This was the perfect quirky, spooky contemporary romance read! It's set in a coastal town with grumpy sunshine, ghosts, magical realism, and older characters (FMC is in her 30s) who are trying to figure out where home is. The plot is pretty simple: Cassie buys a house and can't figure out why it's cold or her laptop won't charge - turns out it's haunted and so is the rest of the town! She spends time at Hallowed Grounds, the coffee shop owned by Nick, and the two are forced into proximity as Nick tries to help her acclimate to a place where ghosts are real. I was able to follow along with the plot easily and while the mystery element was fun, I saw the twist coming a mile away. I thought it was a cool twist that the villain was simply a misogynist old man, because, really, what is scarier than a man who doesn't understand women can do more than bear children and manage the home? I love how DeLuca handled some challenging topics like losing friends in your 30s, fertility complications (endometriosis), and domestic violence. Overall I thought the characters were relatable, even with the supernatural elements it all felt believable and was the perfect little escape that I wanted.

Vibes:
Small town
Grumpy sunshine
Forced Proximity
Slow Burn
Infertility
Ghosts

Thank you Berkley for the ARC, all thoughts are my own.

I haven't read a book like this that pulls together romance, haunting in a cute way, and summer beach vibes in such a delightful package

Haunted Ever After is for you if you like books featuring...
* friendly ghosts
* seaside vacation vibes
* hot MMC baristas in small town coffee shops

Perfect for fans of...
* Ashley Poston
* A Love Song for Ricki WIlde by Tia Williams
* Jen DeLuca's Well Met series - what a treasure this series is and if you love this book, you'll love her other work as well!

I really enjoyed Jen Deluca's other series "Well Met," but this style of romance just didn't work for me. This is definitely more of a me problem and not a book problem, but I didn't love how quirky this one was. A fun read, but not my preference! Would still recommend this one for a fun fall romance!

Cassie moves to a haunted town in Florida and buys an old cottage with a mysterious past. As she gets closer to Nick, the local coffee shop owner, they work together to uncover the cottage’s secrets, while navigating their growing feelings for each other.

I loved Jen DeLuca’s Well Met series, so I was excited to dive into her new Boneyard Key series. The ghostly elements and the rich history of the small town were highlights for me, and the supporting characters added a lot of fun to the story. However, I found the romance between Cassie and Nick a bit dull, and their relationship felt too neatly resolved by the end. I'm still looking forward to seeing other characters take the lead in future books. As for the audiobook, Jeannie Sheneman did a great job, but I think dual narrators would have enhanced the experience since the story alternates between Cassie’s and Nick’s perspectives. Overall, I’d rate this a 3.5-star read, but I rounded up to 4 stars on Goodreads.

Haunted Ever After is the first book in Jen DeLuca’s new Boneyard Key paranormal romance series. It follows Cassie Rutherford, who is tired of feeling left behind by all of her friends who are getting married and having babies, so she goes looking for a fresh start and buys a historic cottage in Boneyard Key, the most haunted town in Florida.

Cassie works remotely but for some reason, cannot get her laptop to charge at the cottage so she heads to Hallowed Grounds, the local coffee shop, for some caffeine and an electrical outlet. When she meets the owner of Hallowed Grounds, Nick Royer, sparks fly immediately. When Cassie struggles to get the electrical problems resolved and starts spending more time at the coffee shop, Nick fills Cassie in on all of the ghostly lore that surrounds their town and the two of them start to bond.

While I thoroughly enjoyed watching Cassie and Nick bond over all things ghostly and was actively cheering on their blossoming romance, it was the paranormal aspect of the story that really made this story such a winner for me. I was absolutely fascinated by all of the unusual things that keep happening at Cassie’s cottage and that those happenings ultimately lead to a riveting cozy mystery subplot. I also loved Boneyard Key and how it fully leans into its paranormal vibes.

If you’re looking for the perfect book to kick off your spooky season reading this year, be sure to check out Haunted Ever After!

