AHOB-new502Emerald O’Brien is a single mother of two, has a good relationship going with a younger guy, and owns her own business, the Chintz ‘n China Tea Room, in Chiqetaw, Washington.  Emerald also happens to be considered the town witch.  She sees ghosts, communes with her dead grandmother, and has a penchant for finding trouble, most times in the form of “astral beasties” and dead bodies.

When Emerald’s boyfriend, Joe, buys the plot of land next to her own, they discover what used to be a basement underneath all the woodland growth.  A house used to stand there, they learn later, that burned down fifty years ago under mysterious circumstances.  They find a sealed bedroom, and a journal belonging to a young woman named Brigit.  It isn’t long that Brigit’s ghost begins appearing to Emerald and her kids, Will o’ the Wisps float over the ruins of the basement, and ,somehow, Emerald’s cat and Brigit’s ghost cat trade places.

I may not be the best person to review this book.  I’ve never really read what would be considered “chick lit”.  I don’t think I have anyways.  A Harvest of Bones is okay, but it has a lot of…I don’t know if I would call it earnestness to it, or just plain, flat out, melodrama.


In my review of Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein, I said it felt like a Lifetime movie with Gothic window dressing.  My apologies.  That book was more USA Original Movie material.  This Harvest book here, it has Lifetime written all over it.  And a movie of it might be enjoyable; it has some enjoyable moments within its pages.  But it would be the kind of movie that’s filmed mainly in close-ups, to get that emotional impact.  Of course, it lacks any emotional impact, but I don’t think it was written for that, it was written for entertainment purposes only.  It half succeeds.

A Harvest of Bones isn’t anything heavy, it’s cheesy and hammy and I’m sure there is a lot worse out there on the shelves.  The mystery is ho-hum, and the characters are interesting enough whenever they’re not grating on the nerves.  It’s in the realm of the supernatural where the book is most charming and intriguing; it’s when it wallows in the real world that it falls flat.

2.5 out of 5
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