I absolutely loved Mrs. Nash's Ashes last summer and could not wait for another Sarah Adler story! I was skeptical of the paranormal element, though I ended up really enjoying Gretchen's storyline and how she became to be a medium - with rules.
What unfortunately did not work for me was the romance. I wanted to root for this couple but, found it hard to believe that Gretchen could fall so had for a man that was constantly yelling "Fraud!" to her face. Everett grew on me a bit but, was ultimately written far too goofy/outlandish for my taste (even for a ghost). But the goats in sweaters and the setting? YES! More of that!

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this story! Gretchen is a fake psychic from a long line of opportunistic charlatans. She only takes clients' money if she thinks she can leave them better off than she found them, which is good because otherwise it would have been hard to like her in the beginning. She has transactional relationships but nothing deeper, and denies herself true intimacy until she gets to know Charlie. Charlie owns a struggling goat farm he's trying to sell but is being thwarted by the antics of a ghostly ancestor (the delightful Everett) who is trying to save him from a curse.

The book reads as a bit of a caper although it evens out about halfway through into a more thoughtful read (but still with fun/funny touches). I loved the comedic thread going through the whole story. I loved the premise of a skilled faker realizing that what they've been faking is actually real. And I really enjoyed watching Gretchen open herself up to being less cautious in relationships, and open up to the idea that she's a much better person than she thought. And what can I say about Everett?? He's charming and fun and a TV addict, and I would absolutely have read a whole book just about him. I need to go back and read the author's first book, and I'm genuinely looking forward to more from her in the future.

3.5 stars

It’s an easy funny romance to read and I really liked the first half of it but I got bored very easily around 60%. The thing is that it was a really long slow burn with not so many scenes of tension (even though there were some really really really good) and the plot was just very uneventful.
If i’m being honest i liked the romance and the characters and I think the dynamic was really funny but it was just lacking rhythm and I skimmed through the last pages

Mrs. Nash's Ashes was my best read of 2023 so I was very excited to receive a review copy for Sarah Adler's second release, Happy Medium. This was such a charming read with so much heart. I'm not sure if I had a favorite ghost previously, but Everett has cemented his spot as #1 in my eyes. Can't wait to read more from Sarah Adler!

Alright, Sarah Adler is the queen of unconventional romcoms. A con artist medium with a heart of gold meets a cinnamon roll farmer for an exorcism of his goat farm? That plot pitch alone would make me want to read the book. Add in her signature charm and banter and it was just a lot of happy giggling. I love that Gretchen insists on leaving her marks better than she found them, using her "connection" to the spirit world to allow her clients to process their grief. And Charlie is just the sweetest lil sweater knitter. But Emmett really steals the show, honestly. Between being obsessed with television and his pervy little moments, I waffled between being annoyed by him and wanting to be his best friend. Also Acorn is the cutest nickname, even if it's just her fake last name.

I was a little put out by the ending. I thought that her dad would play a role and there would be some kind of third act breakup and instead everything was fine and it was just over? And Emmett.... my heart *cue sobbing*

Gretchen Acorn, a con woman acting as a medium helping loved ones work through their stages of grief, gets talked into visiting a goat farm to perform an exorcism. She expects there to (A) not really be a ghost on the property and (B) be met by a senior citizen when she arrives on-site.

Imagine her surprise when Charles Waybill turns out to be more of a Charlie—young, hot, and not interested in her services in the least—and the resident ghost turns out to be real.

When they come to an agreement to have Gretchen stay on the farm for a month, they both end up with more than they bargained for.

Highlights for me:
- I adored Everett, the resident ghost. He is the bomb dot com. #iykyk
- Everett’s array of TV references
- Baby goats!
- Charlie’s tattoos
- And his forearms
- And his strong thighs
- And his blushes (Oh goodness, I do so love an MMC that blushes.)
- And his sweaters
- Speaking of sweaters, I have to mention the Frankensweater here.
- Fluffy dogs
- Cheese
- Physical intimacy paired with emotional intimacy
- Themes of home / finding your identity / finding where you belong
- Gretchen’s character growth
- Charlie’s declaration of love
- The author’s note about how the book came to be

What didn’t work as well for me:
- The con artist aspect: I understand that Gretchen tries to help the clients she cons through her medium business (and I do see the humor in the setup), but I bristled whenever she uses any of those skills or instincts, especially when she uses them around Charlie.
- The pacing of the first third of the book: this is written as single POV, and we get a lot of repetitive thoughts in Gretchen’s inner monologue.
- Something that happens in the third act (censored for spoilers)
- I would have liked to have seen more of the beats of the love story between Gretchen and Charlie play out on the page.

