What a sweet and unique romance! It had me laughing out loud, but there were also more serious and heartfelt moments too. Charlie was such a sweetheart and was 100% a good egg with a runny yolk (doesn’t Sarah Adler describe her hero in the best way?!) All the little ways he showed he cared had me swooning! The progression of his relationship with Gretchen did feel a bit choppy though because of all the “will they, won’t they” build up, but I liked how they truly saw each other - for better or for worse.

The main reason this wasn’t a 5 star read for me was the final conflict. It really frustrated me that they didn’t just have an honest conversation with each other. I can see why Gretchen and Charlie might react the way they did given their histories though. The ending brought things full circle and was as cute as it was bittersweet (oh Everett!)

The audiobook was narrated wonderfully by Mara Wilson and it was such a delight to listen to! The variety of voices kept the characters distinct and I loved the different accents and tones used. I hope she narrates all of Sarah Adler’s books!

Audiobook Review
Overall 4.5 stars
Performance 5 stars
Story 4 stars

CW: cons/history of deceiving others, parental abandonment & estrangement, memory loss, death of loved one, grief, financial concerns, death/ghost, curse

*I voluntarily read and listened to an advance review copy of this book*

I never realized how badly I needed a slow-burn romance where our heroine, Gretchen, is a con artist medium, and of course she’s going to fall for this sweet (but tattooed) farmer, Charlie. Add in a real ghost, and we have the beginnings of a story that more than lives up to its extremely tempting pitch! I would describe this book as chaotic and whimsical in such a fun way, without any of the fun tidbits (like our ghost loving television of all things) taking away from the strong bonds being developed. This is both a solid ghost story and a romance that will have you rooting for the MCs. A touch of heart and a touch cozy, I highly recommend this— it’s enough to make me want to read more from this author! Seriously, who among us doesn’t need this sort of humor in our lives?! Go pick this up!

I really liked this book! I went in totally blind and found it a lot of fun. I would just have appreciated a little more conflict before the end.

"I Ain't Afraid of No Goats." After reading the author's note and learning that this was a possible title for this romance novel, I have entered a period of mourning. I lament the fact that this excellent title was not used and hence forth, I will only refer to this book by the better title.

Following a flim-flam woman and a skeptic on a goat farm with a real ghost and a real curse, this hilarious romance is perfect for anyone looking for some hilarity and love.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the eARC.

Happy Medium is a fun and quirky romance following Gretchen, a fake medium hired to exorcise a ghost from a goat farm, and Charlie, the grumpy farm owner who wants Gretchen and her obvious scam nowhere near him. Content to take the money and leave, Gretchen is shocked to her core when she learns the property is indeed haunted and she can talk to the ghost. The story is full of charm and so much fun happenings around the farm. I loved how Gretchen and Charlie slowly became friends and tried to understand one another before getting into a relationship. The deep moments contrasted so perfectly to the whimsy brought about by their ever flowing banter and the humourous and endearing ghost. This enchantingly sweet romance will absolutely not be my last from Sarah Adler and I cannot wait to see what she writes next!

Read If You Like:
🔮Forced Proximity🔮
🔮A Tattooed and Bearded MC🔮
🔮Slow Burn🔮
🔮Small Town Romance🔮
🔮So Much Banter🔮
🔮Enemies to Lovers🔮
🔮Baby Goats🔮
🔮Hurt and Comfort🔮
🔮A Chaotic and Friendly Ghost🔮
🔮Opposites Attract🔮

Unfortunately I DNF'd this at 40%. I struggled to connect to the characters and found the FMC to be particularly annoying. Like, she was a fraud swindling people out of money, and she was surprised AND offended that she was accused of being a fraud and swindling people? Accountability, please.

2.5, rounded up. I really wanted to like this but it just wasn't for me. It felt a lot like a tweaked version of Ghosts (US) with a lot more lying and lust. I really liked the goat farm setting, but both characters felt so unlikeable for me that it was hard to root for their HEA. I also feel like things with her dad were left unresolved (but I also skimmed a few chapters towards the end so that could be part of it).

*strong language throughout. 1+ open door scenes, and lots of lusty thoughts throughout

Thank you to Berkley Pub for my complimentary e-arc of this book. All opinions here are my own.

