An Enchanting Case of Spirits
Melissa Holtz
352 pages
Berkley Publishing
published April 9, 2024
Thanks @berkleypub and @prhaudio for my #gifted book and audiobook. #berkleypartner #berkley #prhaudioinfluencer
First I love that the main character is 40. It gets old reading about a twenty-something fretting about how old she is. So kudos for that.
I have a love hate relationship with paranormal, but I’ll say this one is a fun read. More mystery and paranormal than romance, but there are a lot of things to like. I love Nick, Alyssa’s love interest. In case you missed it earlier, this has a side of romance. It is PG and definitely a subplot, so you’ll be disappointed if you choose this for the love story.
I mention my love hate with the paranormal, but this one is someone tame. Alyssa visits a psychic and learns she can see ghosts and works with them to help them move on. The ghosts are snarky and grumpy, but wouldn’t you be if you couldn’t move on?
It is also a little heartfelt as Alyssa’s husband died in a car accident and she has hopes in communicating with him as a ghost.
The mystery involves the ghosts and trying to help them move on. While I’d categorize this one as a cozy mystery, the connection and solution aren’t apparent from the start. It had a little complexity and I found it interesting.
There is a lot of humor that can almost be silly at times, I really enjoyed this one. It looks like this was left open a little so it could become a series. I’d definitely pick up the next installment.
Piper Goodeve and Aaron Shedlock do a great job of narrating Alyssa and Nick. I enjoyed listening to them as much as I did reading the story. Their voices brought the story to life.
When a fortieth birthday celebration leads to a ghostly visitor, four friends find themselves navigating surprising mysteries and spiritual hijinks, in this clever debut from Melissa Holtz.
Alyssa Mann isn’t adventurous, not since her husband died and she found herself the single mom of a teenage daughter. But there’s no way to avoid celebrating the big 4-0, so when her best friends drag her out for drinks and a tarot reading, she throws caution to the wind and decides to see what the spirits have to say. It’s all fun and games, until she wakes up the next morning with a wicked hangover—and a ghost perched on the edge of her bed.
Sheer panic sends her running to get help from Nick West, the (very attractive) detective who lives next door. When he finds no one inside, Alyssa has to accept that she really did see a ghost. As the dearly departed keep appearing, Alyssa and her friends do their best to learn how to control her newfound power. Trading insults with ghosts, tracking down family heirlooms, and getting closer to the skeptical but helpful Nick is more fun than Alyssa imagined. But when looking into one ghost’s past reveals unexpected—and unwelcome—facts about Alyssa’s late husband’s death, she discovers she just may be in over her head.
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