This mostly book delivers on its premise of romantic comedy with a ghostly companion/side-kick.

Despite the looming of death, the book has an overall light-hearted energy. The main leads, despite their obvious attraction to one another, have an on-off dislike for each other. Mostly as a result of the female lead's career choice. Nevertheless, they are drawn to each other. Gretchen for Charlie's kindness and Charlie for the goodness he sees in Gretchen that she doesn't even see in herself.

On the banter front, we have the delightful comedic moments between Gretchen and her ghostly bestie Everett. Nearly a hundred years old, he is a distant relative of Charlie's who helps set the whole save Charlie from the family curse plot in motion. He's a lot, but I found him funny and mostly endearing.

Now the reason this book isn't rated higher is because, to me, while the premise is good and the elements are present, something is missing from this book. I just couldn't quite fully connect with the characters. To me, it felt like this book was missing that bit of magic and chemistry needed to elevate it to a four-star or higher. Anything four-star or higher is an instant recommendation for me and this book isn't quite that.

Still, I did enjoy it overall. So if the premise is something you're interested in I'd say give it a try.

This was such an amazing book. It was hilarious, emotional, and sweet, and I loved every second of it! I haven't read Sarah Adler's debut novel yet, but after this, I'll definitely be reading it (and anything else she writes)! The plot of this story was so unique, and the story was so easy to get lost in. The plot was pretty fast-paced, and the writing was very easy to read - I read this in about one day! I loved the setting on the farm and the characters so much, and the romance was super well done. I absolutely adored Gretchen as the main character; she was a very complex character, and I enjoyed watching her find herself. I also really loved Everett (honestly, he was probably my favourite character, he was so entertaining). Overall, I completely recommend this book, and can't wait to read what Sarah Adler writes next!! :)

Happy Medium features a con-artist love interest and magical realism; two of my not-so-favorite tropes, and still it charmed the skeptic out of me.

Gretchen Acorn is a fake medium with a (somewhat) conscience and she has been hired by her best client to help Charlie Waybill, an elderly farmer with a ghost problem. The first problem she encounters is the fact that Charlie is an attractive young man who calls out her bluff immediately. An even bigger problem is that for the first time in her career of deceit she can actually talk to the dead.

Everett is a ghost hunting Charlie’s home and he explains to Gretchen that if Charlie succeeds in selling his farm, he will be cursed to die. Gretchen is then faced with the biggest problem: convincing a highly skeptical and angry Charlie that she’s telling the truth.

The very obvious romance novel solution is for Gretchen to move in with Charlie for a month; to help out at the farm and convince him that his life is at stake. Their new living arrangement forces Charlie and Gretchen to slowly learn to trust each other. And, of course the forced proximity and physical attraction soon leads to very real feelings.

Happy Medium was a delightfully charming read with great banter, slow-burn longing, humor, and the most lovable ghost.

I don’t really know how Sarah Adler manages to imbue her books with such a magical combination of wit and fun and tenderness and a sense of bittersweet poignancy but somehow, she captured all of these emotions in her debut, Mrs. Nash’s Ashes and she somehow repeated the magic in her second novel, Happy Medium.

I’m always a little reticent to read books involving a ghost - they really aren’t my thing. However, I was intrigued enough by the premise to give this one a shot and wow am I glad I did. While the book is obviously a romance involving Gretchen Acorn, a fake spirit medium and Charlie Waybill, a struggling goat farmer, I could not write a proper review without including Everett Waybill, the resident ghost at Gilded Creek Goat Farm.

Gretchen is somewhat reluctantly roped into exorcizing the ghost of Everett from the goat farm and Charlie, who doesn’t even believe in the ghost’s existence, sees her for exactly who she is, a con woman scam artist who pretends to talk to the dead. And while Gretchen is a scam artist, for the first time in her life, she finds herself able to communicate with the dead, specifically with Everett. All Charlie wants to do is sell the farm that’s been in his family for generations. And on conversing with Everett, Gretchen realizes that she’s been brought to the farm, not to exorcize the ghost but to prevent Charlie from leaving the farm.

The two (Gretchen and Charlie) come to an uneasy truce of sorts which forces them to live and work in close proximity. All the while Gretchen is trying to convince Charlie to listen to her and trust her and Charlie is dismissing her as a charlatan, there’s Everett, with his hilarious addiction to tv and pop culture, pressuring Gretchen to convince Charlie to not leave the farm.

