I feel this is partly me, partly the way the book was pitched. A gender-bent retelling with comparisons to X-Files should have been so up my alley. Unfortunately -- and maybe this would have been more apparent to me if I had been familiar with Northanger Abbey? -- it was an extremely heavy novel with grief in the driver's seat while the ghost hunting (and anything paranormal for that matter) felt tacked on as an after thought.

Fun and original with a great message and solid character development, this sweet story about loss and moving on left me wishing for more time with the characters.
Hattie Tilney started high school at a fancy private school where her mom is the headmaster and everyone believes in ghosts just after losing her ghost-hunting dad to an illness. She's spent the last three years hiding her love of ghosts and her true self behind a facade of a perfect overachiever that helps her survive. Meanwhile, her little brother hides away to the point that he's almost a ghost himself, her older sister left college and is slowly ruining her life, and her mother is cold and distant Dr. Tilney even at home.
Until Senior year arrives and with it Kit Morland, a Junior on a ghost-hunting scholarship, who gets assigned Hattie as his guide to the school and research partner for a paper on ghosts in Northanger Abbey. Kit's enthusiasm soon breaks through Hattie's walls and that of her little brother, pushing them both to be more open and experience life at Northanger complete with ghosts and new relationships.
It's a story full of revelations, heartbreak, and healing that constantly ups the sweetness factor while still giving Hattie and her family room to grieve. The plot moves at a solid pace and every interaction feels like it's there to move the story and Hattie's growth along without feeling forced.
A solid retelling of a classic that takes ownership of the story from beginning to end.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this excellent read!

Ghosted is a fascinating young adult book about finding oneself after a tragic loss and understanding you are not the only one grieving, and people grieve very differently. It’s learning how to deal with the guilt and anger which comes with this loss, and learning how to let go of it all so you can start anew and be the person you want to be and not be who you think others want you to be.

Hattie Tilney is a senior at Northanger Abbey. You would think she would be on cloud nine as she prepares her college applications and enjoys being with her friends. But unfortunately, Hattie’s dad, her best friend passed away prior to them arriving at the school which her mother had gotten the job as headmistress.

Her father had been so excited to move and explore Northanger Abbey because ghost hunting had been Hattie and her dad’s favorite pastime. It was their thing. And Northanger was notorious for their ghosts, even having a school club which hunted them.

But he never made the trip and now Hattie, her younger brother Liam, older sister Frankie and their mother are here, each dealing with the death of their father very differently. Hattie continues to mourn her father, Liam has gotten very quiet, Frankie dropped out of school and their mom, well she is never around, always at work.

Hattie copes by trying to please her mother and be the best daughter ever, never making waves even when she would rather be doing something else. But when her mother decides Hattie should take the new transfer student, Kit Morland, who is on a scholarship for the paranormal around and mentor him knowing that’s what Hattie and her dad use to do, well Hattie hates the idea. But as usual, anything to please her mother.

But what ends up happening is that through Kit, and their disagreements on do ghosts exist, something Hattie is now adamant do not! she begins to feel a change come over her and as their friendship begins to grow. Hattie starts to find her own voice and finally begins to understand the loss of her dad and how it has affected them all.

Not everyone is happy with the new Hattie. Her friends begin to see her change and don’t particularly care for it, her siblings don’t care for it either and her mother, well is she had been around more would perhaps have noticed something been available to help.

As her family continues to spiral out of control, Hattie has a crisis which could change her future forever. And that is the catalyst which begins the healing process for all of them as they bond together as the family they use to be and help her. That’s when her realization that her dad spent all his time searching for ghosts and when he died Hattie spent all her time trying to escape hers finally sets her free.

Ghosted is a terrific read about what happens when people are grieving but must continue to act as if nothing happened. It’s a heartfelt story with a bit of wit, romance and growing up all thrown together to make for a satisfying read.

Thank you #NetGalley #WednesdayBooks #Ghosted #AmandaQuain for the advanced copy.

"Ghosted" by Amanda Quain is a captivating and mysterious romance that delves into the complexities of love, loss, and the unexpected connections that can arise from the past. This novel offers a blend of intrigue, emotion, and the journey of finding closure and healing.

Quain's writing style is atmospheric and emotive, immersing readers in a world of secrets, emotions, and the power of unspoken feelings. The chemistry between the main characters is palpable, and their journey toward unraveling the truth creates a dynamic that is both engaging and heartfelt.

At the heart of the narrative is a tender exploration of second chances, forgiveness, and the lingering impact of unresolved relationships. The author skillfully weaves together elements of mystery and romance, creating a narrative that keeps the reader invested in both the characters and their journey of discovery.

