Haunted Ever After by Jen DeLuca was a fun, contemporary romance/comedy that is the first in a haunting new series.

This takes place in Boneyard Key, a coastal town and is the start of a new series. Cassie and Nick were the MCs that have their own pasts and quirks that find an attraction to one another in a slow burn romance. Balanced along with this, is this ghost tour, spirits, and Halloween vibe that I enjoyed.

I liked several books in Ms. DeLuca’s Well Met series, so I will give this one a try as well.

4/5 stars

Thank you NG and Berkley Publishing Group for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 8/6/24.

Jen DeLuca is back with a cozy paranormal romance set in a quaint tourist town called Boneyard Key.

Cassie, who has just moved from Orlando, finds that not only are all the businesses named with spooky puns, but that she has moved into the most haunted house in town. When electrical outlet issues send her into Hallowed Grounds, the local coffeeshop, to work and charge up, she meets the owner, Nick, who captivates her with his charm and free slices of banana bread. Before long, they're taking the town's ghost tour together and investigating the haunted history behind her cottage. With love and beyond-the-veil interference on the docket, it's up to Cassie to decide if she'll stay long enough to settle into her new home or be spooked by a (spectral) Hawkins into leaving.

This was such a lighthearted, cozy read. I would've preferred there to have been been more romantic tension, for Cassie and Nick seemed to fall into the instalove category, with their only conflict being she was fearful of ghosts and he was terrified she wouldn't stay in Boneyard Key. The plot ran stale at times because of that. The setting was adorable, though. The perfect blend of beachy and haunted. (In fact, I feel like I need to leave a beer out in the sand for the Beach Bum now.) I also liked Elmer and Sarah, who made for the quirkiest and ghostliest of roommates.

All in all, I'd say this is perfect choice for readers who are looking for something saccharine, spirited, and ghostly to usher in the fall season. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Berkley for the ARC in exchange for my review!

I liked the town and everything about the ghosts. But I didn't care about the romance. Maybe I would have liked it if it didn't progress so quickly.

I wanted to like this one, since the premise was definitely for me. However, I think maybe I'm just not a fan of Jen DeLuca's writing style, as I've tried another of her books before and DNFed that as well.

Cassie leaves her life in Orlando, Florida behind to move to the sleepy tourist town of Boneyard Key. Unbeknownst to her, she's moved into the most haunted house in town. A grumpy coffee shop owner named Nick brings her on a ghost tour and informs her that the whole town is haunted. Skeptical at first, Cassie soon finds herself befriending her roommate ghost. But her ghostly roommate might not be as willing to live with Cassie as Cassie is to live with her. When the magnets on Cassie's fridge start to spell out phrases like "get out", she begins to wonder if her roommate is as docile as she first thought.

I absolutely adored Well Met by Jen DeLuca so worked very hard to get my hands on this ARC, and it didn't disappoint! I got some real Lorelai and Luke vibes off of Cassie and Nick. I couldn't explain it, but they just gave me the vibes and I was very happy with it. I was expecting a lot more romance, but I found myself very happy with the focus on Sarah and her story. I was enraptured by the town and the citizens. Nan made me very happy with the few interactions we had with her. I found myself giggling and smiling all throughout the book and in general, it was just a lot of fun!

I can't wait to read more stories in Boneyard Key! (If Sophie and Theo don't get a book, I'm going to be very irate)

I loved this book - light spice and a lot of haunted/paranormal things happening. Centered very much around ghosts and coffee, what could be better? What a unique idea for a book! Of course I loved the main characters Cassie and Nick - they had cute banter and interesting back stories. I am hoping this is going to be a series and we will get more, either with their friends or another book continuing their story. Thank you NetGalley/Berkley Publishing/Jen DeLuca for the opportunity to read an early copy!

4.8/5 stars — why jen deluca, you’ve outdone yourself 😚👌 this is EXACTLY my brand of romance (where the couple just wants to be a couple and don’t actively try to sabotage they’re own damn relationship, and instead have external conflict to deal with), and I adore both Cassie and Nick, individually and collectively. ready to eat up future boneyard key books please and thank you🤲

(thank you to netgalley and berkley for a galley in exchange for honest review!)

Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Pacing: 5/5
Writing: 4/5
Enjoyment: 5/5

This book was not it. The story started off promising, but around the 30% mark I started to get bored. Things went downhill from there.

