Thank you Harlequin Trade Publishing and E.M. Anderson for allowing me to read this lovely story before its publication date in exchange for an honest review.

What is grief, if not love persevering?

This book ripped at my heartstrings, basically all but destroying them several times, and then delicately put them back together. It is a beautiful take on grief, complex family dynamics, and choosing to move forward in your life despite an overbearing sense of guilt. If you like chosen family or slow-burn romance tropes, this book is for you.

This book sort of reminded me of Ghost Whisperer, as the main character's goal is to help spirits pass over. However, this book focuses much more on the emotional motives of the spirits, which was written very beautifully. Peter, an immortal trapped in the body of a 70-year-old, will easily become one of your favorite book characters of all time as you read about him sharing his vast emotional wisdom with a plethora of spirits and the living.

Overall, I loved this book. It was cozy, heart-breaking, heart-warming, all of the hearts. I cannot wait to read more by this author moving forward.

SPOILERS BELOW:

I rated this book four out of five stars, for two main reasons. One, I loved the book's plot progression and felt very immersed throughout, never waiting for any scene to end to get to the next one. However, there is a sort of fight scene that occurs towards the end that feels like the MCU meets Ghostbusters, and it did not really work for the overall vibe in my opinion. Additionally, there were parts of Peter and Sayid's powers that I wish were explained just a touch more. Sayid's storyline of yielding such powers felt unfinished.

This review will be posted on my GoodReads today (March 25th), and on my Instagram as well. Links are added below.

Thank you to HTP books and MIRA for the gifted ARC
👻🌳✨️🪦🪴🫂
This one is a bit different from the books I usually read but it sounded interesting and i'm so glad I gave it a try! I really loved it!! It's a cozy queer fantasy, with some horror/supernatural elements especially towards the end. There's a curse and a mystery and a spooky cemetery and a wonderfully diverse cast of characters.

"That's what life is."
"You lose people you love and you love more people and you lose them, too, and you keep loving anyway because what's the point otherwise?"

Peter is a groundskeeper cursed with immortality & doomed to wander from town to town sending restless spirits on their way. He ends up in a small town in Ohio where an angry spirit is hiding in the cemetery. Peter quickly becomes attached to the residents and the town. Should he leave and put them in danger or stay and get everything he's ever wanted ... even if it means he will one day outlive these people he's come to care for?

I just loved Peter, he's had a rough go of it. Poor guy. But he's such a good person and he just wants everyone else to be okay and safe. Even though he's not going to stay, he cares so much. I just wanted some sort of happy ending for him. He deserved to be happy. And David. He's so precious, with his goofy, colorful outfits
I adored these two so much!! I genuinely loved all the characters, a wonderful found family!

I loved how the mystery of the ghost was handled and I definitely gasped when it was revealed!!
The more serious things like therapy and grief and loss of a loved one was also done well and with care. Pretty much every character is dealing with the loss of a loved one, so be aware of that before reading.

Several queer characters and oh so beautifully written, the descriptions of the cemetery and forest are so lush that I almost felt like I was there.

There's honestly so much more to this book that i'm not saying! But it's so good!
The Keeper of Lonely Spirits is OUT NOW! Please go get yourself a copy!

I utterly adore the concept of this book. When I read the synopsis, I needed it. Immediately. Unfortunately, I have some personal hang ups that made what this book is actually about less for me than I wanted it to be.

This book does so many things so interestingly and so well. The characters are incredibly diverse for small town Ohio and they’re endearing as people. The way that ghosts work and the lore for what Peter does and how is interesting and makes sense while also feeling just a little unique. A lot of the prose is very pretty. When the action hits, I was hooked. Genuinely, there’s a lot to love here and I’m glad a lot of people seem to be enjoying it so far. It just was not for me.

Peter, our lonely groundskeeper, cannot die. I knew this. I always expect these immortals to be somewhere between 20-40 in appearance and sometimes countenance because that’s what you usually see. Peter hits at 70-80. I really truly struggle to read about characters like that and that’s fully on me. I’m stating it here only because I know it may be a hang up for someone else as well and I’d like to save you the trouble.

