I didn't go into this expecting a light and sweet Christmas tale, so I wasn't taken out by the serious subject matter and trauma the FMC experienced. I thought it was a realistic depiction of how trauma colors how we all walk thru life. My brain registered the Christmas Carol retelling and that story itself is dark if you've actually read it FYI!

Overall I enjoyed this, the narrator was good not my usual pick but fine. The spice was good, it's definitely an adult book and the language reflects that.

I've read this author before and will again, thank you for the advance listening copy!

Best,
Marissa

Ghosts of Christmas by Kenya Wright was a good listen and it was well narrated.

Ivy's best friend is getting married in Finland for a wonderful Christmas wonderland themed wedding. She would do anything for her friend but has given up on felling much herself. She will be walking down the aisle with the bride's brother and they have some history. This follows their past, and present to see if they have a future.

Thank you NetGalley for my copy of the Audiobook. All opinions are my own. #KenyaWright #GhostsofChristmas #NetGalley #DreamscapeMedia

This book was so good, the writing the characters, the growth. It was amazing. This story teaches us so many thing. I couldn’t get enough. Loved it

This was easy to listen to and the narrators did a good job. I liked the storyline and the it was quick to listen to

Ghosts of Christmas by Kenya Wright was a great holiday read. This book loosely based on A Christmas Carol/Scrooge was a pure delight. I loved the plot points, characters, character development. I plan to buy more by this author.

This book surprised the heck outta me. I did not anticipate myself liking it but as it went on I got more invested. The Scrooge plot line but with a romantic twist. I like that the character really developed over the story to open her heart. Sort of like the Grinch and Scrooge mixed. I enjoyed this one and there were some super steamy parts too so it was spicey!

Review: This was a good listen with a great narrator. The story is spicy and the ‘ghost” parts a little corny but over all good holiday book.
Recommended For: Spicy romance fans.

This book is unpleasant to read. It is dark and the main character is mean. The language is crass when it doesn't need to be, and the writing is very repetitive. Conceptually interesting, executionally lacking. I just couldn't care enough. The base premise of a mom committing suicide in such a violent way on Christmas Eve knowing that her daughter would be the one to find her is both unsettling and unbelievable. Later we are meant to believe that Mommy felt lonely and can't understand why her grown daughter is still so traumatized by events that occurred 20 years ago. It's giving "I've never had a child so I'm just making shit up".

This is not giving the holiday vibes that I want from a Christmas Carol retelling, or from any holiday romance.

Ghosts of Christmas is part of Kenya Wright’s Steamy Christmas Magic collection. With strong A Christmas Carol influences, there are also many differences. Famous fashion designer Ivy Smith is a driven workaholic, perhaps trying to outrun any form of emotional commitment, be it friends, family, or lovers. Having been traumatically scarred as a child when her mother hung herself on Christmas, Ivy does all she can to avoid the holiday as well as assuring she will not have an emotional connection to any of her nameless lovers.
Fraternal twins Holly and Saint Ingram have known Ivy since being early childhood neighbors. They were there the morning Gloria Smith was found dangling in the doorway with a Christmas tree in the background. While they understand Ivy’s trauma, they are determined to rescue her. Holly has been Ivy’s best friend for life, but Saint has loved her since they were 9. Although he had become her first lover, she kept him at bay with the false assumption that anyone she loved she would lose.

As Holly has planned her dream destination wedding, she carried Ivy foremost in her thoughts. Holly and Saint, now a famous chef with major media presence thanks to what he learned at Ivy’s grandmother’s knee, have formulated a plan to bring Ivy out of herself. Holly has planned a dream wedding in Lapland, even though her fiancé would have preferred a tropical island, to bring back the joy of Christmas.

Her father Sam is also trying to reach Ivy, but she has refused to see him since she lost her mother as a result of his behavior. Ivy has closed, or tried to close, all the doors to this past. But the plan Holly and Saint have hatched may even help here.

