Inn at Last Chance

Ramsay turns her seventh Last Chance contemporary Southern romance (after Last Chance Knit & Stitch) into a surprisingly successful haunted house tale, exploring dark themes about the past interfering with the present while making a delightful tribute to Jane Eyre. Horror writer Gabriel Raintree pushes his way back into using his old family home in Last Chance, S.C., as a writing retreat, even though Jenny Carpenter has just bought the building and is almost ready to open it as a B&B. The unsettled ghost of Gabriel’s brother, Luke, is as attention-seeking and strongly opinionated as Jenny’s book club friends, who would rather push her into a romance with attractive young Pastor Tim than allow her to embrace the idea of a happy spinsterhood. Jenny’s brave self-aware response—reinventing herself with a new fashion style and pursuing Gabriel for physical passion without expecting wedding bells—yields an upbeat, empowering, and still sweet novel about balancing community pressure with personal needs. (May)