A Quokka Dreeds its Weird

If the author's name isn't ringing a bell, she's the one who wrote the nonfiction book about tropes (which she calls "butter") and the novel about the time-traveling Viking werewolf and the Black werewolf homesteading vlogger.

Willa, a physical therapist and one of exactly five Black people in her small Virginia town, can see ghosts. Sawyer, her white former high school bully, is now a veteran amputee in desperate need of physical therapy for his totally literal phantom limb, which only Willa can see.

Many years ago, Willa's mother Marian, who can also see ghosts, sued Sawyer's dad for ownership of their house, which is refurbished former slave quarters. She won and then went around saying she was the only Black person to ever get reparations in Alabama. She's known as the Mad Librarian, and has a habit of buying and occasionally stealing valuable books on the suggestion of spirits.

While the book is overall pretty light, the spirits Willa knows are often of Black people who died because of racism, whether violently or because of general bad conditions; the history of the area is all around her. Her interactions with spirits feel more like magical realism than what you normally find in paranormal romance. It's really well-done.

Very unusually for a romance novel, which is not a genre in which spoilers typically matter, this is best read as unspoiled as possible. All I knew about it was that the heroine could see ghosts, and going in cold was a delightful experience which I would highly recommend. It has several plot twists that I enjoyed being surprised by, and a high quotient of absolute batshit that I also enjoyed being surprised by.

Spoilers! Seriously, if there's any chance you will read this book, pick it up and read it cold rather than clicking.

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And that isn't even all the bonkers content in this book. I didn't even get into the WTF storyline about her sister Thel (not short for Thelma), or the subplot about Sawyer's parents, their housekeeper, and a book about Winston Churchill.

Like Taylor's other romance I read, this has a fantastic setup and middle section, but a hurried conclusion. I could have done without one of the plot complications, in which there's a bizarre misunderstanding that leads to the hero briefly kidnapping someone, but overall I enjoyed the hell out of this book and would like to spread the joy.

Son of the Dragon, by T. S. Joyce

ETA: Oops, this was a placeholder I forgot to set to "private." Leaving it up as there's discussion in comments.