This fun series is just packed - psychics (fake and potentially real) treasure, ghosts, Scottish castles and more. A very enjoyable adventure.

This is such a fun series! I love the Eleanor Wilde books. In this book, she is sent to 'commune' with the recently deceased patriarch of an isolated, and supposedly cursed, family. A long history of swindling and pirates includes Gloriana's Curse -- a treasure of gold coins stolen from the Spanish by Queen Elizabeth I's command, finding it's way to the family's small island in the Hebrides. Eleanor is joined by another 'psychic', possibly the real deal, who has better theatrical skills than she. Together, or perhaps better alone, they must find out where the treasure is hidden and lift the curse before anyone else dies.

This is the 3rd installment in the Eleanor Wilde mystery series. Ellie is an American who has moved to Sussex England and is a fake psychic who is ready to go on a vacation but postpones it to go to a Scottish Castle in the Outer Hebrides. Ellie is falling for Nicholas and it is his friend (Sid Stewart) from University that needs help to find a treasure somewhere in the castle and is hoping that a psychic can reach the recently departed patriarch Glenn. Madame Eleanor as she is known is not so concerned as she uses her whit and powers of observation to solve these cases but the family also brought in another famous psychic Birdie White. Ellie has some competition but as another death occurs so somehow does she learn she might have powers. This is a fun and engaging mystery as it is unique with an American tackling the English ghosts. I love the location and how Ellie handles the crazy other psychic Birdie and uses the tools (twins Jamie and Ferguson ) available to her to solve the murders. This is a great series and I look forward to see what happens next.

I received this ARC via Netgalley and Kensington Books, in return for an honest review. While this is the 3rd book in this series, it is easily read as a standalone. Eleanor Wilde is an American transplant to England. She’s a ‘psychic’ with a long history of knowing every trick in the scam artist toolbox to make herself impressive to the tourists. Since her sister, Winnie’s, death, she’s been surprised to have Winnie visit her with mental messages on occasion. While these haven’t helped Eleanor with making a living, they’ve certainly made her life more interesting. Also interesting and interested is the local landholder, the sexy and handsome Nicholas. In this book, instead of a shared vacation to a tropical getaway, she and Nicholas are invited to a remote Scottish island and castle to solve a missing fortune and a possible murder. When Nicholas can’t accompany her, she sets off by train and encounters one of the most annoying psychics, Birdie White, to ever cross her path. Unfortunately, Birdie seems the real thing and Eleanor deals with both annoyance and a rival to solve the case. Add a cast of characters that challenge her personal and professional skills and Eleanor has her work cut out for her.
I like Eleanor and think this is an interesting and unique take on the usual cozy protagonist. This book took a while to get going as the part on the train with Birdie took up quite a lot of time. There are several characters on the island to keep straight. I found the idea of going for several days without my personal belongings (the suitcases are ‘lost’ upon arrival to the island) to be personally unpleasant so that wasn’t a positive in the story’s development. The resolution was well done. I’ll look forward to reading the next in this series.

In Curses are for Cads, Eleanor travels to a secluded island to try and find a hidden treasure that is missing after the owner of the island dies mysteriously. On her way she comes across another "psychic" heading to the island for the same purpose. Can she be trusted? After another mysterious death and more curious happenings it is clear that there's more than an ancient curse causing problems on the island. The book started giving me a And then there were none, Agatha Christie like feel and I didn;t want to put the book down. I also love that Eleanor can really hear ghosts, but she's also a huge skeptic and knows most mediums, including herself in the past, are frauds. It adds a little reality to a pretty fantastical, fun mystery. I was kept guessing until the very end and really enjoyed this adventure.

When a snorkeling trip to Malta is replaced with a plea for help with a curse in a Scottish castle, Madame Eleanor sets out for the Highlands by train while her love sets off on business. What Madame Eleanor didn’t count on was another famous, and fake, medium joining the group and trying to one up her. With her work cut out for her, Madame Eleanor sets out to use logic and detecting to find the missing gold and clear a curse. But will the curse claim her before she can reclaim the gold for the family?

This is a fun series and I love the American main character to take a different spin on ghosts and such in the UK. Even better is how this fake medium is so human and caring at the core. It’s going to be fun to see what the future holds with another guide for Madame Eleanor as her true gifts begin to take shape and solidify.

Curses Are For Cads is a fantastic paranormal cozy mystery. It follows scam psychic Eleanor Wilde on her journey to a castle in Scotland to help locate a treasure. The spooky Scottish castle setting is perfect A cast of clever characters includes another crazy psychic named Birdie White, two troublemaking twins, a fake pirate, and more. You find yourself not trusting any of the group which will keep you guessing until the end. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves a good mystery and a funny and sarcastic main character.

This is a DNF for me - I made it 46% of the way but was just so bored. Nothing was happening - I was confused by all of the characters and what their purpose was in the book. The pirate? And then why is she talking to a little boy - where is his mother? Seems a little creepy - in an amber alert/pedophile kind of way that she's telling this boy to touch her to find out if he's a ghost. And then she seems to like that all the kids in the neighborhood at home follow her around everywhere.

This is more of a personal pet peeve - I'm not a fan of when authors gender swap names for no reason - it doesn't make the character any more interesting or likeable. Do we really need Sid to be a chick and Ashley to be dude?

But otherwise, it wasted the first 10% of the book with her traveling on the train - snooze. And then until 17% she's still wasting more time drinking with Birdie. We get it - Birdie likes alcohol and wants to seem cool. Great. But then it just kinda drags on and on. We don't get any sense really of what the castle is like, how many rooms it has, the decor, are there servants....

For a millisecond, I thought it would turn into this cool adaptation of Agatha Christie's 10 little indians so I kept reading and hoping for that but it did not. It just droned on and on with nothing happening. Plus, they never solved the logistics of Birdie and Ellie not having any clothes, their toothbrushes and other toiletries from their missing bags.

I realize this is the 3rd installment of a series and maybe I would've found it more interesting if I had read 1 and 2 so I thought, But overall, it was just really random (it didn't seem like this story was going anywhere or that anyone had any particular mission they were trying to solve which is usually the case for mysteries) and boring (kinda felt reading the Goldfinch) - I was not invested even at the 46% in any character or the plot.

Mediums, murder and humor are in this enjoyable mystery. Eleanor has to deal with Birdie the other medium who tends to be loud and crazy. She enlists the help twin boys, Jaime and Ferguson to solve this murder or murders