The Ghosts I’ve Loved

It’s another Monday in Season 45 of 2020, and the writers have really taken a dive. I’ve spent the weekend wondering if the future of romance novels would be an alternative universe where COVID didn’t happen and everyone behaves like before, or if books that start coming out late next year (for traditional publishing) and in the coming months (for indies) would include a hopeful future of social distance and masked socializing. Or maybe we’ll just have nothing but post-apocalyptic nightmare books. Who knows.

Let’s talk now.

News and Useful Links

Hoo mama. This is a heck of an article.

Shelf Love, on top of being a pretty interesting podcast, also starts really fascinating conversations on Twitter. This is a good one about fat rep.

RomanceClass, just killing it.

Make sure you check out this panel and the other one the Frankfurt Book Festival is putting on.

There has been a lot of ongoing discussion about the sorry state of transphobia and transmisogyny in romancelandia. There’s a lot of language that many of us are trying to either remove from our vocabulary or shift, and there’s more still to dismantle in the conversation. This is a good thread from (cis) author Talia Hibbert. And this is an intense, lengthy, heartbreaking testimonial from a nonbinary member of the Twitter romancelandia family. (In this kind of situation I’d rather get their permission before sharing their identity and I didn’t make time to do so.) Some of these things unfortunately have to be said over and over again, and there are those who have spoken about it who would rather remove themselves from the narrative than deal with the abuse they’ve had to endure. As yet another cis woman, I will just encourage you to read up on language, tropes, and expectations regarding romance novels that are mired in transmisogyny. We can go from there.

In other news, there’s a Date Night with Alyssa Cole coming up! I haven’t been to one in ages.

Courtney had a lot to say about diverse historicals and also Beverly Jenkins.

Emerald City Writer’s Conference is holding an online auction. It’s heavily writer-focused, but there’s definitely some interesting stuff to check out.

Romance adjacent: Nicola and David Yoon are starting an imprint focused on YA romance by and featuring people of color. I’m excited.

Deals

Do you like romantic suspense? I didn’t think I did, and then I read one by Piper J. Drake and realized I just wasn’t picking up the right ones. A few of her books, including Total Bravery, are on sale right now for 2.99 and 3.99. These are from her True Heroes series, which all feature people who work with dogs. These are all Dudes With Guns, so if you’re not in the mood for that right now, go ahead and skip them. (Also, I’m pretty sure I asked her directly some time in the past and none of the dogs die. So there’s that.)

Recs

I just tore through Julie and the Phantoms on Netflix, which has a combination of two of the things I love most: music and the joy of making it, and the drawn out agony of falling in love with a ghost (I blame Meg Cabot. Suze + Jesse forever). (Cue Jess singing the entirety of “Remember Me This Way” from Casper for the next several days.) That, combined with it being a Halloween season like no other, made me think of the ghosts of my past and the ghosts of my dreams. The ghosts I’ve loved and the ones I deeply want. Need. Desire. Yearn for with all my being.

Halloween Boo
Sarah Spade

Every ghost list has to start with Halloween Boo. It must be a rule somewhere. Dani comes home to her apartment on the night before Halloween to discover Zack already there. This had been his apartment in another time, and over the course of the past year, he’d taken to getting to know his unknowing roommate. But now that it’s Halloween, she can see him—better yet, she can touch him. And he’s completely in love with her and wants her to get to know him as well. But there isn’t much time; he’ll go back to being invisible when the holiday is over.  This book is fun and sexy and also vaguely Hocus Pocus related so if you haven’t read it, definitely check it out!

The only other ghost romance I’ve actually read is Some Like It Kilted by Allie McKay, which features a Scottish Laird and the woman who inherits his castle after it’s been moved from the Hebrides stone by stone a la Gargoyles. It was fun, but definitely not as fun as Halloween Boo. I do know that there’s a whole ass book called Hot Ghost, which I think I own but haven’t gotten around to. And I’d love to come across more books featuring ghost love interests (not just folks hanging about) featuring racially diverse characters, written by authors of color, and, as always, queer. Give me queer ghosts. (I was pretty sure I’d read one but it turns out it was HP fanfic. Darnit.) Give me that Aisha Dee Freeform movie but in written format and a better ending.

So tell me: what are your favorite ghost romances? I want The Ghost and Mrs. Muir but with a different kind of happy ending. (I haven’t actually read the book, but there are some Rex Harrison lines that will stay with me forever.) (I thought a recent Tess Gerritsen book would do the trick but turns out the ghost is the bad guy :sob:)

As usual, catch me on Twitter @jessisreading or Instagram @jess_is_reading, or send me an email at wheninromance@bookriot.com if you’ve got feedback, bookrecs, or just want to say hi!