Sarah Adler’s 2nd book, Happy Medium, is a delightful enemies-to-lovers romance and ghost story featuring a fake medium with her own moral code, a reluctant goat farmer, and a charming (but somewhat sexist) 100-year-old ghost with a TV addiction.

When Gretchen Acorn is asked by her most important client to help an old friend exorcise a ghost on his family’s goat farm who has been driving away potential buyers, she reluctantly agrees because, even though the $10,000 would really come in handy, she doesn’t have any prior knowledge that would help her with her scam. So, imagine her surprise when the old farmer, Charles Waybill, turns out to be a handsome man about her age who knows she’s a scammer and promptly boots her off his property and the ghost she doesn’t believe in not only blocks her exit but can talk with her as well. Now she just has to convince Charlie that the ghost, Everett Waybill, is real and his reasons for the haunting are a matter of life and death. Can Gretchen learn to trust love and can Charlie learn to trust her before it’s too late?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am now going to go back and read her debut novel, Mrs. Nash’s Ashes. Adler does a wonderful job creating characters whose honesty, kindness, and compassion reel us in and balancing the romance between Charlie and Gretchen with her relationship with Everett which is full of laughter and aggravation (just like a sibling relationship). Bonus: you get to learn a bit about goat farming and who doesn’t love the little goat kids. Highly recommended!

This is a poignant, entertaining, heartwarming read about love, friendship, family, and trust that I truly enjoyed. Sarah Adler knows how to play the strings of our hearts, as always.
Gretchen, a fake medium hired to exorcise a ghost from a goat farm, and Charlie, the grumpy farm owner who wants Gretchen and her obvious scam nowhere near him. Content to take the money and leave, Gretchen is shocked to her core when she learns the property is indeed haunted and she can talk to the ghost. The story is full of charm and so much fun happenings around the farm. I loved how Gretchen and Charlie slowly became friends and tried to understand one another before getting into a relationship.
Super cute and silly and fun!

I absolutely loved her first book, so I was bit hesitant to dive into this one but am thrilled to say it did not disappoint. I absolutely loved this story so much.

It definitely gave me Ghost vibes with a fresh new take, which was delightful. I loved the love story, but the third wheel ghost was pure perfection, he was hysterical.

Quick Breakdown

Paranormal Romance
Small Town
Workplace Vibes
Sudden Roommates
Grumpy x Sunshine
He Takes Care of Her
Stern Brunch Daddy
Hot Farmer
Slow Burn
Single POV
Open Door - Mild Details

Raised by a con artist, Gretchen currently works as a faux spirit medium, but an ethical one. Her clients are mostly older, affluent women looking to connect with lost loved ones & she only helps those she knows she can help find peace. When her biggest client offers her a large lump some to exorcise a ghost from her friend’s farm, she packs her bags & travels to small town, Maryland. Only, he’s not the old man she was expecting. Charlie’s a hot farmer in odd colored, homemade sweaters. He doesn’t buy her scheme one bit & sends her packing.

Oddly enough, there is a ghost haunting the farm & ironically, after pretending to speak with the dead for years, Gretchen is the only one who can see him. He needs Gretchen’s help to save Charlie from the same curse that’s kept him stuck for nearly 100 years.

I FLUFFING LOVED this book & my words will never do it justice. If you haven’t read Sarah Adler, you are 100% missing out! Her books are light, yet full of depth & all the wacky humor / banter I crave in a romance.

The characters crafted here are absolute gold. I loved how realistic Gretchen felt - her confidence mixed with vulnerability as she emotionally grew with Charlie. Charlie himself is on a whole other level of MMC. I loved watching his grumpy personality melt with his innate need to caretake. He was such a cinnamon roll yet still brought the heat 🔥 And my ghost man, Everett? He stole the show. He flirted the line of annoying & endearing perfectly & I couldn’t get enough of him.

Do yourself a favor & listen to this on audio. It’s narrated by Mara Wilson & she’s become an instant favorite. You won’t be disappointed.

Happy Medium, is Sarah Adler’s newest release & follows fake spirit medium Gretchen as she works to convince Charlie to keep his farm. What started as an attempted home ‘cleansing’ quickly turns into keeping Charlie safe & might even be leading to sparks flying!

I loved the concept of the story & I’m always here for a funny ghost side character. Unfortunately, those were the things I liked best. I struggled with our main character, Gretchen the most. I just never ‘care’ to know more about her. Charlie was a fine love interest but again I never felt drawn to him the way I would have wanted. The story was also 100 pages too long, there was no reason for this book to be over 400 pages and made the pacing slow.

I didn’t not like this book; it just didn’t stand out to me. Lacking chemistry, I never felt compelled to keep reading nor did I ever really feel myself rooting for our main couple. I would have liked to know more about Gretchen roommate and the other side characters, and while I did love Everett our reside ghost, he wasn’t enough to save the book for me. Overall, not bad but not a very memorable read.

