I’d like to start this review by owning the fact that the start of the school year forced me to neglect Once Ghosted, Twice Shy more than I would have liked. This tiny novella took me over a week to read and that affected my reading experience overall.

Once Ghosted Twice Shy follows Likotsi the assistant to the prince of the small African nation, Thesolo. This story takes place in the aftermath of a whirlwind summer romance that ended in tragedy. While Likotsi is trying her best to get over the woman who broke her heart last spring she unwitting runs back into the elusive Fabiola and the feelings from a year ago reemerge in full force.

While the school year did drag my ability to binge read this the way I wanted to, I have to admit I didn’t connect to this novella as much as I did the previous two books in the Reluctant Royals series. The truncated structure of a novella didn’t leave enough room for the detailed character work I want from Alyssa Cole’s stories. There just wasn’t enough page time for the arc and character growth I find so compelling in her stories.

I struggled to connect to the romance between Fabiola and Likosti. Because of the nature of the whirlwind insta-love romance, the heavy lifting of the emotional connection between these two is instant attraction. While I eventually just accepted that as a fact of the novel I generally prefer a slower-paced dragged-out romance rather than instant lust and attraction. While we did get flashbacks to the origins of Fab and Likotsi’s romance it never felt like there was enough there between these two for me to connect to.

I will say I did love dipping into the pure unfiltered fluff of this novella. The first few weeks of school were a stressful transition period for me and the light tone of Cole’s work was a balm. Alyssa Cole has a bubbly writing style and travelling across New York through the book was charming.

In the end, Once Ghosted, Twice Shy wasn’t a favourite of mine. Both its length and plot structure made it hard to fully connect with the characters, but Cole’s strong writing made it an enjoyable experience despite that. I can’t wait to get to the last two books in the series soon!