Okay, I kind of adored this one!

Ghosted was exactly what I’d hoped it would be, a loose Austen connection, a lot of paranormal goodness, a sweet YA romance, and it packed a bit of an emotional punch!

Hattie and Kit were so fun to read about and watch as they fell for one another! I adored their personalities and had the best time rooting for them! Hattie’s emotional journey is definitely what pushed this book into a higher rating though! It was a little sad, but deeply real as she grappled with the loss of her father (not a spoiler), her grief, and her family in the wake of the tragedy that takes place before our story began!

All in all this was a solid YA read and I’m excited to add it to my shelf when it publishes later this month!

Huge thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for my advanced e-arc of this book! I really really enjoyed it!!

This book is supposedly based on Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, but I'd say it's loosely based (character names, location) as this is a modern day version in which Northanger Abbey is a private high school (boarding school) that is supposedly haunted (tons of stories).

Our main character, Hattie, goes to the school and is a senior. Her mother is the head of the school. She and her father were extremely excited when her mother got the job because they both loved ghost stories and looked forward to exploring the building and the history of the school. But Hattie's father unexpectedly died before their move and Hattie has shut off that part of herself as a way to handle (avoid) her grief. She becomes the "perfect" student and daughter, even though it's not really her authentic self.

Enter Kit, who is a new student at the school and who loves the ghost stories. Kit and Hattie are paired together for a class project on the history of the hauntings at the school, and he rocks her "perfect" world (which isn't really all that perfect, of course), causing her to have to come to terms with her loss, her family, her two best friends, and her future.

This is a coming of age story that starts out as a decent YA read but toward the end of the book really digs into Hattie's character and getting over her grief and what that means for her life and her family. There are moments of laughter and moments of deep emotion. I don't think it needed the Jane Austen connection as it's a solid story on its own.

Ghosted, by Amanda Quain, is a new take on an old classic. The characters are well-developed and the storyline in this YA novel is one that will keep your interest. Easy to read so it would fit nicely into your pool bag. Thanks, NetGalley and the publisher, for providing me with an ARC ebook to review.

This was quirky, a little sad, but still delightful. I couldn't help immediately falling in love with the main characters, Hattie and Kit. I loved the evolution of their relationship and even more, seeing Hattie evolve as a person.

This school is known for it's ghosts which is why so many ghost hunters flock to the scene in search of sightings. It's also how Kit became a part of this school through a scholarship for the ghost obsessed. Hattie's mom is the Headmistress, which could be cool if her mom didn't completely ignore her and the rest of the family. After Hattie's dad died, a lot changed in their family, including Hattie's love for ghosts. That's what makes Hattie and Kit's relationship so interesting is her constant internal battle.

This is a fun story, and I liked the attention to some more serious topics such as grief. I definitely recommend this to fans of ya romance.

Out July 25, 2023!

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!

Ghosted is a fun read, and a great book to add to your TBR for fall! I loved the mix of banter/humor and ghost hunting. A fresh take on Northanger Abbey!

3.5 stars. I really enjoyed Amanda Quain’s debut, a Pride and Prejudice retelling. This was partially for the unusual perspective it used (Georgiana Darcy), and I was both very excited to see someone take on Northangar Abbey (it’s almost always P&P) and to view it from a different side. Here, Henry Tilney is Hattie Tilney, a student at the Northangar Abbey school whose mother is the intimidating headmistress. Quain reinterpretes the unusual Northangar Abbey plot and its characters in fun ways: a haunted school made famous in online paranormal circles, an intense academic atmosphere to take the place of the scheming society, and an enthusiastic Catherine - Kit - Morland who is obsessed with ghosts. Kit and Hattie take believer vs. skeptic positions and begin investigating for a school project.

It was a fun read that has some darker layers around grief and complicated family relationships. I wish we had had more time with Hattie beginning to heal those relationships as well as exploring her next steps, as her move to not being the classic high achiever, prep school student felt abrupt and rushed. I found the exploration of grief effective but Hattie’s insistence of hiding herself a bit more one note. I understood where she was coming from and what she meant by the pressures and difficulty of masking herself for years, but it felt very repetitive and surface-level. That said, I think this a fun and interesting YA Northangar Abbey retelling, and as much as I love Pride & Prejudice, I’d love to see more takes on this one and Austen’s other works.

I think I would have enjoyed Ghosted much more if it wasn't very loosely based on Northanger Abby. I think I was too attached to that idea, since Northanger is my favorite Austen book.

Overall this was a very YA book without a lot of substance, and I would have liked it more had it not tried to be based on Northanger.

Ghosted was an incredibly charming tale. I really liked the main character, I think Hattie was both complicated and real, and she was very much a teenage girl, her senior year in high school and it just felt very real. I love how the ghost hunting aspects of the book are incorporated into the story and the development of Hattie and Kit’s relationship was really great. Overall, I really enjoyed this book, I do wish there was a bit more of a resolution when it comes to Hattie’s relationship with ghost/paranormal, but overall It was really good!

