REVIEW: "GHOSTED" by Sarah Ready

Good morning my friends!

Today I am here for talking about Ghosted, the newest book by Sarah Ready.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and W.W. Crown for the chance to listen this book.

Title: Ghosted
Author: Sarah Ready
Publishing Date: 26 September 2023
Publisher:  W.W. Crown
Pages: 490
Price: 23€ (*according to Amazon.it)

Plot: Jillian Nejat is the only dating and relationship expert on the planet who is incapable of speaking to men. If they're living, if they're breathing, it's game over.

With her bank account at zero, her career a dumpster fire, and her dating life in a ten-year slump, she moves into a tiny, dirt-cheap NYC apartment. 

Unfortunately, the apartment is already occupied. 

Daniel (no-last-name) is a sexy, shirtless, six-pack wielding heartthrob who is also...dead. 

He isn't living. He isn't breathing. He's a ghost. He's also the only man on the planet that Jillian can talk to. 

Soon, Daniel's convinced that it's his afterlife mission to resurrect Jillian's love life. He knows, if he helps her fall in love then he can move on. Jillian agrees. The last thing she needs is a Lothario ghost haunting her living room. 

But then, one practice date leads to another, one confession leads to more, and suddenly Jillian fears she's falling for the one man she can never love.

Series:

1. Ghosted

2. Switched (20 February 2024)

Review:

Rating: 3.25 stars!

Just Like Heaven meets The Lake House in the new Sarah Ready’s book, Ghosted.

I really liked the idea of the novel. Even if ghosts are a little bit more used in romance stories nowadays, Ready created interesting characters that stand out. 

Jillian is a journalist that write suggestions for the love life of people, even if she never had one and she can’t talk with men (like at all! She just freezes). Enter Daniel, our without a t-shirt ghost that “infest” Jillian’s new apartment. He doesn’t remember anything about his life except for his name. Also he didn’t take well the be dead part of the ghost thing.

The start of their relationship is a little rough, but then Daniel understand that the motive because he is still here is because he has to help Jillian with her love life. 

I enjoyed reading the scenes between the two protagonists, but I think that the evolution of their relationship is really fast. I would have preferred a slow burn.

The dialogues are catchy and they say the right things, but a lot of the time it feels that all is concentrated on the sexual site of the relationship. I didn’t really like this, especially because of how Jillian is presented at the start of the book and the fact that he is a ghost. I think that the stories with this kind of plot have the possibility to concentrate on a more emotional bond between the characters, that unfortunately I didn’t see here. 

At half of the book the story takes a direction that I didn't see coming. On one hand this can explain why their relationship is a lot rushed at the start, on the other hand I believe that the book could have been divided into two novels, so that a lot of plot points could have been expanded. Because a lot of moments or changes happened too fast and without a consistent consideration.

The book also talks about the subject of “mate” or “predestinated people”, but not often. I think that if this concept had been more expanded it could have explained why they fall in love so quickly.

The paranormal part of the book is interpreted in a scientific way. The writer make you believe in the story and why ghosts exist.

The secondary characters are also interesting and they make the story more real. I would love to read their stories someday. 

I found the audiobook of Ghosted really enjoyable. 

The story is interesting and you want to go on for understand what happened to Daniel and if they will have their happy ending. 

I would have preferred a slower relationship, but they are really cute together. 

- Camilla