Blog Tour: 'At the Corner of Magnetic and Main' by Meg Welch Dendler

It's hard to get on with your life when you're already dead.
Penny had been stuck in the same diner for decades—ever since she died in 1952. Her diner  was comfortable and safe. Serving ice cream to those who dropped in on their way to the  next level of existence, she helped to ease their transition into The Light, the one place she can't go. Her afterlife was perfect.
But when the ridiculously handsome, bad boy biker Jake Thatcher shows up and becomes stuck  as well, Penny rediscovers feelings that she thought had been buried with her body.
Life is still life, and love is still love. But was her existence really perfect, or was it something else entirely?
I'm really excited to be a part of the blog tour for author Meg Welch Dendler's latest release 'At the Corner of Magnetic and Main' today! The book was released by Pen-L Publishing on September 29th and I was lucky enough to be contacted by Meg herself to be a part of the blog tour and review the book. I have to say I was straight away intrigued by the description of the story, even though I don't usually read a lot of paranormal fiction. The books about ghosts I can remember are probably the Goosebumps books I read when I was in my teens, so it was definitely time for a new fictional ghost experience!
Seventeen-year-old Penny has been serving ice cream at the local diner in the small American town of Eureka Springs for a long time; longer than she probably initially expected. Over 60 years ago, she became really sick and died, but her ghost is still stuck on earth, unable to move on. Penny has made her peace with this and instead helps other ghosts who end up in the diner to move into the light. Until one night when twenty-year-old bad boy Jake appears in the diner, who doesn't want to accept that he died in a motor crash after reckless driving. Just like Penny, Jake remains stuck on earth, but instead of being quiet he is out to cause trouble. Penny can't help but be charmed by Jake, but at the same time she also decides she will do whatever it takes to help him to move on.
'At the Corner of Magnetic and Main' is quite a quick read with roughly 155 pages (in print). I personally loved the storyline; the idea of Penny spending her time in the diner as a ghost, serving ice cream to other ghosts passing through, while she herself is unable to move on because of certain circumstances. It was incredibly easy to warm to Penny and I also liked the other characters, such as the owners of the diner and some of the other ghosts such as Silas and, of course, Jake. The book falls within the paranormal genre, but also has a nice touch of romance (even though I personally wouldn't have minded if it had been even a bit more!). I usually don't read a lot of paranormal/ghost stories, but I ended up really enjoying this, even more than I originally expected.
As I mentioned before, the novel is a relatively quick read. I wish I would have been longer, because that would have provided the author with more space for some other story elements (perhaps more background details and a focus on secondary characters such as the ghosts of Silas and Katie). I kind of missed the dialogue in the story; there's not a lot of it and I think it could have given the novel just that bit more. However, I really liked Penny's tale and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. 'At the Corner of Magnetic and Main' is an entertaining, quick-paced and engaging paranormal read with a nice touch of romance; I thoroughly enjoyed it and think this is going to be a story that I'll remember for quite some time to come!

Rating:8,5/10

  For more information about this book: Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Goodreads

Thanks to the author for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.