First things first, thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Man, I was so excited to read this... I went into this book with high hopes, especially as a fan of the author’s previous series.
But unfortunately it wasn't IT for me. While the premise was intriguing, the story took a direction that I really didn't feel connected and invested in.

Not so positive points for me:
The story focuses almost entirely on Collins and Brady, but both characters felt underdeveloped. Despite getting their POV, I still didn’t feel like I truly understood each of them. It was disappointing, especially given how strong the character work was in the author’s previous books. Also I didn't really feel a particularly strong chemistry between them until like 70% of the book...

The lack of presence from other characters, for example, Collins’s family was something that also bothered me. She returns home for them, yet they’re barely in the story—just a few scenes with her sister and parents, with little depth or emotional connection. It made the world feel flat and the relationships unconvincing.
If I'm being honest the whole ghost thing aspect didn’t work for me—it felt a bit far-fetched and hard to connect with, even by the end.
And what's with all the stammering? Just why?

Positive points:
Despite the issues I had with the plot and characters, I really enjoyed the writing. The prose was beautiful, and there were so many thoughtful, meaningful lines that stood out. As someone from a small town, I found the reflections on small-town life especially relatable!

I also appreciated the ending. Things tied together nicely, and I finally felt the sense of community the book had been hinting at all along. While I still didn’t love the ghost concept, I liked how it connected to Collins’s personal growth.

3.5 ⭐️

Every book Lyla writes gets better and better. This was the first book I was able to read in 15 days and I finished it in two. I can’t wait for the next one.

I really enjoyed Lyla Sage's first series, so when I saw she was writing another one, I was very excited!

This book was cute, but I felt like it was missing something compared to the last series. I struggled to want to keep reading and to care about the characters in the beginning. I do feel like things picked up as it went along and I really did enjoy the character overlap from the last series.

Overall, a cute book and a fun change from the first series' contemporary romance to paranormal contemporary romance.

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

This book confused me - It wasn't technically bad but I didn't enjoy myself either. I was so excited for Lyla's next book after reading the Rebel Blue Rach series. There was a lot of stammering that didn't seem to fit that frustrated me. I enjoyed the sprinkles of Amos and found family, but overall this book fell flat for me.

Thanks for the ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for this eARC!

I was unbelievably excited to receive this ARC because I love the Rebel Blue Ranch series so much! And let me tell you, Lyla Sage has done it again. This book was so adorable and also a really lovely exploration of life and death and the meaning of them both. It had the heartwarming message that the meaning of life is what you make of it and death isn’t the end, but a new beginning. Sage also played with the idea of fate a little bit, and even though I personally am not really a fate gal, it worked very well with what I came to know of the characters and their world.

On to the characters. I LOVE Brady. He's such a cutie. If I've learned anything from this book, it's that I absolutely need more nerd content in what I read because I was eating that ish up. I deeply appreciated all of Brady’s Lord of the Rings analogies (and his withheld joke about simply walking into Mordor) and having a horse named Shadowfax was the PERFECT bonding thing and I’m ashamed I hadn’t even thought about the possibility. Sage wrote the perfect “elevated normal guy,” by which I mean, he’s such a normal dude but he’s also the perfect gentleman and is genuinely very nice and sincere. Last note about Brady, he absolutely shocked me with his bedroom behavior. I was shocked. Love that for him though (or for Collins I guess).

I really liked Collins as an FMC. Also, love that her name is her mom’s maiden name because me too! So that was fun for me. Her journey with the ghosts was a very nice complete arc. I liked the way it was tied off loads. It was very fun to read about a character with the abilities she has and explore the way it impacted her childhood, especially living in a small town with so much history. It was also wonderful to read that in the FMC of a romance novel where it was simply a fact of life and not used to create any kind of weird tension. It was a helpful push for their relationship but, I think that it would still be strong if you removed that aspect.

I liked their relationship a lot as well. I was super glad we didn't go for a miscommunication thing in the third act. It would’ve been very easy with everything happening in the third act, so thank you Lyla Sage for steering clear of that trope. The way Sage chose to further their relationship was perfect the the kind of story this was, and allowed for a delightful amount of both banter and tender/intimate moments. I loved getting to know Sweetwater Peak and Collins with Brady and see Brady and Sweetwater through Collins’s eyes.

