother anyone who's read any sort of romance.
This was overall just a lot of fun.
September 9, 2013
If it wasn't the fun & enthusiastic communication between the 2 characters, I don't think I would have been able to finish this book. So to be honest with myself this is more of a 2.5 rather than a 3 in my way of thinking.
August 3, 2016
This was a good read. i enjoyed the very descriptive storyline and how the story progressed. i think that it could have been a little smoother thru the reading process without all the filler that came in between, however i still enjoyed it.
June 27, 2013
I really enjoyed this book...and I can't wait to read more from this author.
January 3, 2014
Kind of dumb. No unity throughout entire story.
February 22, 2016
Very good story, and marvelous language in the writing!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews