Synopsis:
Homebody Lex McCall loves her sleepy Vermont town and quiet bookstore job. After her family, friends, and exes all moved away to seek futures elsewhere, Lex set one rule: no dating tourists, newcomers, or anyone else who is bound to leave her behind. When the bookshop owner, eager to offload the supposedly haunted building, offers to sell the store to Lex at an unbeatable price, Lex jumps at the chance to further put down roots.
Then handsome stranger James stops by the bookstore. Lex assumes he’s just another tourist passing through, but it turns out he’s part of a ghost-hunting documentary crew that’s looking into the many “verified” ghost stories in town. Lex can’t resist getting involved—especially because these so-called ghosts are actually made up stories from Haunted Happenings, her hobby vlog from a decade prior. Worried her ghost-faking secret will get out and ruin her chance to buy the store, she tampers with the ghosthunters’ research and skews the results. After all, James’s stay is only temporary and her career dreams come first.
But as they spend more time together, Lex realizes she’s falling for James. Worse, there’s more at stake than her simply being found out and losing his affection: his mission isn’t as frivolous as it seems, and her interference may cost him much more than a spooky story. This not-quite-ghost-story is sure to delight Gilmore Girls fans and anyone who loves flirty romances with a little extra spirit.
Review:
Another book joins my ever-growing pile of 2025 DNFs. I had high hopes for Haunt Your Heart Out. I love a spooky romance, but this was not it for me. It’s been weeks since I decided to stop reading this book and I’ve been putting off writing this review the whole time.
I was so unbelievably bored while reading Haunt Your Heart Out. Both characters had about as much personality as soggy cardboard. Lex whined all the time and James was boring. I didn’t even make it to the steamy sections as I just didn’t care about their relationship. You aren’t any reason to root for them. I know I didn’t read the entire book, but I made my way through a decent number of pages.
The ‘vlog’ sections made Haunt Your Heart Out incredibly disjointed. At one point someone called Luna is mentioned and I honestly have no idea who that was supposed to be. Maybe I missed something and it’s a name Lex used in her vlogs, but who knows. Also, these stories weren’t that interesting. When I saw the first one pop up, I was excited to get into the spooky vibes, but there were none.
I was expecting at least a little paranormal activity, as you know, this is labeled as a paranormal romance but nope, not a Casper in sight. It would have been far more interesting if James was actually a ghost and being a ghost hunter was his cover. No one even believes in ghosts, so what was the point involving ghosts and ghost hunting in the first place?
Based on the cover, I was expecting this to be a spooky romance set at Halloween, but no, it’s Christmas. A weird choice if you ask me. The ‘ghost’ part of this book just isn’t necessary at all. If you want to write a Christmas romance, do that, don’t hide it behind an incredibly autumnal cover and title.
That’s all I have to say about Haunt Your Heart Out and I should probably stop here before it goes full rant. There wasn’t anything particularly problematic about it but I wouldn’t suggest wasting your money on such a boring book.
Rating: DNF
Check out Young Creative Press on all socials
You can also check out my StoryGraph here
Like this post? Why not read this one too: Organising My Goodreads #26
[…] Like this post? Why not read this one too: Book Review: Haunt Your Heart Out by Amber Roberts […]