Spirits Box Set

4.5 stars

I love the author's Whyborne & Griffin series, so I decided to give this a try. It's an excellent novel and I'm very much looking forward to seeing this series continue.

Henry is a flawed character, and he makes quite a few mistakes in this story. However, he acknowledges them, and the narrative acknowledges them as well. I actually gasped out loud at his horrible behavior at a certain point (avoiding spoilers). Vincent, the other half of the main pairing, is quite a bit more likeable to me, although he makes mistakes as well.

I don't generally like novels that have massive conflicts between the main pairing, but I've learned to trust this author. His characters always resolve their conflicts like adults, by apologizing when necessary and talking thing through. I really felt the connection between Henry and Vincent from the start, and they're very sweet together (in between the conflicts, of course).

As in Jordan L. Hawk's other books, there's a full cast of characters here in addition to the main pairing. Just like Christine in the Whyborne & Griffin series, Lizzie and Jo both have their own backstories and personalities, separate from the male leads. It's always exciting to encounter such amazing female characters in m/m romance novels. I especially liked the relationship between Henry and his cousin. I hope we'll see more of her and of her talent for inventions in the future.

My only issue with the book was that while Lizzie was a well-developed character, I felt there could have been more establishment of Vincent and Lizzie's bond. How did they become friends, exactly? What has their life together been like? I can guess at those answers, and I understand why the author chose to keep some of that part of the story mysterious. Still, I would enjoy more development of their friendship in future books.

TW: Transphobia and dead naming.

I knew I would like this, (Hawk hasn't let me down yet) but I hadn't expected to like it quite as much as I did.

I don't know if anyone else here has seen the tv show SurrealEstate, but that's what the book reminds me so much of. (Even if this series actually came first.) You've got people using both magic and technology to investigate a haunted house, a diverse cast and general haunting shenanigans that never truly get scary.

Honestly, I had a lot of fun with this book, though I will admit that I was more in to it because of the ghost hunting (they said Victorian ghost busting and I was there) than I was the romance. Though the characters are as fun and likable as I've come to expect from Hawk's work.

I'd also like to add that there is a surprising amount of stuff going on in this book - besides the haunting and the romance, we also get treated to a human culprit. And some surprisingly decent world building for the length of this book.