This was a super cozy book, and I can predict it will be a popular seller during October if it gets marketed correctly.
I loved it! The idea that the MMC discovered her through her years-old youtube channel that featured exaggerated ghost stories was super cute. And he didn’t even know it was her, but he still talked fondly about it! Adorable.
Not only was the story cute and cozy, but it was relatable and emotional and very real. The MMC and Lex bonded over absent parents/no family support, and mental health played an important role in this book. They became each other’s support. I loved seeing her become an advocate for her own wants and needs in the face of her struggles and mental health issues. It made the book have more a serious, message-filled plot than your average small-town romance.

Thank you so much to Alcove Press and NetGalley for the ARC and the chance to review! All opinions are my own.

December in Vermont. A bookstore. Ghosts. All in! When her family all leaves her home state, Lex is left with her best friend, Nat and their shared love of the local ghost lore of Montpelier (the truth of it, however, is debatable). When a film documentary crew arrives in town to ghost hunt and capture the local spirits of the town, life changes suddenly for Lex! Haunt Your Heart out is the perfect guilty pleasure to start reading in September when spooky season starts (at least it does in my house) and keep re-reading merrily through Christmas.

Review is on Goodreads and will be posted to Instagram ahead of publication.

Amber Roberts is a queen!!
I loved text appeal and was thrilled with this one too !
James and lex are a perfect couple and the library was a great book boost for me !!
I wished they were chasing ghosts though …I got scared 😱

This was such a delightful read! Lex and James had such fun banter that I was hooked from the beginning. If you love a little mystery mixed with small town romance, this is for you! I’m looking up more from this author now!

Super Cute! Definitely a great read for spooky season!

Loved the character development between Lex and James, from hilarious banter to sweet moments! Throw in our FMC struggling with her own demons had me sold! It was a great read! Wintertime, ski resort town in Vermont, bookstores and Gilmore girl vibes? So down! The HEA ending was chefs kiss!

This is my first read from Amber Roberts and I will read more!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Absolute pumpkin spice perfection in book form, Hallmark meets Halloween in this spooky-themed contemporary romance. Don't expect a paranormal romance or real hauntings, this is definitely more Stars Hollow than Sleepy Hollow. I personally loved the Gilmore Girls and Good Witch vibes of the feel-good story, which follows a small town bookseller who reluctantly relies on out-of-towners and seasonal trade to keep the second-hand bookstore afloat.

Lex describes her home as a "snowglobe of a town" and I'd have to agree. Her best friend makes a living in her family's Christmas focused businesses such as a tree farm and horse-drawn sleighs. They both rebelled in their youths by adding some fuel to the fire of local legends and ghost stories, filming hauntings and ghost hunting for their YouTube vlogs. Though the channel died long ago, their legacy lives still lives on to this day and draws some filmmakers to the town to start their own investigation. This is a very low-stakes and cozy read, it reminds me of a made-for-TV Christmas movie.

The story does take a more emotional turn when Lex and her love interest bond over their lack of familial support. I really connected with Lex's ferocious independence and struggle to advocate for her own wants and needs in the face of her parent's disapproval. Her problems with loneliness and her mental health were also really relatable, particularly in the face of living up to the plans her parents had for her future. I think seeing Lex confront this troubling dynamic and her relationships with and perceptions of the rest of her family was very healing and added depth to what otherwise would have been a sugary sweet romance plot.

Thank you Alcove Press & Amber Roberts for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Amber Roberts "Haunt Your Heart Out" is her sophomore novel and it delivers romance, quirky fun, and an all around enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC.
I enjoyed this light and fun ghost story themed rom-com. I thought this book started out really strong, but then ended up being a little longer than I would have liked. I felt the last fourth of the book was dragging on and the plot made me not like Lex as much as I did in the beginning. Overall, a fun read that would be great to read during Halloween or the Christmas seasons.

Despite a cute premise for this story, early on, Lex and James had me worried. I was questioning some of their interactions and didn’t fully understand their motivations.

I was drawn into their story by the town and the plot though and slowly the characters started to feel more real, especially Lex.

She’s not your typical rom-com lead, she has some real depth to her and by the end I was tearing up with her as she began to have some realizations about her family and her home that demonstrated realistic and hard-earned character development.

I loved the elements of found family, of the stories that make up who we are and where we live and love, and my whole heart belongs to Lulu and Tony.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC, this is one I’ll definitely be sharing with friends this fall.

