Review: Ghost with the Most by Mallory Pierce

Ghost With the Most (GhostWriter Mystery #2)
by Mallory Pierce

My Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Paranormal Cozy Mystery
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
Gwen has a new lease on her afterlife, but Nolan’s past threatens to ruin everything.

Several months after catching a murderer together, spirited ghost Gwen and moody horror writer Nolan have settled into their unusual living arrangement, and all seems to be going well until…

Karissa Jones, the woman who broke Nolan’s heart, shows up on his and Gwen’s doorstep, and the duo’s friendship is put to the test. Gwen questions the self-absorbed influencer’s motives for wanting to reconnect with Nolan, but he trusts his ex-girlfriend implicitly and won’t hear a word said against her.

When Karissa is discovered with the bloodied corpse of bad boy rocker Scorch, whom she recently dumped and wished dead on social media, she is suspect number one. Nolan wants to clear her name by tracking down the real culprit, but Gwen isn’t convinced of Karissa’s innocence.

Despite being at odds, Nolan and Gwen team up once again to pursue leads and sift through clues. Unfortunately, there’s a long list of people who wanted the mercurial musician dead. Will they be able to crack the case before Karissa is sentenced to life in an orange jumpsuit?

If you enjoy sassy sleuths and supernatural shenanigans, you won’t want to miss Ghost With the Most! It’s similar in tone and content to the works of Paranormal Cozy Mystery authors Angie Fox, Erin Huss, and Annabel Chase.

My Review

I received a free copy from the author and voluntarily reviewed it.

I really enjoyed the first book in this series and eagerly dove into book 2 shortly after I received it. Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy this one as much as book 1 and struggled a bit with it at times. I really like the premise of this series with how the main character is a ghost and she assist human writer Nolan in solving mysteries.

This book has a new mystery for the pair to solve, Nolan’s ex Karissa who broke his heart is back in town and is found next to the body of her latest ex Scorch. Nolan takes Karissa’s side and believes in her innocence. Main character Gwen and the cop Bailey aren’t so sure and are at times quite vocal in their dislike of Karissa.

And so begins the solving of the mystery and plenty of back and forth with Bailey and Gwen not liking Karissa and Nolan standing up for her. It just didn’t work for me, I didn’t like the dynamic. And Gwen feels more like a nagging guardian angel on Nolan’s shoulder always telling him not to trust Karissa and what to say and do. And to be honest she usually has a good point, but I didn’t like the way it was presented, with her nagging Nolan and Nolan being so enraptured with Karissa that he can’t seem to think straight or stand up for himself. It was just annoying and bothered me.

I also didn’t like how vehemently Gwen and Bailey are at times in their dislike of Karissa, I kinda felt bad for her times with how people treated her or made fun of her when she was struggling. Then again it’s hard to really feel bad for her as she’s not a likable or interesting character, so me feeling bad for her usually didn’t last long or only as long till she opened her mouth again and said something annoying. I didn’t like her character and she didn’t feel interesting either. Bailey, the cop, could be a bit unprofessional at times in how she acted toward Karissa, but I did appreciate how even with her clear opinion of Karissa she did her job well and investigated all the angles. I like it when cozies have a competent cop. I also felt sad we didn’t see more of Bailey and Nolan and their potential romance, with Karissa in town that seemed to drive a wedge between them.

The mystery is one with plenty of suspects. While this mystery didn’t grip me as much and I wasn’t fully invested, I did enjoy seeing it all play out. There are some interesting surprises along the way, although who the murderer was actually didn’t come as a surprise. I hadn’t quite figured out the motive, but the thought had crossed my mind that this person could be the murderer. The motive made sense and I liked how things fell on it’s place toward the end. The ending was well done and I liked seeing the mystery wrapped up and a few hints for future books.

I also enjoyed reading more about Gwen and seeing her learn a few new things about ghostly stuff, which was interesting. I do hope she learns more in the next book as I would like to see her be able to take a more active role.

To summarize: This series has such a fun premise with the main character Gwen being a ghost and teaming up with writer Nolan to solve mysteries as he can see her. I didn’t really the dynamic in this book with Nolan’s ex being back in town and becoming the main suspect. Nolan seemed infatuated with her and couldn’t think straight or stand up for himself, while main character Gwen and Bailey the cop were quite vocal in their dislike of Karissa. Gwen could feel a bit nagging in this book constantly trying to steer Nolan away from Karissa, not that I blame her as Karissa could be quite annoying at times, but it wasn’t a fun dynamic to read. The mystery had plenty of suspects, but I wasn’t as invested. I wasn’t surprised when the murderer came to light as I had guessed it, but hadn’t figured out yet the motive. I liked learning a few new things about ghostly stuff and hope there’s more of that in the next book. And hopefully Gwen and Nolan’s banter will turn more entertaining again in book 3. The ending was well done and wrapped up this book with a few hints for the next book.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.