✨🪦✨ Haunt Your Heart Out ✨🪦✨

What do you get when you mix a Haunted Happenings (possibly fabricated) vlog, a Ghost Hunter and one overly caffeinated Bookseller? One heck of a love story! Haunt Your Heart Out is packed full of ghost stories, small town charm, mental health representation, ride or die friendship, complicated family relationships and a very cute dog!

👻 Paranormal Investigations
💖 Bookseller x Ghost Hunter
💻 Haunted Happenings Vlog
🍁 Small Town Vermont
📚 Cozy Bookshop
☕️ All the Coffee
❤️‍🩹 Healing
🪦 Walks in the Graveyard
🔦 Investigation Tampering

This was such a cute read and perfect for spooky season! Thank you so much TBR & Beyond Tours & Alcove Press for sending me a copy!

I enjoyed sections of this book - the MC’s love of books, the sexy scenes, the fun ghost play- but overall it felt a bit rushed. I had a hard time really falling for the main love story and really understanding the timeline. Overall it was a good read but I’m not sure it’s one I’ll come back to.

I really enjoyed this one! I’m a big fan of Amber Roberts, and I think this is a really lovely , cozy romance that’s perfect for fall or winter! I love the characters, setting, and story of this one

This was an odd one for me. I loved the anxiety rep of the female main character, Alex. It was very truthful in its representation and felt uncomfortable a lot of the time. I imagine this will be one of those books where she is named ‘unlikeable’ for this reason.

However, the plot felt like it wasn’t paced to keep the story engaging, moving forward, or creating chemistry. It often felt like many of the moments, miscommunications and misinterpretations of information were just thrown in there just so we could get to the end, but didn’t serve much purpose other than to slow the book down.

For this reason, the chemistry between the two characters started out strong, but then fizzled out toward to end, where it almost felt like the climax of their relationship had already happened by 30%.

It does all end with a happy ending of course, but its predictability and strange pacing meant that it all felt redundant by the end.

Overall, the story held fantastic anxiety representation of a 30+ pan woman searching for home, in a town that felt a bit like stars hollow with a giant cemetery.

Thanks to NetGalley, Alcove Press, and the author for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

2.5 stars rounded up.

This was a bit too Hallmark-y for me, and I feel like I probably should have picked up on that vibe more when I read the description of the book and saw that it was set in a small Vermont town and the FMC worked at a small bookshop. The story was cute, and I enjoyed the characters for the most part. There was just enough spice for it not to seem excessive, in my opinion.

My biggest qualm was that this wasn't marketed as a Christmas book. The title HAUNT YOUR HEART OUT and then the cover art showing them in a graveyard, plus the podcast about ghost stories all give off Halloween vibes, but this book is set during Thanksgiving and Christmas, and that really threw me off and added to the Hallmark-ness of it all. I probably wouldn't have requested this title if I had known that it was more of a Christmastime book.

Haunt Your Heart Out by Amber Roberts is a fun and spooky romance with a unique paranormal twist. I enjoyed the dynamic between Lex and James, and their adventure. I would recommend this book for lovers steamy contemporary romance, with a tricky web of lies and the threat of it all unravelling, and tension-filled banter between the love interests.

3.5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It felt like a cute hallmark movie but with some spice. I like how it incorporated spooky with Christmas.

I had really high hopes for this one, but alas.

I loved the setting: small, cozy Vermont ski town with locals who live and breathe the small town life. A bookstore manager who wants to purchase the book store but is experiencing a ton of money struggles and strained family relationships, including keeping the house her grandfather gifted her up and running. She is a clear commitment-phobe because living in a tourist town means that people will always leave.

Enter James: documentary filmmaker. World traveler and ghost hunter.

My issues were:
• personal opinion but I found the dialogue very cringy
• for a short book there was a ton of what seemed to be really unnecessary detail and not enough dialogue
• she went from commitment-phobe to relationship girlie a little too quickly? Like she went to kissing him in public when they meet up so fast that it made all of her commitment issues seem really flimsy
• both MCs have issues with their parents, and as someone who also does, I totally get it. But Alex was so incredibly immature. She was giving Lorelei Gilmore fighting with Emily because Emily just wanted to throw money at problems to fix them and Alex hated it. But she honestly sounded like a petulant 18 year old most of the time

Cute, but not very memorable!

I found myself speed reading at the end to just hurry up and get to the point.

This was a surprisingly cute spooky romance read for the season. Even for a spooky(ish) Christmas read. Since it takes place during December in Vermont.

Although, I wish there were more spooky aspects. Especially if you’re going to fake hauntings to make a podcast and documentary. At least they could have been more realistic and scary(ish). The bridge scene had promise. Could have done so much more with it.