Overall, this is a fun one. The emotions are balanced out by the humor in the story. Everett is the best. And Gretchen and Charlie have good chemistry.

I received an advance copy of the book from Berkley and NetGalley. All review opinions are my own.

What I loved about Happy Medium is that the plot starts with such a unique concept. A (fake) medium is hired to scare away a ghost at a family farm. The cute guy that lives at the farm of course thinks she’s full of crap, but it turns out she can actually communicate with the ghost! The ghost is there to warn the owner of the farm what will happen if he sells the place. The medium is given one month to convince the hot guy that he has to stay to avoid the curse. It’s so quirky and funny and of course the enemies to lovers and forced proximity keep the story flowing. It could have used a little more details of the budding romance but overall I really enjoyed it.

Happy Medium by Sarah Adler follows Gretchen Acorn, a fake medium as she is tasked with ridding a goat farm of ghosts so it can be sold. She eagerly takes on the task, sure she can fake her way through a ghostly cleanse… until she finds out that the ghost is very much real, and she the man who owns the Goat farm is very much her type. Gretchen is left to convince the non-believer Charlie that not only is the ghost real, but there is also a family curse which means he can’t sell his family farm.

Giving this books 5 stars doesn’t feel like enough. I absolutely adored Happy Medium. The characters are so well written and every choice they make and every interaction they have feels so authentic. There is tension galore, a comedic ghost, and some pretty great spice, not to mention there is no third act breakup!!! Did I mention there is also baby goats? I hope this book gets the hype it deserves because wowowow did I ever love it.

Adler can do no wrong, her books are always fluffy with just enough heart to suck you into the narrative. Happy Medium was just as enjoyable as her first book and I can't wait to recommend it to my friends!

Gretchen Acorn has been a fake spiritual medium for years. When one of her most loyal clients hires her to perform an exorcism on a cursed farm, Gretchen finds herself face to face with a real ghost. The ghost of Everett Maybill enlists Gretchen’s help to convince his reluctant and skeptical descendant Charlie to keep the farm in the family. Gretchen has a huge uphill battle in convincing Charlie she isn’t a scam artist and that the ghost and curse are very real. As Gretchen and Charlie grow closer she realizes that the only thing that can save Charlie from a cursed fate is being radically honest with him about everything.

This book has cemented Sarah Adler as an autoread author for me. I read and loved her debut, Mrs. Nash’s Ashes. Happy Medium is a completely different story but it is still filled with the same charm and heart. Both have been 5 ⭐️ reads and I cannot wait for what Sarah Adler writes next!

Charlie Waybill may well be a new top tier book boyfriend for a lot of readers. He’s described initially as being “a genuine good egg with a runny yolk,” meaning his heart is soft. And oh man is his heart soft, even when he’s trying to have a hard outer shell to keep Gretchen out before he trusts her. I love Charlie so much.

Everett is an amazing side character who provides a ton of comic relief but also adds some genuine heart to the story. I was rooting for him to break his curse even as I enjoyed watching his friendship with Gretchen grow and flourish and provide both of them with something they didn’t realize they needed.

Recommended for readers who enjoy: 🔮magical realism 👻 ghostly friends 🐐 goat yoga 🍳 soft hearted heroes 🌻 heroines who are really trying their best 🚜 family farm settings 🧀 happily ever after for everyone, even the ghost

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley for the advanced copy to read and review. All opinions are my own. Happy Medium is out on April 30.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for an arc of Happy Medium in exchange for a review . ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
The overall story was cute and charming . If you’re into paranormal romance with enemies to lovers / forced proximity vibes - you’ll love this . Enjoyed the found family aspect too . There were some hilarious parts and I just feel it’s an overall comfort read . I’m typically into more spicy , dark themed books but this was a nice break from my regular reading genre !

𝙷𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚢 𝙼𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚞𝚖 𝚋𝚢 𝚂𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚑 𝙰𝚍𝚕𝚎𝚛 💜👻

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Tropes & What to Expect
💟enemies to lovers
💟found family 🥹
💟a charming, hilarious ghost
💟bi-sexual FMC
💟goat farmer MMC

This was a super interesting novel and I mostly enjoyed. The FMC is a sprit medium con artist who is on an assignment to exorcise this ghost on a farm. When she arrives she meets the handsome and ridiculously sweet goat farmer who knows she is a scam. You can imagine the surprise when she realizes there is a very much real ghost and he tells her of the family curse on the property.