Speaking of Sweetwater Peak. Loved it. Cute asf town and Lyla has
once again nailed the small town vibe and absolutely made me fall in
love with it. There’s a balance of how much of background characters and adjacent setting one can show before it gets overwhelming or distracts from the main plot, but I think Sage does it very well.

Lastly, I love the Cartwrights. I can’t wait to see more of Joanie and Dex in the next one, they’re so wholesome. All of the family interactions we saw in this were so freaking cute; I love this little family. Also, I thought the exploration of Clarke and Collins’s relationship was a nice layer to the story and added a helpful amount of complexity to Collins’s journey and the arc with Toades.

As much as everything at the end w/ Amos and Cam was slightly fan service-y, I ATE. IT. UP. I was loving Amos and Boone the whole time, it was super cute to see that and hear bits about everyone we know and love from Boone’s perspective. It also felt very tonally correct for the Meadowlark crew to help our new Sweetwater friends; small towns stick together and all that. I loved all of that very much.

All of this to say, this book was great. I had high expectations and they were most certainly met. A wonderful book to pick up whether you have read Done and Dusted five times or have never heard of Lyla Sage.

Had to skim/basically DNF this one. :/

Stilted dialogue and actions, I felt not a lick of anything for anyone in this story. Kinda felt like fanfic writing but Wattpad not AO3 😭

All of the names annoyed me. Brady Cooper? If I typed that into Google it would say “did you mean Bradley Cooper?” idk Lyla Sage, did you??

This could’ve been so much more fun so I’m blaming fast publishing pressuring authors to churn things out!!!

Soul Searching deviates from what we have come to know and love from Lyla but does not disappoint. I loved getting to know the sleepy ghost town of Sweetwater Peak and devoured the story of Collins and Brady. Every character felt well rounded, with unique personalities and reasoning behind their actions. This book will make you yearn for fall (perfect release date) and everything that comes with the season. While I will miss the cowboys, I can't wait to see where Lyla takes us next.

3.5⭐️

I wanted to love this and i’m really sad i didn’t :(

I do really love Collins and Brady and the fact that he is so pathetic about her (the stutters are adorable) and it’s refreshing to have characters that are just kind of instantly smitten instead of trying to do a whole feelings-denial situation.


That being said, i feel like the plot was kind of everywhere. I think there were too many b-plots or things that were trying to happen that instead of developing one thing fully (not being able to hear the ghosts, reconnecting with photography career, trying to save the antique store, fighting with sister) we just got a little bit of each. I would have preferred to just be able to dig into 1-2 of these instead of trying to do them all.

The writing is good, no complaints there, and i think there are people out there who would adore this book, just wasn’t exactly what i was looking for!

Would still recommend to someone if they wanted a quick ghosty romance :)

Another Lyla Sage read! Basically a Ghost Whisperer rom-com. I really did like the sweet romance between Brady and Collin, and the exploring of Sweetwater Peak.

I did have a few things that bothered me plot-wise, that I couldn't shake my suspension of disbelief.

-Sweetwater Peak is SMALL. Sounds like the entire population is 7 people. One dirt road up to it, one paved main road, and apparently tiny enough that Collins and Clarke were the only girls in their entire elementary school. Yet the town maintains a cobbler and antique store?

**spoilers ahead**
Brady keeps talking about the photo essay that made him move to Sweetwater. He knows Collin’s worked for that magazine. He knows this is once again is an insanely small town and she’s a photographer. This was entirely too obvious that this was her published work. It's your first thought when he says he recognized the view from the old church (the abandoned old church only she knows about).

The 'evil corporation' Brady previously worked for doesn’t make a ton of sense. How are they making money from their empty buildings once they run out all the locals? This whole plot-line seemed completely unnecessary and being solved in 3 pages supported that.

Collins is just maybe a bit too quirky for me? A little too pepper spray happy, would rather work a full time job than stay in her twin sister's spare room, and can barely talk to her parents? She had a happy childhood even if she was compared to her twin and feeling stuck.

The vibes with this one were unreal. Lyla sets each scene so well that I feel like I have my own memories of seeing Coop’s, going to the old church, and walking down the dark roads in Sweetwater Peak. The writing style gave a gray but cozy nostalgic charm. Soul Searching would make a perfect stormy night read. Plus: this unbelievable cover? Are you KIDDING me? Brady and Collins felt like such unique characters, while also undoubtedly coming from Lyla’s genius brain. I’m not usually a huge fan of the small world trope, but I loved everything else about this book so much that it didn’t even matter to me by the end. In my opinion, this was a fun and unique take on a ghost story. Lyla Sage has cemented herself as an autobuy author for me. Now I’m sitting patiently, waiting for Clarke’s book.

