
Member Reviews

Thank you NetGalley and Alcove Press for the digital advanced copy of A Heart So Haunted by Hollie Nelson. This review reflects my honest thoughts and opinions.
After the sudden death of her aunt, Landry returns to her hometown—a place haunted by memories of an abusive mother and a toxic ex-boyfriend. Landry has spent years punishing herself for not being stronger, isolating herself from friends, and guarding her heart. Her goal is to renovate her aunt’s old house to put it on the market. However, the house holds a secret of its own: a dark spirit, Hadrian, is trapped within, reliving his own painful past. As their stories intertwine, both must confront the true monsters in their lives in hopes of finding peace.
From the start, I was intrigued by the novel’s premise. It promised a Beauty and the Beast-style romance wrapped in a thoughtful exploration of complex trauma and its devastating effects on one’s well-being. However, I was ultimately disappointed. A Heart So Haunted presents a semi-engaging but meandering plot that never fully develops. I was left unsatisfied and wishing for more emotional weight.
The cast of characters is initially appealing and likable. Landry’s relationship with her sister, Emma, stood out as one of the stronger emotional threads, but it was underexplored. Their arc felt unfinished, with key developments either glossed over or resolved too subtly between the lines. Similarly, the love story between Landry and Hadrian lacked depth. Important moments in their connection seemed to occur off-page, leaving me confused and disconnected. As a reader, I felt excluded from the emotional beats that should have grounded Landry’s transformation.
On a more successful note, Landry’s interactions with her mother and ex-boyfriend were emotionally resonant. Nelson portrays abusers with nuance, avoiding one-dimensional villainy and instead presenting them as deeply flawed individuals shaped by their own unresolved pain.
This novel, like a house, has strong bones but lacks the detailed craftsmanship needed to create a cohesive story. In stories involving paranormal and magical elements, I expect clear rules—whether they’re overt or subtly implied through context. Unfortunately, I found myself increasingly frustrated as the house’s sentience and Hadrian’s curse felt inconsistent and loosely defined. For example, Hadrian’s ability to shift between monster and man, his interaction with the physical world, and even his ability to leave the house were all confusing and insufficiently explained. These magical inconsistencies undermined the internal logic of the story, making the supernatural elements feel more like convenient plot devices than integral parts of the world-building.
At its heart, though, this book is about trauma—and that’s where it finds its strongest footing. In real life, trauma doesn’t resolve neatly, and Nelson captures that complexity with authenticity. Landry’s entire well-being is shaped by what happened in her past, and her healing hinges on reclaiming control over her life. A key part of that journey lies in her friendships, which made me wish the ending offered a more meaningful resolution to those relationships.
In the end, this novel felt like a blend of a Hallmark romance (woman renovates a house and falls in love with a ghost) and a Lifetime drama (woman returns home to confront painful memories). I’d recommend it to readers who enjoy those genres and are looking for a light, atmospheric read with darker undertones—but not to those seeking a deeply layered or tightly plotted narrative.

🖤 Bookish Thoughts
A Heart So Haunted is a slow burn romance... like very slow burn! The pacing was slower than I expected overall, but I still enjoyed the book. It picked up alot in the last 25%!
I mean, I’ll never say no to a gothic monster romance! This one is eerie, and would be a perfect pick for Spooky Season.
📖What to Expect
• Haunted house
• Monster Romance
• Grief and healing
• Gothic vibes
• Slow burn
📅 Pub Date: October 21, 2025
Thank you to Alcove Press and NetGalley for the advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

A Heart So Haunted was my first book by Hollie Nelson. I thoroughly enjoyed Landry's story. It was an interesting and unique premise. I will be recommending A Heart So Haunted to my book club.

First of all, Laudry is living my dream of inheriting an old house to renovate lol. Haunted or not! 😂
This book was super cute, it was a super quick and easy read. Very very slow burn, I barely felt the burn at all lol but it was still a fun read to knock out in one sitting.
Thank you to NetGalley, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts are my own and are in no way influenced by early access to this title.

Interesting concept! I did love how the beginning kinda set you on the edge and had you wondering if the house was really haunted. It felt a bit like a goosebumps book from when I was a kid. But after that the pacing felt pretty slow to me and I wish it had been a bit faster. Not my favorite book but I thought it was well written and could definitely be someone else’s cup of tea!