Overall thoughts: this was a cute read and a great palette cleanser from darker reads. My only issue is I wish their relationship was developed more.. it felt it went from insta-attraction to enemies to lovers back to insta-attraction then over time we got more in depth into their relationship.

I enjoyed Mrs. Nash's Ashes so I was excited to get this ARC. As with the other book once I hit halfway I could not put it down. Gretchen is a fake medium scamming the rich ladies in town. One of her clients wants her to go to a farm that is haunted and rid it of the ghost. However, Charlie, the owner of the farm, knows nothing about this. He does not believe in that crap and wants Gretchen off his property. While she starts to walk away, a real ghost appears to her with a dire warning about a curse and what will happen to Charlie if he does not keep the farm in the family. Gretchen was expecting an old man but Charlie is young and hot. She ends up convincing him for her to stay and help out on the farm. Of course sparks fly but he believes her to be a con artist and will not let her in. Gretchen is a savvy businesswoman and he starts to take notice as she tries to make the farm more profitable. This one was cute but also serious sometimes. I immediately thought of the 1990 movie Ghost. The ghost talks to Gretchen but Charlie does not believe any of it. I will say the ending wraps up really quick but I enjoyed it.

-Because looking vulnerable is great; actually feeling it is a liability.

-Because if Gretchen is so good at making people buy into her lies, surely, convincing them of the truth shouldn't be much harder.

-Gretchen always wondered what it would feel like to return somewhere and feel like she was home. Like she belonged to a place and it belonged to her.

-Gretchen doesn't know how to do this, to love and be loved without ulterior motives.

This romance really is not trope-able. Like I guess it's a bit of workplace/roommates but if I had to state a trope it would be something ridiculous like: FMC is a morally grey con woman who claims to converse with spirits but then is actually confronted with a real one and the person whose life is at stake doesn't believe her, and also she might be falling in love with him.

This book is a TRIP. If you enjoy the show Ghosts (UK version is the only one I acknowledge) the friendship and humor that develops between the FMC Gretchen and the spirit Everett reminds me of the show in its own individual way. The goat farm setting was really charming and seeing it through Gretchen's eyes, someone who hasn't really found a home in any place or anyone, and her finding comfort in it also gave me comfort.

One thing to understand about the MMC Charlie is that he is distrusting and while having Gretchen's POV can make a reader more sympathetic to her in my opinion it's important to think of how she is seen by Charlie, someone who takes money from his friend and has lied to him. While his words can seem harsh, they do have a building attraction that gives them both conflicting feelings and at Charlie's heart he is a mushy gushy person. He can't help but to want to take care of others and that shows when you learn more about his history (and his loneliness).

This is a bit of a slow burn but everything leading up to it is SO interesting even the non-romance parts. It is open door like about 2 scenes and one of them is so angsty. I never thought overalls and slenderman wonkily knitted sweaters could be so hot.

I just loved this book. Thank you to Berkley for the free copy, I hadn't read the other by this author but now I plan on it!

4.5 -“How do you not see what I can’t help but show you? How do you not see the way my heart is absolutely breaking with how much it needs to keep you safe?”

I’ll admit I was a bit skeptical of the paranormal element in this book, but the more I read, the more I fell in love with these characters. Gretchen has a complicated past, posing as a medium to make ends meet, and Charlie immediately thinks she’s a fraud when she’s sent to help him. Everett the ghost was such a pleasant surprise; I adored him so much and he added this incredible element to the overall story. He's so funny, obsessed with television, and provides Gretchen with this beautiful friendship that they both seem to need.

Gretchen and Charlie have a tension from the beginning, though it’s hard to tell if it’s sexual or genuine annoyance. But the more time they spend together, it’s clear that they both harbor real feelings for the other. Charlie doesn't really like Gretchen at first. He accuses her of being a fraud and taking money from vulnerable people. But she has The Rule which gives her a lot of humanity, instead of just portraying her as a fake medium with no moral compass. Seeing Gretchen embrace farm life and enjoy it is so satisfying. She has to work hard to help save the farm, but also to convince Charlie that Everett is real.

“Loving people…can hurt. I understand that. Maybe better than anyone.”