The tone and writing style is also very whimsical most of the time. This book is cozy but also kind of horror, if that makes sense, and sometimes with cozier storylines the whimsy just takes over and the logic doesn’t have to apply. A lot of people don’t mind that, but I overthink everything so little inconsistencies or anything that feels like it needs fact checking will stop me cold and I obsess over it a little. There’s a lot of that here and, again, that’s a subjective problem and not really a statement on how well this story was crafted.

That said, there were some less subjective problems I had with this book too. The plot was very drawn out, repetitive, and a little plodding up until the 60% mark when things actually started happening. It took 300 pages to get a backstory that all of the important parts had already been sprinkled into the narrative. I feel like I lived Peter’s past probably twenty times by the end and it was excessive. There’s so much buffer and fluff here that the plot structure kind of collapses; it could have been 150 pages shorter and still hit every emotional beat (flip floppy as they were, as intended). I truly enjoyed a lot of the last 30% of this largely because it tightened up. There were less extraneous details in the descriptions, people were reacting in a less easy going way (I will rant for days about the al Masri’s not being more worried about their kids hanging out with Peter before they even knew his name), and things that mattered were finally happening.

Before I get bogged down with things that don’t matter for this review, I want to reiterate that this isn’t a bad book. It’s a bad book for me. There’s a distinction I feel it’s important to truly make. This book is heartfelt and it’s a beautiful take on grief and love and what makes a home. I truly hope many people pick it up and enjoy it and see what they need to within its pages. Just maybe skip it if you’re not a fan of octogenarian narrators and can’t turn off the overly analytical part of your brain is all.

Thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for this eARC given in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions here are entirely my own.

I’d planned to finish this last week to help drum up hype for this book. Unfortunately, a number of things kept pushing it back. Here is my review of an ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley, on release day. Go out and buy it. It’s worth buying and reading right now!

Anderson’s content warning within their author’s note at the beginning was well done. Often, it’s a simple list, but the explanation of what happens supported by why felt authentic and less like a nod to current conventions and more like the author thoughtfully considered her readers.

The opening chapter is gorgeously written, grabs Your heart and rips it right out. You could read just the first Chapter as a complete short story, but I'm so glad we have an entire novel to learn about Peter Shaughnessy, why he's so lonely, and if those wishes and wants he hints at in the first Chapter get answered.

The story progresses with a person of very old and slightly curmudgeonly morals and behavior who can calm ghosts and help the onto the next life.

Anderson clearly cares about her characters and her readers. It's plain in the topics she broaches in Keeper and the way she handles them, with compassion.

I found myself saying to myself, hot damn this is good several times. Anderson's foreshadowing is spectacular.

Anderson sets up a cozy mystery and there are a lot of mysteries. She strings them out and answers them slowly.

You know the trope about the unwilling protagonist? Anderson takes that trope and cranks it up to 11. See Charlie Jane Anders review in The Washington Post and Bluesky posts about the book. Peter fights and fights and fights and by the time we know why, we understand and our hearts are breaking. And then the twist I did not see coming wholloped me right upside the feels. There's a meme for this.

The best line in the book: “Guarantee you won’t kill me,” he said. “But you can try.” Just wait until you get there!

The Keeper of Lonely Spirits is not what I expected in what turned out to be the BEST way.

Maybe I didn’t do enough info gathering or maybe I was just not in the mood, but the first part of this book was slow for me to get into. This was definitely a me problem and honestly, just sometimes happens as a mood reader. I put it down for a little while and when I came back to it it felt like an entirely different book. Does that ever happen to you? Just me? Ok, well…it’s just how I’m built.

I’m so glad that I gave this book another shot because it ended up being so so good. This book is about grief, loss, relationships, and how we do (or don’t in some cases) move forward after experiencing loss. It’s touching and tearful and heartbreaking in a way that a book can only be when the subject matter is relatable and real. E.M. Anderson brings so many beautiful characters to life in this book.
- Peter Shaughnessy, a ghost hunter with a tragic past.
- Nevaeh, a young woman struggling with the sudden death of her beloved father.
- Sayid and Samira, two young siblings who are feeling alone and unmoored while their parents do their best to balance an impossible situation.
- David, a museum curator whose long time partner passed away.
Just to cover a few of my favorites.

I would definitely recommend you read this if you’re wanting a cozy, slightly spooky, queer paranormal story with beautiful friendships and a little bit of romance.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing for the gifted digital ARC of this book. This is my honest review.

