The Only Purple House in Town

By: Ann Aguirre

Narrated by: Carly Robins

Iris Collins is the messy one in her family—the chaos bunny. Her sisters are all wildly successful while she can't balance her budget for a single month. It's no wonder she's in debt to her roommates. When she unexpectedly inherits a house from her great aunt, her plan to turn it into a B&B fails—as most of her plans do. She winds up renting rooms like a Victorian spinster, collecting other lost souls...and not all of them are human.

Eli Reese grew up as the nerdy outcast in school, but he got rich designing apps. Now he's successful by any standards. But he's never had the same luck in finding a real community or people who understand him. Over the years, he's never forgotten his first crush, so when he spots her at a café, he takes it as a sign. Except then he gets sucked into the Iris-verse and somehow ends up renting one of her B&B rooms. As the days pass, Eli grows enchanted by the misfit boarders staying in the house…and even more so by Iris. Could Eli have finally found a person and a place to call home?

©2023 Ann Aguirre (P)2023 Dreamscape Media

Critic reviews

Narrator Carly Robins delivers on the cozy charm of Aguirre’s roommate romance [...] This audio is an appealing mix of small-town personalities and contemporary themes with a pinch of magic.—Audiofile Magazine

Mostly superficial

While I thought the character development was well done, the overall story was a little flat for me. The biggest problem presented (in my mind) was a Gladys (from Bewitched) type neighbor. And roughly 40% of the characters were a part of the LGTBQIA community... which is fine but it felt forced. Narrator was good.

Súper cute

Really loved the story line and how they made a family with everyone!!! I really liked how this book was sweet and easy to listen to.

Please continue this story with further books

I loved every bit of this story. The characters were fleshed out well. I loved the fact that there was such diversity, too. It’s a secret but, I’m a Witch, too. I love stories like this. I so hope that this story and all their adventures continue in several books. There are many more adventures to be told, please. Thank you for this grand story of tolerance.
Christi C.

Loved this story

Super cozy! Super cute! Super fun to listen to, especially leading up to Halloween! I would definitely recommend this book to other romance readers that are looking for a cozy fall paranormal romance.

Charming in a good way

A little too cheerful.” Bad guy “ is just rude. But I enjoyed it. A well written break from the serious. Not silly.

Theme: Traditional Values Equal Misery

I liked the story of the budding romance between the two main characters. But every other character in the book teaches the lesson that traditional values lead to a limited and unfulfilled life. Only by throwing off the chains of traditional gender and sex do these characters find joy and fulfillment. The bi-curious grandma who left her husband to date another woman says, “I spent too many years in monogamy and need to make up for lost time by kissing lots of people.” The characters all rally together to rescue a young man outed as gay from his evangelical family, fearing that their disapproval of his gender dysphoria will cause irreparable damage to his mental health. Meanwhile, every character who isn’t celebrating a modern, woke world view is portrayed as living a forlorn existence without direction.

Very predictable

Great narration. Lots of time was spent building the characters. The story line was extremely predictable. I think that the author had planted a lot of ideas that she could have explored further that would have made the book much more exciting. Very monotonous in sections.

The story is all about good feelings .

Well written , a true feel good story about the unique friendships that are out there .

Not what I expected but definitely not disappointed

I was not expecting “fantasy” and almost gave up on it before chapter three but so glad I stuck with it. Iris is a very confused and weak person as we first start to get to know her and, unfortunately, she gets more confused and weak before things start to look up. The other characters she collects through the book are interesting and fun. Just read it!

Hot mess with some charm

I gave this three stars (rounded up from 2.5) because I found some of the characters and the happy ending charming. BUT - it really didn’t earn it. In fact, I was close to DNF at about 25% in - and while I wouldn’t have missed out on anything good by stopping, it ended up OK.

Iris is down on her luck when she suddenly inherits a house from her great aunt, which is her opportunity to start again. To make things affordable she needs room mates, and ends up with a group of fellow misfits.

Eli is a successful app developer helping her grandmother, who also knows Iris from elementary school. He ends up becoming one of her room mates, which makes for an interesting dynamic.

There are a few things that really bothered me - the stalking, the absolute incoherence of the monetary system, and the loose ends everywhere. I can’t expand without spoilers, but there are characters and backgrounds mentioned with no payoff. And fairly major problems occasionally just disappear. Also for a book steeped in inclusion (which I LOVED), there were certain things where it was ditched in a way that was highly judgmental.

I grabbed this because it was on sale and books grouped with it as ‘people who like this also bought’ were ones I liked - so I expected ‘cozy fantasy’, and while it was to an extent it also kept forgetting what it actually was. So I give it half a point for inclusion, another for great found family themes, and another point for the quirky and engaging characters.