This book is so beautiful and sweet, Gretchen and Charlie's relationship develops so organically, and the addition of Everett is just perfect. I can’t recommend this one enough. I absolutely adored it.

Fake medium Gretchen lives by her own moral code. She may take people's money for pretending to talk to their dead loved ones, but she always tries to leave them better off than before they came to see her. But there's no way she can help Charlie, the skeptical goat farmer who refuses her assistance in exorcising a supposed ghost so he can sell the farm. Until she walks right into (through) the ghost himself. Everett has been haunting the farm for almost a century, and is determined not to let his relative Charlie fall prey to the same curse. Now Gretchen has to convince Charlie that she's for real and so is Everett. Even if it means staying on the farm and helping with the goats.

This was cute. Everett and his obsession with television of every era was my favorite part. I was a little annoyed that Gretchen did the classic big city girl going to a farm thing and wore completely inappropriate shoes for her visit. Why do women in romcoms not seem to know about boots? Even sneakers?

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review. All opinions are my own.

It was fine. Everett was hilarious, but never really cared for any of the other characters. I keep waiting for some other twist to develop and it really didn't. Adler's first book was absolutely charming and I was hoping this would be more of the same, instead this one is very Hallmark movie-esque. Everything was too convenient and twee. Could have trimmed about 150 pages and gotten the same story. Very mild spice didn't happen until the last quarter of the book.

A conwoman, ghosts, rural farms, and baby ghosts - what more could you need. This book was nothing that I expected, but everything I loved. Main characters who are grifters/conmen & women are one of my absolute favorites, so this book was right up my alley. It was funny and at times completely over the top, but the growth and depth that we see with Gretchen keeps the book from every becoming too hokey or cloyingly sweet. I never would have guessed all the emotions this book would take me through, but it did and it was perfect.

A great rom-com that the author puts it best as: Ghost, but what if Whoopi Goldberg and Demi Moore were the ones to fall in love.

(PS for the record the title is great, but knowing it could have been "Ain't Afraid of No Goats"? Heartbreaking).

Ghosts, baby goats, and romance? I'm so easy to please. I thoroughly enjoyed Happy Medium and will read anything this author writes from now on. This story was so charming and full of heart with enjoyable characters. I related to Gretchen's feelings about being unable to get close to people and keeping them at arm's length out of fear that they will leave and really liked her growth throughout the story. I also really liked Charlie and I must say that the smut was excellent LOL.

After loving Sarah Adler’s debut novel, I was pleased (but not surprised) to adore Happy Medium just as much, if not more! This book has everything you could want: goats, ghosts, a (fake) spirit medium, a family curse, and an enemies(ish)-to-lovers story that will make your heart sing.

Gretchen is a self-described BS artist and (fake) psychic who uses her con woman powers for good (i.e., “channeling” dead relatives to help grieving family members heal). Charlie is the (surprisingly hot) owner of a struggling goat farm and bridge partner to Gretchen’s wealthiest client. When said client hires Gretchen to figure out why Charlie’s goat farm won’t sell, it turns out that the client was right: the farm is haunted by a real life (well, dead) ghost.

After falling prey to a family curse, Everett has been haunting Gilded Creek Goat Farm since the 1920s. After watching a lot of sitcoms and mostly hanging out, Gretchen’s arrival presents Everett with an opportunity: not only does he now have someone to talk to, but he also has someone to help him prevent the sale of the farm and save Charlie from the same curse! They just have one minor problem: Charlie really, really doesn’t believe in ghosts and definitely doesn’t trust Gretchen (even though they’re definitely attracted to each other).

Gretchen and Charlie are both such interesting characters, and their story is so sweet and full of growth. The forced proximity causes Gretchen and Charlie to both question themselves and become more honest about who they are, and Everett is simultaneously hilarious and maudlin (as is appropriate). Happy Medium balances a fun love story with themes of loneliness and loss, all in one adorable story.

Other things I liked about this book:
✨ baby goat tattoo
✨ Charlie loves his grandfather
✨ banter (and more banter) (and EVEN MORE BANTER)
✨ so many sitcom references from Everett
✨ daddy issues
✨ magical realism
✨ hustling a consulting bro at pool
& SO MUCH MORE

5 stars, spice: 2, number of times I cried: 2, number of times I kicked my feet and giggled: probably at least 20. Loved, loved, loved this book.

Thank you so much to Berkley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! I’ve been looking forward to reading this for months and the opportunity to read it early was AMAZING.