A Conman’s daughter ✨Gretchen✨turned con artist spirit medium finds herself with a large cash payout to investigate goat farmer ✨Charlie’s✨ farm and why it won’t sell… leading her to confront a “real” life ghost ✨Everett✨ and to convince Charlie not to seek due to the family curse.

I LOVED Sarah Adler’s debut Mrs. Nash’s Ashes and was so excited to get an early copy of Happy Medium. This story is truly something special… a paranormal… goat farm… enemies to lovers… a hilarious TV loving ghost with friendship, family and heart at its core.

Everett and the friendship with Gretchen was the star of the show for me. The whole thing felt like a warm hug.

Thank you Berkley & PRHAudio
Releases 4/30

Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Lyon.brit.Andthebookshelf/

This books was so cute and fun! I devoured it on a recent plane ride and it was the perfect way to pass the time. I loved the whole concept of this book, and I did not expect the ghost to become my favorite character, but here we are! I also loved watching the relationship between our two leads develop. Sarah nailed it again!

Gretchen Acorn makes her living as a fake medium. She really justifies it by doing something good for the person, giving them comfort and peace. When her most prominent client comes to her with 10K to help a friend with an exorcism on his property he is trying to sell, she can’t say no.

What happens when someone claims to see ghosts suddenly CAN see one? Gretchen meets Everett Waybill as she is trying to leave, getting turned away by young (she was next expecting that) Charlie Waybill. Everett tells her that he is stuck on the property because he tried to sell it and if Charlie sells it, his fate will be the same.

Gretchen has to find a way to keep Charlie from selling and get him to believe her about Everett.

Everett is quite the scene stealer in this book. He is witty, charming and adorable. His relationship with Gretchen is one of the best parts about this book. Charlie Waybill is great, too. He is sweet and genuine. He really cares for the goat farm and his grandparents that owned it. He’s a keeper.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing for the advanced readers copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Read this if you like:
•forearms
•tattoos
•gray sweatpants
•humor
•forced proximity
•slow burn
•grumpy/sunshine

Everett was such a friendly fun ghost. I loved his meddling. Charlie was so grumpy but I couldn’t help but love him, especially as he began to open up. Gretchen had such great ideas for the farm too. So many swoony moments.

Thank you Berkley for the eARC!

Mrs. Nash’s Ashes was one of my favorite romances of 2023 and one of my favorite ARCs I received last year, so it was such a pleasure to receive another Sarah Adler as an arc from Berkley. Oh Sarah, how I love you and your quirky lovable characters <3

Happy Medium is definitely a goofy, heartfelt read! Gretchen is a fraudulent spirit medium until she’s not - when meeting Charlie at his goat farm, she also meets his farm’s resident and very real ghost Everett.

If someone asked me what this book tells us, it’s that “To be loved is to be seen.” Adler crafts a beautiful contemporary romance about a woman who’s afraid to lose people and a man that’s afraid to lose the woman. I absolutely adored Charlie as a book boyfriend and the last 10% of the book honestly had me in tears because of how much it reminded me of people and relationships in my real life. I would have given this a 4 stars for its heart, but I feel like the inconsistent pacing bothered me enough to bump it down to a 3. I would still highly recommend this to anyone and everyone looking for a lovely, touching, funny romance!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Berkley for the advanced reader’s copy in exchange for my hones opinion. I love u Sarah Adler

What an awesome book! I had no idea what to expect when I started it - and as someone who doesn't love books about magic/ghosts, I was not sure how it would go after the first few chapters. All I can say is that this book did not disappoint. I loved the idea that a (fake) spirit medium (con woman) has to convince a farmer that he has a real-life ghost after a wealthy customer pays her to investigate his farm. While uncovering their own demons, both Gretchen and Charlie's hatred for one another starts to change and grow. Throw in an annoying but amazing ghost that only Gretchen can see, and we have lots of real life drama, humor and fun. The dynamics and tension between them grows slowly, and at times is aggravating, but also done very well. Definitely don't miss this enemies-to-lovers book!

Thank you netgalley for my advanced reader copy.

This book gives soooo many tropes and small moments that made me love it so much!