The blurb for this says “cozy fantasy,” but I actually think it hits the narrative beats of “cozy mystery” or even “cozy horror”—is that a genre?! The main character, Peter, was cursed by a fae two hundred years ago; he can never die, never return home, and now sees ghosts. Originally, he tried settling down with a man he loved, only to watch him grow old and die while Peter stopped aging around 70. Now, Peter has spent decades refusing to put down roots, wandering from town to town helping restless spirits move on (and stop tormenting the locals).

This is a slow paced exploration of Peter’s guilt and struggle with his immortality. There is a lot of charming relationship building with the local community, a hint of a romantic plot line with a local widower, and a surprising amount of actually tragic and scary ghosts. This is much more about the characters than about the nitty gritty of the curse or the mechanics of the ghosts, lending that cozy vibe to a book that is also fairly sad at times. Still, I appreciated the threads of hope woven throughout. If you like queer found family that involves a whole community and don’t mind a bit of paranormal horror in the process, I think you’ll really enjoy this one.

I enjoyed the themes here and parts of the story, but I can’t quite say it always held my attention, so maybe 3.75 stars.

Peter Shaughnessy looks like an grumpy old groundskeeper taking care of cemeteries, but in reality he is a cursed immortal who has the abilities to speak to plants and ghosts, and travels around different towns to rid them of malevolent ghosts before moving on to the next place before he can get too attached. He arrives in Harrington, OH for the next hunt, but the townspeople start rooting deep into his life. As he starts feeling more at home, the ghost he was hunting turns more malevolent, and a spirit from his past returns to haunt Peter, too.

So it’s a little predictable in a way with an immortal man who loses all his loved ones because he outlives them all, so as a result he hardens himself and doesn’t let anyone in, until he meets some people who force their way in. The fantasy elements are light mixed with a bit of a mystery (not too hard to figure out tbh), but the focus of this was the characters, their relationships, and grief. The author’s note says this is a sad book and that is very true, but it makes sure to add in hope and heartwarming aspects to make it cozy and comforting as well.

The protagonist, Peter, is well developed, and the side characters were as well, with their own lives and problems outside of the main plot that brought them to life. No character was flat, but for some reason I couldn’t quite connect to any in particular, so I wasn’t as moved by the emotional moments as I feel I should’ve been. There’s some romance as well between Peter and another older gentleman, but it was fine, I guess. Idk if it’s my biases but it seemed a bit more focused on physical attraction more than emotional as I prefer, so it wasn’t my favorite. The middle dragged at parts, and I liked the ending for the most part, but I’m not entirely convinced it tied up all the loose ends in Peter’s arc as it appeared.

This book was unique in many aspects, very gentle and kind and comforting, but I wasn’t as moved by it as I wanted to be. Still, would recommend!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for a review!

I’ve always loved ghost stories and ghost hunters (I was a big Supernatural fan back in the day). But I’ve never read a book about an immortal ghost hunter who struggles not only with his immortality, but with when to go and when to stay.

Peter was a complicated character with a difficult past, but that doesn’t stop him from treating the ghosts he hunts and helps move on with such gentleness and kindness. There was such compassion in this book; it was clear that Peter struggled with wishing he too could move on after 200 years alive, but that jealously never colored his kindness when helping someone move on.

Peter is also probably the oldest protagonist I’ve ever read from (stuck in time in his 70s). I enjoyed seeing how that affected his story and what things he could and couldn’t do.

Overall, this was a really sweet, cozy read. I loved all the inclusivity in this story and can’t wait to pick up a physical copy on release day 😊

I definitely enjoyed this book more towards the end and there was a scene that made me a little teary eyed. However, it did feel as though it started off a little slow and took a bit to really get into.

I loved the direction the story went and all of the representation spread throughout.

I think I would have been happier if the ending had a little more added to it and had a more substantial feeling to it since the book definitely focused on things like that.

Overall, it was a but slow, but definitely enjoyable.

A paranormal ghost story, with a touch of horror, layered with a sweet queer rom com between two grieving men. Peter was cursed (you won't know how or why) many years ago and now he can't die and he wanders the world seeking angry spirits-not always quite ghosts but sometimes- who need to move on. And he helps them. He arrived in Harrington, Ohio after hearing about a particularly difficult one and his whole life changes. First he meets two children and then he meets David, who is mourning the death of his husband. But there's a vengeful spirit out there which sets up a confrontation between them- and which finally provides some answers for Peter. I was surprised at how much I liked this. The storytelling is good and you, like me, will fund yourself roped in and rooting for Peter and his new friends. Especially David. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A very good read.

