_Displeasure Island_ is a humorous contemporary mystery read complete with eccentric characters and an interesting setting. It follows Claire and the characters introduced in _Grave Expectations_ as they vacation on a remote Irish island. Claire expects a fun holiday, but soon learns there are ghost pirates that will not give her peace and posh vacationers that are being murdered. It’s an enjoyable and fast read.

I was so excited to receive the ARC for the 2nd book in this series. This mismatched group of friends - dead and alive - seem to stumble into situations that require them to use Claire’s unusual skills as a medium to help solve murders. In this case the group was headed to a remote island off the coast of Ireland for a chance to rest and relax after the family problems they faced in book #1.

I enjoyed this book as much as the first, Claire and friends are asked to face their own issues and fear about relationships as they are grouped in a with a vacationing group of old college friends, one of whom has made great money and has loaned a lot to friends for business ventures. When someone dies, the group looks at Claire because she is different and Claire starts to investigate to prove she is innocent.

I hadn’t read the first book in this series, but generally authors are good at keeping new readers from feeling lost. I’m glad to say that this is very true in this case. I dived in and was invested almost immediately. I must say right now that I was not very fond of Sophie. She was very irritating and a little mean, and I’m not sure how Claire has kept sane seeing her for so long. This kept me from thinking this was a “fun” book. However, I still enjoyed this book quite a bit because it is well-written, interesting, and I didn’t figure out the murder, and even when I did almost at the end, I was still a little surprised at how everything went down! LOL! I’ll definitely read the next. Recommend. I was provided a complimentary copy which I voluntarily reviewed.

In this second installment in, hopefully and on going, the series we are once more following Claire, Sophie, Basher, and Alex as they try to have a bit of Rest and Relaxation on a remote island that's being promoted for Wellness. Once they get there; however, there's been a bit of a scheduling mix-up and just as that has been smoothed over, someone winds up dead. Throw in a group of best "frenemies", ghost pirates, ghost locals, unresolved trauma, and some wild hijinks and Claire has her mystery solving skills cut out for her.

I really did enjoy this sophomore book in the series. The setting was detailed so well and I have to say the spooky parts were great! Claire having some anxiety and probable PTSD from her recent brush with death was very relatable and I was genuinely scared for her. The feelings of being left out while also pushing people away and being a bit of a jerk, was so real. I did appreciate Basher and Alex trying to navigate that and their own feelings. The only thing I was a bit let down about was the sort of rush for the ending. The ending was great the twist was something I'd worked out but was with Claire the whole time. There didn't feel like there was as much of a wrap up at the end of this novel like the first, so the book didn't feel quite done. That was really my only gripe, and not a big one overall. I so hope there will be a third and more to come.

Pirate ghosts, possible pirate treasure, mysterious deaths, an isolated Irish island and Our Heroes enjoying a highly dubious holiday.

:thumbs up:

This is the second in a series and I mistakenly thought I had read the first one but confused it with another book where the main character has a ghost attached to them. That being said, overall, this reads just fine as a standalone book. There were a couple of things I felt were confusing but not much.

I did not particularly like the main character. I can't even imagine trying to interact with someone that has such an internal monologue that she can't be bothered to answer a simple question. She did get better towards the end of the book but not enough to overcome my initial reaction. The rest of the characters all seemed to blur and you didn't really get a sense of them at all.

a fairly unique plot. Claire is 32 and a bit lost and not doing well at being a grownup. She makes a meagre living as a not-very-good medium. She doesn't wear flicky black eyeliner and lots of scarves and black lace - she's actually a bit of a sad sack. She looks down and says "uhm" a lot. Why a medium, then? Ah, she has a ghostly Constant Companion. She is somehow tethered to her high school chum Sophie, who disappeared at 17 and came back - visible only to Claire - as a ghost. She doesn't remember what happened to her, she just knows she's dead.

In the first book, Claire is the entertainment at a weekend gathering at a posh country home, but instead of being a woo-woo medium, there's a murder or two. She stays friends with two members of the family, and in this sequel they are going on a holiday to an Irish island. Guess what happens?

The premise is novel, the writing is funny, and the characters are a hoot without being Too Much.