Of all of Jane Austen’s novels, Northanger Abbey is not one of my favorites. That being said, I was excited when I saw this book was coming out because it is the Austen novel that is retold the least, and I was anxious to see what Amanda Quain would come up with. I really liked how deep she dove into the feelings of the main character, Hattie, to show why she feels the way she feels about “ghosts”.

The decision to make this a gender-bent retelling was a bit inspired, in my opinion. It helped to make this story truly its own, but it also allowed for some more hard-hitting internal and external struggle. Hattie Tilney is cast in the non-believer role, who is trying so hard to be someone she is not in order to run from her past. Kit Morland is a dreamer and a paranormal believer. I loved his open, cuddly self, and how he was able to peel back the layers of Hattie’s self-protective shell.

I liked the decision to make Northanger Abbey a school – it brought some fun life to the story. The shenanigans that the students were able to get up to made sense within the confines of the setting, and still paid homage to the original story.

I enjoyed the family dynamics in this book. The parent was present in body, but not in spirit. This is something that lots of teens have to deal with, so I was glad to see it represented here. I also liked that the siblings had some struggles to work through together too. It gave the story some realistic tension that had nothing to do with the paranormal investigation side of the story.

Speaking of the paranormal investigation, I loved that take on the ghost story from the original novel! It was such a fun way to incorporate a real phenomenon from our modern culture to make this story feel present in our current time. I am actually a big fan of YouTube channels like Watcher, Sam and Colby, and CelinaSpookyBoo who do paranormal investigations in real life. Such a fun way to bring Northanger Abbey into the 21st century!

All in all, I thought this was a fun retelling of an Austen novel that doesn’t get as much attention as her others. I am excited to see what Amanda Quain comes up with next!

My Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I gave Ghosted 4 Stars!

Ghosted is the first book in the new Northanger Abbey series. Hattie Tilney doesn’t believe in ghosts, or at least that’s what she keeps telling herself, but when Kit Morland transfers to Northanger on a ghost hunting scholarship will he be able to change her mind?

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I pick up this book, but I was definitely pleasantly surprised. Ghosted is a retelling of a Jane Austen story with the gender roles reversed. I enjoyed this book and connected well with the main characters. Some of the supporting characters weren’t my favorite, but that only added to the story. I found this to be a well written, quick read that was hard to put down. I enjoyed this book from beginning to end and look forward to seeing what else might come in this series. If you are looking for a high school aged romance full of ghost hunting, give this a try!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC version of this book!

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/ Wednesday Books for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts. I am always a sucker for a Jane Austen remix. This book delivered. I loved the cute and quirky Hattie and Kit. The author did a fabulous job keeping things updated while still keeping to the homage of Northanger abbey. I will def be giving this a reread in the future and as such it earns four stars from me!

I have to stop hyping books up in my head. I was so excited for a Northanger Abbey retelling because it's my second favorite Austen novel, but the novel is too far from the original for me. The characters are sort of lined up to the originals, and there's the creepy abbey. However, the abbey doesn't appear to actually be haunting, and everything I've read so far is just Hattie saying over and over that ghosts aren't real. The original story starts with a bang and picks up speed, but this story does neither. It's a really slow pace, and the characters are flat so far. I feel like I've read the same four inner thoughts from Hattie for three hours, and that's way too long. When the tunnels were so disappointing and barely explored, I decided this book wasn't for me. This novel is much more about the family dealing with grief than other things. That will work for others, but it's not for me.

this book fell a bit flat for me, although i can see the appeal

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the review copy.

It is no secret that I am a massive fan of Jane Austen’s work. Her books are smart, funny, satirical…and of course, romantic. I have read my fair share of Austen retellings over the years – good, bad, and everywhere in between. I fell in love with Accomplished, Amanda Quain’s modern telling of Pride and Prejudice from Georgianna Darcy’s point of view. Quain pays such brilliant homage to Austen’s work while making the story feel new and modern. She does the same in her Northanger Abbey retelling, Ghosted.

Northanger Abbey itself can be a tough sell as a early work of Austen’s where she satirizes the gothic novels that were so popular in the late 18th century. I’ve found that modern retellings of Northanger Abbey can fall short because it is such a specific style that Austen is referencing. However, Ghosted handles it brilliantly.

Northanger Abbey’s main romantic pair are Catherine Morland and Henry Tilney. Catherine loves gothic novels and is led astray by her overactive imagination. Henry can be a little condescending in the way he shuts her theories about his mother’s death down.

