Nothing but Ghosts by Beth Kephart

Ever since her mother passed away, Katie's been alone in her too-big house with her genius dad, who restores old paintings for a living. Katie takes a summer job at a garden estate, where, with the help of two brothers and a glamorous librarian, she soon becomes embroiled in decoding a mystery. There are secrets and shadows at the heart of Nothing but Ghosts: symbols hidden in a time-darkened painting, and surprises behind a locked bedroom door. But most of all, this is a love story—the story of a girl who learns about love while also learning to live with her own ghosts. [via GoodReads]

I've been prolonging writing this review. I think it might be because I felt that this story fell a little flat for me. I'll be honest, it was slow, not too much of anything going on and just when you finally start getting acquainted with the characters, the story ends.

With that said, there were still some aspects of it that I did like. For instance, I loved Ms. Kephart's writing - it was captivating and lyrical. There were really two main threads in the story. Katie's grief for the loss of her mother and then the mystery surrounding Ms. Martine Everlast. I enjoyed the mystery aspect of it. It just felt too slow for me. The build-up was very slow moving and passive and in the end it just didn't hit the mark for me.

The first person narrative was believable. Katie's grief and sense of loss are palpable. It even brought a tear to my eye. I liked the gentle love story also interspersed within the story. And one last thing that I want to make mention of, I loved that the librarian had model looks with her fashionable clothes and killer heels.

All in all, I can see it's appeal, but sadly, it just didn't work for me.