I really enjoyed this book. I loved the whole ghost hunting. The only thing bad about it was there were crazy amount of extra spaces though the book.

Super fun Northanger Abbey retelling! Loved loved loved this one. It’s witty and funny and heartwarming. What a great read!

Two things I love: Jane Austen and ghosts! This was a fast-paced, cute and fun romcom. Hattie (Henry) goes to Northanger Abbey, a school which is notoriously haunted and made famous by a ghostly film made on the campus. She is assigned to be the ambassador for the new transfer student on a ghost hunting scholarship, Kit (Catherine). I loved how the author switched the genders of the main characters and I absolutely enjoyed Kit's character. There is a lot of focus on grief in this book and how the characters experience/cope with that grief (or not unfortunately). Lack of communication was a major factor in most of the conflicts in this book which I, as an older reader, am not a fan of but I can see how younger people may act the way they do in this book. Overall I enjoyed this read and would recommend to any fans Jane Austen and/or Northanger Abbey!

Rounded up to 3.5

I think if I had read this book in high school it absolutely would have become one of my comfort books. I resonated with so much of Hattie's feelings of not knowing what she's doing or what she wants as well as with her grief and struggling to find where she fits in life. I also loved Kit as a character and his interactions with Hattie. However, I definitely wish we had gotten a little bit more of Hattie's family -- while Liam was a pretty big character, sometimes I would get him and Kit confused because they weren't written very distinguishable from one another. I also felt like there was so much potential in Freddie and Hattie's mom, which we only got to see more of at the very end of the book. Additionally, the end of the book itself just felt a little bit too rushed -- Hattie makes up with her friends and Kit and then suddenly it's six months later, everything is great and it's happily ever after. There definitely could have been more substance.

Also - the beginning of the book definitely had me confused once I read the book in it's entirety. Is the "Now" at the start of the book from when Kit and Hattie did their overnight ghost watch? Is it post Hattie graduating? It definitely did not feel tied into the rest of the book at all and I even went back to it at the end to see if I could connect it, but was left still confused as to how it related to the rest of the book, especially since Hattie and Kit's ghost project was kind of left ~ghosted~ itself.

Overall very enjoyable read, thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

I loved Quain’s last novel, so I knew I had to check out this one too. GHOSTED fell a little flat for me, though. The story was just okay to me; I found it very difficult to stay in the headspace of the story because the majority of the characters (okay, everyone but Kit and Liam if I’m being completely honest) were so unlikeable. The slow born romance aspect was done well and I liked the dueling aspects of ghost believer vs non-ghost believer. Just didn’t hit highly enough for me.

I loved this retelling of Northanger Abbey. Fans of Jane Austen, ghost stories, or just a good young adult novel will all appreciate this new spin on an old tale.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Thank you to Rivka Holler, Wednesday Books, and Netgalley for sending me an advanced copy of Ghosted in exchange for an honest review.

I'm committing some Jane Austenite blasphemy here, but... I enjoyed this re-vamping of Northanger Abbey even more than I did ... Northanger Abbey.

Amanda Quain did an interesting gender and narrator flip which really worked for me. She turned Catherine Morland into Kit Morland, a cute, ghost-enthusiast who arrives at the elite prep school Northanger Abbey on scholarship. His student ambassador is Henrietta "Hattie" Tilney, over-achieving daughter of the headmistress. For a school project, Kit and Hattie begin examining the legends and ghosts tied to their notoriously haunted school. Instantly connected, Kit and Hattie must fight the forces of convention, family, friends with their own agendas, and the supernatural to become a happy couple. In other words, Quain manages to stay true to Austen's themes while updating the plot and characterizations.

Fans of Austen, the Enola Holmes movies, and Alice Oseman will particularly enjoy this one.

This was a really lovely and heart-warming YA romance 😭

The MC Hattie is struggling to fit into high school, and with life in general, following the death of her father three years prior (and also dealing with an emotionally absentee mom and elder sister, following her father's death). She's trying to keep up her image at school, and also trying to keep her family together, and she's trying to be the perfect-est daughter and sister she can be, and all of these are taking an extreme about of mental toll on her. Andd, she's also blocked herself from believing in ghosts, which used to be a common interest with her father.