As soon as I started reading Ghosted, I LOVED that the characters are gender swapped. Catherine becomes the ghost obsessed new boy, Kit, and Henry becomes the buttoned-up Hattie. Like Henry, Hattie is grieving the loss of a parent, and she definitely does shut down Kit’s obsession with ghosts. However, their dynamic definitely doesn’t feel as uneven as it does in Austen’s book.

Hattie also goes on such a beautiful journey as Kit helps her learn to process her grief over losing her father. I love the way Quain takes the entire Tilney family on such a journey through how they relate to one another. Austen’s Henry and Catherine are not necessarily static characters, but they certainly don’t go through the same growth as we see in Quain’s characters.

Quain peppers Ghosted with little Easter Eggs to those familiar with Northanger Abbey. My favorite is calling Hattie’s dream college, Udolpho, after the book Catherine Morland is obsessed with in Austen’s book.

Each character in Ghosted is painted so vividly from Kit and Hattie to the secondary characters like Hattie’s siblings and her friends Isabella and Priya. She gives each character a distinct personality and motivation which helps the whole world to come alive.

I hope Quain continues this series because I am absolutely loving it. I’m especially hoping that she takes on Emma, my favorite of Austen’s novels, next. The character building and storytelling in her books would make me recommend them even to someone who had never read the original books.

Fun! How can you resist fan fiction built around one of Austen's less read books? Northanger Abbey was ripe for a takeoff and this is a fine one. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I know it's meant to be YA but adults (even Austen fans) will enjoy it as well.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this novel. 3.5/5 stars.

Overall, I really liked this book and the inspiration it had from Austen's Northanger Abbey. While this is a romance/romcom, there is a LOT of the book centering on Hattie's reluctance to deal with the grief from her father passing a few years before...along with the difficulties it caused with her family. All of them refuse to discuss it, and Hattie (and the rest) closed themselves off from one another. It's also complicated since Hattie's mom is the director/principal of the school (Northanger Abbey). Hattie feels she has to meet the high expectations of her mother, but she also doesn't feel like her mom is ever truly her mom...only ever her director.

Then you throw in some paranormal elements and Kit. Hattie used to love ghost hunting with her dad, but it's another part she closed off to meet her mom's expectations. Then Kit arrives and brings it back for Hattie and also helps her work through the grief.

This is a quick read, and I LOVED Hattie and Kit's banter and the eventual move from friends to something more. Some of the plot was meh and also I expected...more ghosts? I also did not appreciate the MASSIVE time skip at the end....I wanted more Hattie and Kit.

I've never been able to read Jane Austen, but give me a modern-day adaptation, especially with a paranormal "X-Files" twist, and I'm all over it!

Ghosted was my first read by Quain, so other than the summary, I wasn't sure what expectations I had. But she exceeded every expectation and some I hadn't realized I had.

I truly wish this would become its own series! There's so much that could be, even if there was a new cast of characters I'm ever book.

This was such a fun gender-swapped retelling of Northanger Abbey! Amanda Quain did a great job of keeping the essence of the characters the same while still setting them in a modern boarding school. The focus on ghost hunting was so fun and balanced out how the characters dealt with grief throughout the book. This was an adorable story and a great modern YA retelling of Northanger Abbey!

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

First of all, a confession. I haven’t read Jane Austin’s original Northanger Abbey. I know, I know, a big oversight on my part as I love Jane Austen. So my review is of Ghosted as a standalone book.

I liked it. Hattie was a bit intense, Kit was fantastic. Liam was a fun kid brother. And Freddie was…Freddie. I found the book a bit slow, but ultimately it was a great coming-of-age story.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

“That’s how we keep stories alive, in the telling and retelling.”

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Hattie he’s a high school student and also the daughter of the dean of Northanger Abbey. It is an exclusive private school with a storied past. She and her dad used to love talking about ghost stories before he died, and now that she finds her self in this haunted Mecca, she has turned herself off to it. That is until a new, handsome boy is transferred into school and she is assigned to guide him through his first year. He is there on a scholarship from a ghost hunting organization (ok maybe a little far fetched, but go with it!). As he re-exposes her to the world of ghost hunting she is forced to face her grief.

This author’s debut was also a modern homage to Jane Austen and I was so amped for it. But I really struggled with it, the characters were vapid teenagers, and I ended up DNF-ing. So, when this new one popped up, I’m metered my excitement. Of the stories that get a retelling or homage, Northanger Abbey doesn’t often come up. Plus, ghosts, right?

I’m happy to say that the authors writing and character building has come a long way. These were true to form teenagers, but they also had new ones and good character arcs. I expected just to enjoy the spooky ghost plot but ended up, enjoying the story and found the central flirtation fun and cute.

If you love a good coming-of-age tale with a little spookiness, and some fun banter, check this one out. Also, always give authors a second chance!

Thanks to Wednesday books were gifted access via NetGalley. All opinions above are my own.