Good Spirits by B.K. Borison Review

He’s the Ghost of Christmas Past. She’s not exactly Scrooge.
 

Ghost of Christmas Past Nolan Callahan intends to spend this holiday haunting like every other—get in, get out, return to his otherwise aimless existence as a ghost awaiting the afterlife. But when he’s faced with Harriet York, the sweetest assignment he’s ever had, he suddenly finds himself wishing for a future.
 

Harriet York has no idea why she’s being haunted. She’s a good person—or, at least, she tries to be. A people pleaser to her core, she always does what’s expected of her. But as she and Nolan begin to examine her past, they discover there are threads that bind them together— and realize there might be more to moving on than expected.
 

With the deadline of Christmas Eve fast approaching, will they find the key to their futures in each other’s pasts? Or will they stay firmly in the present, indulging in their unexpected, spirited connection?

What if the Ghost of Christmas Past was a rugged Irish sailor whose latest assignment is to haunt a festive antique shop owner who appears far from the typical charge in need of a drastic ghostly intervention. The first book in her new winter-set series, B.K. Borison’s Good Spirits is a fun holiday romance book that has a nice balance of wintery magic, self-reflection and character growth. Embracing the sugary and over the top haphazard holiday trends that are sure to delight, this book is highly accessible like a Hallmark channel movie flavored with added spice. Although I personally found the overall execution and focus of the book to be a bit disappointing compared to Borison’s other works, it’s still a fun time and a generally strong holiday read.

While marketed and intended to be a holiday book given its premise surrounding the Ghost of Christmas Past, one of the book’s best aspects is that its story is one that has a lot of substance and character work outside of the typical material of most holiday genre books. The story’s premise involves Nolan Callahan observing and walking Harriet York through past memories, moments where her decisions may have affected the trajectory of her life. In a typical assignment, these memories involve immoral and destructive behavior. However, in Harriet’s case, nothing seems to be amiss apart from a history of trying her best for the sake of others and a recurring theme of loneliness. Though the memories revisited are set during the winter months per the holiday book genre, the narrative content and character reflections are more than good enough to work as a standalone contemporary romance read. In addition to the overall story, the book features many clever ghostly mechanics and ideas. From different ghostly departments and their supervisors, to hell being depicted as a lobby waiting room with lights that are too bright and a noisy water cooler, to Nolan’s existence of being both present yet forgotten as a ghost on the fringes of society, I was very interested and invested in the series’ spectral corporate organization. With the presence of ghosts, memories via time-travel, and magical moments ranging from holiday decor explosions to subtle warmth or spontaneous snow, Good Spirits also makes for a cozy magical realism read.

In addition to its excellent premise, Good Spirits also features many of Borison’s hallmark touches present in her past books. While distinctively modern and casual in tone, the witty internalized character thoughts are both entertaining while also incredibly relatable, particularly for young adults in their late 20’s and 30’s. Highlighted in both Harriet and Nolan’s memories, the story’s most prominent themes are those of loneliness, lack of support, and for Harriet especially, restraining and altering one’s self to fit into the image expected by others. As Harriet and Nolan walk through her memories, instead of observing nefarious acts of malice (ie. Harriet innocently steals a piece of a holiday decor as an enamored child, Nolan commenting “this is the precursor to a lifetime of larceny”), they witness her being repeatedly abandoned, diminished, and slowly losing her spark of life and joy. Determined to always be “fine” while being a habitual people-pleaser in the face of her overbearing and cold family, her character’s journey of learning to value herself and rediscover what makes her happy is easily the best and most ambitious element of the book. The story also has a wistful undercurrent to it, particularly when the book transitions to its back half which is themed around grief and loss, Harriet still mourning her beloved Aunt Matilda whose antique show she took over and Nolan’s loss of his memories. When the book stays on topic with these themes, Good Spirits is beautifully poignant and excellent.

