Absolutely loved this read and with this heat I’m totally for summerween this year. I’m getting my pink flamingo and paddling pool as we speak. This was written amazingly and i definitely more H-Town reads.

“Summerween” feels like someone trapped “Gilmore Girls,” “Halloweentown,” and a deeply horny summer vacation inside a pumpkin spice margarita shaker and just started free-pouring. The second I read about pink skeletons in beachwear and watermelon jack-o-lanterns, my brain completely folded like a lawn chair. Solstice Springs is the kind of fake town that makes you briefly consider abandoning your real life to go run a candle shop next to a haunted dock. I don’t even trust small towns in romance novels because there’s always at least one woman named Birdie who knows too much about everybody’s divorce, but this place got me immediately.

Wren rolls back into town after a public humiliation situation that clearly made her want to fake her own death socially, which honestly, relatable. Her plan is simple. Hide. Recover. Drink rosé. Never look at a man again unless it’s across a parking lot with visible contempt. Unfortunately for her, her godmother is basically the mayor of Halloween and has already decided Wren will be participating in town activities whether she likes it or not. Enter Dane, who arrives carrying that very specific romance novel exhaustion where you know this man either has war trauma, burnout, or an apartment with exactly one fork. Turns out it’s a little of column A, little of column B.

Their chemistry works because the book lets them actually spend time together instead of just aggressively staring at each other while internally narrating about jawlines. They flirt. They needle each other. They slowly become safe for one another in a way that sneaks up on you while everyone’s surrounded by tiki torches and decorative ghosts. The dance rehearsals for the Summerween festival are peak forced proximity nonsense too, because nothing says romance like two emotionally damaged people pretending they’re totally normal while choreographing around fake cobwebs.

Also, the entire town needs to be studied by scientists. Every resident acts like they were born specifically to meddle in somebody else’s love life while holding a themed cocktail. There’s something deeply funny about a community fully committing to “Halloween, but make it lakeside.” Like yes, obviously the skeletons are wearing Hawaiian shirts. Obviously there’s a bonfire with fairy lights where people accidentally confess feelings. Obviously there may or may not be ghosts emotionally invested in local matchmaking. Frankly, if I lived there I’d become unbearable within a week.

What surprised me most is that underneath all the spooky summer camp chaos, the emotional stuff actually lands. Wren’s embarrassment and insecurity feel real in that very human way where you can tell she’s trying to laugh things off before anybody notices how hurt she actually is. Dane’s carrying around so much emotional fatigue that half the time I wanted someone to force him into a weighted blanket and hand him a grilled cheese. The book doesn’t make a huge dramatic production out of their issues either, which I appreciated. It just lets them quietly recognize things in each other that maybe nobody else has bothered to notice.

And listen, this is not paranormal romance territory, so if anyone’s showing up expecting some six-foot vampire named Lucien to emerge shirtless from the lake, that is not this book. The ghosts here operate more like emotionally nosy theater kids. Which honestly became weirdly touching? There were moments where I realized I was getting genuinely emotional over side storylines while also reading about beachside Halloween décor during a heatwave. Joss Wood somehow keeps the whole thing from tipping into corny, which feels like an actual magic trick considering this premise could have gone fully Etsy-core in the wrong hands.

The romance itself is sweet, sexy, and thankfully not built on constant miscommunication that makes you want to throw the book into traffic. There is some third act nonsense because romance novels legally cannot let people be happy too early, but by that point I was invested enough to just sigh dramatically and keep going. Also, whoever decided to combine spooky season aesthetics with summer flirting deserves a Nobel Prize specifically for seasonal vibes. I spent half this book wanting apple cider and the other half wanting to sit on a dock at midnight making terrible romantic decisions.

This ended up being a very solid four-star read for me. Cute without being sugary, emotional without turning into a therapy worksheet, funny without trying too hard to perform for the audience. Basically the ideal “I need a comfort read but still want chemistry and feelings” situation.

Thank you to HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter, and NetGalley for the ARC, this book fully convinced me that Halloween should simply last all year and frankly I’m ready to decorate accordingly.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this arc.

What a fun freaking book! lol I enjoyed this Flirty, spooky, cozy, smalltown, forced proximity, friends to lovers book. Can we find this town in real life because I would love to move here! The MCs had great chemistry and their romance was fun. You NEED to pick this book up. It was an easy fun read and I was able to finish it in one sitting.

THIS!!! THIS!!! THIS!!!! This book is where it's at! "Summerween" by Joss Wood is a fantastic read and I sincerely hope there is more to come!