Ghosted, Book 1
From the publisher:
Jillian Nejat is the only dating and relationship expert on the planet who is incapable of speaking to men. If they’re living, if they’re breathing, it’s game over.
With her bank account at zero, her career a dumpster fire, and her dating life in a ten-year slump, she moves into a tiny, dirt-cheap NYC apartment.
Unfortunately, the apartment is already occupied.
Daniel (no-last-name) is a sexy, shirtless, six-pack wielding heartthrob who is also…dead.
He isn’t living. He isn’t breathing. He’s a ghost. He’s also the only man on the planet that Jillian can talk to.
Soon, Daniel’s convinced that it’s his afterlife mission to resurrect Jillian’s love life. He knows, if he helps her fall in love then he can move on. Jillian agrees. The last thing she needs is a Lothario ghost haunting her living room.
But then, one practice date leads to another, one confession leads to more, and suddenly Jillian fears she’s falling for the one man she can never love.
https://amzn.to/467032L
I rarely read a romance that can be called paranormal, but when a good friend recommends it, I’m going to give it a try. I was so glad I did – I loved this book!
Jillian has a serious issue with talking to men – she gets completely tongue-tied and super quiet. She can barely order a coffee from a male barista. She has a close family, as well as Fran, their next-door-neighbor who loves Jillian and is determined to see her happily married. To that end, she is constantly setting her up on blind dates, well over a hundred of them, all to no avail. Jillian is waiting for someone to see through her awkwardness to the real person inside. In fact, she writes a dating and relationship advice column for an only news magazine. The small staff are her only friends, and they’ve worked together for almost ten years. Jillian started as an intern while in college and turned that internship into a writing job. Unfortunately, her advice sucks and her editor is getting tired of all the cancellations and nasty comments.
Jillian finds an apartment online, a studio with a loft bedroom and she grabs it, sight unseen. The neighborhood is good and fairly close to her job. Her family helps her move in, but when they get there, they are shocked by the decor. Every surface is mirrored, including the kitchen cabinets, but it does have beautiful wood floors. Jillian insists she will be fine, her parents and Fran take off, her dad leaving her an aluminum baseball bat by the door for security.
When she is alone, Jillian is shocked to hear a man’s voice. She turns around and finds this gorgeous, half-dressed man standing in her apartment. She tries hitting him with the bat but it goes right through him. He disappears and reappears at will. Turns out Jillian is sharing her new apartment with a ghost.
The ghost’s name is Daniel, and he doesn’t have much memory of his life. He doesn’t know how he died, other than he was on top of a woman and felt a lot of pain. He tells her she must save him, and he is going to save her. A relationship is formed.
Daniel comes and goes from her life, and is able to show up for her where he is needed. He gets her to talk to him while pretending to talk to other men, the barista, her blind dates. The only problem is that he is the only man that she has ever felt this comfortable with, and they fall in love. Until he ghosts her. Yep, he disappears.
A few weeks later, Jillian is meeting Fran at a museum, but she sees Daniel at the top of the stairs. She goes flying to him, jumps into his arms, and kisses him. Then she realizes she can actually feel him. And that he has no idea who she is.
This other-worldly romance has everything I love in a romance; it’s unputdownable with great characters, lots of hurdles, an interesting setting, and a happy ending. In fact, the author offers an additional epilogue if you sign up for her newsletter, which I immediately did. I can’t wait for the sequel!
9/2023 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
GHOSTED by Sarah Ready. W. W. Crown (September 26, 2023). ISBN: 978-1954007611. 490p.
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