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CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Ghosted at Christmas by Holly Whitmore



Mia’s been ghosted. Her festive spirits are at an all-time low, but at least her Christmas can’t get any worse. Or so she thought, until she discovered that her ex, Sam, is spending Christmas with her family. Now she’s looking at a whole week with the man who broke her heart and no chance of escape.

John’s a ghost. After 30 years in limbo without a soul to talk to, he’s bored to death but still can’t seem to reach the afterlife. So when Mia screams at the sight of him, he can't help but wonder why this lovelorn girl can see him. Could helping to ease her heartbreak be his ticket to passing on?

As John and Mia become friends, he’s desperate to work out how he can cheer her up. But then John sees the way that Sam and Mia look at each other and he knows how to convince her that love isn’t dead after all. She just needs a ghostly nudge in the right direction…

"You can see me?" 

"Well of course, I'm not blind!" 

"No, I can see that, but … you can see me?" 

"I mean, I really hope I am not hallucinating. Wouldn't that be the perfect development in this already abysmal weekend?"

Think Ghost Whisperer with a festive romcom makeover - but even then it's hard to really capture the essence of this delightful winters tale.

Johns been stuck in limbo for thirty years until recently ghosted and dumped Mia finally see's him and he can talk to someone again. So replacing her ghosting boyfriend with a ghostly friend, she tries to navigate a mad family Christmas with a very unwanted guest - and cue the madness.

Mia was fabulous - it was hard not to feel for her right away as she fights the show and train cancellations, the holiday stress just getting the best of her only to be faced with her most painful ex when all she wants is to relax and cook some Christmas food. Even in third person, I felt like I was right in her mind. She's a little awkward, somewhat distant at the start so it took a while for me to settle in but she really warms up as the story moves on. I hated Sam just because she did, and was desperate to know why we hated him (and full transparency, I both understood and thought she was being entirely unreasonable at the same time) but I also loved watching their relationship start to thaw and potentially mend in a such a sweet, slow-burn way.

Then our magical wildcard, John. I loved him, I loved their friendship. It was something strange but special - John was odd but completely endearing, showing himself not to be this aloof, proper gentlemen but also a real girls guy, a great friend and someone with a wickedly fun sense of humour. John and Mia share the story, switching up perspectives while they try to navigate a very complicated Christmas. Their friendship was the highlight of this book for me - the romance element, while lovely, was really low-stakes for me as it could've been easily solved with a conversation and didn't feature as prominently as the real stars of the show, John and Mia.

A warm, festive story about second chances and friendship with a strange supernatural twist. 

⭐⭐⭐

  • I received a reviewers copy of this title. 

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