Cassie has just moved to Boneyard Key, Florida, and quickly learns the house she bought is haunted. When the power outlets won’t charge her laptop, she heads to the local coffee shop to work. Nick, the cafe owner, immediately dislikes her because he thinks she’s a tourist who’s there to use his wifi without buying anything. When Cassie learns about her house’s history and that it’s been haunted for decades, she and Nick begin to get closer. He becomes something of a ghost guide for her, because Nick’s apartment has a ghost — the cafe’s former owner — and Nick’s family goes back several generations in Boneyard Key. The ability to talk to ghosts is actually in his blood.

So, promising setup, right? But both characters have almost no discernible personality traits aside from “sometimes grumpy” (him) and “works a lot and loves iced hazelnut lattes” (her). Cassie and Nick are barely fleshed out, and so is their romance, which takes a backseat to the ghost storyline. I kept waiting for there to be some relationship development, or more conversations where they get to know each other, but everything stays very surface-level. There’s zero chemistry or tension; I barely cared whether or not they kissed or had sex. (There is on-page spice, but it doesn’t happen until almost the 90% mark. They talk about protection/STIs and Cassie says, “I’m clean.” Can authors please stop using “clean” to mean “STI-free”? Ugh.)

They have a weird argument around 45% where Nick says some truly heinous, misogynistic things. He knows he’s being a jerk, but it was still off-putting. It almost made me DNF. I kept going because I wanted to find out what was going on with the ghost in Cassie’s house. I had a feeling what would happen, and the whole thing was disappointingly predictable.

I’m sorry to say I didn’t like this book. I loved Well Met, but with each subsequent book of DeLuca’s I’ve been a little more disappointed. After this one, I don’t think I’ll be picking up future books of hers.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this rom com with a ghost tour twist. Jen DeLuca is either a hit or miss author for me and this one was a hit.

Big fan of this author so Ioved getting into a new world created by her! This was a perfect combo of rom com and ghosts in my opinion and I really enjoyed reading this.

This book seemed like it would be a cute read, however I failed to ever get invested. Yes the town was cute, as were the characters, but I just failed to connect with any of them.

I just wanted more from this book, and it didn’t deliver.

I appreciate the opportunity to read this book and extend my sincere thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity.

Haunted Ever After by Jen DeLuca is a delightful and enchanting romance novel that will leave readers swooning. This captivating story is a sheer pleasure to read.

This book was cute and the perfect amount of creepy. I loved it and will be recommending it to my friends.

Jen DeLuca has become an auto-read author for me. I absolutely loved her Ren-Fair series and I was excited and intrigued to hear about this new title. Haunted Ever After was a fun rom-com and I sped through the entire book. It was not as engaging to me as her previous books, but I still enjoyed it!

Jen Deluca had me with her cute Renn Faire series and you say she wrote about ghosts?? Sign me up. Haunted Ever After was really cute and she created a whole town of adorable characters I can’t wait to see star in their own book (Libby, Sophie, Theo…. maybe Sophie and Theo…). It was the perfect blend of summertime and pre-Halloween spooky. This was really good fun and I will be recommending it to lots of friends. Can’t wait for the next installment in the Boneyard Key.

I thought the book was trite and didn’t care for,the authors style of writing or the dialogue. The ghosts were the best thing, but it all felt lackluster.

Haunted Ever After is the first book in a romance series by Jen DeLuca. A small Florida coastal town called Boneyard Key has embraced the haunted vibes. Cassie Rutherford has recently moved to town. and her house is on the local ghost tour for a reason. Nick Royer is the owner of the local coffee shop called Hallowed Grounds. Despite the electrician's declaration that there is nothing wrong with the electricity in Cassie's house, her laptop will not charge in the house. Forced to spend time working from Nick's coffee shop, after a rough start the two hit it off. The romance is a slow burn and takes a back seat at times to Cassie's house. The overall feel of the story is sweet and comforting which I remember from the author's previous books and enjoyed a lot. I will be following along with this new series.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley for the advanced reader copy.

I found this book very difficult to get through. It has a cute premise, a charming small town setting, and an amazing cover, but the execution left a lot to be desired.

The setting: Boneyard Key, a small town in Florida that’s “the most haunted town in America” or something fun like that. There are ghosts literally everywhere you turn.

The characters: Cassie, a new transplant to BK who bought a literal haunted house (without knowing it’s haunted), and Nick, a grumpy coffee shop owner who’s lived in BK his whole life and texts constantly with a ghost of his own. Hmm, I wonder if they might…fall in love??