Happy Medium comes out April 30, 2024. Thank you to Berkley for my advanced copies in exchange for my review. If you liked this review, please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof.books.

This book was so much fun. I loved the whole idea of curses and spirits. It made the way Charlie and Gretchen interacted exciting and playful. The writing was light with a humorous tone, but Adler also dove into some topics that were slightly heavier. I think her balance and writing style is so well done, and it was enjoyable to read. Charlie and Gretchen were a delightful contrast, but I loved the sass and snark they brought out in each other. The farm was a great setting—I loved the goats!! I would be remiss if I didn't talk about my man's Everett. This little TV-loving spunky ghost was such a fun addition to the story. It was such a fun concept that Adler executed brilliantly and I would read more with Everett at the center. Overall, I enjoyed the love story and the character development a lot. Thank you to Berkley and Netgalley for the e-ARC to read and review!

This one is so much fun. Excellent characters who are imperfect and charming, and a humorous, heartfelt story with a bit of steam. This is a winner.

This was a fun read that was filled with charm, quirk, and a sweet enemies-to-lovers romance (with just a touch of steam!) Some parts felt a bit slow toward the middle, but it also may have been my mood. Overall, the story was cute, enjoyable, and definitely unique.

Oh my heart! This was such a fun read. I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish this one and cried my eyes out as my husband peacifully slept next to me. Everett is my new favorite character and I loved his realtionship with Gretchen. Charlie was such a loveable grump - learning about his childhood was such a treat and really made him character realistic. I highly recommend this adorable read!

Acorn makes a living by scamming people into believing she can talk to the dead. When one of her clients has a very tempting deal for her, Acorn knows she can’t pass it up (especially for the money). Acorn arrives at a goat farm anticipating to “cleanse” an evil aura after multiple failed attempts of it selling. Insert Charlie, who inherited his family’s farm. He is completely against what Acorn does and doesn’t believe for a second she can communicate with the dead. Until, Everett the real life ghost shows up and Acorn actually does see him. She has one month to convince Charlie that he can’t sell his property or else he risks making himself a ghost. Acorn starts to realize that being herself is the biggest con of all.

I loved Mrs. Nash’s Ashes so when I saw the next book of Sarah’s I immediately requested to review. But, something lacked here and I’m not entirely sure what. Don’t get me wrong, it was super cute and charming. Especially Everett who I came to love. I think it lacked chemistry for me between Charlie and Acorn. I also felt like there were parts that dragged out for me and caused me to lose interest. Overall, I think if you can look beyond that and a slow burn is for you, then this book would be something.

✨ Review ✨ Happy Medium by Sarah Adler; Narrated by Mara Wilson

Thanks to Berkley, PRHAudio and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

I LOVED Sarah's first book and couldn't wait to get a copy of this one into my hands.

Gretchen Acorn, child of a con man and (fake) spirit medium to the wealthy women of NYC, believes she has a conscience. She only helps and takes money from the wealthy while she's helping them feel better and improve after their losses. When her best client gives her $10,000 and sends her to do some sort of exorcism of a ghost on her friend's farm, Gretchen agrees somewhat hesitantly.

When she gets there, she finds that there's a real ghost she can talk to (wild after years of pretending to be a medium) and that the resident of said farm is anything but an old man. The ghost convinces Gretchen to stay and convince the goat farmer not to leave the farm, or he too will fall victim to the same curse he did.

I'm obsessed with this set up -- it had me pulled in from the beginning! And I really loved how the story evolved with Gretchen, a ghost, and a farmer all in the farmhouse together, surrounded by goats and goat soap and goat cheese and sweaters.

I love the weird quirky delights of books that Sarah Adler writes, and the way it blends that quirkiness with romance and a character's personal journey. Can't wait to see what she writes next!

🎧 I listened to most of this on audio and really enjoyed the narration. It brought a sense of lightness and fun that mirrored the quirkiness of the story.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (4.5)
Genre: f/m contemporary romance with a side of the paranormal
Setting: a goat farm
Length: 11 hours 38 minutes
Pub Date: April 30, 2024

Read this if you like:
⭕️ goats and sweaters and farms
⭕️ earnest ghosts
⭕️ romance surrounded by lots of other plot action

Gretchen Acorn’s fake spirit medium business is going well so when her most lucrative customer asks for her help for a friend, she agree’s to go off to the country to “help” vacate a ghost from a farm. What she doesn’t expect is to actually see that ghost, hear why he is haunting the farm, and stick around in the country for a month to try to convince the cute, young, farmer why he can not sell his farm and move to the city.

It’s kind of unconventional to have your heroine be a con-woman. I’ll admit that have a fake medium business is probably on the low end of the con spectrum, but I did have a little trouble buying what she was selling. Of course, so did the young farmer, Charlie. He however because charmed by her good looks and spirit whereas I remained skeptical that a romance between the two of them would ever be believable.

