ALC Review: Good Spirits by B.K. Borison
- Story Eater
- Oct 20
- 3 min read
Release date: 21 October 2025
Rating: 2.5/5
Narrators: Karissa Vacker, Will Watt
SE's/Book Boxes: Illumicrate Special Edition Box, OwlCrate SE, Target Exclusive Edition Paperback
Synopsis: He’s the Ghost of Christmas Past. She’s not exactly Scrooge.
Ghost of Christmas Past Nolan Callahan intends to spend this holiday haunting like every other—get in, get out, return to his otherwise aimless existence as a ghost awaiting the afterlife. But when he’s faced with Harriet York, the sweetest assignment he’s ever had, he suddenly finds himself wishing for a future.
Harriet York has no idea why she’s being haunted. She’s a good person—or, at least, she tries to be. A people pleaser to her core, she always does what’s expected of her. But as she and Nolan begin to examine her past, they discover there are threads that bind them together— and realize there might be more to moving on than expected.
With the deadline of Christmas Eve fast approaching, will they find the key to their futures in each other’s pasts? Or will they stay firmly in the present, indulging in their unexpected, spirited connection?
Review
I'm beginning to like Christmas-themed stories as I mature in my readerage, and because I have not read many before now, I find myself picking up whatever is available or foremost in my attention (or hyped in my manipulative, algorithmic virtual shopping feed). I fell for this one because of the pretty cover and a vague synoptic promise that it would retell A Christmas Carol. Distant similarities sprinkled the pages, but a retelling Good Spirits is not. I'd call it a paranormal romance with a borrowed, pre-built world, with magic that doesn't have any logic and and end that doesn't make much sense, either.
Before I paid attention to Good Spirits, I hadn't read a Borison book. I'd tangentially, through book box features, heard of First-Time Caller, but my brain didn't match the books with a single author right away. While I put the former on my TBR, I picked up the latter and found I thought the plot wasn't terrible but not wholly enjoyable, either. As in F-TC, Good Spirits' general atmosphere is occasionally evocative, but the plot and characters don't quite follow suit.
In good romances, the characters need a connection to the reader and each other. I didn't find any redeeming qualities in Nolan. Though he does his job as the Ghost of Christmas Past well and with due diligence (insofar as concerns the story), he seems disconnected from everything to the point that his apathetic, grinchy heart isn't properly prepped for love before he found it. Harriet feels very flat, like cardboard, and if a Mary Sue ever there were, she fits the bill. She has not a single fault, wears rose-colored goggles, and her "flaws" include wearing overly-festive licensed pajamas and taking a ton of abuse from her mom and sister. The set up there could have been awesome, but I didn't feel a spark of genuine emotional connection.
Though I'm shocked to say, because I usually like just about all narrators far more than I have done the past few books I've listened to, I did not find the narration for Good Spirits enjoyable. I do not think the voices really match the characters. The pitch for Harriet felt much too high for me, and I couldn't settle into Nolan's POV for any of the characters. I don't know if my general dissatisfaction for the story transferred to the narrators' performances, or if it is an isolated opinion.
Overall, 2.5/5 for the story and 3/5 for the narration. I kept pushing on to find out the special, mysterious link between Nolan and Harriet. Ultimately, I found the reveal a bit disappointing, illogical, and anticlimactic. Maybe I've read too many fantasies with intricately developed systems of logic to order their magic to be a good fit for romance books that just brush the fantastic over the story on a superficial level.
My thanks to Libro.fm and Harper Audio for the ALC, for which I willingly give my own, honest opinion.
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