Sam Clover

I Recommend This Book For: Lovers of slow burn romance and ghosts.

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Quick Review:

I liked it. It was kinda entertaining, pretty sweet, and contained little bursts of ghostly action that kept my appetite whetted through the slower bits. I was curious about the things I was supposed to be curious about. I cared about the characters I was supposed to care about. Ben and especially Theo were lovable and sympathetic, and I’m happy to have spent some time in their world.

Long Review:

Man, this book took me a while to read. Is it long? I don’t know. It’s always hard to tell with ebooks, partly because I don’t pay enough attention to the numbers to compare. I just notice when that percentage is climbing quick or slow.

It climbed slow as hell for this one. And I had quite a few issues with it, most of which I’m going to keep to myself because as I discovered about halfway through the book, this is actually a cute little story.

The Ghost of Ellwood follows Ben, a bestselling author, freshly sprung from a failing relationship. He decides to leave New York City behind and move somewhere smaller and slower-paced in the hopes that the fresh air will breathe some life back into his flagging career.

So he buys a haunted house. Not on purpose, of course, but due to some mishap with the realtor’s ethics. It’s a pretty predictable story, but a sweet one, wherein Ben falls in love with a ghost. A theme you’d kinda expect to be bittersweet, but it’s not really. It’s simple and mostly predictable, but in a nice, comfortable way. It’s easy to root for Ben, even if he is a douchebag who lashes out at the slightest bit of emotional upheaval, and it’s a million times easier to root for Theo, the ghost, who is nothing but adorable and scared and desperately trying to protect himself from a world that’s shown him only cruelty and hate.

I started reading this because of the simple writing style, even though it had some technical issues. The author has a touch of Captain Obvious Syndrome, where they show something happening, and then follow it by stating exactly what they just showed. Often. Paired with progress buried in info dumps and unnecessary day-to-day details, and the prose does end up slowing to a crawl at times.

But I’m glad I read it. I’m glad I got to experience Ben and Theo’s story. Though my response to it may be on the tepid side, I enjoyed the story for what I think it was: a sweet story about one couple’s love winning despite the hurdles thrown up by a society filled with hatred.

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Note to Authors

If you have an m/m book you’d like me to review, please send a sample my way! I will try any genre, including erotica and dark romance and all their gloriously depraved subgenres. I will not demand free copies. Though I prefer books that are available on KU, if I connect with a sample enough, I am willing to pay for the ebook when I have the money to do so.

You can DM me on twitter to get in touch.

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