I was really eager to see what Jen would write after her Renaissance Faire series, and this didn’t disappoint. It’s a completely different setting and tone, but it has Jen’s signature humor and great character crafting!

I was sucked right into this story, and I absolutely loved how the paranormal elements played out. This book was fun and there was a great mystery element as well!

I am really hoping for more books in this series, and I’d love to return and meet more of the town’s living - and ghostly - residents!

Thank you to Berkley Romance for the eARC! All thoughts are my own.

Title: Haunted Ever After by Jen DeLuca
Publication Date- 08/13/24
Publisher- Berkley Publishing
Overall Rating- 3 out of 5 stars

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

Review: Haunted Ever After is a cozy paranormal romance. I found the the atmosphere and setting to be the most impressive part of the story. There were times where I was reading that I just felt cozy envisioning the setting. I also enjoyed the paranormal aspect with the ghosts and hauntings.

That being said, unfortunately that didn’t feel like enough for me. I did like both main characters and for a large part of the book they felt very one dimensional and not fully flushed out. I wanted a little more character and emotion behind the story. However, if you are looking for something really cozy, light hearted and atmospheric, this will hit the spot. It’s not overall smutty and can feel a little instalovey at times.

All in all this is a good book for spooky season, if you want to cozy up and just enjoy a light read.

I enjoyed the Well Met series at the ren faire. I really want to go this year. So of course I’m going to read a book by her about a haunted town.
This is just the cutest. These are the kind of ghosts that I’m ok with the ones that seem like they were so essential to the place they worked and owned that even their death can’t erase them. But only a few people are able to successfully communicate with them and in such unique ways.
There was a surly cafe owner and a woman who just moved to this small town in Florida. They slowly got to know each other and started to fall for each other. Enjoyed their progression as well. They were both so alone and a little out of practice dating and it was sweet.
All of the ghosts were pleasant and friendly except one but they were just angry. Loved the history of the town and the 15 who founded it with their gifts.

Thank you berkley romance for the gifted copies.

After Cassie's landlord informs her he's selling the house she rents, Cassie decides a change of scenery is in order. Unable to afford the housing prices in Orlando, Cassie finds a lovely, newly renovated home for a steal in Boneyard Key, FL. It's a small community that uses it's ghostly theme to full effect especially during tourist season. However, Cassie is in for a shocking surprise when it turns out the ghosts are real.

Nick is descended from the original fifteen families that settled in Boneyard Key. So Nick has a certain affinity for those of the past that choose to remain. Case in point, Nick runs Haunted Grounds one of two coffee shops in town, and is known to still take texts from the former owner of the shop who died nearly twenty years ago. It's all part and parcel for those that grew up here but to an outsider like Cassie it can be quite the shock. Especially, as it turns out, Cassie is living in the Hawkins House. No one has set foot in that house in decades and certainly not when mean Mrs. Hawkins was in residence. Turns out she might still be in residence today and Cassie will need Nick's help to unravel the mystery of Hawkins House.

This book sets the perfect mood of the spooky fall season that we're getting precariously close to in the real world. Despite it being set in the Spring and early Summer months, I still loved the ambiance.

I was also pleasantly surprised by and happy with the way that it really did give me a chill a few times without going over to being too scary and also offered a nice mystery to solve along the way. I really thought that Jen DeLuca did a great job of balancing everything between the scares, the mystery, the romance it all worked so well together all while creating this quirky fictional town that truly makes me wish I could visit.

Cassie and Nick were great together. I liked the initial moment of antagonism between them and I wish that had been played up more before they essentially fall for one another, but I'm not mad about it. They're also, for me, not the main thing I was invested with in the story. That honor goes to solving the mystery of Sarah Hawkins. I love when history comes back to have an impact on the present. I love digging up the information and putting the pieces together about why it's happening which Sarah's story highlights perfectly.

