Texas Gothic, by Rosemary Clement-Moore

Practical Amy Goodnight, together with her absent-minded scientist sister Phin Goodnight, has a new summer job taking care of her aunt Hyacinth's ranch. However, this isn't an ordinary farm as all the Goodnights have some sort of psychic or magical power, and when a malicious ghost starts haunting the ranch, as well as the ranch belonging to the cute but infuriating cowboy next door, everyone turns to Amy to vanquish the ghost and save them from his wrath.

I had this same complaint about The Splendor Falls, and I'll say it again here. This book had a very slow beginning. Different details pertaining to the plot were introduced but they didn't inspire any excitement until the very very end. It wasn't horrible in the slightest, as Clement-Moore's writing style is extremely entertaining, but I did have to trudge through to get to the good part. I am not a fan of ghost stories, but since Clement-Moore takes some of the somberness out of them and takes them to a place of perfect balance between dreary and hilarious, I am always willing to read one of hers.

This book was a semi-predictable whodunit, but I don't have any problems with the semi-predictable part because I think that was on purpose (or even if it wasn't, the action was good enough that the story was interesting anyway).

One thing I loved about the characters in this novel was how from the beginning, Amy portrayed herself as the normal one, and despite all her adorable quirks, she still seemed to be the sanest person around even when she clearly wasn't. It made the first-person point of view a lot more tangible and at times I almost felt as if I were Amy.

4.3 stars.

 Amy Goodnight knows that the world isn't as simple as it seems—she grew up surrounded by household spells and benevolent ghosts. But she also understands that "normal" doesn't mix with magic, and she's worked hard to build a wall between the two worlds. Not only to protect any hope of ever having a normal life.

Ranch-sitting for her aunt in Texas should be exactly that. Good old ordinary, uneventful hard work. Only, Amy and her sister, Phin, aren't alone. There's someone in the house with them—and it's not the living, breathing, amazingly hot cowboy from the ranch next door.

It's a ghost, and it's more powerful than the Goodnights and all their protective spells combined. It wants something from Amy, and none of her carefully built defenses can hold it back.

This is the summer when the wall between Amy's worlds is going to come crashing down.