Fake spirit medium Gretchen Acorn is happy to help when her best (read: wealthiest) client hires her to investigate the unexplained phenomena preventing the sale of her bridge partner’s struggling goat farm. Gretchen may be a fraud, but she’d like to think she’s a beneficentone. So if “cleansing” the property will help a nice old man finally retire and put some much-needed cash in her pockets at the same time, who’s she to say no?
Of course, it turns out said bridge partner isn’t the kindly AARP member Gretchen imagined—Charlie Waybill is young, hot as hell, and extremely unconvinced that Gretchen can communicate with the dead. (Which, fair.) Except, to her surprise, Gretchen finds herself face-to-face with Everett: the very real, very chatty ghost that’s been wreaking havoc during every open house. And he wants her to help ensure Charlie avoids the same family curse that’s had Everett haunting Gilded Creek since the 1920s.
Now, Gretchen has one month to convince Charlie he can’t sell the property. Unfortunately, hard work and honesty seem to be the way to win over the stubborn farmer—not exactly Gretchen’s strengths. But trust isn’t the only thing growing between them, and the risk of losing Charlie to the spirit realm looms over Gretchen almost as annoyingly as Everett himself. To save the goat farm, its friendly phantom, and the man she’s beginning to love, Gretchen will need to pull off the greatest con of her life: being fully, genuinely herself.
Release Date: Apr 30, 2024
Heat Level: Sensual/Hot
Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: Berkley
Price: $10.99
“Gretch has considered Charlie’s suspicions something of a cinder block wall between them since she arrived at Gilded Creek. But after their conversation in the outbuilding Tuesday morning, she wonders if perhaps the wall has been replaced by a …. privacy fence? Something tall and still extremely difficult to make her way over, but at least now there are cracks of light shining through. It’s like she’s found a way to look through the slats, and see to the other side. Simultaneously, there’s now a sense that something is surrounding her, squeezing her just tight enough that she’s always aware of the constriction. She’s become tangled in something she can only describe as a fierce affection and … yearning. Convincing Charlie of the curse no longer feels like the centerpiece of her bullshit artist career, but something she needs deep inside in order to feel complete.”
Gretchen Acorn, a fake spirit medium, accepts a job from her most important client to help rid Charlie Waybill’s farm of a ghost so that he can get it sold. Charlie is instantly skeptical of Gretchen and her abilities. Ironically, Gretchen can see and talk to Everett, a real ghost cursed to haunt the farm. He informs Gretchen that if she doesn’t stop Charlie from selling, he will end up just like him. Dead and stuck on the farm forever. Gretchen can’t leave Charlie to his fate and decides to save him at all costs, whether he is a believer or not.
Happy Medium was my most anticipated read this year after falling in love with Sarah Adler’s Mrs. Nash’s Ashes, and I can say that it didn’t disappoint. However, I found the first half to be slow with a lot of set up.
Everett came across as very young and, at times, infuriating. I disliked how much Everett and Gretchen were on the page together during the first half, and Charlie was nowhere to be found.
Finally, during the second half, we see some big shifts, with Charlie and Gretchen finally letting down some of those sky-high brick walls and developing a relationship built on true friendship. Charlie is a sweet man, and the way he takes care of his grandpa with dementia or how he wears his grandma’s knitted sweaters to feel like he is surrounded by her love made my heart burst wide open. This was just a feel-good romance, and I was smiling by the end of it.
If you’re a fan of Lynn Painter and Abby Jiminez, then definitely give this book a shot.
~ Michelle
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