I really liked the premise for this book but I DNF'ed at about 30%. The pacing just fell flat and I wasn't interested enough to keep going. I needed a little bit more tension or action.

This book felt like a warm hug and made me nostalgic for a town unlike any I’ve ever been to. Normally, I prefer more tension and slow burn. However, I really appreciated getting to see the main characters grow together so that by the end, nothing felt rushed. The characters were written in a way that felt like a movie in my mind. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this arc! I can’t wait to read more from this author in the future.

I like this book enough. It was cute, would be a nice Halloween read. But I didn’t love it. The main couple were in a relationship so soon into the book a (mostly) heathy relationship. Which yea! But also I wasn’t drawn in enough to really be caught up in the story. It was too easy to put down.

This book never hooked me and was too predictable. And me saying it's predictable means the reader was basically clubbed over the head. I'm the type of reader who takes everything at face value and doesn't try to deduce anything. The third act break up/conflict was no surprise (though not necessarily logical). The writing isn't terrible but I was told a lot of things rather than felt them so I wasn't invested in these characters. There is a small amount of smut. The way it was written was strangely a bit explicit but lacked the feeling to make it spicy or titillating.
Random pet peeves -
Nibbling, nipping, and bottom lips between teeth (both their own lips/teeth and the other's) happened an inordinate amount. The author mentions condensation leaving oily droplets on the main female character's "eyeglasses' lenses" but she never cleans them. And the glasses are never mentioned again??
Sadly, this author is not for me.

This is a fun, low stakes romance with some paranormal elements. Perfect for fall reading! It was a tiny bit insta-love for me, but I grew to like both the characters and appreciated that they were (mostly) honest with each other and tried to avoid the dreaded miscommunication trope.

I didn't get too far into this one, because the arc was a bit messy and it threw me off too much.

I was jazzed by the general idea of a local dating a ghost-hunter and hiding the fact that most of the stories were ones that she made up in high school and put on her old blog - but I couldn't get past the messed up formatting.

I wanted to like this book, but the pace was just not my style. And this is not a slow burn romance. At 30% of the way through, I thought, "Well, what the heck is happening the remaining 70% of this book??"

I just personally felt like I had nothing really to look forward and I didn’t care about the characters. The FMC and MMC, their banter was excellent at first, but it just kind of loss the fun of it quickly.

I loved the idea of this book, but in reality - I just got bored because I wanted more build up, more tension, and I wanted to care more than I did.

The ghost stories were fun, I would have liked that to be more of a driver than it was

Quite a fun little romance, with not too much angst between the two characters and they worked well together. I liked the idea behind this, Lex used to have a blog where she set up and told ghost stories and now James and his friend are there making a proper film after being inspired by her. I think we're supposed to think that James completely believes everything that he sees, which is a bit ridiculous really, but it doesn't really detract from the story.
A fun, quick and romantic read.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and given voluntarily.

I’m on the fence with this book. There were parts of it that really worked for me and parts that really didn’t. One of the books mean selling points is that it takes place in a very quirky small town, but I felt like the main character hardly interacted with any of the other townspeople throughout the book, which I think would have sold that better. Additionally, the fake ghost hunting stuff really didn’t work for me but luckily wasn’t a very large part of the overall plot…despite being the main plot point. Worst of all, I found the main character to be annoying most of the time which I think caused the book to really suffer for me. While there were times in the book that I did like her, and overall I was in her corner hoping that things would work out for her, it wouldn’t be long until she was back to annoying me. She is so stubborn and at times is very petulant in spite of being in her 30s. While I think that some people will really love this book, as the romance between the two main characters and the story with her grandfather are endearing, it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was such a fun spooky but snowy read, so perfect for any time of year. This was a small town romance between a bookseller and a ghost hunter. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend to anyone who loves paranormal or spooky contemporary romances.

2.5/5 ⭐️
The story had all of the elements that I could have asked for: small town romance, librarian, ghosts, oh my! However, the storyline fell flat. I did not think there was enough of a background story for me to feel compelled to keep going. There was no banter or chemistry that I could feel for the main two characters. The book felt like it was dragging on. When I got around 70%, I did think the book started picking up more; but the first half did not set the story up for success. Maybe I will try reading again in the fall to see if that helps my review!

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!