A Very No Strings Halloween

Very Holiday, Book 5

By: Kayley Loring, Connor Crais

Narrated by: Connor Crais, Emma Wilder

Halloween: it’s a holiday where people shed their boring everyday personalities and become fantastic beings ready for an epic party. Well, guess what? That’s Billy Boston 24/7, 365, baby! It’s who I was before I became a millionaire and it’s who I’ll always be.

My beautiful next door neighbor, Donna, is a hardworking nurse who takes her job seriously and her fun even more so. All she wants is a no-strings arrangement and that’s fine by me. It’s Halloween for us every time we’re together because she likes to role play. There’s no way to get attached if we’re both pretending to be someone else, right?

It’s all smooth as a good whiskey until my married cousins bet me that I can’t get a serious girlfriend by November.

So, Donna and I make a deal: She’ll help fix me up to be a proper boyfriend and I’ll help fix up the farmhouse she inherited.

The one she thinks is haunted.

And that’s not the scary part.

Because I realize I’m falling wicked hard for Donna. For real. She’s spooked by the ghost, but I’m afraid I’ll spook her if I tell her how I really feel. We made a pact when we started this no-strings thing: If either of us gets serious, we have to end it.

I have to trick Donna into thinking she’s teaching me how to date, when really I’m treating her to dates with me.

But if I screw this up, I’ll lose the woman I’m in love with.

And that’ll haunt me forever.

©2024 Kayley Loring, Connor Crais (P)2024 Kayley Loring, Connor Crais

Ghosts and Role play, anyone?

Billy Boston has been this enigma throughout the Very Holiday books and now we get his story. His friends and cousins have all settled and have great lives, and Billy is still living life like a bachelor, except is he really, when all he wants to do is be with his neighbor Donna?

Donna is a hospice nurse who is Billy's neighbor, and FWB. She inherited a house from one of her patients and the house is the scene of the haunted shenanigans that she and Billy get into.

Donna and Billy fixup this house together and role play the heck out of it, which makes for fun scenes.

I love that Billy is a guy who knows someone from practically any part of the world but doesn't brag about it. He just uses his connections in such a non-chalant way that he makes himself endearing. I don't like people in real life who name drop.

There is a particular scene in Chapter 6 that is going to stay close to my heart forever.

The audiobook was so fun. Hearing Connor Crais and Emma Wilder get into the characters is *chef's kiss*

The story’s spicy, funny, and a little spooky

Oh my gosh, I loved this audiobook in duet narration😍
Connor Crais’s Irish accent is absolute chef’s kiss and Emma Wilder is, as always, perfect. Seriously, so many accents mastered here 🤌🏻 It made the whole story so much more entertaining — both the audio and the plot.

Tropes
Romantic comedy with ghosts
Nurse / secret billionaire
Inheritance of a haunted house
F*ck buddies for a while
Fast burn

Donna, a hardworking nurse with a “no strings” rule, and Billy, her larger-than-life Irish neighbor, can’t stay away from each other. Between role-playing, a haunted house, and ghostly love letters, things get hot (🌶️🌶️🌶️) and emotionally “will they/won’t they”.

Super cute good story

I liked the narrators and the story was spooky and very much a rom com. The characters were developed enough and adorable no complaints

So cute

Loved this book. Loved the plot, banter, and narration. Perfect light Halloween read for those in the mood for something spicy and spooky without being horror

What a unique and awesome book

Im a big fan of Kayley's books. This such a unique and very fun story. I loved it. Emma and Conner did a fantastic job. Im looking forward to the next book