Definitely a new kind of book for me - Flipping, by R. Lee Fryar, is a paranormal LGBTQ romance. I'm a huge fan of MM Romance, but it's hard for me to buy into the whole ghost romance thing. That's totally on me. Overall, I enjoyed the story I read and am glad I gave the genre a try. One downside is the cheating - I'm not a fan of that, but otherwise, I'm glad I read the book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This was somewhat of an odd book. I think in large part, because it was unexpected. It adds a lot of world building and dimensions to the usual "haunted house with a ghost" narrative than we usually see. And that part, I kept being torn between interested and fascinated.... and wondering why this was needed. The mystery was interesting but perhaps goes a bit too hard into the whole "explaining what happened and why" and all with somewhat strange flashbacks. This whole book is interesting, unusual and somewhat bizarre, and after all this time, I'm still unsure how I feel about it.

I absolutely loved this novel.
Such a great story with defined characters and a great plot.
What drew me in the most was how fleshed out the characters were
The writing style was fluid and relateable.
The cover was fascinating as well.
A reviting read overall
Definitely recommend adding this to your TBR!

I tried. I really tried to get into this.

But I gave up after I forced myself to read nearly half of Flipping. I wasted enough time being confused and rolling my eyes.

I feel like I missed at least one whole book before this one where this universe’s approach to ghosts was explained, so I really wasn’t able to picture the way ghosts work here. Apparently, they have to eat? That was weird.

Another issue I encountered was the auras. Being told what aura the characters were instead of being shown how they felt stopped me from losing myself in Flipping because I’m just so annoyed by it. A “fog of turqoise anxiety“? Come one! I’m not sure I could tell you anything about the characters, really. I don’t feel like I could grasp them at all. I was also annoyed by the subtle sexism and cultural appropriation.

But the worst part is the romance that’s supposed to happen. I got up to Charley creepily watching Austin, and also trying to kill him, ending up seriously hurting him. Gosh, so romantic!

Overall, I felt really dirty while reading Flipping, and I’m really not seeing how I could ever end up shipping anyone here.

This had a fun set up and interesting paranormal world building but the characters didn't grip me so didn't finish this one unfortunately

R L Fryar writes gorgeous, vivid prose and FLIPPING is a fun, fantasy romance with twist and turns aplenty. Loved it!!

Yeah... no.

I have read many, MANY ghost romance books or haunted house/living paranormal mash-ups, and I usually love them. There have been many authors who do a great job with these types of stories, but I have to say, I didn't think that Flipping was one of them.

I think when there is a ghost romance book, there needs to be really clear rules about how the living and dead interact, and that was one of my main sources of confusion here. I had SO many questions. The eating, the being able to be seen and touched, and way they can affect the living or vice versa... it was all very muddled in this story. Each ghost seemed to have different boundaries, and I felt like even those kept shifting over time.

Was the romance even good? The answer is, unfortunately, no. Both of these two guys are pretty crappy to each other, from (view spoiler), and I was not at all into their pairing. Also, poor descriptions of physicality abound. I think one of the MCs was Black or a POC but I felt like even that was unclear. I was confused about who these two men were the whole time.

The plot was okay, but I was checked out from the story and actually DNFed at 81%, which is rare for me. I felt the urge to put the book down constantly, so it really wasn't worth my time to finish. It wasn't a bad story, but it wasn't to my tastes and there are much better books like it out there.

*Copy provided in exchange for an honest review*

Charlie is a ghost. He lives in a house with a "ghost" family... they all take care of each other, welcoming in new ghosts, and building on their chosen family. The house takes care of the ghosts that live within it. The author builds up a world which seems like a symbiotic relationship.. I really liked the way the author built up the world of the hunting.

When house flipper, Austin arrives he brings trouble with him. He can see ghosts. Along with the house he also inherited his grandmother's talent for seeing the dearly departed.

The house can't be flipped - it will cause too much damage and the more the house is damaged, the more the ghosts after lives are put in jeopardy. Things get even worse when Charlie decides to take care of the living infestation in the house then realizes that he has really confusing feelings about his relationship with Austin.

