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It’s the Ghost Wonderful Time of the Year! 6 Great Ghost Romances

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Liberty Hardy

Senior Contributing Editor

Liberty Hardy is an unrepentant velocireader, writer, bitey mad lady, and tattoo canvas. Turn-ons include books, books and books. Her favorite exclamation is “Holy cats!” Liberty reads more than should be legal, sleeps very little, frequently writes on her belly with Sharpie markers, and when she dies, she’s leaving her body to library science. Until then, she lives with her three cats, Millay, Farrokh, and Zevon, in Maine. She is also right behind you. Just kidding! She’s too busy reading. Twitter: @MissLiberty

October is in full schwing swing and that means seasonally-appropriate books are in order! According to the rules (that I just made up), spooky reading season applies to the world of romance, too. So today’s list is about ghosts searching for their HEA (happily ever afterlife). It’s time to get in the holiday spirits, pun intended. The ghosts in these books aren’t vicious; while you can find scary ghost romance novels, that’s a discussion for another time. These ghosts would more likely be spooning with you on your bed than standing over it with an axe. (Or like Christian Slater in Untamed Heart, breaking into your house to watch Marisa Tomei sleep. Good grief, y’all, how did we think this was romantic???) Or they may be the ectoplasm that holds your relationship together. And okay, maybe one has a bad ghost.

Today includes six great books, but if you need more, be sure to check out the upcoming novel If I Stopped Haunting You by Colby Wilkens (which you can read about on Jess’s awesome list.) And if you missed the news, the ghost romance ​​The Love of My Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood is getting the Hollywood treatment. Now, get ready to swoon and sway with these specters. There’s no potter’s wheel, but there’s still plenty of out-of-this-world romance!

cover of Happy Medium by Sarah Adler; illustration of a white woman in a black dress and a white man in a striped sweater holding a pitchfork, standing on opposite sides of a fence on a farm

Happy Medium by Sarah Adler

You’re my boy, boo: Gretchen Acorn is a con woman, pretending to be a talented medium in order to make a buck, à la Oda Mae Brown. So when she’s hired to remove the spirits from what she thinks is an elderly man’s goat farm, she gets dollar signs in her eyes. But it turns out, the goat farm is owned by a young and handsome man named Charlie. And he isn’t the only resident on the farm: Gretchen also meets Everett, the long-dead ghost of a former farmer. The news that she is conversing with an actual spirit is unbelievable to Gretchen. And so is what Everett tells her: she needs to convince Charlie not to sell the farm or he’ll be cursed to the spirit world, just like he was. But Charlie isn’t buying what Gretchen is selling; in fact, the only thing he’s falling for is her. And she’s starting to feel the same way. Can Gretchen convince Charlie that ghosts—and the danger—are real before it’s too late?

cover of A Ghost in Shining Armor by Therese Beharrie; illustration of a Black man in a green sweater and a Black woman in a red skirt sitting in front of a bar

A Ghost in Shining Armor by Therese Beharrie

Gemma Daniels can see ghosts. And she uses this special talent to help them with their unfinished business, so they can move on. Then she meets a very handsome phantom, who says he is there to help her. But in order to explain why he’s always around, she tells people he’s her boyfriend. Levi Walker gave his life to save his sister. Now he has a second chance to live if he can help Gemma find her long-lost sister. But there’s a catch: once he helps her, he must never see her again. And that’s getting harder by the minute, as his feelings for Gemma grow, putting his chances at a new life at risk. How can they get their happily ever after outside the astral plane?

cover of Haunted Ever After by Jen DeLuca; a white man in a red shirt and beard and a white woman in a black tank top in front of a yellow house at the beach

Haunted Ever After by Jen DeLuca

On the haunted ghost coast line of Boneyard Key, Florida, tourists flock for the ghost tour given by handsome coffee shop owner Nick Royer. He’s happy to keep up the appearance of hauntings if it keeps people buying drinks and pastries. Cassie Rutherford moved to Boneyard Key after all her friends did the marriage and children thing. But her new historic home came with a tenant, one that messes with the electricity and spells things on her fridge with magnets. When Nick offers to give Cassie the rundown on the local ghostly lore, it looks like they’re going to hit the sheets. (Ghost humor!) But which are they more afraid of—real feelings or a real ghost?

cover of Full Moon Over Freedom by Angelina M. Lopez; illustration of a Latine couple almost kissing

Full Moon Over Freedom by Angelina M. Lopez

Hey hey, mama, said the way you move: Gillian Armstead-Bancroft is starting over. A bruja and mother, she has returned home with her two children to make a new life and figure out how to get her magic back after a curse took it away. But back home, she encounters a Ghost from a One-Night-Stand-Past: Nicky Mendoza, a very handsome artist. Nicky wasn’t planning on staying in town for more than the weekend, but he can’t resist Gillian. She has haunted his memories since their time together years ago. He’s also haunted by a very real specter, that of a cadejo, a black dog phantom. Nicky wants to support Gillian while she struggles to retrieve her magic, but watching her leave again would ruin him, so he pledges not to get involved with her romantically. Yeah right. Can they break their curses and get back to kissing?

cover of The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

And last but not least, this freaking delight of a debut! This one is about a romance ghostwriter. (**Chandler Bing voice** Could this book be any more perfect for this list?) After a horrible breakup, disillusioned ghostwriter Florence Day is having a heck of a time writing romance anymore. While preparing for the idea that her career is dead, she gets terrible news that her father has died. This means she has to return to the town she thought she had left for good. Which hasn’t changed at all…except for the ghost at the funeral parlor. A very handsome ghost, who doesn’t understand why he’s a ghost any more than Florence understands why she can see him. And who also happens to be Florence’s new editor, Benji, the one who refused to extend her deadline not that long ago. Together Florence and Benji get to work on a love story—but it’s not one she’s putting down on paper.

cover of Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore

Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore

I ain’t afraid of no ghosts: Ezra Friedman has the ability to see ghosts, which was overwhelming when he was growing up in the family funeral home. Not only ghosts of strangers but people he knew as well. Like his grandfather, who didn’t approve of his HRT treatment. So it’s no wonder Ezra left as soon as he could and didn’t look back. But now his mother has surprised everyone by leaving his father for the rabbi’s wife, and the funeral home needs his help, so he returns. At least this time there’s a handsome funeral home volunteer, Jonathan, who also happens to be his downstairs neighbor. But Jonathan comes with his owns ghost: Ben, his recently deceased husband. Ben is the strongest specter Ezra has met, and he has a lot of thoughts about Ezra’s interest in Jonathan. Can Ezra figure out a way to shake the spirit ghost-haste, hold his family’s business together, and get the guy?

That is all for me today, love lovers! I had a blast talking about kissing books with you. (Okay, at you.) If you want to hear about more romance books, or all sorts of other genres, be sure to subscribe to the All the Books! podcast. Until next time, see ya, hope you get your HEA.