Both Gretchen and Charlie have painful, dysfunctional parents though, since the book is strictly told from Gretchen’s POV, we do get more of her backstory but we get enough of Charlie’s as well to know that this is really a story of a lonely girl and an equally lonely goatherd, finding a home in each other. (Suddenly, I have the song The Lonely Goatherd from The Sound of Music stuck in my head and though no one yodels in this book, the farm presents a very bucolic setting in which to fall in love while befriending a ghost. As one does.)

Anyway, the book is charming and sweet, tender and sexy, witty and heartbreaking. It’s evokes all the feelings and I really enjoyed it a lot.

Thank you Berkley and NetGalley for sending me an eARC!

I really loved this book! I feel like this was everything I could want from a romance: some light paranormal happenings, a gorgeous farm setting, ~banter~, a deeply heartwarming slowburn with scorching chemistry. Don’t be fooled by the cute sweaters and baby goats; this is a spicy one!

Gretchen is a fake medium who comes across a real ghost at a charming but mysteriously cursed goat farm. Convincing the skeptical farmer Charlie that she’s not a total fraud, and trying not to fall for him, is Gretchen's most difficult con yet.

Gretchen was so relatable and easy to root for. She has a lot of love to give but because of her past, she shuts off this part of herself and keeps herself at a distance from any potential close relationships. Her mother abandoned her and her father is a manipulative criminal, so she believes she’s easy to leave and convinces herself she’s better off alone, because friends and partners aren’t worth the heartbreak when they inevitably get tired of her.

Charlie is kind of a perfect love interest: a farmer who has a tattoo of his first goat, knits, and wants to be a librarian…but also hustles pool and is controlling in the bedroom? At first you wonder how these two can put up with each other, but they’re incredibly well-matched. The way their relationship progresses, with Gretchen allowing herself to care for others and be cared for in return, and Charlie working through his own grief, was a truly beautiful journey.

I knocked one star because the ghost, Everett, is wildly creepy. Gretchen is the only person who can see him, and she finds out that throughout the years he’s haunted the farm, he regularly spies on people in the bathroom and bedroom. Gretchen establishes firm boundaries with Everett, but this issue is ultimately brushed off. Non-consensual voyeurism is not a quirky personality trait.

This book is so fun!! I have never read anything by Sarah Adler before and I'm so glad I did. Happy Medium is so unique yet feels comfy and familiar. A new comfort read for sure!

Completely delightful, always entertaining, and the perfect combination of hilarious and sentimental!

This was a total delight to read!
This book was on my most anticipated list for this year and WOW it was fun!
It is a unique premise that had me intrigued. This is a romance book that is laugh-out-loud funny but contains characters with heavy emotions. It was a great balance of hilarious and sentimental.
Gretchen is caring and witty, but she likes to keep the circle of people close to her small. Charlie owns a goat farm, he’s has a big heart, but is cautious and therefore grumpy towards Gretchen.
Plus, you add in the aspect of a hilarious, nosy ghost…and this book becomes wildly entertaining.
This has so many great tropes, and I really loved all the banter between the main characters. Plus, it’s set on a farm full of goats and that aspect was super cute!
I also loved the deeper emotional parts of this story. I liked seeing the characters open up to each other and connect!
I definitely recommend reading Happy Medium, and I also recommend reading Mrs. Nash’s Ashes. These books are both standalones and both are great!
This book will be out on April 30th, so add it to your TBR now!!!

Read If You Like:
🐐grumpy/sunshine
🐐enemies to lovers
🐐slow burn
🐐forced proximity
🐐ghosts

I will automatically read anything the author of "Mrs. Nash's Ashes" writes without even reading a blurb.

In starting Happy Medium, the title made me think of something and Sarah Adler immediately put that notion to rest. This book follows our main character, Gretchen Acorn who is a medium that “talks” to spirits. Of course, our girl is actually a con artist but the rich people of the DMV don’t seem to care.

Gretchen is so good that one of her most beloved clients decides to pay her 10k to help one of her old friends sell his farm. Sure that the farm isn’t haunted and that Charlie Waybill isn’t an old man but a rather young and handsome farm owner. Charlie is quick to put her out but Gretchen realizes that her abilities as a medium just haven’t awakened yet.