I’ve enjoyed Sarah Adler’s books in the past so I was somewhat surprised I was having so much trouble with Happy Medium. The redeeming character was Everett, the ghost. He was a quirky character but added some much needed humor and was a foil to Gretchen making her seem reliable and “normal”. He was a ghost with questionable morals after all.

Happy Medium, for me, was just an ok story. As I mentioned, I had trouble with the main character and if I can’t love the heroine I’m not going to love the story. I’m sure there will be plenty of other readers who will adore this story, but I have to go with my gut on this one and give it a three rating.

This book is so cute! But with much more depth than I expected. And funny! But also had me tearing up at the end. Gretchen and Charlie both have all sorts of very different baggage, but it was so nice watching them sort it all out. And Everett! Friggin’ hilarious. Reminded me of Hall in Sarah Hogle’s Just Like Magic, and that is a good thing.

I received a copy of this book from Berkley.

This is definitely a topic I never read before! A goat farm being haunted by a ghost/romance is a new one for me!
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Gretchen is not what she seems. She is pretending to be a medium and gets hired to figure out why a goat farm isn’t selling. She’s off to “cleanse” the farm but encounters a legit ghost. Everett has been haunted the farm since the 1920’s. An entertaining ghost story mixed in with a romance made this a fun one.
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Huge thank you to @berkleypub @berittalksbooks @thephdivabooks @dg_reads and @netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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This book was so cute & different. The author’s idea to incorporate a friendly ghost into this contemporary love story was so fresh and exciting to read.

Gretchen, a fake spirit medium, gets roped into helping out a small town farmer get rid of the ghost haunting his land. There’s just one problem - Gretchen cant actually converse with spirits. Well, not until now. Because she can not only see this handsome - straight out of the 1920s - ghost, but she can talk to him too. And boy, is he chatty.

A delight from start to finish.

Gretchen is a fake medium who has just been given the job of her life - one of her wealthiest clients is paying her to help her bridge partner. Charlie, the bridge partner, is trying to sell his farm, but something keeps stopping it. When Gretchen arrives she’s shocked to find 2 things: 1 - that Charlie wants nothing to do with her and 2 - that there is a literal ghost actually stopping the sale from happening. Everett, the ghost, just wants to save Charlie from the family curse that has led him to haunt the farm since the 1920s. Now Gretchen has to convince Charlie that Everett is real and stop him from selling the farm.

The ghosts and baby goats made this book! Their antics were hilarious and so much fun! This was definitely a unique story and I appreciated that Gretchen told Charlie about Everett’s presence right away instead of it turning into a miscommunication. While this story was cute, it didn’t grab me quite the way I wanted it too. While Everett was a phenomenal character, I wasn’t rooting for the romance as much as I should have been. Surprisingly, for a girl who usually isn’t into fantasy or paranormal stuff, the paranormal aspects were my favorite part of this story! I adored Everett and his antics and honestly wanted more of him!

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for the advance copy.

Thank you Berkley! First of all, this cover is everything and more. Next, the concept is great. Very unique and the perfect set up for lots of banter. The opening scene confirms this. I love that the FMC has a questionable moral compass but isn't outright unlikeable. Overall, I've never read something like this which is saying a lot in an industry that's currently being compared to fast fashion. I look forward to reading more of this author.

I wanted to like this one more than I did. Part of the problem was my scant sympathy for Gretchen basically being a con artist. Ick. Even if she's ripping off the wealthy, she's still ripping people off by gaslighting them. Second, the ghost I think was supposed to be funny, except his behavior was more cringe than comic. Though he did have good moments.

But add those to miscommunication being heavily relied on as glue to hold the story together--my least favorite trope ever--and the lack of real romance until the book was nearly half over--it seemed that I was just not the reader for this one, though I adored her last. Mileage varies!

First of all, let me just say : GOATS. Baby goat. Goats and sweaters. Goats and yoga. And, most importantly, goats and ghosts. This is a charming romcom about a con artist working as a medium and faking speaking to the dead who is contracted to go out to a haunted farm and shocked to find an actual ghost that only she can see, along with an extremely handsome goat farmer struggling to keep his family business afloat. He distrusts her from the moment he meets her, but he’s too nice of a guy to leave her stranded, and they find themselves working together in force proximity. She wants to save him from a curse that could kill him; he wants to save his farm. Neither of them want to be attracted to the other, but that part, like the ghost haunting the place, is out of their control.


Thank you to Netgalley, Berkley Romance, and Sarah Adler for this eARC. This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

First, this book is just plain fun! A fake psychic medium is tasked with ridding an old goat farm of its resident ghost. Imagine her surprise when she can actually see this ghost! All she has to do is convince the hot farm owner that she's not a con artist. (She is a con artist, but not in this particular case.) The ghost himself is playful, irreverent, and fun and I loved him just as much as the living characters. (There are even adorable baby goats in this book!)
It's a quirky, steamy, heartwarming read and this is the first book I've read by Sarah Adler. Call me an insta-fan. I have to go back and read her first book now and I'm dying to see what she comes up with next.