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Supernatural Romances: Ghosts, Spirits, & Dreams

Let your mind wander to other realms as you gently fall in love

By Kristen BarenthalerPublished 8 months ago 5 min read

Haunting Jasmine by Anjali Banerjee

https://www.amazon.com/Haunting-Jasmine-Anjali-Banerjee/dp/0425238717

A call from the past brings divorce Jasmine Mistry home to Shelter Island to run her beloved aunt's bookstore, which has always been rumored to be haunted. Jasmine embarks on a mystical journey, guided by the highly emotional spirits of long-dead authors.

The Ghost in Love by Jonathan Carroll

https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Love-Novel-Jonathan-Carroll/dp/0374161860

A man falls in the snow, hits his head on a curb, and dies. But something strange occurs: the man doesn't die, and the ghost that's been sent to take his soul to the afterlife is flabbergasted. Going immediately to its boss, the ghost asks, what should I do now? The boss says, we don't know how this happened but we're working on it. We want you to stay with this man to help us figure out what's going on. The ghost agrees unhappily; it is a ghost, not a nursemaid. But a funny thing happens--the ghost falls madly in love with the man's girlfriend, and things naturally get complicated. Soon afterward, the man discovers he did not die when he was "supposed" to because for the first time in their history, human beings have decided to take their fates back from the gods. It's a wonderful change, but one that comes at a price.

Emily's Ghost by Denise Giardina

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7089794-emily-s-ghost

Emily Brontë refuses to bow to the conventions of her day. She is distrustful of marriage, prefers freedom above all else, and walks alone at night on the moors above the isolated rural village of Haworth. But Emily's life, along with the rest of the Brontë family, is turned upside down with the arrival of an idealistic clergyman named Willam Weightman. An improbable friendship between Weightman and Emily develops into something deeper, and when tragedy strikes, the relationship continues.

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

https://www.amazon.com/Host-Stephenie-Meyer/dp/0316068047

The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed. But Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind. Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves--Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she's never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.

The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver

https://www.amazon.com/Two-Lives-Lydia-Bird-Novel/dp/0593135237

Lydia and Freddie. Freddie and Lydia. They'd been together for more than a decade, and Lydia thought their love was indestructible. But she was wrong. On her twenty-eighth birthday, Freddie died in a car accident. So now it's just Lydia, and all she wants to do is hide indoors and sob until her eyes fall out. But Lydia knows that Freddie would want her to try to live fully, happily, even without him. So, enlisting the help of his best friend, Jonas, and her sister, Elle, she takes her first tentative steps into the world, open to life--and perhaps even love--again. But then something inexplicable happens that gives her another chance at her old life with Freddie. A life where none of the tragic events of the past few months have happened. Lydia is pulled again and again across the doorway of her past, living two lives, impossibly, at once. But there's an emotional toll to returning to a world where Freddie, alive, still owns her heart. Because there's someone in her new life, her real life, who wants her to stay. Written with Josie Silver's trademark warmth and wit, The Two Lives of Lydia Bird is a powerful and thrilling love story about the what-ifs that arise at life's crossroads, and what happens when one woman is given a miraculous chance to answer them.

Meet Me in Another Life by Catriona Silvey

https://www.amazon.com/Meet-Me-Another-Life-Novel/dp/0063020203

Thora and Santi are strangers in a foreign city when a chance encounter brings them together and intertwines their fates. Thora thinks she's finally found a kindred spirit with the same intelligence, offbeat humor, and desire to look up instead of straight ahead. But days later, Santi is cruelly taken from her in an accident. But this is just one of the many connections they share. Like two satellites trapped in orbit around each other, Thora and Santi meet again: as a nurse and dying patient; a teacher and prodigy student; a cynic and a believer. In numerous lives they become friends, colleagues, lovers, and enemies, but how and why? When ominous patterns begin to emerge and the lines between worlds blur, Thora and Santi come to a shocking revelation, they must discover the truth of their strange attachment before their many lives come to a final end.

You Were There Too by Colleen Oakley

https://www.amazon.com/You-Were-There-Colleen-Oakley/dp/1984806467

Mia Graydon's life looks picket-fence perfect; she has the house, the husband, and dreams of starting a family. Their relocation to small-town Pennsylvania comes with the usual challenges--finding a new job, new friends, new furniture--but the move is nothing the couple can't handle. That is, until Mia finally meets the stranger she has been dreaming about for a decade. And here's the catch: He's been dreaming of her, too. Now Mia must navigate the tangled web that fate has spun her and, with the help of the man of her dreams, go in search of answers. When diving into both of their pasts begins to unravel life in the present, Mia emerges with a single question: What if?

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

https://www.amazon.com/Anna-Dressed-Blood-Book/dp/0765328674

For three years, seventeen-year-old Cas Lowood has carried on his father's work of dispatching the murderous dead, traveling with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat, but everything changes when he meets Anna, a girl unlike any ghost he has faced before.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

https://www.amazon.com/Cemetery-Boys-Aiden-Thomas/dp/1250250463

Yadriel, a trans boy, summons the angry spirit of his high school's bad boy, and agrees to help him learn how he died, thereby proving himself a brujo, not a bruja, to his conservative family. When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free. But the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school's resident bad boy, and Julian is determined to find out what happened-- and tie up some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.

Reading List

About the Creator

Kristen Barenthaler

Curious adventurer. Crazed reader. Librarian. Archery instructor. True crime addict.

Instagram: @kristenbarenthaler

Facebook: @kbarenthaler

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