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Guest Review: PAPER GHOSTS by Sarah Addison Allen
ABOUT THE BOOK
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.
OPENING LINES
The morning was bright and clear with a whisper of fog floating around the edges of town, blurring the periphery. . . An hour was one minute longer here, according to the courthouse clocktower. The only eggs sold at the grocery store were bright blue. And old Alice Wester knew all your secrets.
GUEST REVIEW by Sophia Rose
Sarah Addison Allen’s whimsical, gently paced blend of magical realism and Southern fiction has drawn me in since her debut, Garden Spells, and left me salivating for this latest, where a Southern small town is home to a family darkened by generations of secrets and steeped in magic.
Paper Ghosts, a dual-timeline novel, introduces Wills in 1976 and her granddaughter, Bailey, in the present day. Wills grew up feeling stifled and trapped by a stern grandmother and broke away for a time. She wants to raise Bailey differently, but the dark family heritage has a strong influence, and another generation of Wester women leaves wanting nothing to do with a cool, distant grandmother. Understanding for the heart-wrenching choices Willamena made in the past and a chance at love with good, solid Jacks comes only when Bailey Wester returns home.
The lyrical writing, the subtle magic and lore, a lovely dash of romance, and the strong family ties make Sarah Addison Allen’s Paper Ghosts a treasure to read. I enjoyed the full immersion into the world, her layered characters, even the prickly ones—though Jack, who was so good for Bailey, was my fave. A book one must be patient with as it gets rolling; it's haunting, but not a sharp blast of the supernatural. Tea on the porch, shady trees, a slow, sultry summer afternoon, and one is ready to relish and ponder long after the last page.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sarah Addison Allen is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of eight novels. A native of Asheville, North Carolina, Allen is widely credited with bringing “Southern Magic Realism" to the mainstream. Her work, characterized by its romantic, lyrical prose and its exploration of family dynamics through a supernatural lens, has been translated into more than
thirty languages and sold millions of copies worldwide. Allen’s debut novel, Garden Spells (2007), became a breakout success and an indie bookseller favorite, spending weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Her subsequent works—The Sugar Queen (2008), The Girl Who Chased the Moon (2010), The Peach Keeper (2011), Lost Lake (2014), First Frost (2015) and Other Birds (2022)—have each been bestsellers, garnering acclaim for their quiet magic and subtle, folkloric elements integrated into contemporary Southern life. The daughter of a journalist father and a mother who was a celebrated cook, Allen grew up in a household where storytelling and food were the primary languages, elements that now define her fiction. She attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, graduating with a degree in Literature. At age 39, Allen took a hiatus from publishing following a diagnosis of late-stage breast cancer. Her return to writing was marked by a shift toward more complex, poignant narratives that resonate with a global audience. Allen’s most recent project, Paper Ghosts (2026), continues her tradition of blending mystery with the supernatural. She currently resides in Asheville, North Carolina, with her family.
ABOUT SOPHIA ROSE, Guest Reviewer
Sophia is a quiet, curious gal who dabbles in cooking, book reviewing, playing the piano, and gardening. Road trips and campouts, museums and monuments, restaurants, and theaters are her jam. Encouraged and supported by an incredible man and a loving family. A Northern Californian transplant to the Great Lakes region of the US. Lover of Jane Austen, baseball, cats, Scooby Doo, and chocolate. As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing. In 2012, she submitted her first book review and is currently an associate reviewer.
Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener, which allows her to experience many wonderful books, authors, and narrators. Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction, particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance. Sorry, no horror...or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby. Connect with Sophia via FACEBOOK GOODREADS TWITTER
My mom, a North Carolina native, would enjoy this novel! Thanks for the review, Sophia Rose!
Looks like just my thing! Great review, Sophia! Thanks.