A Heart so Haunted by Hollie Nelson is a mix of broken hearts that tell the story of not just surviving any longer, but living. Landry inherits her aunt’s haunted Victorian home. She finds herself become familiar with the being that haunts the house while renovating it to sell. Mixed between monster and man, Hadrian is haunted by his past and his spirit cannot move on until he finds what he needs. Landry helps Hadrian, but they find themselves falling for each other while they search.
This story was interesting. Filled with heartbreak, betrayal, and tragedy. The story had me feeling for Landry as she navigated her ED (eating disorder), her addict mother, and grief of losing her aunt. While the story was slower and didn’t grip me fully, I did appreciate the haunting feeling that the author conveyed throughout the book. If you love Victorian gothic vibes, a good cry, and a romance that resists the boundaries of life and death then you will thoroughly enjoy this.

I enjoyed this book for the most part! I realized it wasn't for me; however, I can see a lot of people loving this. It had dark themes and was rather slow paced, but still atmospheric. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

i'm having a hard time rating this book, because i did like the premise. it wasn't a bad book, but i feel like this would've benefitted from another round of editing. the beginning of it was pretty slow, to get to an ending that felt like a literary whiplash. i feel like everything happened in that last section of the book, and i wish it had been more spread out.
regardless, i did enjoy the atmosphere a lot, and i did like the characters, so that's great!!
i just wish the pacing had been a little different.

This one is hard to rate, because I loved the story but there was so much build up that it felt like the story didn't really get to start until pretty far into the book. I don't mind a slower pacing, but this was a bit too much. However, I can see where someone else would really like that and could help build up the suspense for them, but not for me.

A captivating story! I read this in one sitting, as it was hard for me to set the book down. Parts of this book were equally frustrating as they were satisfying. I was really rooting for the heroine to succeed! A large part of this story is watching her learn to stand up for herself. It was refreshing to see her journey to see her earn confidence.

This really hit the spot for a moody, gothic romance. Landry inherits her aunt’s eerie old manor and finds a hidden door that leads to a version of the house filled with memories… and a cursed, yellow-eyed creature named Hadrian. He’s broody, thoughtful, and quietly vulnerable—and their slow burn connection was so lovely to watch unfold.
There’s a lot of darkness and past pain here, but also healing and comfort. Their late-night chats were my favourite parts—tender, honest, and beautifully written.
Some of the magical elements left me a little confused at times, but the atmosphere, the visuals, and the emotional depth made up for it. Definitely check the trigger warnings—it’s slow, haunting, and really heartfelt.
Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

This novel hooked me with its unique premise. A haunted house, a trapped spirit, and a woman returning home to face her past. I loved the eerie atmosphere and the slow reveal of the house’s secrets, as well as the tender connection between Landry and Hadrian. Their shared journey of healing and trauma was moving and heartfelt.
However, the story sometimes felt uneven. The curse tying Hadrian to the house was never fully explained, and the supernatural rules felt inconsistent. Some side characters lacked depth, and the ending left me with more questions than answers, feeling more like a cliffhanger than a true conclusion.
Overall, it’s an atmospheric, character-driven story blending gothic horror vibes with a slow-burn romance and themes of healing. I’d recommend it to readers who enjoy emotional, haunted house stories — just don’t expect all the loose ends to be tied up.

Unfortunately, this book fell really flat for me. The story never fully caught my attention and I felt like I had to force myself to finish.
The story dragged, the ending felt rushed, and the romance was lacking.

When I saw this book was being advertised as Ashley Poston meets A House with Good Bones, I was so excited. I'm a huge fan of Poston and Kingfisher. Unfortunately, I think the book is being very mismarketed. The summary makes you think this is some type of monster romance, but the monster is just a dude who sometimes looks like a monster. The house barely does anything. I figured with a T. Kingfisher comp there would be some horror aspects and there really aren't any. I can understand the Poston comparisons more, however I didn't get that deep connection to the characters I would need to hit that high of a level.
Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is bad in Landry's life. And it's bad in an over the top kind of way that gets in the way of the parts of the story that the author is trying to keep grounded. Landry grew up with a mother who neglected her to the point that it was abuse and who is now terrible force in her life, her father emotionally neglected her, her ex-boyfriend was abusive, she had an eating disorder, her aunt, who she loved dearly, just died. For a book that's only 340 pages long, this is so much to try and work through. This also really messes up the pacing of the book, because for a large chunk Landry doesn't want to do anything about it, so she's in this holding pattern that is dragging to read about and the plot is also barebones, so there isn't any momentum to grab onto. In fact, Landry doesn't want to push the plot forward either because of what will happen when to a close.
The romance with Hadrian didn't work for me. They really don't share much time together on page, so I never got invested. Hadrian doesn't really even show up fully until way too far into the book.
The author also is definitely trying to find something profound to say, but a lot of the time either it's something that is trite or something that doesn't make sense. At one point the book was trying to parallel three different characters to say something about anger and hurt, but the context for each person was so different that it didn't make sense.
Finally, I kept getting distracted by the writing. The author does feel like they are taking influence from Ashley Poston in style, but a lot of phrasing is clunky. There is also an overuse of similes metaphors. There were so many times where I would read one and it would just completely knock me out of the story because it would just be weird.
Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I really wanted to like it, but it ended up falling flat.

