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Hi friends!!
Got something a little bit different for you today.
A Book Review!
I was super excited to receive an ARC copy of The Ghosts of Reeser Morrigan by Amara Lynn.
Before I go into my review, a little background. I met Amara what feels like forever ago on Twitter. When Twitter was less of a dumpster fire and the writing community was booming! I honestly feel like it could've been as long ago as 2016, but definitely 2017.
So I think it's super cool, as Amara will tell you in their guest post, that this story came from a prompt on Twitter. One that was from Dea Poirier, another mutual acquaintance in the Twitter writing community.
Reasons why I'll always have a soft spot for Twitter, even as I watch it descend into chaos. I met so many amazing people through the years because of that site.
Enough nostalgia! On to my review...
[Click the picture for the Amazon link or find it at the end of the blog]
This is a such a cute, heartwarming romantic ghost story! Those things don't sound like they really go together, do they? But they do! Amara Lynn makes it work!
This is definitely worth picking up for a short read that will leave you smiling. I haven't read the other Yverwood Witches books (except for the Toil & Trouble prequel for this story) and it didn't impact my enjoyment of this novella at all. It only made me want to read more about the characters and town!
Amara has crafted a diverse, accepting, magical community with interesting characters and a snarky, talking cat. The central romance will warm your heart and honestly leave you wanting more! I actually read the prequel after I read this one because I wasn't sure I'd have time for both, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of that either, just gave me more insight into the witch bestie.
This book is going to be a great cozy read for the Friday the 13th debut or the spooky season in general! It's not a scary ghost-story, more so mystery to solve for the main character.
One hundred percent recommend to give this a read!
Guest Post from Amara Lynn with insight into their
inspiration for the story and Yverwood!
Thanks for having me as a guest today!
My story that released today, The Ghosts of Reeser Morrigan, has been many years in the making. To talk about "Wutherford" as I like to call it, first I have to talk about the origins of Yverwood, which is essentially a little magical town I created to play around in.
The first tale of Yverwood is Toil and Trouble, and this tale originally came about sometime around 2017, shortly before the Halloween season. It first started with an image prompt on Twitter, which challenged the writers to incorporate all of the images into a short story. I don't remember all of the images, because it's been too long, but I do remember there was a fluffy black cat and fall leaves.
I created Yverwood in part out of my love for the podcast Welcome to Night Vale. I wanted a kind of weird town to play around in like that. Between that and the fall themed prompt, the weird little magical town of Yverwood was born!
At first, only a few extra characters made appearance alongside the point-of-view character, Aren, a non-binary witch, and their cat, Ji. The other characters were a shy girl with a crush on another girl, and a very proper and cordial warlock who was on friendly terms with Aren called simply Wutherford.
The character Wutherford specifically was a call out to another friend's character I liked named Winston. All I knew about him was he was a warlock, and for some reason, he needed a charm from Aren regularly for something which was a mystery.
This story finally started to take more shape when I saw an random writing prompt on Twitter in 2018:
A lonely person turns to magic so they never have to be alone.
The result? Every day they must share their body with a different ghost.
Shortly after reading this, things began clicking into place. Reeser Morrigan, the titular character, started to form in my mind. And then, the thought of what if this is what Wutherford has to deal with? His boyfriend is visited by a ghost every night, and he has to navigate ghosts, and the consequences of said ghosts and the toll they take on his boyfriend's soul.
The story and world have of Yverwood have evolved over the past few years, and short Toil and Trouble now has more cameos, serving as an introduction to my Yverwood series. They can be read in any order after Toil and Trouble and feature the individual stories of the characters who have moments in the first short.
The thing I still love most about these characters is how they all came from various writing prompts I've come across on the internet!
*****
Thanks so much to Amara for being a guest on the blog today to talk about this cool world and the inspiration behind it!
Here's a little more about Amara for you:
Amara Lynn has always been a quiet daydreamer. Coming up with characters and worlds since childhood, they eventually found an outlet in writing. They were born and raised in the Midwest USA, where they remain stuck with their spouse and cats. They love to write about soft monsters and cryptids, grumpy enbies, and forever will be weak for the grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one trope. When not writing, they are usually watching anime, playing games, and obsessing over their out of control music playlists.
And here's Amara's links so you can find the rest of their books, their blog, and website!
Link | Links for Amara J. Lynn
Link | Toil and Trouble on Amazon
Let me know in the comments if you pick up The Ghosts of Reeser Morrigan and what you thought. And don't forget to leave a review for Amara on Amazon and Goodreads!
I plan to do more book reviews in the very near future, so be on the lookout.
Until next time, friends!
Rose
Link | Rose on Twitch
Link | Linktree for Rose
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