World building is great. I loved the fresh take on haunting and how the relationship between the house and the ghosts works. Well -written, enjoyed it a lot

This book manages to mix thriller, comedy, horror and romance into one entertaining story. I loved that the house took care of the ghosts like they were still living.
I laughed, I cried. I cringed.
Each ghost has their own quirks and problems, but together they are a real family.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of Flipping by R. Lee Fryar. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Netgalley and City Owl Press for providing an ARC to review.

Flipping was such a fun and fluffy LGBTQ romance novel. I am a fan of the ghost and psychic romance trope, and Charley and Austen were just fun watch as they fell in love. I enjoyed the world-building that R Lee Fryar built. While you can't look too closely for plot holes, it worked for a fun read. I give Flipping 3.5/5 stars.

A ghost, a haunted house, and a living house flipper, what more could I ask for?

For the most part, this story is wonderful. The characters are awesome, the world building is done really well, and I even loved the slow burn aspect of the romance. But, I didn't feel much an emotional impact between Austin and Charley. Their slow burn love story was apparent, but I didn't feel it.

Even though the emotional impact wasn't there, I still absolutely adored the story. I loved the ending and was so happy with the twists and turns in the story.

Worth the read for sure.

The good
+ Ghost POV. Very intriguing
+ The ghost "world"
+ The weird emotional connection thingy Charley can do when connecting to Austin's essence
+ Charley starting to care about Austin and wanting him to be happy
+ Austin refusing to leave Charley's side while he's healing
+ Their mushiness once they realize their feelings are reciprocated

The neutral
o I was kindly provided with an ARC. My review remains honest and unbiased
o Charley was afraid to fall in love with a living person, but this fear was not addressed anymore after they got together

The bad
- Austin is a cheater. Yes, when he first kissed Charley he still believed (or wanted to believe) ghosts were just hallucinations. But the next morning he was already having shower sex with his boyfriend again. Then later in the book, he says the following: "I couldn't go. I wanted you too much. After you kissed me, I knew I had to find a way to stay." If he had such intense feelings for Charley, maybe he should have broken up with his boyfriend before cheating on him
- The first time they're initimate together, they make promises for forever. The very next day, Austin is already talking about leaving
- The way they got together was rather confusing to me. That whole conversation made no sense to me, and I couldn't keep up with the emotions that went all over the place and switched very two sentences
- Charley was willing to do everything for his ghost family. In return, the only ghost I actually liked was Jeff. He was supportive. Alice hated all men for some mysterious reason, so Charley would never be good enough for her anyway. Robert was a homophobe. And Levi's personality fluctuated between 9-year-old child and decades-old soul so often it was confusing what the author wanted to convey. His ghost family didn't really do anything for Charley in return, and I didn't feel like they cared about him as much as he cared about them
- Charley kept saying Austin was really strong, but was he? Walter was obviously a dick and a bad boyfriend, but Austin kept going back to him. Also, he was really selfish, by ignoring Charley's pleas for help just because he had to pay back a debt and only saw one possible way to do that - by ruining Charley and his family. Seriously, just one conversation and they could have come up with a million other solutions. For example, ghost tours / haunted house tours with guaranteed ghost sightings, or something similar. A compromise of sorts


I genuinely liked the first half of the book, and I was really excited. However, once I realized Austin was a cheater, I lost a lot of respect for the guy. Then the second half of the book got really confusing, and I just couldn't follow what was going on a lot of the time. If you ignore the cheating aspect, it was probably a pretty good book. But I just didn't like Austin, so in the end, I wouldn't recommend this book.

I happened to request this on netgalley just from reading the blurb alone. Ghost romance? Oh sign me up!

And I am glad that I did. This was about Charley, a man who died from food poisoning when he was homeless a long time ago. He lives his afterlife in a house filled with other ghosts and this house is run my Levi, a child who was killed back in the olden days. In this world, haunted houses are alive and take care of the ghosts and the ghosts take care of the house. But the house is falling apart and they have found out that when you repair it, it causes the "real" ghost house to be damaged. The woman who owned the house and lover of Robert, the newest ghost, dies and leaves the house to her nephew Austin.

Austin is a house flipper and shows up with his boyfriend Walter, a rich friend who finances everything and is a ghost hunter. Keep Walter in mind when my rant comes at the end of this review. Austin can see and hear ghosts but hides it, as his mother tried to kill that part of him. He has had a rough life, having been to prison and his only friend has been Walter.