Equal parts cozy and heart wrenching, this book had me alternating between cooing over the sweet found family and sobbing over my desk during my lunch break.

The first few chapters of the book I struggled to find my stride with the voice and the characters but the second Samira came onto the scene and adopted Peter as Favored Adult, my heart was stolen.

If you cry at books I might recommend this as an at home read and not an in public read. Unless you’re cooler than I am about people seeing you cry.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, I’ve had this preordered for what feels like forever but I’m so glad I didn’t have to wait to read it.

This book is a beautifully written, emotionally gripping story that pulls you in from the very first page. It has a perfect mix of mystery and heartache. A must-read for anyone who enjoys powerful, soul-stirring fiction. Five stars without a doubt!l

I was fortunate to get an ARC copy of this book for an honest review!

Peter has lived a long time (over 200 years), and he goes through life helping spirits move on. Peter's story is heart-wrenching and emotional. He makes his way to Harrington, Ohio, where his life changes forever. The characters he meets there are interesting and well thought out. They were my favorite part of the book. I enjoyed getting to know David, Samira, Sayid, and Neveah. Even though they are minor characters, they are integral to Peter's growth. This isn't really a ghost story, but a story of Peter's personal growth. Unfortunately, the climax fell flat for me. There was a lot of build up, only for the conflict to be resolved too easily. To me that was the most interesting part of the novel, and it took me almost sixty-five percent of the novel to become interested in what would happen next.

Over 200 years ago, a young man is cursed to never return home to his native Ireland. With his eternal curse, he gains the ability to communicate with ghosts & plants, so he wanders from town to town to help ghosts move on.

When he moves to Harrington, Ohio, he thinks this town will be like the rest. He'll find the ghost haunting the town, help it to move past whatever is keeping it from moving on, then he'll leave before anyone can remember he was there. He makes no connections. But, Harrington proves different. Despite his best efforts to remain distant, the townsfolk make their way into his life and, eventually, his heart.

Without a doubt, my favorite aspect of this book was the characters. I love the established relationships and the ones that blossomed as the story unfurled. I loved the glimpses into their heads which really allowed me to know the characters and better understand their motives. Even the minor characters felt fleshed out and real.

While the characters made me fall in love with the story, the mystery made me stay up too late to finish it. The reveal felt obvious to me, but the way the characters reacted to it really had me *in* that moment.

Come for the cozy mystery, stay for found family.

Thanks to NetGalley for this arc!

This was a beautiful book! The depictions of grief were so real and vulnerable. I enjoyed this a lot, particularly the way the characters were written. They all felt real and distinct which made the book super engaging! Would recommend!

Oh this was such a pleasant surprise of a book! I was unfamiliar with this author going in, and I will absolutely be keeping them on my radar from now on! Taking what could have been a predictable premise and turning it entirely on its head with the lead character had me won over within just a few pages!

Peter Shaughnessy has dedicated his extremely long, cursed life to putting ghosts to rest. After a run in with one of the folk back in Ireland almost two centuries ago, he's had the ability to see ghosts and talk to plants - and he's barred from returning home... and refuses to get attached to people after everyone he's ever loved has long since died. So when he follows rumors of a haunting to tiny Harrington, Ohio, his goals are to deal with the ghosts and NOT to get involved in the lives of the living there. But the young director of the cemetery where he's placed himself as groundskeeper desperately needs therapy after the death of her father (whose ghost lingers nearby and refuses to leave until she does so), two children are constantly sneaking into the cemetery, and a very attractive museum curator is researching the cemetery's history and could use some protection.

The delight I felt when I realized I was getting to read about an immortal trapped in the body of a 70-year old! That fact alone immediately changes so much about the premise of this book. That he's also some flavor of asexual is also a high point. And the diversity in this book is just so lovely - all of the characters are so different and Anderson has managed to fit in so much representation without it feeling tokenized. This is just how small towns are! Sure, there's a mystery and an aggressive ghost for the main plot, but this book is SO cozy anyway. It's an elderly immortal trying and failing to avoid getting attached. The romance was minor, but so so so precious, especially in how it handled the aftermath of grief and healing together.