After meeting Everett Waybill, she agrees to stay as Everett explains that if Charlie sells the farm or leaves for good, he will die and be stuck haunting the farm. The two end up coming up with a plan to get Charlie to not sell. While it ends up being more hijinks than anything, Charlie gets on it by telling Gretchen if she can’t prove she’s a real medium, she has to give his friend her money back.

From there, it’s a race against time for Charlie and Gretchen as she’s trying to save him and he’s trying to get out. Meanwhile, the two are fighting their feelings for each other and Gretchen is slowly becoming charmed by small-town living. Happy Medium made me desperately miss living in a small town and also made me want to adopt a baby goat because this book had everything you could want from a cozy romance.

Sarah Adler also added the ideal amount of sex scenes, angst, and relationship-building to make me love these two. While Charlie seems like a typical jerk at the beginning, it’s clear he’s dealing with a lot and it made me love him even more. All in all, Happy Medium is the ultimate book for spring and if you haven’t picked it up yet, you need to.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Penguin Random House, and Sarah Adler for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

"Maybe showing up to a goat farm looking like Alexis Rose gone goth wasn't the most practical idea."

The universe is blessing me because, once again, I absolutely loved this book! I thought the premise was so fun and unique- a psychic medium a goat farmer? Amazing. And while I went into hoping for a lighthearted romantic comedy, I was so pleasantly surprised at the humor and vulnerability and love the author imbued into the pages.
The book follows Gretchen, a (fake) psychic who is sent to the country by one of her clients to rid a goat farm of a pesky ghost. And though Gretchen may only know of ghosts that which she can con people into believing, she arrives to the farm to discover that her 'gifts' may not be as fake as she once thought... oh, and the handsome owner wants absolutely nothing to do with her.
Enter a delicious forced proximity, enemies-to-lovers situation that I absolutely devoured.

"The man is a flame... But maybe she is, too."

I thought that the anger and distaste between Charlie, said handsome farmer, and Gretchen was believable, and the tension between the two of them kept me staying up way too late to see if they would get their happy ending. And though it took a lot of honesty and trust, a miscommunication here of there, they found their way to each other in a really beautiful way and I just really enjoyed reading their love story. It did not feel forced, but rather a true progression of how it can feel to slowly open yourself up to the love of another person.

"He's so fucking ridiculous, Gretchen thinks. And he's the best friend I've ever had."

But truly, one of my favorite parts of the book was Everett, the resident ghostie who was so ridiculously and hilariously lovable. He was a pest, to be sure, but his longing for companionship and someone to simply care for him was so earnest that I couldn't help but feel for him. The relationship between him and Gretchen was so sweet, but I am glad that he was able to find his happiness.

Overall, I think that this is a really fun read if you are in the mood for something with humor, great character development, spicy spice, a sassy ghost, and a little reflection as to what it means to be a good, loved person in the world. Absolutely would recommend and I can't wait until it is out in the world!

I adored Mrs. Nash's Ashes by Sarah Adler, so I was beyond excited to read this one. While this one has a totally different vibe than the other book, I really enjoyed it! I loved the witty banter between Gretchen and ghost Everett. I'm also a sucker for an enemies to lovers trope so really what's not to like? It's a great rom com for your tbr!

Happy Medium was a refreshing read for me in the rom-com space! There were many times where made some assumptions about how some of it would play out and Sarah Adler completely surprised me by not fully committing to a trope. I loved the complexity of all the main characters and watching each of their journey’s unfold through the book. I will say the beginning felt a little slow, but when it hit the 50% mark and picked up, I wasn’t able to put it down. It was definitely a one-more-chapter kind of night!! Plus, there were so many sweet & thoughtful moments in this book that brought joy to my little romantic soul! I closed this one feel happy, cozy & satisfied.

I hands down loved Mrs Nash’s Ashes so I was hoping to strike gold twice. And I didn’t dislike Happy Medium, exactly, but it was very one-note, mostly falling flat, and I didn’t believe a lot of the emotional truths and reactions once all was said and done.