A Heart So Haunted es una novela que entrelaza lo gótico, lo emocional y lo sobrenatural con una protagonista marcada por la pérdida, los secretos familiares y una casa que parece tener vida propia. Tras la muerte de su tía Cadence, Landry regresa a la antigua casa familiar, Harthwait, en Carolina del Sur, con la intención de ponerla en venta. Sin embargo, el regreso despierta heridas del pasado, tensiones familiares no resueltas y la inquietante sensación de que la casa guarda más que recuerdos: guarda presencias.
Acompañada por su mejor amigo Sayer y la inesperada visita de su media hermana Emma, quien representa un vínculo doloroso con su padre ausente, Landry debe enfrentarse no solo a la burocracia de las reformas y la venta, sino también a las sombras que habitan los rincones del lugar. Harthwait cruje, respira, observa. Las puertas se abren solas, los ruidos inexplicables se multiplican, y la línea entre lo real y lo sobrenatural se difumina mientras Landry descubre fragmentos de una infancia incompleta y verdades ocultas por los adultos que la rodearon.
--
El principio me costo mucho, pero conforme aprendía mas sobre Landry me enganche.
Como odie a Ivan.
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest

A truly heartfelt book that explores trauma, unexpected connections, and the art of growing through the past you thought was holding you back. The characters, both so complex, complemented each other. While it's a book about trauma and carries some heavt TW/CWs, it is ultimately a hopeful read. The monster/scary portions weren't *too* scary, and there was a bit of lightheartedness throughout, so it's a perfect option for people who like a little darkness in their romance (and have checked out the TWs!).

This is a spell binding read dark mystery type of read it was scary on some parts but the story is written very well I liked it

This novel strikes a unique balance between the adorable and the haunting, offering a tale of trauma, unexpected connection, and the monsters—both literal and metaphorical—that shape our lives. Set in a world where the real horrors often lie outside the walls of a house filled with creatures, the story explores how understanding and acceptance can come from the most unlikely places.
The relationship at the heart of the novel, particularly between Landry and the so-called “monster,” is tender and surprisingly resonant, offering moments of emotional clarity and warmth.
While the story is imaginative and full of unexpected turns, it ultimately didn’t fully connect with me. Though entertaining and thoughtfully crafted, it wasn’t a standout among my recent reads. A solid three-star experience.

I wanted to like it, but it just didn't work for me. I felt bored quite often and just slugged through the story.
After reading the blurb and seeing some Instagram posts in my Suggested, I expected something very different. I thought it would be a paranormal romance, with haunted houses, nightmarish monsters, maybe even some horror, with the supernatural at the forefront. Instead, this book is about
- Dysfunctional families with horrible dads, pos moms and child abuse;
- Rapey ex;
- Eating disorder and low self-esteem.
The monsters here aren't paranormal (except for poor Hadrian), they're just regular humans, and the story focuses on them and the MCs' healing journeys. I'm not saying that’s a bad thing, these heavy themes are important to discuss, but if I'd known what it was really about, I wouldn't have requested it.
There were a lot of confusing, messy moments, the story dragged and the ending felt too rushed. I didn't like any of the characters except Hadrian. Landry was spineless, Emma was annoying, and Sayer felt pointless.
I did enjoy the melancholic atmosphere and Landry and Hadrian's interactions, especially their late-night talks, but that’s about it.
It's a solid debut (I see a lot of protentional) and definitely not a bad book, just not my cup of tea.
Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The setting and the atmosphere were great. The pacing was inconsistent though, and I just wasn't able to connect with any of the characters. And for a book being touted as a romance, it wasn't hitting. Maybe it's just me but I felt practically zero chemistry.