Seriously, I could babble about how soft this book is for paragraphs. Please just read it.

This is an unusual type of cozy fantasy. Personally, I'm not always a fan of cozy fantasy. Sometimes it's just a bit too much of characters just vibing in a nice and cozy environent you wished you lived in, but there's just not enough going on for it to be interesting. This book wasn't like that.
It's not "everything's nice and we're just vibing" cozy, it's more of a "we've all have trauma and shit going on but it's easier if we hold hands" cozy, which I really liked.

The story follows Peter, a man who was cursed by the folk in Ireland to forever wander far from home. This means he cannot return to Ireland, and cannot die. He travels around towns, where he stays for a while to help ghosts move on, and then moves on himself, never stayng long enough to get attached. After all, everyone dies at some point and he doesn't.

What I really liked was that Peter presents as a man in his seventies. He's not forever young like a lot of immortal characters are, he is an old guy, and remains an old guy. I think this made for a nice dynamic, because over 200 is a lot older than 70, but he feels realistic and grounded as an immortal rather than having a several centuries year old being look like mid 20s and act like a teenager. He also has a romance subplot with a man in his 70s who lives in that town, who lost his husband a year prior.

Apart from the love interest, there's a great cast of side characters. There's Nevaeh, who works at the graveyard with Peter, and is struggling with her grief for her father. My personal favorites were Sayid and Samira, a pair of siblings, who first meet Peter while breaking into the graveyard at midnight because Samira is a fearless little girl who tends to act out in response to difficult things happening. The two children start looking up to Peter like a grandfather, which I thought was really sweet. They're also dealing with some things in the family, since their grandfather is dying of dementia.

I think grief is the overarching theme of this book, what loss does to people, but also to keep loved ones close. Peter has already lost everyone he knew from his own lifetime, and has become detached to avoid having to experience that loss over and over, and his character arc is about finally letting people in again, because living in solitude is no way to live, and love is worth it even if eventually you will lose someone.

There's also a ghost mystery in this book, as there's an especially powerful and angry spirit stuck in this village, and much of the plot revolves around Peter trying to figure out who it is and help them pass on, which is not so easy, and he really needs the help of all the side characters to figure this out since some of them, have more knowledge about the town's history, its ghost stories, etc, and I think overall there was enough tension in the story to keep me interested.

Would recommend this to people who enjoy quieter fantasies and stories about grief and loss, and people who would like to see more fantasy with old MCs.

Thank you E.M. Anderson, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and NetGalley for an electric advance readers copy of this book in exchange for a honest and fair review.

This was so darling. It's been a awhile where a book moved me to tears at the end. It's was intense with the ghosts at times yet sweet and loveable with the chosen family. I'm a sucker for a chosen family story. It definitely wasn't what I thought it would be but I loved it so much. My only small issue was when they started to tell the back story of the MMC it felt forced but once it started I was hooked and I just wanted to finish the book to get everything revealed. I loved this book. The author got me in the feels and hooked me emotional.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!!

This year’s cozy fantasy has been amazing and I’m always here for it. This deals with grief, love, and finding yourself. I also really loved the horror influences with the spirits and the charm of the MC. This book was so fun to read and I’m looking forward to more!!

"In this mesmerizing, wonderfully moving queer cozy fantasy, an immortal ghost hunter must confront his tragic past in order to embrace his found family.

Find an angry spirit. Send it on its way before it causes trouble. Leave before anyone learns his name.

After over two hundred years, Peter Shaughnessy is ready to die and end this cycle. But thanks to a youthful encounter with one o' them folk in his native Ireland, he can't. Instead, he's cursed to wander eternally far from home, with the ability to see ghosts and talk to plants.

Immortality means Peter has lost everyone he's ever loved. And so he centers his life on the dead - until his wandering brings him to Harrington, Ohio. As he searches for a vengeful spirit, Peter's drawn into the townsfolk's lives, homes and troubles. For the first time in over a century, he wants something other than death.

But the people of Harrington will die someday. And he won't.

As Harrington buckles under the weight of the supernatural, the ghost hunt pits Peter's well-being against that of his new friends and the man he's falling for. If he stays, he risks heartbreak. If he leaves, he risks their lives."

Them folk are dangerous for sure. Just read a book about them.