However, it isn’t this push from her friends that brings Ivy around. It is the fantastical dreams she feels she is having. First are the visits from her ghostly mother, then the visits from three of her mother’s otherworldly lovers, that illuminate the past and present and show her a future she needs to avoid.

This is a well written story with another take on the Christmas Carol lessons. Vividly told, the ghostly encounters are heartbreaking. This story deals with serious childhood trauma, including abandonment. It is also told in a manner that includes adult language and sexual situations. But nothing seems out of place. I did enjoy this book and do recommend it!

This was a mix of erotic fiction and A Christmas Carol. Yes, I did say that and what surprised me was that it worked. Ivy is a fashion designer who doesn’t celebrate Christmas after a tragedy during her childhood. Trigger warning: suicide. Her bestie is getting married and she’s the maid of honor in the very beautiful but cold country of Finland. As well as the wedding events there’s one more very important detail in this Christmas adventure. She has feelings for her best friend’s brother and it’s reciprocal.

This book was well performed- some minor splicing issues that didn’t affect the story and might not be enough of a change for other listeners to even notice. The pace of the book was great, the characters absolutely lovely.

I’m a bit of a prude when I’m reading so this book was a bit too heavy on the bedroom talk for my taste, but I don’t mind when the sex is secondary to the storyline and that absolutely was the case here. I’m also not sure if I liked the ghosts in the book, but I did really like The visitations Ivy did- they were interesting and character nbuilding. Again, I’m a total sucker for good characters and the author did well here.

Overall a good read and fun during the holidays.

3 ⭐️ I'm conflicted...

At first, the give and take between Ivy and Saint's relationship made this whole plot worth it. But I didn't love the retelling 'three ghosts of Christmas' thing. And then, when the last 10% of the book came around... I just don't agree with the ending and I couldn't get behind several points the book was trying to make. Also, this book is honestly too long, there really is no need for all that.

This is specifically a review about the audiobook, which I have to say was not great. There were too many times where the voice of the narrator felt like two different people, patching up where there might have been a mistake or some other problem. It took me out completely.

I wouldn't consider this even top 10 Christmas read of this year. I read a lot, though.

The only reason this book is 3 stars is because the fmc is a powerful black woman (which is always an instant hell yes from me) and also for the fact that the s3x in this book is HOT -in all caps because my god...

🌶️🌶️🌶️.5 / 5

This review has already been uploaded to Goodreads :)

Ghosts of Christmas
Kenya Wright
I must comment on the book cover. I liked the book, but the cover is terrible. The colors are nice but the illustration isn’t.
Ivy Smith is a very successful fashion designer. is not a Christmas person. She dreads it each year and tries to avoid it. However, this year she has no choice. Her best friend is getting married in Lapland, Finland on Christmas. Lapland is a beautiful place with a fresh smell in the air and the town has an air of Christmas magic. Ivy is the maid of honor and the bride’s brother; Saint is the best man. Ivy has been in love with Saint for as long as she can remember but she refuses to acknowledge her feelings.
Ivy has sex with men whom she nicknames a color. Her latest is red. Red is a nice guy, but she has no feelings for him. He is merely a sex toy. Anytime she and Saint are in the same town there are sparks and Lapland isn’t any different. He gives tells her no sex until she makes up her mind to admit she loves him. She refuses.
When Ivy was a child, she witnessed a terrible event it affected her emotionally. She is estranged from her father although he keeps trying to contact her. She refuses to become emotionally attached to anyone. Then she receives a visit from her mother’s spirit. Her mother sends three spirit friends to visit Ivy. One spirit takes her to the past, one to the present and one to the future. The purpose of their visit is to teach Ivy some important lessons.
This book will remind you of The Christmas Carol and Ivy will remind you of Scrooge. There is a lot of humor in this tale. I loved the bachelor party. This is a steamy Christmas book.
Thank you Netgalley for the review copy. My reviews are my unbiased opinions.

The description of this book, was like a bait and switch.

This book was dark, it was very descriptive. It was not at all what I was expecting! I did not read any reviews before hand because well the books blurb sounded awesome. My mistake, I will never not read reviews again.