When she becomes friends with Kit, someone who very passionately believes in ghosts and is someone who is really friendly and emotionally open, Hattie finally starts to open up and process all of her repressed emotions (and yes, they fall in love, and they're so so cute).

I loved the emotional journeys of the MCs and her family members. I loved all the family and friendship and relationship resolutions at the end of the book.

At the heart of this story is a young girl who is struggling to process her emotions and face the world as her truest self, and I loved the journey she took to get to the end. I really loved this book, and I can't wait to read more by this author.

TWs - death of parent, emotionally absent parent, a child forced to take on the role of a parent, anxiety

-- ty to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy!

For those who crave spooky season well after it's over. Ghosted was an incredible retelling of a classic story that was a touch spooky, a touch romantic, and a lot fantastic!

Absolutely loved the gender bent modern twisting, and there is so much of the original Northanger Abbey in here! Udulpho as a university was perfect inclusion of the iconic obsession.

The slow burn is AMAZING, and the exploration of grief and family dynamic is well done. It definitely made me feel emotions. The first snow fall scene I had to reread multiple times immediately because it gave me such a heart squeeze.

There are so many different kinds of relationships explored in this book - child and parent, siblings, friends, and new loves, with variations on each theme. With such an important message about the value in being true to yourself.

Amanda Quain is very much a must read author for me at this point.

This slow burn Rom-Com is so worth the read. I loved it. I found myself smiling a big grin a couple of times the storyline and the characters kept me wanting more. I really liked it and liked how the author writes, I will definitely be reading more from her.

I just reviewed Ghosted by Amanda Quain. #NetGalley
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Jane Austen is one of my favorite authors, and I am trying to find and read as many adaptations/retellings as I can. And this one is a YA adaptation of Northanger Abbey and I was surprised by it, because many of them are for Pride and Prejudice (most famous one so). It was interesting to read. A school known for its ghosts and horror movies and it is our setting! I was obsessed with it. I like all these school things and how the main characters were trying to overcome all school and personal problems. I read how they were developed as a person and it was perfect. This book is a really good modern Jane Austin version and probably a little unexpected for me however I liked this too. Ghosted was light and quick reading. The author's language was pretty, I enjoyed the descriptions and settings, author created an atmosphere that supported the title, and I liked how the author showed emotions and feelings. This story is not only about “ghost hunting" but family relationships, mother/child (I wanted a little more of this) self-acceptance and growth, how people connect with each other, and many subtopics that you can find there. Finally, it was a sweet read for me and I enjoyed the story and characters who were well written.


Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for sending me an advanced copy of Ghosted.

I tend to go into Austen retellings skeptical, but this was incredibly fun! I liked a lot of the changes Quain made - the gender-swapping, the school setting, and ghost-hunting premise worked well. I enjoyed getting to know Hattie- figuring out why she doesn't believe in ghosts, understanding her relationships with her family and friends. Kit was adorably goofy and serious in all the right ways. The end dialogue was sappy at times, but I was having too much fun to be bothered by it. I think a lot of people will enjoy this one!

This was such a fun read and such a fun take on the story! Hattie left her ghosthunting days behind her when she lost her father, but her mom is the headmistress of Northanger Abbey - a school full of ghosts. Or so the legends say. Enter Kit, a new student to Northanger on a scholarship thanks to his love of ghosts. When Hattie's mom assigns her to be Kit's ambassador to the school and show him around, she's instantly not looking forward to it because of his over enthusiasm for ghosts - but there's also just something about him that she's drawn to.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching these two through the course of the story. With a little reverse grumpy/sunshine these two come together in such great ways. Kit is such a golden retriever, and he supports Hattie in so many different ways, it was really sweet to watch these two.
There were times at the story where Hattie's friends really bothered me because of how they acted but at the same time, that was always their relationship and the way that they interacted with each other - more of a mutually beneficial friendship to get through high school than an actual friendship.

