Happy Medium

By: Sarah Adler

Narrated by: Mara Wilson

AN INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER!

"The perfect alchemy of romance, humor and quirky originality."—Sophie Cousens, New York Times bestselling author of This Time Next Year and The Good Part

A clever con woman must convince a skeptical, sexy farmer of his property's resident real-life ghost if she's to save them all from a fate worse than death, in this delightful new novel from the author of Mrs. Nash's Ashes.

Fake spirit medium Gretchen Acorn is happy to help when her best (read: wealthiest) client hires her to investigate the unexplained phenomena preventing the sale of her bridge partner’s struggling goat farm. Gretchen may be a fraud, but she'd like to think she’s a beneficent one. So if "cleansing" the property will help a nice old man finally retire and put some much-needed cash in her pockets at the same time, who's she to say no?

Of course, it turns out said bridge partner isn't the kindly AARP member Gretchen imagined—Charlie Waybill is young, hot as hell, and extremely unconvinced that Gretchen can communicate with the dead. (Which, fair.) Except, to her surprise, Gretchen finds herself face-to-face with Everett: the very real, very chatty ghost that’s been wreaking havoc during every open house. And he wants her to help ensure Charlie avoids the same family curse that's had Everett haunting Gilded Creek since the 1920s.

Now, Gretchen has one month to convince Charlie he can’t sell the property. Unfortunately, hard work and honesty seem to be the way to win over the stubborn farmer—not exactly Gretchen's strengths. But trust isn’t the only thing growing between them, and the risk of losing Charlie to the spirit realm looms over Gretchen almost as annoyingly as Everett himself. To save the goat farm, its friendly phantom, and the man she's beginning to love, Gretchen will need to pull off the greatest con of her life: being fully, genuinely herself.

"A sincere and sincerely funny romance."—Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of Starling House

“Sarah Adler nails the ultimate rom-com alchemy.”—Carley Fortune, New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After and Meet Me at the Lake

©2024 Sarah Adler (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Hilarious! This is exactly the kind of rom com I love to read—the perfect alchemy of romance, humor and quirky originality. Gretchen is now one of my favorite heroines. This book is going to be huge."—Sophie Cousens, New York Times bestselling author of This Time Next Year and The Good Part

"Happy Medium is a sincere and sincerely funny romance populated by a higher-than-average number of goats and ghosts. I stayed up late to finish it, and fell asleep smiling."—Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of Starling House

"With voicey narration and whip-smart humor, Sarah Adler has concocted a delightfully original screwball romcom. This book had me at “fake medium helps a goat farmer with a ghost problem” — yes, please, and thank you."—Megan Bannen, author of The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy

Strong start, rough finish

I can give my review in a simple rhyme;

started strong, then went wrong, lasted too long.

If you read the summary, you realize this should be a slightly campy, rom-com. There are goats, ghost and romance. The makings of a good story. The story started strong. There was good mix of comedy and romance. Good interplay between characters. The last 1/3 of the book goes limp. All charm of the first 2/3 is lost and the story falls flat and drags to the finish. I think the author makes a mistake of trying to introduce more complex themes the books doesn’t need. Mental health is shoehorned into the story in several places and just doesn’t advance the story at all. I enjoyed the plot to start but when all the fun and campiness goes away it becomes a very flatline story with unbelievable dialogue and character decisions. Chop off the last 2.5 hours and it’s a 4 star.

Ghost meets goat farm!

Mrs. Nash’s Ashes wasn’t a fluke: Sarah Adler can write! This book was smart and thoughtful, interesting and funny, touching and romantic. Everett was a hoot, and the Ghost meets goat farm premise was unique and fun. Narrator was terrific too.

Really cute ghost story

I really like the premise of this story. The characters in it are relatable and deal with real life problems. I recommend this book and will look for other work by this author.

Sophomore Slump

After reading Mrs. Nash's Ashes last month and absolutely ADORING it, I was super excited for Happy Medium to come out so I could experience some of Sarah Adler's particular brand of joy once more.

Happy Medium ended up not being what I thought/expected it to be. I somehow thought it would be both more and less supernatural than it ended up being. Which, I know sounds strange, but I was just going based on the synopsis and cover vibes. The ghost character was both annoying and heartwarming, which maybe was the intention?

I don't think the MMC and FMC had any real chemistry, definitely not even close to what the main characters in Mrs. Nash's Ashes had. They sizzled whereas these characters could barely manage to light a spark.

At the end of the day, I was also bored throughout a good portion of this book. It felt like the same conversations and repeated events. I don't even want to talk about the slightly icky sex scene was it felt like she was coerced into revealing her secrets to him (at least that's what it felt like to me). A tad disappointing at the end of the day.

Needing to be on a goat farm asap

It was cute, it was romantic, it was sad, and everything in between. Don’t ask me why a book about a haunted goat farm was one of my favorite reads of the year, but it was. The character development is pretty slay for a romance book, and I found myself genuinely enjoying every one of the characters mentioned and hoping for the best outcome for each one of them. Also, there was little to no miscommunication with the main characters, so that immediately makes it top notch for me. 10/10, would recommend.

3.5 stars

This may be better physically read rather than listened to. Though I love Mara Wilson and her name was the deciding factor in my using a credit on this, I now know that she doesn't differentiation between characters very well. It's a fun enough story but I wish I got to know more about the MMC thoughts. This would've been better if it had a dual POV.

Fun cute read

I loved this book. It had such hallmark vibes but with a paranormal trust! The narrator was also amazing.

More than Medium Happy

Sara Adler's book Happy Medium is phenomenal. I am so glad you leaned into both the initial joke and all the feelings.

Charlie and Acorn learning to trust themselves, each other and grow a love together was beautiful.

I am glad the author touched on Dementia and loss. It is a disease of continually losing the one you love, even while they are still physically with us. Thank you.

Mara Wilson was amazing! So well paced, superb timing with pauses etc, not drawn out or overly emotional. She nailed both Gretchen and Charlie's personaliies. I know I recognize her voice for Pseudonyms, yet will be looking for more books narrated by her as Mara. I will also be looking for more books by Sara Adler.

Meh

It was okay. Generic rom-com and a little smutty. Will not be re-listening to this again

Change of Heart

I enjoyed it from beginning to end. I liked that the three main characters were able to grow and learn from past and present.