Reviews with content warning for Death - Spirited Situation

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Spirited Situation by Louisa Masters

3 reviews

raichou's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Vielen Dank an Netgalley für dieses Rezensionsexemplar.

Ich habe mich sehr gefreut als ich gesehen habe, dass eine spooky, queere Geistergeschichte heraus kommt, perfekt für die Jahreszeit.

Spooky war es letztendlich nicht wirklich, da die Geister ein ganz normaler Teil des Alltags sind. Dadurch ist es eher Cozy-Urban-Fantasy gewesen, was mir vom Thema sehr gut gefallen hat.
Nur ging mir persönlich alles etwas zu schnell. Einige Handlungspunkte hätten noch etwas ausführlicher sein und so mehr Spannung erzeugen können.

Genau so bei der Romanze zwischen Josh und Ewan. Die beiden sind unglaublich süß zusammen, aber auch hier hätte man noch etwas mehr Spannung erzeugen können. Es war sehr wie Liebe auf den ersten Blick.

Trotz allem hat mir die generelle Story gut gefallen und ich bin gespannt wie es weiter geht.

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cassiecollins's review

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adventurous lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I got this for free during Stuff Your Kindle Day. This was cute! It's a mix of Ghosts and The Haunting of Bly Manor, with lots of fun characters and a few spooky mysteries to solve. The romance was charming, but I think this could've gone without the spice since each sex scene felt pretty short and perfunctory more than anything.

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galleytrot's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

READ: May 2023

FORMAT: Digital

BRIEF SUMMARY:

In this contemporary paranormal/romance, Josh has spent many years ostracized from society, unable to sustain relationships or keep even the most menial jobs due to his ability to communicate with (and be pestered/distracted by) ghosts. A job posting for a haunted manor that functions as a museum, as well as an inn, seems like the perfect place to blend in without the world thinking he’s completely lost his mind. To his complete surprise, the ghosts on the property are much more active with the public and the staff than he could have imagined, and they need his help.

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 2 / 5⭐

Okay. Alright. Reading this book was a struggle. I don’t know what happened. I reflect on the concept of the story and on the events of it, and I go, “Hell yeah, that sounds like a great time!” But trying to finish this book was a chore. It wasn’t bad. Or at least, it wasn’t bad enough to DNF. I wanted to know how things played out and wrapped up. I wanted to know the direction the story took.

But.

This book takes the record for the number of times I’ve fallen asleep while reading. It took me a whole week to get through it, when I typically average about a book a day. I had to force myself to finish it this morning just to be done with it. Nothing that happened in this book felt memorable, impactful, or standout in any way. I’m not sure if I’ve ever cared less about a romantic pairing’s development. Their journey from one-night-stand to “I love you” felt completely unearned – their only roadblock was a minor misunderstanding easily explained away with basic communication.

TECHNICAL / PRODUCTION: 3 / 5⭐

Was this book poorly written, or was it just something I wasn’t in the mood for? I’m not entirely sure. This is only my second read from Masters. I remember the other one being completely bonkers, but an absolute delight. It knew that it was a silly romp, and it owned that from beginning to end. I don’t remember it being especially well-written either, but in audiobook it was performed so jovially that I couldn’t hate it. This time around, I was reading in digital format. Maybe that caused me to miss the intended tone.

I do have problems with the plot itself, and it mostly revolves around nothing happening. There are a whole lot of words in this book for how little occurs. I’d say that maybe 80% of the final showdown was just talking about the preparations, and then describing the preparations, and then some more talking about the preparations, and then they finally do the damn thing. Despite how the characters react, there are no stakes, no pressing need to deal with the big evil of this book because it’s in a controlled stasis – it’s more of an inconvenient problem that the cast needs to solve because nobody likes knowing it's there.

What I did like about this story is that it has a pretty fun cast of characters, even if I didn’t find them all especially well-developed. The manor/setting is also described well, and together it gives a decent go at world-building.

FINAL THOUGHTS - OVERALL: 2.5 / 5⭐

I’m torn on whether I want to give the rest of the series a go. Their synopses do spark my interest, but I don’t want to extend what was a rather dull reading experience. I’d recommend this book to people with more interest in the paranormal aspect than the romance, because the latter is just not interesting enough on its own.

This book has representation for gays. At least one character is described as non-white, but the book is otherwise low on diversity.

The following elaborates on my content warnings. These may be interpreted as spoilers, but I do not go into deep detail.

This book contains: alcohol use; mentions of alcoholism; horny ghosts (I don't... actually know how to adequately content-flag these guys; it's kind of an uninformed consent thing, and also some voyeuristic things); mentions of strained family relations (homophobia); mentions of death; and, injuries and blood (concussion, sprain, abrasions/lacerations).

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