Tracy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Series: Halloween Town, #2
Release Date: August 13, 2026
For her entire life, Poppy McMaster has tried to please her family, but always felt like she fell short and was never “enough” for them. She always found solace with her grandparents at their Inn called Solstice Deep in Solstice Springs aka Halloween Town and with her friends Wren, Hayes, and the Sheffield brothers, Benji and especially Thom, who always acted as her protector. But when she was seventeen and Thom as twenty, he suddenly turned his back on her with no explanation and kept his distance. Heartbroken, she figures that like her family, she wasn’t enough for him either. For the next few years, she tries to find her way, but it isn’t until she gets engaged to Benji Sheffield that she finally feels accepted by her family, an engagement that she has doubts about, but to please her family, she pushes those feelings aside. But on her wedding day, she is confronted by the Halloween Town ghosts and she bolts. She returns to Solstice Deep, a place she always felt safe and happy, a place she believes her father now owns since her grandfather passed away. But she is in for a huge surprise…
After his father passed away, Thom Sheffield became the CEO of Sheffield Securities and was very successful, but things began to fall apart when his younger stepbrother Benji had an affair with Thom’s fiancée. Thom broke up with his fiancée and then cut ties with Benji and tried to move on. But Benji wasn’t done trying to destroy Thom, he fabricated evidence of embezzlement and had Thom fired as CEO. Thom escaped to Solstice Deep and stayed with Grandpa McMaster, while there he fights back against Benji and the board of Sheffield Securities, proves that he was wronged and wins big against the company. He then buys the inn with promise that Grandpa M could stay there for the rest of his life. Now that Grandpa M has passed, Thom has decided to renovate the inn and run it, while running his own consulting business. He is in the process of remodeling when he is surprised by the arrival of Poppy in her wedding gown, demanding to know why he was in her Grandparent’s Inn. Poppy is one of Thom’s greatest regrets, she is the girl he thought of as a sister until the summer she turned seventeen and he saw her for the woman that she would become and had feelings for her that he at twenty deemed inappropriate and fled, knowing that he hurt her, but couldn’t tell her why. Later when he thought that maybe they could have a relationship, he learned that she was engaged to Benji and took it as a sign that they were never meant to be, but what if he was wrong?
I loved the first book in this series and was really excited for this book, so I jumped at the chance to return to Halloween Town. Poppy and Thom were both in the first book, so readers got to learn a little bit about them before their story even began. I really loved catching up with Wren and Dane, as well as Luna, Hayes, Hayden and of course the ghosts of Solstice Springs, while getting to know Poppy and Thom better. I loved Thom, he is your typical grumpy hero who tries to hide his heart of gold. He is also trying to find his worth and wants to be chosen for himself and not what he can do for others. Poppy is also trying to find herself and wonders about her own self-worth. I liked this story, but at times it felt like there was contrived drama just for the sake of more drama and it was a bit formulaic. Overall, it was a fun read with some spice, a few ghosts, great secondary characters and ultimately a happy ending. If you are looking for a second chance type romance, set in a small town with a splash of supernatural, you should read this book! It is the second book in the series, but it could easily be read as a standalone title with no problems.
*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher/author. All opinions in this review are my own. *
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