Halloween Boo by Sarah Spade

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With a little bit of free time before getting to the last book club book for September, I decided to look for something that would fit for Bang in the Night and a new author for me (to hit my final September TBR prompt). I decided to pick up Halloween Boo by Sarah Spade. This is the first book in her Holiday Hunk series. I was able to use this to cover the Fall in Love prompt set in fall and Color Me Romantic prompt Mauve (clothing on the cover). I also used this to cover the Bang in the Night prompt Who You Gonna Call? with the theme song of Frank Sinatra's In the Shadow of the Moon off of the third volume of Reprise Rarities.

Dani has moved to Salem for work and has spent the past year living with a ghost. The second the calendar switches to Halloween on the 31st, Zack, her friendly ghost, becomes corporeal. He has fallen in love with Dani over the past 10 months and is happy to finally be able to connect with her. As they get to know each other and spend the day relaxing around the apartment, the spark between them starts to burn hotter. As we reach the end of the night, Dani and Zack throw caution to the wind and take action on their attraction.

I was so pleasantly surprised by this novella. I knew going in that it was related to Hocus Pocus in someway, but I wasn't sure how exactly. I think I would call this inspired by instead of a retelling. We do get some nods to the fantastic film, but it is entirely it's own thing. Everything that I want from a novella, especially a holiday novella, was included in this. It also had more than I could want. I loved the way that Dani and Zack really connected throughout the story. Even though they really only had one day together physically, I thought it was so well done that Sarah took time to establish an intellectual and emotional connection between them before they acted on the physicality. I really enjoyed seeing that they could just be together all day and take their time to get to know each other. It did help too that he had been "living" with her for the past 10 months and really understood who she was. I also loved that all he wanted to do was take care of her. I thought it was so fun at the beginning when he tried to warn her (still as a ghost) that she left her ice cream out on the counter. Zack was just so freaking adorable.

If you enjoy novellas and are looking for something Halloween vibed without being spooky or monstery, definitely check this novella out. I will be reading more from this series and from Sarah Spade. I definitely plan on picking up the next book when I start reading some winter and Christmas related books. The whole series is holiday related and I can't wait to see what other stories she has in store.

Have you read Halloween Boo?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Halloween Boo, Sarah Spade, 5-stars, 1 day, eBook, 106 pages, published in 2018, indie published