Thank you so much to the author and publisher for the ARC of Love at First Fright! This romcom was such a FUN surprise!! 4.25 ⭐️

The story follows Rosemary, a horror author who lands a movie deal on one of her books—only to find out she definitely does not approve of the actor cast as her male lead, Ellis. From the moment these two meet, the tension is top tier —sharp, witty, and electric in all the best ways.

Rosemary’s humor is subtle but so appreciated, and Ellis is the kind of infuriatingly charming character you can’t help but root for. Their dynamic kept me flipping pages way too late.

The ghost-seeing twist was fun, though not totally essential to the plot. Still, it gave the story a light, whimsical vibe that reminded me of Ghosts (the sitcom)—and I loved it.

Now, the spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
The latter half of the book turns up the heat, and omgggg was it good. Explicit, yes—but no cringe, no awkwardness, just beautifully written scenes that felt natural and emotionally rich. Absolute perfection.

Yes, the third-act conflict was predictable, but honestly? I didn’t care. This book was fun, fast-paced, and full of heart. Definitely recommend if you’re looking for a romcom with banter, a supernatural twist, and swoon-worthy spice!

Soft dnfing at 48%, unfortunately I wasn’t really feeling the chemistry between the mcs and found the book had a few too many of my own personal icks such as:

- canon mentions of Jane Austen and thus inner monologues about how it’s so hot that a man knows literally anything about Jane Austen (it’s not that hot, I dont understand and it keeps coming up constantly in contemporary romances I read so this was a slight trigger)

- inconsistent britishness/knowledge - at some point our fmc, who lived in the uk for a bit and has written a moderately successful book based in England, was surprised to learn that “love” is used as a term of endearment ?? That just made me laugh bc it felt like a strange thing for her to not have known let alone for her mmc to be the first to do to her but ok

- delayed sex for the sake of tension but there’s lowkey no stakes (self explanatory)

I was really hoping to enjoy this and kept willing myself to at least get to the spice because I did enjoy those parts the most throughout the book but I reflected on it and if I had done that, I would’ve purely been neglecting majority of the book since I didn’t really care at all about the book-movie being made and even the ghosts in love sideplot felt a little dry.

I did love the premise a lot in the beginning!

thank you so much nonetheless to netgalley and ballantine for this arc to review!

This story follows a horror author and an actor who is cast in an adaptation of her book. At first, there is some tension between the two (she doesn't really think he's right for the role, that kind of thing). There is a little portion of this book that feels like it's supposed to be an enemies to lovers sort of thing, but that switches up so fast that I would not consider this book to be enemies to lovers.

This was definitely a cute, quick and fun little read. I did want a bit more depth to the characters, I think them switching to liking each other so fast was what kind of threw me off for a bit there with these characters.

Also, there are ghosts. I feel like that was important to share. Also, the FMC sees animal ghosts?? If I could see animal ghosts, I would be petting them all.

This was definitely fun and definitely appropriate for a little autumnal romance read (so if you're preparing your seasonal TBRs, here ya go!).

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! My Goodreads review is up and my TikTok (Zoe_Lipman) review will be up at the end of the month with my monthly reading wrap-up.

it's always fun getting an ARC "off season". this is definitely a fall book, but i had no problem enjoying it!

i love a good celeb romance, especially when the other main character is doing "behind the scenes" work for whatever the other MC is famous for. Ellis and Rosemary were super cute and i loved how authentic their love felt.

at times, i started to get a little exasperated with the issues regarding publicity. him fake dating another actress, him being blackmailed about his sexuality by his manager, him lying at the end to protect rosemary from the sex tape that didn't exist. i understand all of these were meant as pressure points for the larger issue of ellis not being able to be honest in his public life, but at times it felt exhausting! i wish he had to grovel a little more at the end when he lied on television. when she said i'm sorry at the same time as him i was like - girl what?

this may just be me being toxic, i always want the man to grovel. even if the woman is in the wrong, i want men groveling in my romance books! he didn't do anything that needed significant apology, but i wanted more of a public statement and reckoning for everything that occurred prior to jumping to the epilogue. like i wish they went public and he retracted his statement, etc etc before the epilogue happened, and then they used the epilogue just to show us their happy life after that, not to tie up the loose ends, if that makes sense!

still a 4 star for me, i love a spooky love story

Huge thanks to Netgalley, Nadia El-Fassi and the publishing team for this eARC.

This is my first book by this Author but there is another in the series but can be read as stand alone. Our FMC Rosemary is an American Horror Author and our MMC is her leading Male Actor for her book that is being made into a horror movie. At the start of the story our FMC does not think the MMC is the right person casted to the role and she makes it known - there's a little bit of enemies to lovers going on but it dissipates pretty quickly into like and then love. This author is very conscious of using inclusive language and of representation in her story.

This book had a lot of spice scenes, more than I was expecting as I was expecting a cuter, fluffy story but overall i thought it was a great mix of plot and spice. All the supporting characters aren't overly complicated, add value to the story and make the world feel more complete. Something i really loved about this book was the element of the FMC being able to see ghosts - this was done really well and it added a lot of depth and whimsy to the story that i really loved.

**Spoiler**
There is a third act breakup but it is resolved quickly and without a ton of drama.

Overall, this was a super cute read - absolutely well timed with a fall release for spooky season. I look forward to seeing what this author writes next.



Overall rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Overall spice 🌶️ 🌶️🌶️

I have had the pleasure of reading both a Nadia's books but this one very well may be my favorite. Nadia has a way of bringing the characters to life and this was all around a fun read.

A wonderful read!
This novel drew me in from the very first page and kept me hooked until the end. The characters were vibrant and relatable, the writing was engaging, and the story had just the right balance of heart and humor. Highly recommend!
Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.