I'll also say that there are a lot of wonderful secondary characters all with some pretty enticing setups happening. I'm hoping the plan is for more books set in Boneyard Key.

Overall, this book is the perfect pick if you're ready to slowly start transitioning into the Fall season. Just spooky enough without the big scares.

i had so much fun reading this and it honestly made me want to go to florida and meet a ghost at the beach or something. while i figured out the ghostly mystery early on, it was fun to watch it all come together and see the characters react as they learned more and more. also loved the two main characters and how their relationship motivations were so similar but presented so differently because of their pasts.
overall, i definitely recommend and highly enjoyed! would love to see more books set in this town!

Haunted Ever After by Jen DeLuca is book one of the Boneyard Key series. I need to start of by saying I do not like anything spooky and while this book had some of the ghostly qualities, I absolutely adore it! This was the perfect amount of friendly spooky with amazing main characters in Cassie and Nick. The supporting characters were also fantastic and I can't wait to see if they get their own book since this is a series. I'm so excited for this series to continue and will highly recommend this read!

Real Rating 3.5

I had no idea where this book was going to go, but once I got started I realized it was what I wanted all along lol It had some issues, but it turned out really good and I was excited for that.

Ok so the biggest part of this that I liked was the paranormal ghostie aspect of it. I LOVED it. I was expecting it to take the background to the romance, but it didn’t. DeLuca has a way of creating worlds that make you feel fully immersed into it, and this was no different. First it was the Renaissance Faire and now it’s a small town riddled with ghosts. And I just thought that was the coolest thing. Coming from a coastal town that has a lot of ghosts stories too, this one really felt like home.

I didn’t care for the characters tho. Cassie and Nick were hella basic. Maybe it was me and my beef for the narrator tho, so let me know if you read the book book and think different. But the narrator was terrible. She made everything sound breathy and when it got to them getting busy she didn’t sound like that. So basically when she should have used that sound, she didn’t. Anyway, Cassie was the classic non-believer who just arrived and Nick was the one that lived there the whole time and knows what’s happening. Their romance was ok, but I just thought it was basic too. But when things started happening between them and they had the ghosts interfering in their relationship, that was the part I enjoyed the most.

I loved that the spooky parts were the forefront in this one tho. It was actually a pretty great story. I thought her using the fridge words before the ghosts made itself known was a bit much, but there may be people out there that actually do that lol I’ve only seen letters, but eh. The rest of it was really good. I was hooked trying to figure out what the “real” story was. I just needed to know what actually happened. Things continue to get worse, and at one point it got really creepy. Creepier than I expected for this to be a romance book. I was worried about Nick for a while, but I was glad to see that everyone pulled through.

The spooky bits in this and the town characters sold this book for me. I wasn’t too keen on the romance, but the fact that it wasn’t at the forefront of this really made it for me. Yeah they flirt throughout the story, but my main focus was the ghosts and I loved that they were such a big part of the story.

DeLuca's romance, with paranormal elements, tries to make a feminist point and still be a woo-woo ghost story. As an attempt, it is well-conceived and -executed. It is not, however, much of a romance: the trappings of writing in this new "paranormal" romance trend doesn't allow the author narrative room to develop the romance and so I didn't get a good sense of why this couple wanted, or needed to be together. There just wasn't enough on-page relationship development.

this book was such a fun read! we get steamy romance with a splash of cozy occult adventures. yes, it's the perfect fall read because spooky, but it can be enjoyed year round. i like how relatively seamless cassie and nick's love story is - they fall together so perfectly. most of their conflict is influenced by external forces, which i appreciate. thank goodness for no third act breakup! i am obsessed with the cast of characters in this story! who knew ghosts could have such a sense of humor?? sorry, nick and cassie, but elmer and sarah have my heart. also the friends cassie makes as she settles into her new life. SO wholesome - it's great to see people who care so much about her. boneyard key is the type of place you want to step into and stay awhile. this book is like the warmest hug.

Haunted Ever After is for those who want a healthy dollop of beachy Summerween vibe with their romance.

