Homebody

Homebody by Orson Scott Card

Don Lark is about to sink all the money he has into the grand Bellamy mansion. He plans to renovate the place while living there for a year, then sell and make some money. Don has had some hard past years with a divorce and then the death of his baby girl at the hand of his drug induced ex.
He meets realtor Cindy when he checks out the dying mansion. They begin a passionate couple of days.........of kissing until Don realizes that Cindy is not the girl for him, after she reveals a past shame. He also realizes that he might be able to date again despite the fact that Cindy has her own problems that he can't fix.
Don meets the Weird Sisters, his ancient next door neighbors. They try to tell him to knock the house down and hint at some kind of evil lying in wait next door.
As Don brushes off the warnings and begins the renovation, he finds Sylvie, a squatter, living in his new purchase. Sylvie bugs Don but he feels the need to take care of her. He lets her remain in the mansion as he starts the demolition. Weird little things begin happening that Don attributes to Sylvie. He is also blackmailed by a lawyer and the former homeowner with the help of a nosey realtor. In order to protect Cindy and himself........although nothing happened between then, Don pays $20,000 to get the lawyer off his back.
During renovations Don gets closer to Sylvie and begins to care for her. She too has a secret to tell Don. She thinks that she accidentally murdered her roommate in the tunnel leading from the basement to the gully in back. Sylvie and Don go into the tunnel and find the body..........turns out *SPOILER* the body is Sylvie. The roommate murdered her and the person Don is falling in love with is a ghost, trapped in the house by her shame, guilt and sadness.
Don goes next door to get more information about the house from the elderly neighbors. He finds them fading away. As he fixes the house, it gets stronger....as was Sylvie. Extraordinarily Don finds that the old women escaped from the house years ago when they were whores and the house was a bordello........it still has a hold on them and as the house grows stronger, they are weakening.
Don decides to find Sylvie's killer and make her face Sylvie. Now that Sylvie knows she didn't cause harm to her former roommate.........Lissy she is fading from this life and Don is desperate to save the only woman he has loved in years. Lissy meanwhile has been leading the life she took from Sylvie..........including using her identity.
Lissy comes looking for Don once he makes a connection with her. She needs to cover up her past transgression........killing Sylvie, by killing Don, the only person that knows what really happened. Lissy comes to the house and is met by the fading ghost of Sylvie instead of Don. In some magical way Lissy's body has taken on the name of Sylvie because that is what it has been called for ten years. It wants to be reunited with the spirit that goes with the name. As Sylvie and Lissy fight their last battle, the body and spirit touch and the spirits of the women trade places. Sylvie now has a body! Lissy is sucked into the need of the house. For Don to save Sylvie and help her keep her body from the disembodied Lissy, he must break down the load bearing wall of the house (it's spine) to weaken and kill the house. Once that is done, Don and Sylvie (with a new body) escape next door. They find the old women regaining strength. The old Bellamy mansion is finally destroyed and flattened. Don and Sylvie plan on getting married and the old women leave their house to the new couple. Now that the Weird Sisters are free from the pull of the ancient house they want to get away.
Card takes his time getting to the point, but he entertains enough that you don't mind too much! I was right at the point where Sylvie finds out the dead body in the tunnel is hers and I was challenged to a game of air hockey by my 18 month old. It killed me to have to square off with the baby instead of find out what happened..........but duty called. I was fully entertained by this book. Probably not the best Card book but a good enough read.
Rating 3.5 The story doesn't get super hot until at least half way through.
Rating PG 13 language and some heavy making out.