Title: Soul Searching
Author: Lyla Sage
Publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback
Genre: Paranormal, Romance
Pages: 352
My Rating: ❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤
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Soul Searching
Collins can see and talk to ghosts, just like her sister, well, she used to. Her ability to communicate with ghosts disappeared, and it felt like a piece of her was gone. She also lost her job and is out of money. So she goes back to Sweetwater Peak, a small town where she grew up. Her parents and her sister still live there. She hopes that staying in Sweetwater Peak will help her heal and get back to herself. She is staying with Brady, an upholsterer, who thinks she’s a little crazy because she’s always talking to herself. At least, that’s what he thinks; she’s actually trying to communicate with the ghosts.
Review
I loved Lyla’s other books from the Rebel Blue Ranch series. I loved the whole cowboy vibe and the stories themselves. So when I saw this new book by Lyla, I knew I had to read it. I knew it was going to be a little different because the main character can see ghosts.
Let’s start with the positives. The main character can see ghosts, and she used to talk to them all the time. Her sister can also see them, and her mother can sense them. But the rest of the characters cannot see or hear them. I wanted to read a book like this because it’s almost Halloween, and I thought it would give the right spooky vibes, nothing too scary, with a bit of romance.
And I wish I could say more positive things, but I just can’t. I didn’t really have an opinion about the main characters; they were very boring to me. The ghosts in the story were the most interesting. I wanted to read more about their pasts or learn more about them. The story itself was boring. I just wasn’t feeling it. Maybe it was just me. I’ve seen some positive reviews on Goodreads, but it took me a full week to finish the book. Most of the time, I finish a book in three days or so. It felt like not much was happening.
The fact that I didn’t like this book makes me sad. I loved Lyla’s other books, but this one felt like it was written by someone else. And can I just say that I noticed a lot of em dashes in this book? I don’t remember Lyla using so many in her other books. Or maybe I just noticed because I was bored this time. These days, using a lot of em dashes can also be a sign that an author is using AI to write their books. I hope that wasn’t the case and that it was just a coincidence.
Overall, I’m just disappointed. This is the first book in the Sweetwater Peak series, but I don’t think I’ll read the other books in the series when they come out. This was not a great start. Maybe the Goodreads reviews will change my mind, but right now, I’m just disappointed. Lyla was about to become one of my favorite authors. And now that I think about it, I feel like she should publish fewer books. The last book in the Rebel Blue Ranch series was also my least favorite, so maybe she’s just rushing it.