Publication Date: May 21, 2024
Welcome to the Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places Blog Tour with Berkley Publishing Group. (This Blog Tour post is also posted on my Tumblr book, art, & fandom blog Whimsical Dragonette.)
Synopsis:
Lucky Hart has an affinity for the supernatural, but almost no one takes parapsychology seriously. She’s estranged from her family, has lost her friends, and has been rejected from graduate school—twice. But her big break finally arrives when she gets insider info about a troubled production company. Every actor on their new show mysteriously quits after spending three nights inside Hennessee House, an old Victorian with a notorious reputation.
This May, Claire Kann, the author of The Romantic Agenda returns to the page with LOOKING FOR LOVE IN ALL THE HAUNTED PLACES (Berkley Trade Paperback Original; May 21, 2024), a heartwarming, fun, and thrilling supernatural romance for fans of scary stories and love stories alike. Kann’s debut was loved for its asexual representation and diversity wrapped in a delightful love story. Her newest features the same things her fans know her for but adds an unforgettable paranormal aspect.
In the book, Lucky Hart falls in love unexpectedly on the set of a paranormal investigation show. But she’s soon forced to choose feelings or career when the mansion she’s examining doesn’t want to share her attention.
LOOKING FOR LOVE IN ALL THE HAUNTED PLACES is a sweet take on a haunted house story, giving readers a charming single-dad, workplace romance setup and highlighting the experiences of an Ace, Black heroine. If you can’t get enough Halloween all year round, or like your romance with some mystery on the side, this is the perfect novel for you.
My Review:
I enjoyed this story. It was sweet and wholesome and just a tad spooky, with a plucky protagonist, a super sweet single dad, and an adorable kiddo. Plus some other really great characters I wish we’d gotten to know more about. And Hennessee House of course.
While I for the most part enjoyed reading this, it was far too long and sometimes really dragged. It took me forever to finish reading it. If it had been shorter, I think I would have enjoyed it more. There’s not enough substance there to warrant the length imo.
I really liked Georgia and Xander and I wish we’d gotten more of them. They balanced out Lucky and Maverick’s intense insta-love thing they had going on.
I liked the asexual representation, although it sometimes got a little preachy and didn’t always 100% make sense to me. But I’m willing to chalk that up to “everyone experiences asexuality differently.” That’s definitely a type of queer rep we don’t often get in romance books so kudos to the author for including it as an integral part of Lucky’s romantic experience and not just a sidenote.
The supernatural aspect I enjoyed but found to be very confusing at times. There were multiple times while I was reading that I got tripped up and had to stop and go ‘wait, what?’ because suddenly I had no idea what was going on.
The first time it happened was at the very beginning when Lucky is lying to Xander and team in hopes of getting the job. She tells the reader that she’s lying, but not what the truth is or why it’s important for her to lie, and I never felt like the lying was necessary. Lucky doesn’t always explain herself very clearly, and she sometimes assumes that people will understand things when they (and the reader) definitely don’t.
It was a fun story, not too scary, with just enough supernatural elements to be really unique. I think cutting a little of the length and adding in more of Georgia and Xander could have made it even better.
*Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for providing an early copy for review.
Favorite Quotes:
A year ago, if someone told Lucky her experience being a nanny would inevitably lead to making a ten-year-old her partner-in-crime in a sentient house, she absolutely would’ve believed it.
Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places by Claire Kann
Whimsical Dragonette 