"Ghosted" successfully balances the mysterious elements with moments of genuine emotion, resulting in a narrative that is both intriguing and emotionally resonant. The themes of closure, the importance of communication, and the transformative power of reconnecting with the past add depth to the story.

In conclusion, "Ghosted" is a beautifully written and emotionally engaging novel that captures the essence of love, forgiveness, and the healing process. If you're looking for a book that offers a blend of mystery and romance, along with a heartfelt exploration of human connections, this novel provides a captivating and satisfying narrative that will leave you moved and reflecting on the power of the heart.

This one would be fun to read during spooky season with the ghost hunting aspect. It’s a cute slow burn romance, but it is also a book about grief and I always love to read those. I really liked the characters and I think it’s a cute story. It’s a Jane Austen retelling but I am not familiar with the original and I don’t feel like I wa skidding anything.

A sweet young adult novel about battling one's ghosts - - in more ways than one.

Our main character, Hattie is deeply grieving the death of her father and the hole his passing has left in her family. Nothing is the same and they are all handling it differently. Instead of banding together - - her family has imploded, leaving her adrift at a new school where she's been trying to find her way ever since.

When a new student named Kit bursts onto the scene and represents pretty much everything that Hattie tries to avoid - - mainly the ghost hunting her school is often known for - - Hattie's world is rocked. When Hattie is assigned as his "ambassador" to show him the ropes around campus, she doesn't anticipate being assigned to a project with him or finding herself with feelings. But it all happens....further making her world feel unsteady.

But as she finds out, sometimes you need changes in your everyday routine to see what's missing and that you need to mix things up. This book takes a unique approach at showing family dysfunction and how you can find you way back to one another because you are family after all.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC so that I could read and review it.

Thanks for the advanced copy for review.

This was really good! I liked the dynamic between the main characters and also with the FMC's relationship with her family and friends. There was a lot going on and a lot to resolve and I thought it was done well.

Ghosts AND Jane Austen. Two of my favorite things of all time. A million stars. I immediately downloaded her other one.

Amanda Quain did it again! Another retelling of Jane Austen novels and I was hook. The story is a retelling of Northanger Abbey where Quain takes a character from the original novel and makes it go through some of the old problems in a modern setting. In this book Hattie hates the ghosts lore that make Northanger Abbey School a focal point for ghost hunters. She hates even more being paired with Kit Moreland to do a project about ghosts. However little by little she realized that Kit becomes the only person who she can be herself.

Ghosted is a brilliantly-crafted YA retelling of a literary classic. This coming-of-age story is an endearing tribute to the source material while creating a new tale for readers to enjoy. The love story is a charming one that never overplays its hand. There is a lot to love in this simple story of love, friendship and just a few ghosts. Beyond the romance, there is a sweet and poignant journey that’s worth taking.

Full Review below.

This was a nice gender bending retelling of Northanger Abbey. It was an engaging coming of age novel with a paranormal twist. The way the book dealt with Hattie’s grief was touching. I enjoyed this read.

This is my first book from this author. I adored her writing style. It's a modern day YA retelling of Northanger Abbey with paranormal twists. It's an engaging story and a fast read. I really liked the character development. Amanda did a terrific job with this one and I can't wait to read more of her books.

A sweet, thoughtful coming of age story about a girl grieving her father, left with the instructions to "take care of" her family, and being so overburdened by the task, she loses sight of her own wants and needs. The links to Northanger Abbey are loose, so readers shouldn't expect a direct retelling. Names are repurposed. The joyfully duplicitous Isabella remains a central figure, creating havoc among her peers. Morland adores ghosts while Tilney plays the skeptic, much like in Austen's original. But the plot and central character arc are entirely from Quain's imagination. The romance is chaste and sweet, with plenty of anticipatory butterflies, and the setting is fun, with the boarding school full of legends of its haunted past. A great fit for readers who enjoy coming-of-age stories that center around grief and family, with a thoughtful look at what it means to be left in charge at a time of life when first kisses, carnivals, snowball fights, and hunting for ghosts should fill one's time. And one's heart.

When I found out that there was a gender bent modern retelling of Northanger Abbey - I HAD TO GET MY HANDS ON IT! I love Pride and Prejudice but almost every retelling is a P&P retelling; it’s a breath of fresh air to see a Northanger Abbey one! Overall, I am so happy to say I enjoyed this gender swapped retelling of Northanger Abbey. It’s a great YA read as well for younger readers who are maybe just being introduced to Austen.