I love the concept of collecting books with little messages in them. I will now be looking in every used book I see. I think I may even start writing a little message in books I gift.
And the little notes Lex’s grandfather left inside the walls of the house for his wife. How romantic.

All in all I did enjoy this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for this gifted egalley in exchange for my honest review.

Heat Factor: Jalapeño poppers

Character Chemistry: The banter doesn’t quite hit

Plot: Ghost stuff, bookstore stuff, family stuff

Overall: This book is all over the place

First thing’s first: this is more of a Christmas special than a Halloween one. In fact, I would call this a Hallmark Movie Romance, except from the point of view of the local instead of the Big City Girl Who Needs to Learn About Community. (In this case, the Local Girl already has community, but doesn’t quite realize how big it is.) So if you’re reading for ghosts because it’s October, this might not be it. It’s more about ghost stories than actual ghosts. And there’s just as much time spent on Christmas with the family as there is on the ghost story conflict.

Second thing’s second: I almost DNFed this one, about a quarter of the way in. It’s written in that contemporary first-person narrative voice that I find exceptionally irritating. (See my review of Four Weekends and a Funeral for more details.) The heroine is severely lacking in self-awareness and suffers from anxiety, and while I empathize with her struggles, I did not enjoy sharing a headspace with her. Plus, the hero has smirk energy. Also the heroine is like, “Let me recommend this obscure book to you, stranger in my used book store,” and gives the hero…Slaughterhouse Five. Pretty sure everyone read that in high school.

But then I decided to read one more chapter and was suddenly just invested enough in all the conflicts to read the rest.

However, just because I persevered does not mean I’d recommend this one. It felt like a book with a bit of an identity crisis—plus the main character made too many wild leaps of logic for my taste.

Details, you say? Yes, I’d be happy to share some.

Lex is the manager of a used bookstore in a small town in Vermont. She loves her home and the store, but also carries a ton of resentment toward every single person who leaves: her older sister and parents, her boss (who snowbirds in Florida), and every single tourist who comes to ski. And, of course, her love interest, who has an out-of-state license plate and is therefore not here to stay. Before I continue, I want to highlight Lex’s resentment of the tourists, because it is VERY present in the book. As she narrates, she frequently makes offhand comments about the people who are just there to ski and…is she aware that she lives in a tourist town? That maybe there might not be the infrastructure for all of these people to stay permanently? That even if they’re not buying used books, they are supporting all the other local businesses? It’s not even that the book delves into issues that plague vacation towns, like lack of affordable housing or service workers who commute in or overburdened infrastructure. Lex is just mad that they come and then leave. (This whole thing is probably meant to be an offshoot symptom of her abandonment issues with her parents, but it was mainly distracting.)

James is part of a team in town to film a documentary about local ghosts. They came to this particular small town because of an old vlog about hauntings…that Lex ran when she was in high school. The catch? Lex made up all the ghosts.

If you think that this potential conflict sounds like a big ole nothingburger, you would be right. And also wrong. Because it SHOULD be a big ole nothingburger, but in Lex’s mind it isn’t. It’s like she’s not even paying attention when—on their very first date—James pops into the back of a ghost tour being filmed for the documentary, pretends to see a ghost to rile up the crowd, and then goes about his day. Or when James tells her that they’re not there to debunk whether ghosts are real but to explore what ghost stories mean to people. So Lex gets her friends to help her stage elaborate hauntings to convince James and his team that the ghosts Lex talked about were actually real.

Just. Why?

Given that there is plenty of real conflict—Lex is having financial troubles, Lex wants to buy the bookshop where she works, Lex has a fraught relationship with her family, Lex knows that James isn’t in town for the long haul—there was no reason to add this extra layer of manufactured conflict. It honestly just makes Lex seem clueless and self-absorbed.

(Sidenote: maybe she’s meant to be clueless and self-absorbed, because many of her interactions indicate that this might be the case. Oh really, you had no idea that your best friend was thinking of leaving town? You literally tell the reader, the first time you introduce your best friend, that she feels trapped in this small town.)

Maybe the issue was not so much that Lex made wild leaps of logic. Maybe it’s that she’s an unreliable narrator, and the things that seem illogical to me are really her being unaware / lying to herself / going through an anxiety spiral. However, because I’m not primed for an unreliable narrator when I pick up a romance novel, the end result felt clumsy.

And it’s hard to get over a hero with smirk energy.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

This review is also available at The Smut Report.

Another cute rom com with some nice fall/autumn/cozy aesthetics. I liked the idea of a romance between a book seller and a ghost hunter, though there wasn't anything that really blew me away and the conflicts of her crafting hauntings to keep him in town felt pretty manipulative when there were plenty of other things that could have been a conflict. It definitely feels like a Hallmark Christmas film in formula and romance progression, which isn't a bad thing by any means. If you are looking to round out your seasonal reading and are looking for something fluffy and charming, add it to your list!

