Invisible Ghosts by Robyn Schneider

Friends, please meet your new favorite summer read: Invisible Ghosts by Robyn Schneider.

This book is filled with delightful, funny, and charming characters, a curl-your-toes-it’s-so-darn-cute romance, a paranormal twist, and an emotionally-charged plot line.

That is to say, this book gives me all the heart eyes. I adored it. Easily one of my favorite books this year! Here’s more about it:

Rose Asher believes in ghosts. She should, since she has one for a best friend: Logan, her annoying, Netflix-addicted brother, who is forever stuck at fifteen. But Rose is growing up, and when an old friend moves back to Laguna Canyon and appears in her drama class, things get complicated.

Jamie Aldridge is charming, confident, and a painful reminder of the life Rose has been missing out on since her brother’s death. She watches as Jamie easily rejoins their former friends–a group of magnificently silly theater nerds–while avoiding her so intensely that it must be deliberate.

Yet when the two of them unexpectedly cross paths, Rose learns that Jamie has a secret of his own, one that changes everything. Rose finds herself drawn back into her old life–and to Jamie. But she quickly starts to suspect that he isn’t telling her the whole truth.

All Rose knows is that it’s becoming harder to choose between the boy who makes her feel alive and the brother she isn’t ready to lose.

I’ve long been a fan of Schneider’s writing (her debut, The Beginning of Everything, is still a favorite) — but this might be her best book yet.

I completely fell in love with everything about this book: the characters (and their camaraderie), the setting (so aptly described, I could easily picture it in my mind), the simply adorable romance, and the paranormal twist. The book largely reads like a realistic contemporary romance … except for that whole ghost brother part of the plot, which really weaves in beautifully with the story as a whole and gives depth to its overall meaning.

This book captured everything I want in a book: heart, humor, and a darling cast of characters. It was romantic without focusing on the romance, and impactful in unexpected ways.

Invisible Ghosts is in stores now.