No Grits No Glory

I just finished a wonderful book last night by talented author Elaine Calloway.  It's a lively paranormal entitled
No Grits No Glory.

It's the story of cosmetologist Brianna McNeil who works in a funeral home in Savannah.  She is an Irish American from the Northeast.  To say she suffers some culture shock when she moves to Georgia's historic city is an understatement. Not only are the customs, society, and landscape alien to her, the previous tenants of her new home are still there...in ghostly form. They are family members who were murdered in their house.

Most of us wouldn't notice them, but Brianna is special.  She not only sees dead people, she hears them, and can (and does) carry on conversations with them.  This trait is something she does not reveal since it caused her parents to have her hospitalized for an extended stay in a psychiatric facility when she was younger.

The ghostly inhabitants of her "rent to own" home are a father, a mother, and their sixteen-year-old daughter. None of them are shy about telling Brianna exactly what they think.  Virginia, the mother, is particularly abrasive, expressing her thoughts about that "Yankee girl" in her home loudly and often.  Also she has a habit distressing to Brianna of cooking big pots of grits on the stove.

Now that wouldn't bother me.  I'd love coming home to hot cheese grits anytime, but I'm from the south and appreciate haute cuisine.

When Steven, the estranged surviving son of the family who once owned Brianna's house, returns not knowing the fate of his family, he is devastated to find a stranger in their home. He is further devastated when he learns their fate. Brianna is drawn to help him.

Did I mention he's a gorgeous musician? Did I mention her sheltie, Plato, takes to him at first sight?

Naturally Virginia doesn't like their attraction at all.  The family harangues her whenever he is present, demanding she reveal their existence.  Brianna is understandably reluctant to cooperate, having learned to keep her abilities secret after a few months of torture in the psychiatric hospital.

Add to this a murderous villain with a scheme to become the largest real estate developer in the city, Brianna's deceased brother, Declan, who is forbidden by his mentor to approach his sister, the splendor of Savannah, a host of wonderful supporting characters...and you've got a great read.

It's sometimes riotous, sometimes nerve-tingling with danger, and very well written.

This one's a winner. It's Book #1 in the author's Southern Ghost Series.

Check it out!


Available from:

Amazon.com