I guess I was wrong in thinking that “The Last Soul Among Wolves” would be my last five star read of 2025; my Christmas audio book choice this year was “Good Spirits” by B.K. Borison, picked up on a whim when I saw it going for a ridiculously low price on Libro.fm, and it was every bit as magical as I hoped it would be.
Harriet runs an antique shop she inherited from her beloved aunt, holding on to treasures in the hope that they’ll someday fall into the right hands. She doesn’t feel that she’ll ever find the right hands for her heart, though; she’s resigned herself to always be the one not chosen, the one left behind. But then, one December first, she finds a strange, handsome man in her apartment who introduces himself as Nolan, her Ghost of Christmas Past, ready to guide her on a cosmic reckoning with her wicked ways.
Except that it becomes clear after only a couple of visits to the past that Harriet is hardly walking in Scrooge’s footsteps, in need of a ghostly nudge onto the right path. She’s kind and generous to a fault, with a heart full of hope even when things seem bleakest. It turns out that it’s the ghost Nolan’s turn to be haunted …
This was a fun (and steamy …) twist on “A Christmas Carol,” with perhaps a touch of “Gift of the Magi” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” tossed in to round out the holiday cheer. As is typical of a B.K. Borison book, there are fun side characters here (I love Nolan’s boss, the imperious and terrifying Isabella, and Harriet’s sassy co-worker Sasha). There were also little hints at a shared Borison universe: I’m pretty sure Harriet’s Christmas greenery came from Lovelight Farms, tended to by Beckett, Stella, and Luka before arriving at her shop.
I think that rounds out my favorite books of 2025. Unless the trashy romance novel one of my kids got me rises to the challenge, of course — stranger things have happened …
