e-ALC, 09:54:47
Narrated by: Darcey Rhoads
Release Date: July 21, 2026
Published by:
Read from: July 2-4, 2026
Companion to Love at Full Tilt
Source: The Publisher and their audio app (I received this e-ALC from the publisher and their app. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Emotional Abuse, Death of a Parent, Toxic Friendship
For Readers of: Audio, Body Diversity, Contemporary, DEAR, Family Diversity (Mom and Dad had a bad divorce), Ghosts, Sparkly Cover, Paranormal, YAIn this spooky, small-town YA romance, an amateur ghost hunter and a supernatural skeptic team up for a haunted home renovation project. But is their relationship the real fixer upper?
Amity Callaway is sick of being known as the weird girl. As annoyed as she is that her recently divorced mom just moved them across the country to the tiny, quirky town of Harlow’s Rest, Massachusetts, it could be the fresh start she needs.
Until Amity discovers their absolute disaster of a new house is supposedly haunted.
Theo Hargrave, amateur ghost hunter and son of the local general contractor, is a true believer. When he shows up on their property with his EMF reader in hand, Amity is ready to debunk all his theories. She’s definitely not staring at the small scar through his eyebrow or his ridiculously soft lips.
But even Amity can admit their home renovation is doomed. Nothing is going right, from the paint that refuses to dry to the fixtures that keep coming loose. So Amity and Theo strike a deal—his family’s construction expertise for her help investigating the house’s supernatural secrets. Even scarier than ghosts, though? Amity’s growing feelings for Theo.
*MY THOUGHTS*
Idk what I was expectng when I picked this up, but whatever they were, this blew them out of the water! This as so good! I thought the ghost thing was going to be a cheesy something, but it ended up working really well. I’m already wishing for nother in this series. Is that weird? To wish for a second book when the “first” isn’t out yet?
OK so the ghost thing, I loved that. As a librarian and a newly minted digital archivist, I loved the way she was defending everything. All true archivists are skeptics. Ok maybe not, but it was relatable af to try and find the evidence before accepting that there was a ghost. But I also loved and respected that once things couldn’t be explained anymore, she fully gave in. True archivists follow the data and information lol This was so different than everything I’ve read from Howe, but I hope she does more in paranormal romance. But even more than that, the story of the house, the story of the ghost, just everything, was pretty cool. I loved the way she unfolded it. I was so invested!
Last year I did a two for Tuesday with Haunted HGtv and now I feel like I need to update those recs. Everyone needs to read this one too. The ghost played a role in almost every part of this book. Including the renovations. Everything that they did, the ghost was messing it up. And it didn’t make it any better that Theo’s dad was in charge of the reno, but made Theo feel like he wasn’t worthy. When in reality he was more than all of them combined.
The romance was pretty cute. I liked that she didn’t wait to have them find each other until the very end. And the way he basically just loved her from the very beginning. Ugh they were cute. She was so cute by acting like he was annoying. The opposites attract trope was done extremely well in this one. I couldn’t stop reading it!
There was so much amazing in this book. I loved it all! I really hope Howe has some more paranormal romance in mind because this slapped. And now I’m ready to read some more paranormal romance. It’s been a long time since I’ve read anything like this, but I’m glad it got to be with Howe’s book.
Overall, I give this