Ghosted is the story of of Hattie Tilney, a young girl struggling since the death of her father to keep her family together and have a semblance of a normal life; which is hard to do when you’re the daughter of the headmistress at a school called Northanger Abbey which just so happens to be the most haunted school in America. Hattie hates everything to do with ghosts but her perspective starts to change when she meets new student and avid ghost hunter Kit Morland. Kit throws Hattie’s perfect world off balance and through exploring the gothic school for ghosts, Hattie begins to deal with her grief over her father and opening up to someone new.

I think the best thing about this book is its portrayal of grief. Hattie and her family have been shattered by the loss of her father - her older sister is up to no good most days, her younger brother has disappeared into himself and her mother has buried herself in work. Each Tilney is dealing with the grief in a different way and Hattie’s raw emotions and Quain’s portrayal of this are very well done. The scenes where Hattie discusses her father with Kit Morland, are some of the most compelling in the story as are the scenes with her mother discussing her grief. Headmistress Tilney is not a likeable character per se as the way she handles her grief seems to be to complete handle her children, but her portrayal is certainly accurate.

The romance in this book is sweet though not the centre plot point of the story (despite the cover) I think. At the end of the day, the romance is there, but this is more a book about coming to terms with grief with the help of family and friends. This is actually appropriately rated YA in that there is little steamy scenes. Kit Morland is an endearing hero and I think a bit more likeable than his counterpart Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey (in that he’s a bit less dense about things).

My biggest compliant is that many of the side characters seem a bit shallow and lacking depth and sometimes there was much more telling than showing. I’m told that Izzie and Priya are Hattie’s friends but I never really felt the connection. I’m told her older sister Freddie is a up to no good mean older sister but I’m never shown that. I didn’t feel that upset when Hattie fights with her friends nor that affected when they make up.

Amanda Quain has proven once again that she has a knack for retellings.

If you’re not familiar with her work, please see my raving review of her debut for “Accomplished” that was published in July 2022. I was impressed with her writing then, and I’m just as impressed a year later. The difference between now and then is that I had read “Pride and Prejudice” before reading “Accomplished” so I felt like I had an idea of what to expect from storyline. Reading “Ghosted”, I went in blind and I am so happy I did.

Ghosts gif from giphy.com
“That’s how we keep stories alive, in the telling and the retelling. So tell me a story.”
Quain demonstrates her exemplary story telling skills right from the start. The reader’s first glimpse of the novel is a slice of a scene that seems to be from the middle of the story. We’re dropped in at the moment our main character Hattie has to make a decision, a make-or-break moment about becoming the kind of person she wants to be, or staying the person she is now.

“It had never been a matter of whether I could believe in ghosts. The question was… Did I want to?”

Quain balances the use of every day language with the complexity of adult themes like acceptance, grief, and the power of believing (both in oneself and the ‘big picture’) to reach an overarching audience of teens, young adults, and those like me who have been out of high school for some time. Her words seem to come so smoothly that it’s easy to forget that this is truly craft and hard work, not just something done off the cuff. I say this as a testament to her talent. Quain makes her writing look effortless.

High School Is Still The Worst
If you didn’t let people in, they couldn’t hurt you. Plain and simple.

clip from Cruel Intentions
Hattie is in her senior year at Northanger Abbey, a private school run by her mother, Dr. Tilney. Hattie’s father passed away a few years earlier, right before her Freshman year. Not only does she need to learn to navigate a new school structure and social dynamic, but she also needs to learn how to grieve the loss of one of the most important people of her life at the same time.

“Vulnerability”, after all, was just a fancy word for weakness. It was always better to opt for distraction and diversion.

Grief is such a hard and personal thing to speak about, because everyone handles it differently. Hattie used avoidance and ignorance to bury her feelings, instead attempting to present the world her most ‘perfect’ version of herself. Unfortunately, as you might assume, that perfect exterior begins to crack. At first it’s just a tiny little fissure, but soon her perfect persona starts to crumble and it’s all that she can do to hold the pieces of herself together. Quain builds this self-destruction perfectly, one slow piece at a time, until Hattie is falling apart and the reader is left wondering how she hadn’t fallen apart from the very beginning.

Final Thoughts
“Ghosted” is it’s own hauntingly beautiful novel. There is no need to have knowledge of Northanger Abbey, ghosts, or Jane Austen in general, but I’m sure that it couldn’t hurt either. Kit and Hattie are two very unique individuals. When they come together, though, and work as a team instead of in spite of each other, their personalities compliment each other to create magic. “Ghosted” can be enjoyed by everyone, but especially young adult readers, or anyone who needs the reminder that it’s okay to believe.