Read if you like:
🐐 Goats
👻 Ghosts
💰 Con Artists
🏳️‍🌈 LGBTQ Rep
🤣 LOL Moments
😡 Enemies to Lovers
🏘️ Small Town Romances

We have our morally grey bisexual con artist FMC Gretchen that has been conning people for years convincing them she can talk to the spirits of their loved ones, but when she gets paid 10k to exercise a ghost for one of her clients so her friend can sell his property before she knows it she quickly gets in over her head on this particular con…

When Gretchen comes face to face with a ghost she can actually talk to it makes her have to rethink her con… especially when the ghost tells her it is a life or death situation for her biggest cynic Charlie, who refuses to believe a word out of her mouth and that she needs to make sure he stays or he will fall victim to the family curse… which makes for a delicious enemies to lovers plot.

Some of my favorite aspects of the book truly were the hilarious interruptions of Everett, the ghost that’s been haunting the Gilded Creek goat farm for almost 100 years, and how much he and Gretchen bonded while trying to convince Charlie not to sell the family property.

I also loved this book because of a few personal connections since I raised dairy goats growing up and had a goat named Thistle & I loved that there was a reference to Welcome Back, Kotter (this show inspired my hubby’s middle name) so these two things made me love Happy Medium even more!

Thank you so much to Berkley Romance for my gifted ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you so much to Berkley Pub for the advance copy!

If you know me, you know I am a ride or die Mrs. Nash's Ashes fan and have been screaming about that book since I read it last spring.
I always praised Sarah any time I could and I read it multiple times. So I was SUPER excited to learn that she was releasing another book this spring and I was fortunate enough to get an advance copy.

"Oh, there are definitely going to be pics of you on the 'the Instagram' babe. A tattooed and bearded goat farmer? It's gonna be a virtual panty-dropping spree."

Did I thoroughly enjoy the book? YES
Am I going to read it 3xs like I did with her debut? Likely not - maybe once again

I love Sarah's writing and already knew I would be an instant fan after falling in love with her writing in her debut. So with this one it was no different. This was such a unique romance and I applaud her for doing something different!

What I loved about MNA was the banter between the FMC and MMC and while that wasn't strong in this book, we did have it between Gretchen and the friendly ghost she can see Everett. Everett was the absolute best!!! There was a moment where I texted a friend saying I was getting the movie "Ghost" vibe when Gretchen was trying to prove to Charlie that she could see & hear Everett and sure enough at the end of the book Sarah talks about part of the inspiration was taken from the movie.

I understand that Gretchen does not such good things conning people but she was truly trying to be better over the course of her time on the farm and I felt bad for her anytime Charlie just kept throwing it back at her that she was a fraud. Charlie was super grumpy but his personality came through more in the 2nd half of the book. There were small moments when Gretchen first arrived that you could see glimpses of what could be. One of my favorite scenes was when him and Gretchen went to the Tipsy's Lou and that is when things changed between them.
"Don't do that or I'm going to have to bend you over this table and take you right here."
"Well, then don't do that, or I'm going to have to let you."
Once they shared their first kiss, the touching, flirty talk and the pining for one another. I do wish we got to see his POV because I think that would have helped a lot of knowing how he was feeling about her from the start. I would have love to have seen them have more one on one time outside of their farm duties.

Gretchen and Everett's relationship was my favorite in the book. Their friendship was just so sweet to see and how they developed over a few weeks and worked together in to saving the farm. "Oh, thank god. I was dying. Get it? Dying? But I'm already dead?" I love his obsession with watching television and that would keep him occupied for hours. And the epilogue put me in my feels!

I will forever be a Sarah fan and cannot wait to see what she has planned next!!

This is a slow burn so if you are a fan of that trope, goats, redemption arcs & a friendly ghost - check this book out!!

4.5

Title: Happy Medium by Sarah Adler
Publication Date- 04/30/24
Publisher- Berkley Publishing
Overall Rating- 5 out of 5 stars

Review: Review copy given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book so much. I have been trying to find a paranormal romance that I enjoy and this is it. If you are a fan of “The Dead Romantics,” you will love Happy Medium. This year romance has been very hit or miss for me and I loved every second of this story. There are some spicy moments but for those of you in your smut era this is not the book.

To outline specific things I enjoyed, we get a morally gray female character and she stays that way through the whole book. She changes in ways that matter but is really confronted with her own personhood but doesn’t change for anyone else. I loved that. I felt like all the characters in this story were well developed, had their own unique personality traits and were very loveable. We also get a haunting from an older ghost who lived on the farm and his character added so much comedic relief. I didn’t find there to be any insta love between the two main characters and felt that their attraction grew in a reasonable way over time.