Unfortunately, despite its many great character moments, this book has a tendency to veer off into standard contemporary romance tropes, thirsty physical thoughts, and silly filler content that cheapens the overall reading experience. While I understand that this book is first and foremost a holiday romance story that’s meant to be cute and swoony, I often felt like the book was trying too hard to push the physical chemistry and spice when it really didn’t need to. The book would repeatedly introduce forced physical interactions that often felt ridiculousness and incredibly cringy compared to how earnest and well-written the thematic narrative content was. Moments like Harriet getting her gloved hands stuck in her jacket, Nolan searching her pockets for candy she can’t find herself, Nolan taking off her ice skates, over and over these moments felt so goofy and out of place, I found myself thinking surely there was a more subtle or purposeful way to add heat. Both characters would also disrupt a tense or dramatic moment with thirsty gazes or spicy imaginative thoughts which weren’t inherently bad, but felt poorly placed, interrupting the flow of the story.

I realize these complaints may sound a bit prudish out of context, but I found them to be both very disruptive and repetitive, especially those from Nolan’s point of view. This book also was a little awkward where their relationship and character develop felt rushed, especially the romantic interest and love angle while also simultaneously feeling slow. I’m not sure if these scenes were written to help fill out the story that was too sparse or the book’s publishing timeline was crunched, but the book overall felt a lot less polished and mature than what I was hoping for. The miscommunication in this book felt like it was thrown in for added conflict only to be resolved immediately after which felt unnecessary, and the overall execution and character logic felt a bit juvenile, which is odd considering Nolan is technically very old. Additionally, his old age feels contradictory as he doesn’t understand technology like doorbell cameras, ditched the television decades ago, doesn’t knows what Nordstrom is, but then loves the Muppets version of A Christmas Carol which isn’t that old. His isolation and rustiness when it comes to human behavior and customs also doesn’t make sense considering much of it is still used when interacting with his supervisor Isabella and the clerk Betty, not to mention his numerous holiday hauntings; Nolan is a ghost sort of living in Annapolis while working his spectral assignments, it’s not like he was living in a bottle or was warped a hundred years from the past. Having finished the book, I just wanted more memories revisited, more of Aunt Matilda and her influence on Harriet’s life, more insights into the ghostly bureaucratic system and haunting limitations, not to mention its ending that felt a bit cheap, insufficiently explained, and almost forced with its obligatory happily ever after. I will admit that perhaps my expectations were a bit high as First-Time Caller was one of my favorite romance reads of all time, its grounded character writing and perfectly crafted slow burn romance completely catching me off guard earlier this year. By comparison, Good Spirits felt like the essence of First-Time Caller watered down and on fast-forward speed. While I haven’t read them personally, it seems that this book is more in-line with the style and content of her earlier Lovelight series rather than the more mature and nuanced Heartstrings series.

With an excellent premise, endearing characters, holiday cheer, and occasionally beautifully presented visuals (Crow’s Nest and the seaside town of Annapolis serving as perfect settings), Good Spirits has a lot going for it on-paper. Hitting all the notable holiday book checklist elements, charming banter, good spice, and great character writing when the story stays on-topic, this book feels like it’s specifically crafted for mainstream mass cozy winter appeal. Yet despite how good it is, I can’t help but feel disappointed given how solid the magical realism, ghost, and thematic elements were; the latter chapters even having a light speculative fiction twist to them. At the end of the day, I think the book I wanted and the book this was intended to be were simply at odds with each other. However, I know for a fact that most casual readers or those unfamiliar with Borison’s past work who may read this blindly will find it to be a safe, joyful, and “spirited” Christmas read. And as far as holiday books are concerned, you can definitely do a whole lot worse than this one that is otherwise quite solid. Even with my reservations, I am eagerly looking forward to the next book in the series Grim Tidings with its tired lady reaper who’s gone MIA and rogue. I am thoroughly invested in the Borison literary universe!