In contrast, the last half of the book enthralled me, and Masters balances the external plot with Josh and Ewan’s deepening connection well. Everyone pitches in to deal with immediate concerns, handle amusing research issues, and then confront the villain. Then, we’re swept up in an engaging old-school mystery vibe. Everything changes when we hit the 50 percent mark, and the resident ghosts acknowledge that they were waiting for Josh to get comfortable before they hit him with the estate’s dark secret.

Masters also falls into a version of the “cell phones in a horror story” trap because I desperately wanted to shove a Bluetooth headset at Josh to resolve the issues with him talking to thin air.

Once the minor conflict between Josh and Ewan is over, and they decide to be “friends” (ha, like that’s going to last), Josh meeting everyone and settling into his new home takes up a lot of pages. I’ll admit that the book’s first half dragged a bit for me. Masters emphasizes how communication is a major theme of the book by having a lack of communication between Josh and Ewan create the conflict, an authorial choice I found amusing since everyone else (read: the ghosts) can communicate just fine (and possibly too much). It also allows the more life-threatening conflict of the book to take precedence late without any “will he/won’t he?” drama stealing the spotlight. This story structure is a significant cue that the novel is urban fantasy rather than paranormal romance, despite fantasy and romance as central to both. The relationship between Josh and Ewan does develop over the full length of the book, but the necessary conflict for this plot arc is encountered and resolved early. The humans and spirits of Mannix Estate receive equal emphasis as characters, and Masters balances the description of all of them well without overloading the reader. I expected to spend a lot of time in this book with him interpreting for the local ghosts, but I was delighted by the twist that everyone on the estate can communicate with them (for which Masters gives a valid fantasy reason). The romance between Josh and Ewan is very much secondary to the actual conflict in this novel, even when, for the first time in his life, Josh’s ability to see ghosts is an asset instead of a liability. A difference between the two exists, even when one of the central characters in this book has a paranormal ability. This book popped close to the top of the list when I began to intentionally search out urban fantasy stories emphasizing queer characters instead of queer paranormal romances.

Spirited situation louisa masters