*I was given an ARC of Ghosted at Christmas in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Penguin Random House UK and Holly Whitmore for my copy of the book*
Synopsis:
One week to fall in love. One week to find your happily-ever-afterlife…
Mia’s been ghosted. Her festive spirits are at an all-time low, but at least her Christmas can’t get any worse. Or so she thought, until she discovered that her ex, Sam, is spending Christmas with her family. Now she’s looking at a whole week with the man who broke her heart and no chance of escape.
John’s a ghost. After 30 years in limbo without a soul to talk to, he’s bored to death but still can’t seem to reach the afterlife. So when Mia screams at the sight of him, he can’t help but wonder why this lovelorn girl can see him. Could helping to ease her heartbreak be his ticket to passing on?
As John and Mia become friends, he’s desperate to work out how he can cheer her up. But then John sees the way that Sam and Mia look at each other and he knows how to convince her that love isn’t dead after all. She just needs a ghostly nudge in the right direction…
Review:
I have very mixed feelings towards Ghosted at Christmas. I started out the book absolutely hating the main character (more on that below) and there seem to be quite a few inconsistencies with the plot. I’m not sure if Mia is intentionally an unreliable narrator or not, but either way, it was a little all over the place.
Mia did slowly grow on me over time but to be honest, I wasn’t a huge fan of any of the characters in this book. Mia’s parents and brother were probably the best out of the lot.
It’s kind of problematic to say firstly “dreadlocked person” and then to describe said person as stinking of body odour and weed. After this interaction Mia goes on to say she tried weed once and it didn’t affect her. Umm ok? What was the point in all of that?
It’s quite hypocritical of her to comment on someone else’s body odour when she proudly says she wears her favourite Christmas jumper all month long. I get that this probably doesn’t mean every day but you can almost guarantee a Christmas jumper isn’t dryer-safe and air drying clothes in the UK in the winter is horrific. So how often is said jumper being washed? Am I being too critical to a character I’ve known for less than 10 pages? Probably, but she’s annoyed me already.
Mia’s reasoning for why she hates Sam is a bit ridiculous. Yes, he kissed her back the night before but that doesn’t mean when he asks if you want to join him at the pool after hours that you should get in with no clothes on to surprise him. That’s taking things too far if you ask me, especially as they’d only kissed once. If anything Sam should hate Mia as she’s exposed herself to him, which is a crime right? Such a weird thing for her to decide to do.
Also, the timeline of their relationship makes no sense. The pool incident happens the day after they kiss for the first time but then Mia starts reminiscing about a night they spent together, which she surely didn’t do after the pool incident because even six years later she still hates him for it. Have I missed something? There’s also a mention of a first kiss that happens after a tennis match, but I swear their first kiss happened in his uni dorm.
Ok, enough ranting about Mia. Onto the parts of Ghosted at Christmas I actually enjoyed.
The paranormal twist was pretty good. It felt a little forced at times, but it was a refreshing plot line for a festive romance. The little pranks Mia and John played on Sam were hilarious. There’s something about switching out every pen he uses for ones that are completely dried up that’s actually hilariously evil. A good ol ‘case of chaotic neutral.
The snow ball fight and Christmas Day were the best chapters of the whole book. I didn’t really care for the romance, I actually would have preferred Mia and Sam to just be friends, but once they actually talked through their problems they became much more likeable. Although, actually Sam was always likeable. Anyway, these chapters, alongside Mia cooking, were my favourites. I actually wish the epilogue was about her following her culinary dreams. The letter from John was a nice ending though.
Ghosted at Christmas was a pretty decent read, but not one I’ll be jumping to recommend. I think if the very start of the book didn’t make me hate Mia right out the bat, I probably would have liked this more. It’s pretty hard to root for a happy ending for a character that puts a sour taste in your mouth.
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