Loved this new universe from Lyla Sage. Collins is a great character; she's feisty, independent and sometimes a bit of an a-hole; she's flawed and I love it. I love that her books have family at the heart of it, nothing is perfect but the love between family, the community and the love between the main characters stays strong and true.

Loved her other series but I just couldn’t get into this one. The ghost thing was kinda cool but the book felt really depressing and I felt like there was nothing to look forward to. Really slow. Had to DNF at 50%

This was a fun little read. Collins and Brady were great romantic leads, and I loved the paranormal, ghosty aspect to the story. Wish there was more of it, really. The slow burn was great, and I loved the Meadowlark character cameos! This was an arc from @netgalley and will be released on Sept 30. I just couldn't wait to read it!

*Will post a full review closer to release date

First of all I cannot believe I got to read this early I will never get over receiving early copies of books from authors I love 😭😭

Gosh I just feel at home with Lyla’s writing! There’s something about her storytelling that makes me feel at home and safe 🤍 it was so much fun getting to experience a whole new world and new characters but with the same
Lyla charm.

The ghost western town is so unique for the cowboy romance genre and I think Lyla’s experience reading horror really helped her in this book! It was definitely spooky at times and will be perfect as it comes out right before October!
The romance in this was just so tender and soft and a sloooow burn!! I def think this is her slowest burn yet and I was on the edge of my seat waiting for Collins and Brady to get together! I love their dynamic and the way they both see the world and how they love each other down to their marrow, the smallest things about each other they love and that is just 🥲🥲 I also love how flustered Brady gets around Collins!!!! A flustered man is hot there I said it!!! He also reminded me of Jacob from Yours Truly (which we all know I love) but Lyla always creates new and unique and lovable characters. I also love how unique Brady’s job is!

I loved the sister dynamics and I CANNOT WAIT for her book + the found family that’s already built in one book

Also Lyla’s writing is just so beautiful but also I can visualize it so well?? She’s incredibly talented at what she does and I’m honored to be on the planet at the same time as her <3

This story had so many good vibes. The romance, the ghosts but set in a western. I can see why many people will love this one.

Let me begin with this- if Lyla Sage writes it, I will read it.
There’s something so cozy in the way that she brings together family relationships, atmosphere, and romance to create a knockout novel, and this one hit the mark.

““This really is a treasure trove,” Brady said, and I had no idea whether he meant this cellar, this town, or this thing we were building, but it didn’t really matter, because then he kissed me again.”

Collins is bumbling around life, lost and reeling from a past that she both can’t escape and can’t reconnect to, either. When she makes the choice to return home and try to channel (literally) what she’s lacking from her life, fate brings her to Brady’s upholstery shop, Coop’s.
Together, they forge a path toward what they were both searching for all along- home. This book hits you in all of the feels and the ending made me scream- I can’t wait to see what Lyla Sage has in store next.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC!

such a cute and romantic book. not usually one who likes ghosts but that with romance and a small town worked perfectly! the character combo was amazing and by the half way mark of the book i couldn’t put it down!

Truly under the impression that Lyla Sage can do no wrong. After leaving Meadowlark, I wasn't sure anything would live up to the feelings those books evoked in me. Boy was I wrong. Sweetwater Peak is going to have me hooked. This book was beautiful in a multitude of ways. From Collins' self discovery, the pure love between Collins and Brady, and the representation of sister relationships. The cameos, the setting, the sheer amount of love throughout this book!!! Lyla Sage you are amazing. I cannot wait to hear more about book two, the setup that we were left with has me absolutely hooked!

im struggling a lot with this one. it’s currently a dnf for me.
i might try again in the future but right now its not it.

Im not feeling a connection with the characters, i’m not vibing with the plot.. ugh

Just wrapped up Soul Searching by Lyla Sage and totally fell for this small-town, slow-burn romance. The characters have such heart, and the emotional depth hit all the right spots. It’s got laughs, longing, and just the right amount of spice. Perfect for a cozy weekend read!

If you’re into second chances and soul-deep connections, add this to your TBR.