The conflict: This is where it kind of fell apart for me. The conflict is that Cassie’s scared of the ghosts so she might leave, and Nick is traumatized by being left by a previous girlfriend. Okay. I guess. But the thing is, Cassie’s never really that scared of the ghosts, and she and Nick also spend most of the book in a somewhat flirtatious friendship, which to me isn’t the level of relationship where you have a complete freak out over someone potentially leaving.

There’s another level to the conflict, which has to do with Cassie not being able to have children and Nick’s reaction to that. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I thought this was handled in an odd way that didn’t really touch the seriousness of the issue. I can tell from the way it was written, and from things that have been said in DeLuca’s other books, that this is likely a personal storyline for DeLuca, so I don’t want to negate what feels right to her. But I felt like the characters could have gone deeper emotionally.

There was just very little angst in this book, which is never going to work well for me. What angst there was had more to do with the ghosts than with the characters and their internal flaws, lol. Most of the plot revolved around the ghosts and their external shenanigans.

Part of the issue is that for strong internal conflict you’d have to have strong characterization, and this book just doesn’t have that. Cassie’s personality is essentially that she works from home, likes hazelnut lattes and Publix subs (my TED talk: as a society, we really need to stop thinking a romance heroine’s food and drink preferences are a substitute for a personality), and can’t have kids. Nick is stronger—he’s a lifelong resident of BK and feels a deep connection to the place, he has strong relationships with other locals—but there were important parts of him that still felt out of focus. For example, the book makes it sound like he just fell into owning a coffee shop, and he certainly acts like it, being rude to customers and barely caring about the menu offerings, though Cassie’s obsessed with his hazelnut lattes. It’s just weird, and I feel like his need to buy a random business just to stay in his hometown could have been explored more. He has a whole thing about how important his “ancestral roots” are that’s actually pretty interesting. But the book stays surface level.

The pacing was odd for me as well—I was at the point where I thought this might be a closed door romance, since there was so little spice until literally the 90 percent mark. But in that last ten percent things get a lot more explicit, lol.

Anyway, this book is a the first in a planned series and there are several hints of couples to come in future books, so if you’re looking for a small town series to get into this might be a good one. Given my reaction to this one I probably will not pick up the rest of the series, but I could see this working for people who love sweet romances focused on community. Thank you to NetGalley for providing an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Cassie moves to the small town of boneyard keys in Florida and is surprised to find out the ghost town tourist town is the real deal. She makes quick acquaintances with the coffee shop owner Nick when her house won't charge her laptop. Nick is very attracted to Cassie but is wary to make any new relationships after his past girlfriend did him wrong. Cassie needs some help from Nick, though, when she finds out her house is still occupied by the late Sarah Hawkins.

It was a very enjoyable book. It felt more like a cozy mystery than a full romance book. Low steak conflict and happy endings. It had one scene of spice near the end.

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with a copy to read and review honestly

All of Cassie’s friends are moving forward with their lives, either having babies or getting married. This turn of events makes Cassie do something completely out of the ordinary, which is how she finds herself buying a home on Boneyard Key. When strange and unusual things start to happen, Cassie starts to wonder if she made the wrong decision….

I absolutely adored Haunted Ever After. It was fun, and entertaining, with just the right amount of romance. I loved the spooky, yet humorous feel to it. Instead of being afraid of their town’s history, the residents immersed themselves in it and just went with the flow. I don’t know if I could be so chill about real haunted houses or unexplained events.

Now let’s discuss characters. While Cassie may have initially overreacted to the changes in her friends and her own life, I think that made her character more relatable as a lot of people find themselves stuck or at a standstill and desperately in need of a change. Cassie took a risk and embraced Boneyard Key. And when she meets Nick, she’s unsure what to make of the grumpy coffee shop owner. I, on the other hand, loved grumpy Nick!! His interactions with Cassie were so entertaining. I couldn’t wait to see how he would stick his foot in his mouth next. I loved all of the will they/won’t they moments between Nick and Cassie. And even though Nick made me a little crazy sometimes, I couldn’t help but root for him and Cassie.

Overall, I thought Haunted Ever After was a great summer read. This story had just the right amount of mystery and romance. I loved the spooky, paranormal vibes. After finishing this book, I find myself wanting to go the keys and see what haunts I can discover!

Haunted Ever After is my first book by this author and I can not wait to read more from her in the future.