The MFC Ivy, had a traumatic childhood, she found her mom after she unalived herself on Christmas morning. The smut in this book was a lot. It was a lot and very descriptive. Again, didn’t expect all that.

The ghosts of Christmas past present and future come and visit her after her mom visited her in a dream.

I did the audiobook and it was hard to listen to, I found myself skipping over the sex scenes. The narrator was good, she didn’t miss a beat.

Just not for me.

What a fun and spicy twist for a retelling of A Christmas Carol. Ghosts of Christmas was a wildly emotional ride and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There was quite a bit of hilarious banter and a lot of laugh out moments. The girls were hilarious at the bachelorette party. Ivy and Saint had amazing chemistry and I loved their relationship. Saint was definitely a wonderful guy with a heart of gold. And the spice was so sexy, very swoon worthy. There were also some very heavy moments that tug on the heartstrings. This one is definitely a must read for holiday romance lovers!

Thank you to Dreamscape Media and Netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

DNF. I was anticipating a sweet Christmas romance when I selected this book from my TBR pile.

While it may eventually get there, the first few chapters were so off-putting and crude that I couldn't imagine listening to another 6+ hours of it. Definitely not the book for me!

Thank you to Kenya Wright, Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

I’m not a prude but this just wasn’t for me. I don’t mind sex scenes or talk but this book felt off. I don’t know if it was the talk of love and romance and then using crude sex talk with it or if it was the narrator just wasn’t it for me. I think it felt a little too much all around. The description of the parents suicide and reaction to it was very hard to hear especially when one is expecting a Christmas romance.

I will say I will check out this author again. Maybe not a Christmas story or audiobook.

This was a very spicy take on A Christmas Carol, with the ghosts of past, present and future showing up to let Ivy know what she is doing wrong in life. Ivy swore off love, relationships, and feelings after her mom killed herself. She also refused to speak to her father since it happened, blaming his cheating for her death. Now it's many years later, she is very successful and her childhood bff is getting married. On the way to the wedding, she gets visited by her mother's ghost, who cannot move on to rest until Ivy fixes her life. Some of the spice was good and some of it was just plain weird. But it did balance out some of the heavier stuff that came along with this book. Her character went kind of quickly from from statements like "I need more time," and "I'm a mess" to figuring out her stuff and moving past it, as the ghosts showed her things. I appreciated the lack of repetition and anguish but it felt rushed and unrealistic at the same time. This is a more serious holiday read. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC!

I want to start off with trigger warnings for this review because the book begins with mentions of a parent's suicide and childhood trauma so if that is something you are not cool with reading then I'd skip this one because it is brought up frequently.

This is an ADULT take on A Christmas Carol with visits from 3 ghosts to show our Scrooge, Ivy, what she is missing out on by staying closed off to love. It's a nice story about healing and forgiveness, friendship and love, with a bunch of spicy scenes throughout. I didn't love some of the sex scenes, the dialogue just wasn't for me. I liked Ivy's character but I didn't feel like I really got to know anyone else, even Saint felt very surface level to me. It was decently paced until the end, then it felt a bit rushed. I thought the narrator did a good job and was a good fit for Ivy. Overall, it's a quick festive story and definitely worked better as an audiobook for me.

Thank you NetGalley & Dreamscape Media for the eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This review is posted on Goodreads as of 12/1/23 and Instagram as of 12/4/23.

This was nothing like the description. It was almost like it was the wrong book. Maybe it was?

The narration was ok. I really struggled to get into the book since I was expecting something else.

This is my first Kenya Wright Christmas story. I’m a fan of her lion and mouse series. The theme is very traditional following the ghosts of Christmas past theme. I thought that Ivy was a very interesting main character. However I don’t think I was able to get invested enough in Saint even through the flashbacks. I do think the ending was slightly rushed(not including details to avoid spoilers). The narrator was not it for me. She came across very aged. Overall it was a cute Christmas listen.