One thing that I really appreciate about this romance is how tonally unscary it makes the ghosts. Even when the protagonist is spooked, there is nothing overtly horrific, keeping that tone light and fun.

I think the ghostly aspect of the romance is well integrated and meaningful.

A cute and heartwarming small town romance with a little ghost flair is just what people will need as the fall months start to roll in! I've always been a fan of Jen DeLuca's books and her writing — Haunted Ever After is no different. The characters pull you in and I really loved the magical realism that was included in this book with the ghosts! It's so different from her Well Met series but it was a fun read that I can't wait to recommend to my friends.

I was so excited for a new series from this author. Sadly, this first book didn't work so well for me. I feel as if the setup of the ghost town took over more of the story, and the development of the couple suffered for it. There are future couples hinted at, and I am definitely excited for their stories. This one just didn't land for me. I trust the author, and I'm not saying this book is bad by any means. It just didn't land for me personally.

How do you feel about a ghostly roommate that won't stop trying to communicate with you? Should it have been disclosed before you bought your dream home on the beach that it was haunted? These are some of the questions our female main character, Cassie, is trying to work through. If you are looking for a sweet romance with loads of humor and whimsey, then you need to grab this book now. Great characters that are heartwarming and relatable with real issues draw you in and make you root for them while you also root for most of the ghosts! The plot is original and fun while also being compelling and entertaining. I absolutely fell in love with the town of Boneyard Key and all the residents, human and ghostly! For those who like a light spice story, this should do it for you. I absolutely can't wait to read the next book in the series to see who our main characters will be and what new ghosts we will meet!!

I was provided an ARC of this book via Netgalley and the Berkley Besties program, all opinions are my own.

This was adorable and if I could visit Boneyard Key as a tourist I would! I love Halloween and all things spooky, so this sounds like my kind of town.

This follows Cassie, an Orlando native, who recently moved to the small town of Boneyard Key, where tourists flock to visit for the towns local haunts pun intended. Nick runs the local coffee shop, and he happens to have a very special roommate, Elmer is the original owner of Hallowed Grounds and loves to tell Nick what to do. Cassie and Nick don't get off to the best start, but her frequent trips to the coffee shop quickly turn things around as they get to know each other. Her laptop won't charge and it is a critical part of her work from home job, especially now that she has a mortgage. Everything checks out with her electricity, and her laptop charges fine at the coffee shop or when someone else plugs it in at home, so she turns to the paranormal experts in the Key to see if there is something else wrong in her house. Turns out Cassie has an unexpected roommate too. Her house is famous around Boneyard Key, but it turns out the stories aren't exactly true, Cassie is determined to find out the truth about the Hawkins House and learn more about her spectral roomie.

This was such a fun book as we learn about the history of the town and Cassie and Nick get to know each other. I really like the way the author had both of them communicate with their ghosts, it was really creative and something I don't think I've seen before. Nick and Cassie take their time getting to know one another, and it seems like every time they take a step forward in their relationship something gets in the way and sends them two steps backward. I actually appreciated this, because while you knew there was going to be a romantic element between them it didn't take center stage and they actually got to know each other a bit first and got to have some serious conversations before making big declarations. I love a slow burn romance when done well and I really enjoyed this one! This is low on the spice scale.

I don't believe I've read anything else by the author in the past, but I am certainly in if there are more books in the series and I'll be checking out more books. Overall I loved this small town romance with a paranormal twist. It was really unique and I really enjoyed the creativity the author brought to the table with the plot and the characters.

Well that was the perfect level of spooky for a gal who doesn't do spooky. I loved the setting of Boneyard Key, as a life long Floridian who has always lived in big cities, those small beach towns along the gulf coast (the better coast) are so fascinating. I appreciated the creative forms of communication and how not all the ghosts were "bad" ghosts.

A great use of our side characters, hoping some of their stories are next! Thank you Berkley for the opportunity!