Book Smart Kate

Book: 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 Audiobook performance: 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 Spice: 🌶️🌶️

by Shelly Jay Shore (August 20, 2024) – Many thanks to @prhaudio and @dellromance for a free audiobook copy of this intensely tender and heartwarming story of love and family. Below is my honest review.

Ezra Friedman has a lot going on. He just moved into the same house as his ex. His job at the local LGBTQ community center is on hold, and his job as a doula won’t pay all the bills. His mom just used Passover to announce she’s leaving his father for the rabbi’s wife. He’s crushing hard on Jonathan, the downstairs neighbor. And he can see ghosts. One of those ghosts is Ben, Jonathan’s deceased husband. Now, he finds himself filling in for his mom at the family funeral home filled with ghosts. Through all this chaos, Ezra gains a new understanding of his parents, deepens his complicated relationship with his siblings, opens his heart to love, finds his people, and learns that people will show up because they love you.

A lot is going on in this book, but it all fits together beautifully into a cohesive story about family and love. There’s so much about the Jewish faith, navigating sexuality and identity, life and death. Some hilarious moments temper the story’s weight and feel authentic. All of the characters in the story evolved, and, as a reader, I felt so invested in not only Ezra and Jonathan but also all of the Friedman family, Ezra’s roommates, and Ben. This is an absolutely remarkable debut.

Petey Gibson narrates the audiobook and is excellent at giving unique identities to a wide variety of characters.