The ghosts try everything to get Austin and Walter to leave. None of it works and in a desperate act, Charley tries to kill Austin, which did not kill him but it did really hurt him.

<blockquote>Sorry I tried to kill you. But you didn’t die, so no hard feelings, right? Can I interest you in leaving this house and letting us live here rent-free until the house rots? We can ? Oh, that’s swell. Knew you were a good guy. Hot too. Like amazingly fuckable. You should give up on that jerk who doesn’t treat you right. You can do so much better.</blockquote>

During the time from when Austin showed up until he was almost killed, Charley was falling in love with him. He even watched the couple be intimate many times, so he knew they were together and he was jealous. I mean, it is a romance so Charley and Austin got their happily ever after. I think this book could have used a second POV. It would have been so much better to see what Austin was thinking, feeling, and seeing. I did not feel the attachment between these two very much because it seems like Austin was a side note. There also could have been more details on what happened to Charley when he and Antonio were caught and more on Austin's back story. While most things got an overly detailed description, these things did not. And I honestly don't know what either of them really looked like. I know that Austin had dark skin.

Now onto my rant, this romance had cheating in it. When Austin and Charlie first kiss and start sharing emotions, Austin is still with Walter. The whole back and forth of this relationship is done while Austin is taken. Is Walter a good guy? I dunno, I don't think he was suppose to be but he was still a person and deserved to be told his partner was falling for someone else. If you are reading this on netgalley, you will need to go to goodreads as I spoilered what is below here.

While I hate cheating in my romances, I really loved the world these ghosts live in. I want to know why they have a house who takes care of them. I want to know why it does this and how many other houses are around? I hope since this is titled with a #1 that it will be a series.

This is a new to me author and I did enjoy this book. I loved the house and how it took care of everyone. So Charlie is on a mission to scare off Austin, before he changes things and they all fade away. Austin is looking to fix up the house and sell it. I have read a lot of paranormal books with ghost, but this one was so different. The world building was very well done and I loved all the secondary characters. Well except for Walter, didn’t really care for him. I don’t want to give away any spoilers here, but if you enjoy ghost stories, I don’t think you will be disappointed.

Well that was unexpected. I'm not sure what I thought was going to happen, but not.. what happened. Which is to say, I'm pleasantly surprised. In the beginning of the book I was a little put off. The humor didn't work for me and I was meh about the set up. I felt a little like I was being hit over the head with information--like things were repeated too often. However, I do understand that "tell your readers a thing at least three times to make it stick" is a rule some folks follow. In the end, I enjoyed the group of ghosts and learning about them was entertaining. The relationship between Charley and Austin felt.. like it flipped (ha. ha. ha.) a little fast for me. All in all, it was an enjoyable day spent and I think anyone with a hankering for a haunted house story will love it.

Charley died homeless and alone, so he's determined not to end up that way as a ghost. But when the haunted house in which he and his ghost family live is passed down to psychic house flipper Austin, Charley realises he'll have to haunt Austin out of the house fast, before they all fade and disappear. Unfortunately, Austin is not only a determined foe, but an attractive one, and Charley knows no ghost can hold out hope for a happily ever after.

I don't tend to reach for paranormal romance as standard, but I had never seen a ghost x human queer romance before, and I was hugely intrigued. Flipping is an accessible and enjoyable read that delves into some complex and heartfelt themes surrounding grief, loneliness, loss, and love. I was fascinated by how the author explores the lore of ghosts and the 'fabric' structure of the haunted house. At times it really was quite a moving read. I loved the idea of the house taking care of the found family of ghosts, and of everything gradually becoming perfect in death. The worldbuilding of the novel really was quite emotionally affecting, and I thought Charley acted as a strong extension of this, in the sense of contrasting his human death with the afterlife he has lived, despite the internal journey he goes on as he comes to realise his own lack of emotional and personal fulfilment. Charley was a lovely narrator, and I really liked his hopeful/hopeless vulnerabilities.

If I could have asked for anything more, it would have been a bit more exploration of the emotional impact of Charley and Austin's backstories on their present developing relationship. Quite a few hints are dropped about the painful experiences Charley in particular had in the 1950s-70s, and I think it could have been really emotionally powerful to wrench these into the present day timeline and directly explore healing with Austin. .

I am grateful to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC of Flipping. These opinions are my own.