I met Abbie Zanders at AITC and once things calmed down and I sorted through the swag, I looked up her website and signed up for her newsletter. With that came a free book, which I thought was very cool. The short novella, Celestial Desire, came and I moved it to my kindle to read. It wasn’t a long story and I finished it in a day.
I actually commented to Abbie that she was killing me with this story. I knew what was going to happen but it didn’t make me any less anxious for Celeste. I just wanted to fast forward in my mind and get to the HEA they deserved. There were some surprises and I don’t want to spoil, but my mind was saying “WOAH” during parts.
I was surprised about Zane, and I really enjoyed that Abbie surprised me. I wasn’t expecting him to have the history and demons of his own to battle. I just assumed from the cover that he was the figurative knight in shining armor to Celeste. It was great to see the depth she gave him and all the characters for such a short novella.
One thing about a good novella for me, is it makes me want more and I wanted much more of Mitch, Jessica, Celeste, and Zane. My review lays out the reason for 4.5 (rounded up to 5) stars but I think for me missing the reciprocation of Zane confiding in Celeste really bugged me. The last half I felt like he was an asshat, but it was glazed over on his personal confiding in Celeste. We got his story from him recounting it with Mitch around, but seeing Celeste open up, I really wanted to see how him opening up to her worked out. All that aside, I really liked Abbie’s style of writing and plan on checking out one of her paranormal reads in the near future.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is a first for me by this author and won’t be the last. Overall this was a really good quick read. I enjoyed Zane and Celeste as well as the supporting characters. It was predictable in what would happen to Celeste. I mean we knew that train wreck was going to occur but you COULDN’T look away or in this case stop reading, at least I couldn’t.
Celeste has had a rough go when it comes to men, well one man in particular. She is a nerd at heart and prefers to be a recluse and work where you don’t have to interact with people. I could really relate to her in that respect. Trying to change how she usually acts, she decides to go for a one night stand. Much to her surprise it turns in to SO much more. When her haunted past comes knocking she has to fight for what she believes in and wants.
Zane doesn’t know what to do. We got to see a bit into his troubled past and I really wanted more. I felt like it was a little glazed over on him divulging his past and secrets to her. I would’ve loved to have more depth with that respect but am aware that this was a short novella. I was cheering for him as the story went along and wanted him to find his HEA with Celeste.
Mitch and Jessica were great supporting characters that brought out the best in both lead characters.
Overall this was the perfect sweet novella. There was suspense and drama that you hoped would resolve into a sweet HEA. When Zane made a choice for Celeste I was pissed off! I could kind of understand it but at the same time I was like SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?! I think the main reason this was a 4.5 for me is because I wanted more of the personal deep discussions to go both ways. We had Celeste confide in Zane and it was handled well, but what about him confiding in her. It felt like an afterthought when he glazed over how wonderful she is about accepting all of him. While this was a 4.5 I will definitely be checking out more from this author. The writing style was good and flowed in an easy to read and enjoy way.

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