I really wanted to love this book but I couldn't get past how unlikeable I found Lex. She was convinced she would only be happy if she lived in her home town and ran the bookstore in a specific building. Because of that she manipulated James to get what she wanted even after they had been romantically involved and she learned more about the stakes for him. As someone who also deals with anxiety I understand how difficult it can be to feel like the things that will make you happy aren't possible but I don't think that excused bad behavior.

I did think the idea of setting a ghost book in a wintery small town was fun. It felt like a good November book when you aren't quire ready for christmas but not quite done with halloween. I am the type of person who doesn't enjoy a book where I don't like the main characters. If that isn't you I think this one would be a fun read.

I thought this was incredibly cute and heartwarming and kind of a perfect combination of Halloween and Christmas vibes, I would definitely recommend adding this to your December/holiday TBR

REVIEW: Haunt Your Heart Out

I was excited to dig into this as a fun and spooky romance for the fall season.

I enjoyed the premise of Haunt Your Heart Out, as it was unique. It is set in a small town in Vermont with spooky ghost stories. The main characters include Lex, a small-town local who works at a used bookstore and hopes to own it, and James, who travels around the country to make a ghost documentary with his friend Julien.

Both James and Lex have complicated family relationships that affect them. They are also trying to find themselves and where they belong in different ways. This book is also a great representation of anxiety and mental health and the effects they can have on a person. James and Lex had some steamy and fun chemistry together. There were so many moments of fun banter between them that would turn into something much more.

I enjoyed some fun history and ghost stories throughout Haunt Your Heart Out, but I wish they had given a little more. Many stories were barely touched, and a book like this should have more.

Besides wanting more ghosty elements in the story, a few other things didn’t quite do it for me. The tropes of insta-love and miscommunication are not my favorite. Also, if this story took place during October for Halloween rather than winter and Christmas, it would add more to the spooky factor. It felt odd that this felt like a Christmas book, but there were also hauntings.

Overall, I enjoyed Haunt Your Heart. It was a fun read with spooky stories and sometimes a pretty steamy romance.

Thank you, Netgalley and Alcove Press, for the free advanced copy for my honest review!

4.5 stars!! this was such a cosy spooky read!! definitely surpassed my expectations & loved how heart warming the ending was!

we follow lex, a small town bookseller who is trying to essentially do everything on her own (while everything is going in a downward spiral). and then there’s james, an charming out of towner who is literally the definition of a golden retriever, making a ‘ghost encounter’ documentary. essentially they can’t avoid one another and they can’t untangle themselves from each other.

this book isn’t just about the romance or the ghost documentary but about tension filled familial ties, knowing when to ask for help & being there for one another.

i was smiling so big towards the ending, it felt like finding a big, red bow tie on a present that you’d find under the tree on christmas morning!

this book is perfect for those that love:
- small town romance
- book seller fmc
- halloween/christmas setting
- cosy vibes

I thought this was an adorable story about a girl who used to fake ghost stories and a boy who saw those ghost stories and decided to make his own haunted documentary in the same town.

I love our main character, Lex. She works at the local bookstore (my dream), and while she has some heavy baggage with her own family, I loved her relationship with her best friend and her family. James is our love interest, and I love what brought him into town, and his adorable doggy Lucy in the sky with diamonds (how cute is that name!)

While I would have loved more ghostly stuff, I did enjoy their romance, and how they were there for each other when some stuff goes down with their parents. We did have kind of a miscommunication moment which I didn't realize was a miscommunication, because they had a discussion early on that I though tackled the issue, but I guess I read more into it then James did.

I loved how it all resolved, and their happily-ever-after moment. I will definitely be reading more by Amber Roberts in the future.

Thank you Netgalley for this Arc. All thoughts are my own.

The synopsis sounded cute and right up my alley, but I feel that the synopsis and the cute af Halloween cover were eluding.
This story did not commence around Halloween, but Christmas. And the only mention of ghosts was in the ghost hunting.
From the main character's perspective, the writing style felt immature. She was supposed to be in her 30s, yet she read like a teenager having a tantrum.
I also felt the relationship between our two mains was rushed and didn't build as I had hoped.

I had high hopes for this book going in but I was sadly let down.

This was a perfect book to read between Halloween and Christmas. The characters have well rounded development, deep personalities, but also amazing banter with each other. Gives me Nightmares Before Christmas meets RomCom vibes in the best way

very cute story about a ghosthunter and the woman who, in the past, faked those ghosts that he's hunting for. it will make you go AWW