I received a copy from Chicken House through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Sal is used to people acting like he’s weird, but he’d rather they keep their distance. It’s why he’s so confused when the new guy in town shows up at his front door. No one comes to the front door. Ever. It turns out that Pax is interested in helping with the ghosts instead of being weirded out by Sal’s family for living in a haunted house. Unfortunately for Pax, the only thing haunting Sal’s home is the ghost of what his family used to be. Sal isn’t sharing that with anyone though, so he’s willing to let Pax try to help with the haunting. He never expected to fall in love along the way.
When I picked up this book, I thought I was about to read a cute paranormal romance. Unfortunately, there isn’t an ounce of paranormality found in this story. However, it is a really cute romance with complex characters, a family that’s falling apart in secret, and a group of relatable characters. I love that Sal and his friends have a sense of found family, showing readers that they can always find the support they need in the family they create for themselves. I really wish it wasn’t marketed as a Halloween read because I would give this the highest rating if it was marketed for what it actually is: a story about grief and healing with a cute romance plot.
We follow Sal as he and his older sister, Asha, try to hold their lives together with a needle and thread. Their family started falling apart the day their dad died because not only did they lose their dad, but also most of their mom. Their mother was physically there, but she was so caught up in the past that she became a ghost of herself. Asha had to become a parent through her entire teen years, and the very thin thread that’s holding everything together is giving out.
I love how well developed and complex the characters are. There’s so many layers that slowly reveal themselves that it made one hell of a read. Sal isn’t exactly the friendly type, but he’s managed to make a best friend despite not even wanting friends. We get to watch him slowly accept that he loves his friends and that they provide as much support as he secretly likes to provide them. It was great to see him slowly open up. I really loved Pax, Elsie, and Dirk as well. Asha was great too, and I loved seeing a different type of realistic sibling dynamic. This was truly an excellent cast of characters all around.
Ultimately, this is a story about grief and healing. Pax and his family grieve the loss of his father as well as how much else they lost in the process. Elsie grieves the loss of the people she thought were her friends, and Pax and his mom deal with the hole that his father inflicted between his homophobia and abandonment. We get to watch these characters in different stages of dealing with these losses, but they also find each other while Sal and Pax find love as they each start to find the light at the end of the tunnel. While it deals with heavy subjects, it also manages to be a feel-good story. It was such a good read, so I hope to check out more of Hart’s work in the future. I also hope that there isn’t any future paranormal marketing unless they’re actually paranormal reads.
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