A gender-bent retelling of Northanger Abbey with a paranormal twist…

Despite attending America’s most-haunted high school, Hattie doesn’t believe in ghosts.

Hattie is grieving her ghost-hunting father, and the loss of a solid relationship with her mother, who’s the headmistress of Northanger Abbey. Hattie is laser-focused on graduating high school and attending her dream school–-which she’s worried might reject her. There’s a lot going on in this book–including complex relationships with her younger brother and older sister, her best friends at school, her mom, and, of course, the new boy in school. There was almost too much going on, which resulted in the pacing of the book being quite slow.

That said, my favourite part of the book was the worldbuilding. We get lots of history about Northanger Abbey, as well as spooky stories about the (alleged) ghosts that haunt the grounds. They each have a unique backstory and I lived for those little snippets. I wish that the author had spent more time on this aspect of the book (the ghosts!), and maybe cut one of the friendship storylines.

The romance between Hattie and Kit is super adorable. It’s interesting, because I love grumpy-sunshine tropes (especially when it’s the girl that’s the grump!), but in this book, I liked Kit a lot more than Hattie.

This is a fun book for those who enjoy paranormal ghost hunter shows and sweet young adult romances.

"Belief is a series of small moments that add up to a big conviction."
This is a modern-day YA retelling, with paranormal twist, of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. Instead of Catherine Morland being the main character, we have Kit Morland as the teen boy love interest. And instead of Henry Tilney, it is Hattie (Henrietta) Tilney who leads us on her first-person POV journey. She goes from high school senior burying grief and her true self to high school graduate open to once again feeling and giving love. As with the original Austen novel, the main female character gains a better grasp of herself, and the slow-burn romance is also reminiscent of Austen, but the rest is pure reimagining. The setting: an elite prep school, Northanger Abbey, "America's most notoriously haunted high school," with its Gothic towers, its 300+-year history, and its cult-class status as the setting of '90s horror film What Cries Beneath. Hattie's mom is headmistress, a job she started just weeks after losing her ghosthunter husband, Hattie's father, to cancer. That loss haunts the family, particularly Hattie, who buries her grief in pursuit of becoming the perfect daughter and perfect student. When Kit Morland transfers to Northanger on scholarship sponsored by the National Paranormal Society of Investigators and Hattie is assigned to be his partner on a project to research the history of Northanger Abbey's paranormal activity, she has to confront her own history and learn to be true to herself and to those who love her. As convoluted as it sounds, it totally works. I loved every minute of this Austen-adjacent YA novel with its Ted Lasso-esque message, "Believe." 

[Thanks to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an advanced reader copy and share my opinion of this book.]

This book was decent! I really enjoyed Hattie’s growth throughout this book, especially with the family angle. I did find some of the friendship elements a little more distracting and wish the love story had been a little less love at first glance, but the setting was fun. After my second book with this author I’d love to see her step away from the Jane Austen related content and just lean into a traditional series, mostly because this one was a bit far from the original text

Coming of age story in an academy that is told to be haunted. Since a paranormal movie was shot on site it's a popular spot for ghost hunters and theorists.
Hattie, the daughter of the headmaster is tasked with showing a new student around. Kit has a ghost hunting scholarship and Hattie is a skeptic. She took him on tours and interviewed others and explored the grounds for a class journalism project she started to feel like she might believe.
This book discusses grief since they lost their father and he was the glue that held them together. Loved how they finally were able to communicate and process. Grief takes time and everyone copes differently. Not all are healthy or helpful and some can push people away.
This was a fun slow burn romance set in a gothic setting.
Loosely based of Northanger Abbey but Austen.

Thank you stmartinspress for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.

"I was never going to escape these freaking ghosts" was a line that I thought encapsulated what Ghosted by Amanda Quain was truly about. Hattie, a high schooler who is focused on school and getting into Udolpho meets Kit, a new student at Northanger Abbey on a ghost-hunting scholarship. The two of them definitely don't hit it off at first, but through their project on discovering if there are actual ghosts at Northanger Abbey, they end up becoming much closer.
I really enjoyed how grief was shown in this novel, by having different ways of coping for the characters who experienced Hattie's father's death. Her mother, who is also the headmistress of Northanger Abbey, throws herself into work, leading Hattie to feel a lot of pressure to also be successful and have the perfect reputation. While Hattie's sister, Freddie, goes the opposite direction and becomes rebellious, and not following all the rules that her mother expected.
It was sad and yet funny, there were times where I wanted to give the characters hugs and encouragement. Other times, I was laughing and felt like they were my friends. I loved the modern setting and having references to many things that are currently in pop culture. Overall, this book was enjoyable and would highly recommend to many others.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.