ARC Review: Boneyard Key #1

Haunted Ever After by Jen DeLuca

Publication Date: August 13, 2024

Summary from NetGalley:

Small Florida coastal towns often find themselves scrambling for the tourism dollars that the Orlando theme parks leave behind. And within the town limits of Boneyard Key, the residents decided long ago to lean into its ghostliness. Nick Royer, owner of the Hallowed Grounds coffee shop, embraces the ghost tourism that keeps the local economy afloat, as well as his spectral roommate. At least he doesn’t have to run air-conditioning.

Cassie Rutherford possibly overreacted to all her friends getting married and having kids by leaving Orlando and buying a flipped historic cottage in Boneyard Key. Though there’s something unusual with her new home (her laptop won’t charge in any outlets, and the poetry magnets on her fridge definitely didn’t read “WRONG” and “MY HOUSE” when she put them up), she’s charmed by the colorful history surrounding her. And she’s catching a certain vibe from the grumpy coffee shop owner whenever he slips her a free slice of banana bread along with her coffee order.

As Nick takes her on a ghost tour, sharing town gossip that tourists don’t get to hear, and they spend nights side-by-side looking into the former owners of her haunted cottage, their connection solidifies into something very real and enticing. But Cassie’s worried she’s in too deep with this whole (haunted) home ownership thing…and Nick’s afraid to get too close in case Cassie gets scared away for good.

ARC provided by Berkley Publishing via NetGalley for an honest review.

Confession:

I really enjoyed this fun and light summer romance. I enjoyed getting to know all of the characters, adored the ghosts, and loved the small beach town setting. The romance was well done and I loved all of the humor laced throughout the book.

Cassie was a character I was able to easily relate to. She is feeling stuck and left behind by her friends, and just really wants to make a huge change to her life. Finding herself in a haunted house wasn’t exactly what she was looking for, but she takes the whole haunting thing in stride, after a bit of a melt down first, and works really hard to make her new life work.

Nick is also in a bit of a rut, a romantic rut, but he was a character I instantly fell for. I loved his soft grumpy side, but I totally fell in love with him because of how he related to his own resident ghost, Elmer. I also appreciated how much Nick wanted Cassie to love his hometown as much as he did and really worked hard to show her that ghosts weren’t that bad.

I liked the slow way their romance developed, it really worked in this story. The ghosts were a big part of how their romance developed, especially the ones that inhabited Cassie’s house. There are some nice spicy kissing scenes throughout the book, but the two do not fully get together until almost the end of the book, and that is when things really get steamy. I was totally rooting for these two to make their relationship work.

The small beach town of Boneyard Key was delightful. The author does a great job of conveying that small town feel throughout the book. I also really liked how the ghost theme was used to great effect by the townspeople to get those tourist dollars. I always love a good ghost pun and there were a lot of them. There is a great supporting cast of characters that support both Cassie and Nick in their budding romance, and I enjoyed them all. I can’t wait to see which of them get their happily ever after next.

If you are looking for a light and breezy romance to read this summer, than this is a book you want to take a look at. It has a great cast of characters, a nicely done romance, and some ghosts that you will fall for as well.