The Mirror

The suspenseful second installment of bestseller Roberts’s Lost Bride Trilogy (after Inheritance) brings more cozy romance and heightened ghostly scares. Sonya MacTavish and her best friend, Cleo Fabares, have settled into a comfortable life in Lost Bride Manor, the haunted house Sonya inherited in coastal Maine in book one, despite increasing antipathy from one of the manor’s many ghosts, the evil witch Hester Dobbs. Over the previous two centuries, Dobbs murdered seven brides who married into the Poole side of Sonya’s family and it’s on Sonya to find the brides’ wedding rings and break the curse Dobbs placed on the manor. Along with her beau, Trey, and cousin Owen (who has strong chemistry with Cleo)—as well as their loyal pets—Sonya is determined to flourish in her new home. This volume digs deeper into the haunting of Lost Bride Manor, elucidating more of the players and expanding the worldbuilding through effective flashbacks that deliver necessary backstory without slowing the momentum. The result is quintessential Roberts: richly detailed wish fulfillment seasoned with the mounting tension of a carefully plotted mystery. Captivating characters and a cliffhanger ending will leave readers eager for more. Agent: Amy Berkower, Writers House. (Nov.)