About the Book
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Part ghost story, part love story and steeped in magical realism, Paper Ghosts will transport you to a place where old secrets echo through the years and love finds a way of bringing us home.
Every family has its secrets . . .The Wester women live inside theirs.
For decades, the women of Wester House have unsettled and fascinated their small, timeless North Carolina town. Their home is full of whispers, old griefs, and uncanny knowing. But when Willamena Wester reaches out to the granddaughter she once pushed away, long-buried truths begin to stir.
1976:
Restless young Willamena falls for a stranded musician who brings freedom and the promise of another life to her carefully controlled world. Their brief, incandescent love story promises to escape the pull of the Wester legacy until Willamena makes a fateful choice that changes her life forever.
Present Day:
Returning home is the last thing Bailey Wester wants. Yet as she reconnects with Willamena, the grandmother she feared, Bailey begins to understand the love, heartbreak, and impossible choices that shaped the women in her family and realizes the past may not have been trying to haunt them after all.
A luminous novel filled with Sarah Addison Allen’s stunning prose and signature blend of romance, Southern charm, and wonder, Paper Ghosts reminds us that in order to have the future we really want, sometimes we need to live with the past, and not let go of it.
My Review
It’s 1976. Hen Town, North Carolina is a small town where everybody knows everybody else. The townspeople all agree that Wester House is a place to stay away from since old Alice Wester is thought to be a witch. Nobody wanted to get on her bad side. Best not to go anywhere near it or her granddaughter.
Her granddaughter, Willamena, tries to follow the rules, but when a handsome musician travels through town, she can’t help but fall in love. Then, her choices change her life forever.
It’s now present day and Willamena has a chance to make things right with her own granddaughter, Bailey. It’s not an easy task to say the least. She doesn’t want to be overbearing as her own grandmother was, but there are rules that cannot be broken.
I don’t want to give too much away, but this is a captivating story with intriguing characters. It’s filled with magic, mystery and a family with a long history. It is a fast-paced novel with well-developed characters. They came alive with each page.
This is a new-to-me author that I’ve been wanting to try for a long time. I’ll definitely be checking out her backlist.
For reading challenges:
Literary Escapes Reading Challenge 2026 (North Carolina)
Disclosure: I voluntarily reviewed a free Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.
I've been seeing this book on a few blogs and it sounds like it would be a pretty good read. I might have to check it out now.
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