Publisher: Avon Books

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…

Fake dating, friends to lovers, trans and queer Asian representation oh my! Mason Deaver’s adult romance novel debut is a really wholesome and cute read that’s both lighthearted and well-meaning. Although the story utilizes several familiar romance tropes, Deaver’s clever ideas meshed with authentically honest discussions of identity give the book a refreshingly different feeling and intention to it. Written in the style and prose of a YA novel filled with more new adult content, The Build-A-Boyfriend Project is a fun book worth reading for the vibes as long as one doesn’t expect too much from it. The fake dating trope is a narrative that has been utilized to death across the romance genre, and that’s no different when you narrow it further to queer literature. While the dating coach storyline utilized in this book is nothing new on its own, what is new is its application to the queer love and dating. Easily one of the best and most noteworthy elements of this novel is Deaver’s wonderful representation of minority groups, specifically trans male, queer Asian, and late-age exploration and dating. Besides Eli’s writing aspirations and romance history that I’ll be getting into shortly, this book heavily hinges on…