I wanted more when it came to the resolution of the conflicts at the end - I wanted to see more of it, I felt like everything wrapped up really quickly and easily, but it was still a sweet story.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a delight! It's been ages since I've read Northanger Abbey, but I'm inspired to reread after finishing Ghosted. Hattie Tilney has a life that looks idyllic from the outside - popular friends, a prestigious and potentially haunted boarding school, what seems like a solid future. But underneath, she also has family trauma, a frosty mother (who also happens to be her principal), and a lot of loneliness and impostor syndrome.

When her mom makes her school ambassador to the new kid, a paranormal enthusiast, she's not thrilled. As she spends more time with Kit, she starts rethinking her life, both present and future, completely, and finally finds someone with whom she can be her true self. Kit helps her unpack some of her deep feelings about ghosts and those we have lost, and inspires her to stop living under a mask. Romance and hijinks ensue. This book is more about metaphorical ghosts than paranormal ones, but it was such a feel good read overall I enjoyed every page.

**I received an arc in exchange for an honest review

This book was really good. It was a story about grief, family, trauma, dysfunction and supernatural all rolled into one. Haven't read any Jane austen before but this book followed the general structure of the story with some added twists to refresh it. Very good read and slow burn was well done

Ghosted is a sweet, comforting YA book. The characters are nuanced and interesting, and I loved the haunted Gothic setting. I'm looking forward to whatever Amanda Quain writes next.

At a famous school haunted by legends of ghosts, where her mother is headmistress, all Hattie Tilney wants is to live as normal and low-profile a life as possible. When she is asked to be an ambassador for a new scholarship student, however, she is brought closer to ghosts than she wanted — ghosts of the abbey and ghosts of her past. It's a Northanger Abbey gender-bent retelling set in modern-day high school, complete with boarding school adventures, a sweet, young love story, ghost-tales, and a broken family trying to fit back together.

I had a bit of a hard time actually getting into this book... I was so excited to receive it, but I found myself continuously pushing off picking it up again. The novel was rather slow in the beginning. The writing style is plain, so I was depending on the plot to capture me, but it took a while. There honestly wasn't much happening. Our main character was circling the same doubts and realizations for much of the book. Though, in some way, Hattie was growing (in friendship and in herself), most of what happened in the first 80% of the book wasn't revealing much new to the readers. Hattie was pushing down her true feelings, she was nervously feeling new things around Kit, she was feeling bitter about her friends, her mother, her lot in life.

It was in the last 20% of the book, when Hattie finally faces these issues we've been circling, that I became totally invested. She admits that she has lost herself and finally is forced to face change. It was then that we saw character growth, admissions of wrongs, reconciliation, and growth — not just from Hattie, but from the whole cast of characters. There were moments that I was on the verge of tears; I was suddenly flying through the chapters. 

Maybe you could argue that Hattie's antagonist was change, the big thing she had to face at the climax of the story. But I found it was only once the characters were forced to push through things that they wanted to avoid that I truly was cheering them on. And I wish it had happened before the 80% mark. 

As a Northanger Abbey retelling, I unfortunately can't make too many comments, since I'm not deeply familiar with the original. I will say that I was pleasantly surprised that it focused on the Tilney family instead of on Austen's protagonist (similar to Quain's other retelling that focuses on Georgiana Darcy rather than Elizabeth). This book seems to mostly be a retelling of the second part of Northanger. And it appears to use the source cleverly — gender-bending it, applying the gothic elements in an interesting way... there were many parallels that were well-done, especially in shifting it into a modern high school setting. 

Overall, it was a fun YA read. And, I must say that I have been thinking a lot about ghost stories and their histories since I finished.

Thank you so much to the team at Wednesday Books for reaching out and to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

****4 stars!

“You see, when you love someone, when they’re your whole heart…you’ll do anything to find them.”

First I would like to thank St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC of this book. I am honored to have been given a chance to read it and give an honest review.

Hattie Tilney isn’t a believer. Yes, she is a senior at America’s most haunted high school, Northanger Abbey, but ever since her paranormal loving father passed away, she put it all behind her and moved on. She has enough to worry about in the land of the living--like taking care of her younger brother, Liam, while their older sister spirals out and their mother, Northanger’s formidable headmistress, who buries herself in her work. If Hattie just works hard enough and keeps that overachiever mask on tight through graduation, maybe her mother would finally notice her.

