Review: Summerween by Joss Wood

Summerween (Halloween Town #1)
by Joss Wood

My Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
Halloween just got hotter…

Welcome to Solstice Springs—where it’s Halloween year-round, pink skeletons wear beachwear, and the town’s biggest debate is whether the ghosts are real or just good for business

Wren Dunlop’s summer plan was simple:
– Hide from viral infamy ✓
– Drink rosé by the lake ✓
– Avoid all men forever ✓

Too bad her godmother (part-time witch and full-time Mayor) has other ideas.

Now Wren’s teaching dance for the Summerween spectacular, in a studio that might be haunted, and trying very hard not to notice the mysterious new guy in town, Dane Trafford.

Between bonfire wishes and midnight confessions, fairy lights and watermelon jack-o-lanterns, Wren and Dane might just discover that Solstice Springs’ real magic isn’t supernatural…

Tropes:
💞 Friends to lovers
💃🕺Forced proximity
👻🌞Halloween in summer
🗼🏠Small-town setting

My Review

I received a free copy from the publisher through Netgalley and voluntarily reviewed it.

The cover for this one caught my eye when I saw it on Netgalley. It looked and sounded so fun and I hit request and got approved for it and started reading it not much later. Summerween is set in Solstice Springs also known as Halloween Town where Halloween is a big deal here and is celebrated year round and now they even have a summer Halloween festival Summerween.

I had expected a light-hearted and fun paranormal romance book, but found it’s actually a contemporary romance with a hint of the supernatural in the form of the ghosts who haunt the town. So that took some getting used to. I also had expected the female main character to be witch due to mention of her godmother being a witch in the blurb and the witchy outfit on the cover, but no she’s just a normal human. That made for a bit of a rough start and then there is the additional point of views from the ghosts I hadn’t expected and wasn’t quite sure the book needed. After a few chapters I got the hang of what this book was an was able to enjoy it more, but it just never fully pulled me in. It’s a nice enough trope-y contemporary romance book with a fun setting and theme, but just wasn’t as engaging as I had hoped.

Wren is returning to Halloween town for the summer where her godmother lives and where she spent a lot of time as a kid and teenager. She’s escaping after some drama with her ex. While Dane is burned out and dealing with PTSD and goes to Halloween town to recover. And there they meet each other and slowly grow closer.

I liked the set-up well enough and they both had enough personality, but I just wanted more. Their pasts and Dane’s mental health issues felt more like a plot point than that it gets a lot of page time or feels like a part of them. I also got annoyed with Luna who was super pushy and forceful and I didn’t like how she pushed Wren to to the dance classes and kept pushing Dane to take over the doctor office. Wren loves the dance classes and I actually liked seeing how that developed, but rather wish she had chosen this herself. Dane’s PTSD is a reason for him to be there, but doesn’t feel as much part of his personality as I had hoped and it doesn’t really gets addressed much till later.

I had expected the romance to turn steamy quickly with how attracted they were to the other, but that actually still took some time. I appreciated that they took some time to get to know each other first, but I still would’ve liked for that to actually contain more of them actually getting to know each other and talking about who they really are. They just have a fun time for most of the book. It takes until the very end for them to address some of the things between them and by then it just feels resolved too quickly and easily. I also did not care for the way the conflict scene at the end played out, it just felt very forced and sudden.

I also struggled a bit with how Wren and Dane both described themselves as not falling in love and wanting casual things, but then they are written in such a way it’s clear they both actually are hopeful and fall quickly. That just felt a bit confusing to me, but maybe that was intentional and meant as how what they think they are and actually are is not the same. I don’t know.

I thought both main characters were nice enough, they both had things going on and some struggles, but I somehow just never cared as much about them as I wanted. I liked them as characters and together well enough, but never fully felt their romance or thought they felt real. They seem to like each other immediately and obviously care about the other, but they never really talk about things till the end. There also is some drama with a friend of Wren coming back to town that just didn’t really feel interesting and just like some more conflict for them to deal with.

There is a slight supernatural aspect to this book as there are ghosts that haunt the town. Half of the town believes in ghosts and the other half believes they don’t exist and it’s just a good publicity stunt to add to the Halloween vibes. Ofcourse the ghosts are real and there are some chapters from their point of view, the pov switches could be a bit jarring and confusing at times, especially at first. And I am still not sure whether the ghosts perspective really added something for me to this book. There was a lot about a military ghost who kept judging Dane for not serving and it was really rather tiresome and I wasn’t really sure why this was there. The ending does finally realize what the point was, but then it felt too sudden and quick and didn’t really have the impact I think it was meant to have.

Then there was the whole Summerween concept which I thought was so fun and the bits we get about the festival were fun, but it just never really comes alive as much as I wanted. I wanted to read more descriptions, get more of a feel for how the festival looked and felt like. Read more about the various events. It was there, but not as prominent s I had expected. It still made for a fun summer festival backdrop, but I had expected it to be more front and center with the way the cover and title focus on it.

To summarize: This is a light-hearted and fun contemporary romance book set in a town that celebrates Halloween year round. There is a bit of steam and a bit of emotional depth as well. For me it just didn’t quite live up to what I hoped for and didn’t fully pull me in. I liked the set up and the Halloween summer vibes and there was enough going on with the characters, but it all just wasn’t quite working for me. The characters had some depth, but it never got explored as much as I had wnated and felt more like plot points of set up for conflict. I didn’t fully feel the romance and wished they talked more about things, which only happens at the end. The Halloween vibes were so fun, but I felt it was just a fun background instead of more of a focus than I had expected. The ghosts point of views are the only paranormal element in the book and I didn’t really feel the point of views really added as much and weren’t as interesting for me to read about. The pov switches could be a bit confusing and jarring too especially at first. I had just expected something different from this book and while it was a fun enough read it also wasn’t very memorable or what I had hoped for.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.