Haunted Ever After

 Haunted Ever After- Jen DeLuca

Berkley

Release Date: August 13, 2024

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Small Florida coastal towns often find themselves scrambling for the tourism dollars that the Orlando theme parks leave behind. And within the town limits of Boneyard Key, the residents decided long ago to lean into its ghostliness. Nick Royer, owner of the Hallowed Grounds coffee shop, embraces the ghost tourism that keeps the local economy afloat, as well as his spectral roommate. At least he doesn’t have to run air-conditioning. 

Cassie Rutherford possibly overreacted to all her friends getting married and having kids by leaving Orlando and buying a flipped historic cottage in Boneyard Key. Though there’s something unusual with her new home (her laptop won’t charge in any outlets, and the poetry magnets on her fridge definitely didn’t read “WRONG” and “MY HOUSE” when she put them up), she’s charmed by the colorful history surrounding her. And she's catching a certain vibe from the grumpy coffee shop owner whenever he slips her a free slice of banana bread along with her coffee order. 

As Nick takes her on a ghost tour, sharing town gossip that tourists don't get to hear, and they spend nights side-by-side looking into the former owners of her haunted cottage, their connection solidifies into something very real and enticing. But Cassie's worried she’s in too deep with this whole (haunted) home ownership thing… and Nick's afraid to get too close in case Cassie gets scared away for good.

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When Cassie decides to leave Orlando and buy her own house after years of rentals, a historic cottage in the costal town of Boneyard Key seems like a great idea. Granted, the town leans a little hard on the touristy haunted vibe, but as a Florida native, she understands how tourist dollars make decisions. Things get a little weird when her laptop refuses to charge- even though other electronics are just fine- meaning she has to go down the street to the local coffee shop to get any work done. The bright side of that is the coffee and banana bread are great and the shop owner may be a little phone obsessed and rough around the edges, but he's pretty cute too. When the magnetic poetry words on her fridge start moving without her help and coffee shop owner Nick confirms that the haunted vibe is more than just a tourist thing, Cassie has to question whether she's cut out for living in Boneyard Key. 

I absolutely love Jen DeLuca's Well Met series (Renaissance Faire romcom!) so as soon as she announced she was doing a new book (beach town ghosts) I was there. And Haunted Ever After doesn't disappoint. Cassie is a big city girl trying to start a new chapter in a tiny town and has more to get used to than learning that you can only get pizza delivery on days when the owner feels like working. DeLuca made her someone I could connect to and like right away, and I was pulling for her to make the adjustments she needed to make to handle living in a permanently haunted town.

Cassie's chemistry with Nick was there from the beginning, and he was a fun person to introduce us to the town. The only one in his family to love Boneyard Key, poor Nick has some abandonement issues to work through, which might be why his closest friend is a texting ghost. On the surface he seems to roll with everything life hands his way, but he isn't fooling anyone- except maybe himself. He settles for casual because he's afraid to get close to anyone. Is Cassie going to be the next person to disappoint him, or be the one he can risk it all for?

Jen DeLuca's relaxed and humorous writing style, witty character banter, and delightful characters all stand out in Haunted Ever After. The quirky small town of Boneyard Key is a character all its own and I'm hoping for several more books to take place here so I don't have to leave it any time soon. 

A definite must read for Jen DeLuca fans and all romcom fans!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review