The writing was both hard hitting and hilarious. Sarah Adler really struck a balance between talking about grief and dying while also nailing a rom com. I cared so much about the characters I didn’t want the story to end. Make sure you read the author's note. She talks about how this story came to be and what she learned while writing it. I found knowing those aspects added to my enjoyment even more.

THIS IS WHAT PARANORMAL ROMANCE SHOULD BE.

After loving MRS. NASH'S ASHES, I was so excited to receive an ARC of HAPPY MEDIUM. I loved the quirky and laugh-out-loud characters in MRS. NASH'S ASHES and figured that vibe would be repeated in Sarah Adler's newest. Unfortunately, I am DNFing at 18%. I was reading this book for 9 days and still barely made much progress; it was so dull and eye-roll inducing that I just had to stop reading. I did not like the storyline at all and found the main character Gretchen to be annoying and insufferable. Con woman stories don't usually bother me, but I didn't feel like Gretchen had any redeeming qualities. There weren't any sparks or chemistry between Gretchen and Charlie either, and I felt like the ghost aspect was just a bit too much - the ghost was obnoxious. I had no interest in continuing with how slow the story was and how disconnected I felt. Thank you anyway for the ARC.

Totally recommend this book for anyone interested in romcoms. Sarah Adler is a really good writer, and builds fun worlds with great characters.

Happy Medium by Sarah Adler
Rating: 5 stars
Steam: 1 chili
Pub date: 4/30

Gretchen Acorn is a con artist who claims to be a spirit medium. She pretends to connect wealthy people with the spirits of their loved ones, but only because she thinks it will help them with their grief. One rich woman, in particular, has taken an interest in Gretchen and offers to pay her a large sum to exorcise a ghost from her friend’s goat farm. When she arrives, she is shocked to discover an actual ghost, Everett, haunting the farm, and she can see him! Maybe she isn’t such a fraud after all.

But Charlie Waybill, the grumpiest of grumpy farmers, wants nothing to do with Gretchen when she arrives and calls her fake, demanding that she leave immediately. But Everett has reasons for haunting the farm; if Gretchen doesn’t help, something terrible might happen to Charlie.

There isn’t enough space here to explain how much I loved this book. It is grumpy sunshine perfection with a gorgeous setting, adorable goats, quirky characters, and a paranormal element that’s so much fun. Everett is a pervy, cheerful, mischievous spirit who steals the spotlight in every scene, and I love the friendship that forms between him and Gretchen.

Gretchen herself is a force of nature, and while it's true that she cons people for a living, she only does it if she thinks that her con will leave the person better off than when she found them. It’s this moral compass that makes her character so relatable and endearing. Charlie is a grumpy cinnamon roll with a protective side that I just loved. His interactions with Gretchen are full of witty banter, and the slow burn between them is full of sizzling chemistry.

Beneath the humor and paranormal shenanigans lies a sweet story of love, redemption, and the power of being true to oneself. Watching Gretchen and Charlie navigate their way through misunderstandings and ghostly interventions is hilarious and heartwarming. Thank you so much to Netgalley and Berkley Romance for my advanced copy.

Read if you like:
*goats
*ghosts
*enemies to lovers
*forced proximity
*single POV

Thank you to Berkley Romance for the eARC of Happy Medium, which publishes April 30th! All thoughts and opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I thought the premise of this book sounded SO FUN - fake medium can actually see a ghost?!? Sounds so so fun and kooky! And there were parts that I liked - I really liked the ghost, Everett, and there really were some laugh out loud moments! I liked the setting and the baby goats too. I liked Charlie's character and I did also like the ending quite a bit, even though I thought we would get some closure with Gretchen's dad.

But some things about this book just...didn't sit super well with me. I think the main issue I had was that I struggled with Gretchen's...morality and lack of remorse for most of the book. I don't know, I just have a hard time when characters take advantage of other people. I also just found her reticence to tell Charlie the truth and then to actually tell him that she cares for him. I guess just generally I struggled with Gretchen as a character!

Read this for:
- Baby Goats and a Farm
- A real ghost!
- A Soft Hearted Hero
- Magical Realism
- Single POV
- Small Town
- Farmers Markets