It’s a great set-up and the beginning is cute and funny, the animosity was entertaining, and there were great city girl out of her element vibes to coast on for a bit. But then it evened out into an earnestness that lost all other momentum and didn’t entirely pan out. Some key moments didn’t strike me as genuine or believable, despite efforts to make them so. And there were hanging teasers that didn’t go anywhere.

Overall, I liked and understood the characters, but I just didn’t entirely feel what I know I was supposed to feel. And it took more motivation than it should have to pick up the book occasionally and finish.

Thank you for the advanced copy!!

The concept of this story is very fun! I was so worried about the lying because I didn’t want it to be the 3rd act breakup! Thankfully it’s not!!

This book literally makes me want to pack up my life and husband and buy a farm! It was cozy and fun! The steamy scenes were very good!! But most of all, I love the tension ! The tension was sooooo good!!

I can’t wait to see this book on shelves!

Delightful little love story involving goats, ghosts, farm life, and hunky farmers. A family curse that brought out the best of both main characters (and the ghost).

A con artist medium, and a struggling goat farm? Doesn't sound like two things that belong together but man did it work for this book! This one charmed me to pieces! I'm not usually a fan of con artists in books but this one surprised me in the best of ways! I highly recommend it!

I love ghosts and romcoms so this book was made for me! It was silly, lighthearted, and romantic with a bit of spook and I can't think of a better romcom combination than that.

Thanks NetGalley for an ARC of Happy Medium in exchange for an honest review!

Happy Medium is perfect for fans of The Dead Romantics or Sara Adler’s first novel, Mrs. Nash’s Ashes! Delightfully macabre, full of heart, and artful humor makes this book such a great read.

Gretchen Acorn, an expert bullshitter, had met her match with Charlie the goat farmer who can see her con from a mile away. This makes the fact that she’s actually telling him the truth about the ghost haunting his farm and the curse that threatens his impending doom that much more difficult to believe.

Reading about Gretchen slowly learn how to let go of the con and risk something real (with her spiritual spectator, Everett’s help) while she falls in love with the farm and Charlie was such a rewarding experience. You really want her to be better, risk it all and tell the truth, and cheer her on as she succeeds. Which is saying a lot, because I find that a character with her background and world views could have easily become unlikable. Charlie’s juxtaposition between tender care-giver and hot-tempered shit talker was also such a fun experience and made his character much more interesting.

My only gripe was that the third act break-up that inevitably occurs in this genre was a little dragged out and relied too heavy on the miscommunication. Gretchen spends A LOT of time in her own head and it gets very tedious at times. Also, I don’t feel like the father issue was ever truly resolved and made me wonder why she included it in the first place if it was going to end up being a loose end. However, this was still a very entertaining and heart warming read. I highly recommend it!

I loved this book and had a great time reading it! It has such a cute, clever premise and I really loved Gretchen's character, the snappy banter she had with Charlie, and the beautiful friendship she formed with Everett. Her belief that people only kept her around based on how useful she was hit a little too close to home at times, but watching her start opening up and trusting that the people in her life now want her just because of who she is was so touching. Her growth over the course of the book was amazing and I loved that she found true contentment and joy in the work she was doing and the life she built for herself.

Her and Charlie's relationship was so much fun. There were times I thought he was a little too harsh with her, but I could also understand where he was coming from in not being able to trust her. The friendship and camaraderie they had that so easily developed into more was done really well. I also love how often Gretchen made Charlie blush - it was freaking adorable. Sarah Adler has definitely become an auto-buy author for me! Thanks to Berkley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I couldn’t believe I got approved for this ARC on NetGalley but I was thrilled to get my hands on it! The cover caught my eye and the synopsis had me requesting it so quick!

A fake medium who has a job to go exorcise a ghost on a goat farm but then when she arrives, she can actually talk to the ghost?? 😂 I was here for it!!

It had a lot of fun aspects to it, the baby goats, barn cats, Everett (the silly ghost), the slow burn, Gretchen navigating the farm life, etc.
However, it did feel very repetitive and the slow burn was a SLOW burn. I was waiting forever for the connection but then the spice hit and I was shocked with the spice level!

I think this one was really cute and fun with a bit of spice in the last 1/4 but it’s not a book that will change your life - if that makes sense 😂 I am still interested in reading her first book though, Mr. Nash’s Ashes!