But the mask starts slipping when Hattie is assigned to be an ambassador to Kit Morland, a golden retriever of a boy who transferred to Northanger on a ghost hunting scholarship. The two are partnered up for an investigative project on the school’s paranormal activity, and Hattie quickly strikes a deal: Kit will present whatever ghostly evidence he can find to prove that the campus is haunted, and Hattie will prove that it’s not. But as they explore the abandoned tunnels and foggy graveyards of Northanger, Hattie starts to realize that Kit might be the kind of person that makes her want to believe in something--and someone--for the first time.

This book was a very interesting modern take on Northanger Abbey, it was fun seeing these characters in a modern setting. I felt the characters were very relatable and the overall theme of the story was really different and fun to read about! I really enjoyed seeing the character development between all the characters; watching them grow overtime and form stronger and better relationships as the story progressed.

The pacing of this story was very well done as well; it was a nice and quick read. The words used to describe Northanger Abbey were also really great; I felt I could picture the campus very well as I read along with the story.

This was a very adorable and genuine story; it is one I would recommend if you enjoy Jane Austen retellings and stories about ghosts and romance. I am very much looking forward to reading whatever Amanda Quain writes next!

Everything I know about ghost hunting, I've learned from modern Northanger Abbey retellings.

...which is ironic because I remember next to nothing about Jane Austen's Gothic parody. (At risk of making true Austenites to reach for their smelling salts, I sometimes get Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park mixed up.) Though, in my defense, I read it a long time ago and didn't pick up on any of the satire when I did.

All this to say, as excited as I was to read Amanda Quain's sophomore novel, I'm not the reviewer to go to if you're looking for someone intimately familiar with Austen's first book.

While Ghosted was enjoyable, I didn't like it as much as Quain's debut. Whether I liked it more because I'm much more familiar with P&P (and could appreciate the spin she put on the famous classic) or because it was a stronger story, I can't really say.

The Good.
The Tilney's. The Tilney's, the Tilney's, the Tilney's.
I love family-centric stories and watching each individual member in this poor, dysfunctional, broken family try to navigate their grief independently and eventually come out of their silos of sorrow to slowly a rebuild new life together was my absolute favorite part of the book. It didn't really feature in the story until the latter half of the book, so I do wish it had been developed more, but what we did get, I loved. Baby Liam was so precious, and Freddie, the rebel big sister, managed to be a great interpretation of Captain Tilney while still remaining sympathetic. I do think Hattie's relationship with her mom was a bit rushed, but overall, I loved the quiet family moments and thought the gradual development was well-done.

The Bad.
Hattie.
I just wasn't a huge fan of Hattie, which is kind of a problem because we spend 320 pages in her head. In general, her humor and random asides were entertaining, but her overall character was frustrating and one-dimensional. Her grief-induced denial and adamant refusal to acknowledge her feelings were certainly understandable but that didn't make her likeable. Her overall arc felt superficial and stagnant, and much like Austen's relatively obvious satire, Hattie's flaws were extremely heavy-handed and made watching her incredibly slow growth painful to read.
(I just realized, was Hattie's hit-you-over-the-head obliviousness some kind of meta- satire? Because if it is, I totally missed it.)

The Meh.
The romance. It's hard to root for a romance when you don't really care about half of the relationships. Kit was an endearing enough character that he might have been able to carry the romance if it hadn't been so crudely developed. The romance was pretty insta-lovey which isn't my favorite even when I do like both characters and didn't feel particularly developed. Because Quain established the attraction between Hattie and Kit pretty early on, I never really found the "we can't be together" tension believable. Again, Kit was a perfectly sweet cinnamon roll of a love interest; unfortunately, he was wasted a bit on a lackluster love story.

For someone who may or may not have had to skim bits of the Northanger Abbey Sparknotes page to refresh her memory, Ghosted was a fun read, albeit one that lacked finesse. Would I recommend this to Austen fans? 🤷🏻‍♀️ I honestly have to reread Northanger Abbey before I could say. I'm definitely going to read Amanda Quain's next book though.